The Photographic Sense Travels: Maldivian Gypsy

Wonders, Grace, and All Of The Glory You Can Imagine, all of them wrapped in a middle-eastern elixir of beauty. Wonders only you can imagine deep in your mind of resort. Maldives is a resort, yet it is the art of living on the edge of the shore. It holds the aura bringing individuals together, a certainty of love, a statement of passion, a statement of just, the ocean roaming wild, bringing you the watersong every time you slumber late at 3 a.m.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to be visiting this island AT ALL, like I thought I’d visit China again, which I honestly have a bit of loathe onto, but when my father asked whether I wanted to visit China or the Maldives, then later with my mother proposing for Australia, It was an easy choice for every one of us(my siblings included).

There’s this certainty of magic in the Maldives, like, you just feel like It’s paradise’s best form. Like as if the trees are telling you stories and the ocean is a synth-pop personification, and there are bats roaming the island with flight so passionate the elder and ancient must’ve thought to be magic. It’s a formulae of mother nature, embellished by beautiful water villas, and pools and the best feast and shelter. But in the end of the day, what makes Maldives the Maldives we know is the wonders of Mother Nature, the wonders of God.I feel like it’s a summer home to me, like Summer 2013 will be the Summer I’ll always miss, private jets that appear to not be that private in the end of the day, sending me and my skater style denim-wrapped waist and the whole family towards the island, ferries, dolphins, and baby sharks with manta rays, they’re all a pleasant, daily view for the week.

Supernatural, that will be the feeling I would describe feeling on my late night reads, in a good way, though. I can feel the island taking my whole emotion to a whole new level, it’s undescribable, it’s gypsy-craft nature, it’s so beautifully carved that the craft is a mood lasting, it’s a mood that never wants to leave, it’s reckless and young, and it makes everyone rewind the peaceful remedy. As I could see the stars blind down the night, stripping the island onto a whole beautiful ocean of freedom. One thing I learnt about the Maldives is that I felt infinite there, I felt like my mindset has set me to achieve higher, to dream more, to fall in love deeper, all of them wrapped onto a bouquet of seashells.

I’ve never understood how Ke$ha wrote her album, Warrior, about magic as she travelled to beautiful islands on her hiatus, now I do understand how all of these “magic-themed techno music” surfaced from islands, I can just feel sharks and manta rays taking my body to the stars. In fact, I’m listening to the album right now.

I remember that night where I think I just fell in love, with everything, it’s like seeing a painting you don’t usually like but end up in amazement for the rest of your life with. I see baby sharks and I see locals dancing with tourists, with the majority of Chinese. I remember being wrapped up in my KTZ for the beach, I knew it wasn’t the right occasion but I just had the feeling it would be a supernaturally beautiful night. My love for the magic and the wonders will never die, they will linger with me for the rest of my life,  don’t want Maldives just to get drowned just yet, one day I promise, I’ll take my kids or my honeymoon date to wherever the wonder of the Maldives leads me onto. Songs that seem to magical to be true, in the art of sythpop, like Preacher by One Republic or Tesselate by Alt-J, they make sense in the wonders of Maldives, I can finally unfold a new feel towards the mind and the heart.

The magic I’m trying to explain here is just wondrous, it’s just a whole new level of layering towards the earth’s core. It’s like, you can’t feel tired or sad at all, I remember having my blackberry soaked in sea water, I don’t see myself mourning at all, instead, I was entirely happy for the rest of the day as I shot my mum and her friend on a Harper Bazaar-used, iconic, fishnet seat on the edge of the ocean. I experience things that many would die to experience, walked in wondrous, unbelievable architecture and nature, and met sea creatures swimming around the villa as if we were in their territory, which is actually a fact.

I do also believe that the wonder of the magical trip was affected by the hospitality, it was just so marvelous how the staffs have been bonding with me and the whole team on the trip, it was as if we’ve been months there. I remember stepping down the ferry onto the crazy-beautiful, tree-house-like, homey arrival, which isn’t a lobby at all on Shangri-La. I remember mimicking the holy cow-rhymed word as one of the staffs, Anne, replied with “It’s really beautiful, isn’t it”. I remember my first buggy ride with Ibby, the villa host, and one of the other memorable buggy ride was with a Filipino woman who’s more than friendly, there’s Desmond who arrived on the same day as I did as a staff, and we talked about sharks, a lot, and there was Made, actually  a Balinese woman in charge of the juice who makes exquisite smoothies (read:fat) which I’m now dying to have some.

The narration I wrote above was reffered to Shangri-La, Villingili, Maldives. I actually visited another island on an extension(we were so in love with Maldives that we actually extended), we went to 4 Seasons in Baa Atool(if I’m not mistaken). This island has more of a resort feeling, which gives the homey feeling a ride of posh living. I love the white aesthetics scattered around the resort, and the beautiful, perfectly white, clear sand forming a formation of a sword in the middle of the ocean, I will post more, don’t worry, on 4 Seasons, and Shangri-La of course! These pictures are meant to give a gypsy-magical-slightly hipster kind of feeling towards the portfolio, Maldivian Gypsy is the first portfolio(formerly named Stars Dance entitled after Selena Gomez’s debut solo album) inspired by the arabic feeling. The second portfolio will be called Dives The Maldives, and the last one is a to be announced portfolio, promoting the resort. I will post even more, probably on my outfits and my food-reviews. So, stay tuned, unions(I know you will since it’s Maldives duh-uh!). Until next time, adios! *unicorn rides away with the dolphins and the mermaids*

Good Read: ICE by Sarah Beth Durst

Maldivian Gypsy: The Playlist

1) Preacher- One Republic

2) Same Love(feat. Mary Lambert)- Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

3) Stars Dance- Selena Gomez

4) Roar- Katy Perry

5) Dark Paradise- Lana Del Rey

6) Come & Get It- Selena Gomez

7) Supernatural- Ke$ha

8) Lost At Sea(ft. Ryan Tedder)-Zedd

9) Tesselate- Alt J

10) Butterfly Fly Away-Miley Cyrus ft. Billy Ray Cyrus

11) Atlantis- Ellie Goulding

12) Honeymoon Avenue- Ariana Grande

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SENSE TRAVELS

MALDIVES

MALDIVIAN GYPSY

PAR.REINHARDT KENNETH

MODELS. DIANA MULJONO PUTRI AND PATRICIA MARIA SANTOSO

SHANGRI-LA, VILLINGILI, MALDIVES

4 SEASONS, BAA ATOOL, MALDIVES