Fete Lifestyle Magazine October 2021 - Best Of Issue | Page 45

We stayed at Reethi Beach Resort, where our room was literally in the ocean. Every evening we enjoyed falling asleep to the sound of waves, the smell of seawater and the breeze of sea wind. And every morning we jumped directly into the ocean and freshened up before breakfast. Nearly every day we did two dives and at Hanifaru, and for the first time in our lives we saw many manta rays. They were huge, like 3 to 4 meters in size but very friendly. For some reason they became curious about us and swam around so close that I felt I could just touch them. Hanifaru bay is also famous for being the biggest manta feeding hotspot in the world. However, underwater the bay is just a tiny sand patch, where a number of reef manta rays consistently show up just in time for plankton happy hour.

Sometimes they’re even accompanied by a few fellow filter-feeding whale sharks.

Every late afternoon from 5 to 6 pm, the worker from the resort started feeding sting rays. There were up to 30 sting rays who came every day to be fed. Sometimes we could see black tip sharks in between, who were hoping to get dinner too. It was such a unique and special experience and we even started getting to know some of the sting rays and gave them names. The next time we saw them, we greeted them like “hey, Peter!”

Besides the stunning nature in the Maldives, what made that holiday unforgettable for me was that one late afternoon after diving, I jumped from our balcony into the ocean and enjoyed a bit of swimming.

While I was swimming and enjoying the water with little fishes and a turtle, I lost my engagement ring in the ocean! It was already quite dark, but my husband and I used a torch to search for hours around our room ocean area but we could not find it. After a sleepless night hearing the heavy waves crashing, I felt so sad the next morning and wanted to cancel that day’s diving activity. My husband convinced me to still go and asked me to wait for him in the boat. When he showed up, he handed me a cigarette box. “What is this? It is empty…” I complained with an almost crying face. “Open it!” He said. Without any expectation or any thoughts, I just followed what he said. It was not empty, but my engaged ring was inside! I burst into tears and could not believe found it, as I was strongly convinced after a