10 photographs of Maldives that will take your breath away

The island nation of Maldives is everything that it promises to be and more discovers Mridula Dwivedi.

Maldives is a truly stunning collection of islands. In the past it might have been too expensive with only resort islands accessible to the tourists.

But after the opening up of the budget islands many will find it affordable.

We took a Delhi-Mumbai-Kochi flight.

When I was searching for tickets, Male, Port Blair and Lakshadweep, all three were going for the same price.

Without any hesitation I decided to visit Maldives.

So here you have them -- 10 amazing photographs of Maldives!

An ariel view of an island, Maldives

The main airport is close to Male but on a separate island.

So when you land at Male, you take a ferry or a speedboat to go someplace.

Speedboats are really expensive and there are too few ferries to the islands.

We were lucky that more than five people shared the speedboat to Maafushi and it cost us $39 or else the speedboat transfer would have set me back by $200.

While returning I took the early morning local ferry from Maafushi to Male.

This was the first glimpse for us of the Maafushi Island where we stayed. 

It is a budget island with guesthouse.

Locals live here too.

It also feels like an island as you can walk across it in 20 minutes or so.

At one end of it is a prison!

The guesthouses cost less if they are closer to the jail and they obviously cost more if they are closer to the beach.

Many restaurants would set tables right by the sea, so you can have dinner looking at the sky changing colors.

The service is laid back, island style.

No one was ever in a hurry to make you eat and go!

The beaches at Maafushi are gorgeous.

There are two main beaches, one frequented by the tourists and other by the locals.

This was the local beach.

If you peer hard you can see the local women in their hijabs taking a dip in the water.

This coconut tree was on the 'tourist' beach of Maafushi.

It was my favorite foreground for sea shots.

It was otherwise popular too.

As it was reclining everyone would go and sit on it for a while.

We hopped over to the resort island of Fihalhohi.

On resort islands like these you will find only tourists.

No one lives there.

But it was incredibly beautiful. 

The water bungalows at Fihalhohi Island made for a mesmerising site.

There were ladders going down the sea straight from the bungalows.

Did you try counting the shades of blue in this picture at Fihalhohi Island?

I tried and gave up after 7 :-)

The swing was so inviting too.

Being on an island meant I got to watch sunsets every day.

Whether it was cloudy or not, the sky almost always puts up some drama.

As dusk would fall I would happy to keep my camera inside finally and settle down for the dinner.

Mridula Dwivedi is an academic from India who is passionate about trekking and travelling. She blogs at Travel Tales from India.