Joy Island
Last week, we travelled all around Sri Lanka and ended our stay in the Maldives.
At the Maldives airport, we were greeted by two staff members from Joy Island Resort. The Maldives airport is conveniently located on the water, so resorts are able to efficiently meet their customers on a dock outside the arrivals gate and immediately whisk them away to private resort islands. There are 1,192 islands in the Maldives and only 200 of them are uninhabited. Joy Island resort is only 2 years old. The island is natural, but the elevated walkway with adjoining "floating" bungalows is man made. The crew picked up 2 other couples (honeymooners, we assumed), and loaded up all of our baggage. Within minutes of exiting the airport, we were on our way! The speedboat ride usually takes 30-45 minutes, but the seas were a bit choppy, so it took us the full 45. Unfortunately, Ansel had come down with a bit of a bug (or possibly motion sickness) that first day and was sick over the side of the boat 30 minutes into the ride. That made things a little more dramatic for everyone…
When we arrived at the island we were greeted by a welcome ceremony on the dock that included chanting, drums and a full escort into reception. There, we were greeted by cool iced drinks. After signing in, a staff member drove us in a golf cart down to our room. Our room was one of the farthest away from the main dining hall, but the closest to the reef. The reason we went to Joy Island at all is because Dad’s Sri Lankan friend is an investor and recommended it to us. He insisted that we go and stay on property for a couple nights. To our surprise, our room reservation was for an above-water beach house with its own pool.
On our day of arrival, we unloaded our bags and immediately jumped off of our house steps and into the water.
After about 1 hour of fun, we headed down to dinner. Dinner was served in a dining hall called The Market. The dinner was a spread of all the food you could imagine, unlike most of the sit down restaurants we have visited in the past. The buffet had multiple elements including a salad bar with delicious prepared salads and also a make-your-own-salad option. There was a barbeque where a staff member grilled a variety of meats. Our first night they had roast chicken, grilled chicken breast and lamb leg, and on our second night they had roast duck, chicken skewers and lamb chops. There was also a bread station with all the types of bread you can imagine, a pasta station, where the chefs boil pasta on the spot and let you pick from one of the 3 sauces of the day. Some sauces I remember included mushroom red sauce, asparagus zucchini sauce, prawn fish red sauce, bolognaise sauce, and pesto. There was also a huge selection of fish, cooked in any way you like. My personal favorite section of the buffet was called the Room of Sin. As you may have guessed, the room holds a huge assortment of desserts. From cakes to cookies to pastries to tarts, they have it all fresh every day. After a delicious meal, we were ready to retire for the day.
We started walking back to our room, but were caught in a violent rainstorm that appeared instantaneously. We sprinted to shelter under the reception counter along with 4 other people who were caught either coming or going from The Market. Most of the golf carts were being used to shuttle people to and from their bungalows. Luckily, before long the reception desk made contact with a golf cart and we caught a ride back to our room. That night, we discovered that our house had a deck light that attracted rays at night.
On our second day, we slept in and I had RSM. After RSM concluded, Dad and I joined Charlotte, Ansel and Mom at the dining hall. As usual, the food was amazing. The pasta station was replaced by a large omelette station. There were fresh juices and sliced fruits, pancakes, waffles and a whole selection of other delectable breakfast foods. Everything was delicious and it was a challenge not eating too much!
After breakfast, we walked to the Water Sports Center to pick up snorkel gear. The gear is included in your stay and you can keep it until the very end of your visit. While at the Center, we also signed up for a turtle reef and shark swimming experience for the following morning. On our walk back to the room, we discovered the resident hermit crabs. There were about 500 of those little buggers all up and down the walkway to our house. They were pretty small and liked to pinch. It didn't hurt too much but if you turned your hand upside down, they would just hang there.
The afternoon was spent snorkeling the property reef and under our beach house. We were thrilled to discover a big coral mound under our house inhabited by approximately 100 different fish, to include a lion fish. Ansel also spotted a dark black eagle ray along the side of our house and jumped in to swim with it (it spooked and jetted away). We had a great dinner (it was sushi night) and slept like the dead.
During our stay we also learned that, every couple of days, the resort had some kind of party. During our stay, they had karaoke night and a neon party after dinner. These parties usually began at 9:30pm, which was a little late for our bedtimes. We decided to pass since we were all still getting over a little jet lag and also had plans for the morning.
On the third day of our stay, we woke super excited for our off-island turtle and shark snorkeling experiences. We packed up our snorkel gear, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out to the speedboat. We drove for about 30 minutes to a neighboring island. We got out and rode in a golf cart to where the sharks were. There are no cages or barriers to prevent the sharks from leaving and swimming away into the open ocean. There are some staff members that feed the sharks bits of chicken and tuna. This feeding is what keeps them in the lagoon. Nurse sharks are also known as sleeping sharks because of their behavior of resting on the ocean floor. They are one of the few species of shark that don’t have to constantly swim to breathe. These sharks don’t have teeth and primarily feed on bottom dwelling animals such as small stingrays, lobsters, crabs, sea urchins, and squid.
In the lagoon there was a school of about 20 sharks. Some of them were resting or swimming alone, but the majority of the group was swimming in circles in a cone shaped mass of sharks and fish. The staff members laid down the basic rules: no approaching the group, and no touching them. We hopped in with our snorkel supplies. The sharks were all very calm and happy. It was an amazing experience. It felt like we were inside a huge aquarium tank. After 45 minutes of snorkeling we headed back to the boat.
We had decided to either try to find a group of manta rays, or go to a reef to try to find a turtle. The staff told us the chances of seeing a manta ray were 50-50 but we would almost certainly spot a turtle. The last few days, boats from the resort did find mantas to snorkel with. We wanted to try. We rode the boat out to the manta sighting spot and searched around for 30 minutes. To our dismay there were no mantas to be found. We decided to head out to the turtle reef and have a go at the turtles. That reef was truly spectacular. It was situated in the middle of the ocean. We hopped off our boat and hugged the edge of the reef. We saw hundreds of different types of tropical fish of all different colors, shapes, and sizes. 15 minutes in, our guide pointed out a juvenile turtle flying through the reef. After that encounter we hopped onto the boat and sped back to the resort.
After that adventure we were all starving. Mom had booked a paella lunch for us at a cafe close to our house. The paella (a Spanish seafood and rice dish cooked in a huge pan) was delicious.
After lunch we swam around our house for a couple more hours, and then took showers and got ready for dinner. That night was Maldivian night and we enjoyed a variety of curries, rice, and lots of tuna dishes.
We went to bed early because we had to get up early for our departure to the airport.
The following morning, we woke at 5 am, had a super early breakfast and left. The staff escorted us down to the dock with another ceremony, similar to the welcoming one.
If you happen to stay in the Maldives, we highly recommend Joy Island. We truly made some amazing memories there!
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