Dogs With Wings

Imagine yourself sitting beside an infinity pool that overlooks a beach and crystal clear, pale blue lagoon. The empty, sandy beach is almost pure white and bilious white clouds roll closely overhead. A gentle, quiet Maldivian brings you a cold, damp towel that smells intoxicatingly of eucalyptus and grapefruit. Trance music softly lullabies in the background while a soothing sea breeze whispers promises through palm trees of absolute freedom forever.

Suddenly, a giant bat launches itself silently from a tree top and begins circling the pool menacingly. It's wingspan is somewhere between two and three feet and it's round, limpid eyes search for food...or a victim. It swoops down and skims the surface of the pool - most likely for an insect - a mere 10 feet from two splashing German tourists. Only you seem even to notice.

Well, our amazing time here on the island is almost up - we have a 1 p.m. flight from Male back to New Delhi, followed by a four hour flight to Bangkok. It's been real. Really good. We're sad to leave but looking forward to Thai adventures. Christmas is an extremely foreign and incongruous concept to us right now.

S