{"id":29348,"date":"2019-06-08T23:46:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T15:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=29348"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:49:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T05:49:25","slug":"10-days-in-maldives-day-02-snorkelling-for-noobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/06\/08\/10-days-in-maldives-day-02-snorkelling-for-noobs\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Days in Maldives – Day 02 – Snorkeling #1 for Noobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both the wife and our Ang Mo bud have snorkeled<\/strong> before, so of the three adults on this trip, I was the noob. The Sunrise Huraa<\/strong> offers different packages at varying prices between USD15 to USD45\/pax, depending on the location and what you\u2019re expected to see while snorkeling. Since this was our first snorkeling trip as a family, and being the kiasu-kaisee – actually, specifically just the latter haha – we asked Sameer for advice. Hannah has swum in the open sea before, the last occasion being our trip to Phuket in December 2017, while Peter has only just learned how to swim without floats. In a swimming pool LOL. So, it was safety first above all other considerations.<\/p>\n

Sameer suggested a spot that\u2019s just nearby – their house reef I reckon – and suggested that we do a mid-morning outing as a good balance between how calm the sea should be and also the level of visibility expected in the water. Again, his awesome hospitality showed in the level of care he exercised briefing us noobs on equipment and what the experience would be like. We\u2019d brought along a good number of gear that we picked up at Decathlon – Singapore Lab<\/strong> the day before we left: basically two sets of snorkeling goggles and breathing tubes for adults, and a third children-sized set for Hannah. The wife felt that we wouldn\u2019t need flippers as we\u2019d likely just stay in a single spot. But again, with the benefit of hindsight, flippers turned out to be a must as the waters at our snorkeling spot turned out to be pretty choppy.<\/p>\n

Our Ang Mo bud initially was pretty sure he wouldn\u2019t get into the water, but Sameer snorted, \u201cTrust me, you will.\u201d And Matt did LOL.<\/p>\n

As these things go, most of the corals<\/strong> in the Maldives are dead, with the still living ones not quite as accessible unless you\u2019re set up for it to see them i.e. diving gear. The water at our spot was also not particularly clear, but it was still easy enough to see the abundant marine life that were in the area.<\/p>\n

Upon reflection: my first snorkeling experience was quite a bit more challenging than I anticipated. The waters were choppy enough to make staying buoyant – even with my life vest – require some effort! The kids however found the whole bopping up and down with the waves loads of fun, and were screaming their heads off haha. But what finally killed it for me was the nausea I developed after the boat was rocking ferociously while we readied ourselves. So, 15 minutes into the water, I scampered back up to the boat, and returned a good part of my breakfast to the sea. \/sad. Even Ling, with her sea-dog experienced legs, also felt some nausea.<\/p>\n

Still, we had a few great photos and videos coming out of our maiden family snorkeling trip. We\u2019ll have to consult Sameer again to see what our options in the next several days are and what we can do to make the experience for the vertigo-prone me less traumatic. More to come on Day 03 in the next post!<\/p>\n

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My best guess where our first snorkeling trip was: it was just a 5-6 minute speedboat ride away from Huraa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Peter\u2019s Cinderella moment haha.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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All gear ready and making our way to the other side of Huraa Island where our boat was. The little man makes friends easily, everywhere.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bright and sunny day for our first snorkeling outing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Matt McGee of Missouri living it up!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Peter said he wasn\u2019t afraid: in fact, it was his big sister who was a little nervous! In fact, he kept cajoling his almost reluctant sister \u201cGo in go in! I\u2019m waiting!!!\u201d LOL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I was bopping in and out of the water so much it was hard to take pictures using the underwater cameras!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continued in the next post<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both the wife and our Ang Mo bud have snorkeled before, so of the three adults on this trip, I was the noob. The Sunrise Huraa offers different packages at varying prices between USD15 to USD45\/pax, depending on the location<\/p>\n

Read More 10 Days in Maldives – Day 02 – Snorkeling #1 for Noobs<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[653,655],"class_list":["post-29348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-maldives-2019","tag-olympus-tg-5","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/blog-snorkeling.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38528,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348\/revisions\/38528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}