Me and my hubby like to travel a lot. But this journey came to rest, after the baby. I was very fussy and scared to travel with my baby. What if my baby got sick? What if she doesn’t get proper food? All such questions made me not want to travel. My hubby was always on the positive side. His only response was, “I earn well right now, Let’s travel, Let’s check. If something goes wrong then we will travel back. Such a trip will not come again in our life”. And that trip was none other than Maldives.

Maldives, a place, if visited once, you will visit again and again. Yes, I will visit again. Clean beaches, water sports, fishes near the shore, baby sharks. Yes, I saw a baby shark near the shore. My daughter was  excited when we told her that we were going to such a place where there are only beaches and fish around.  She was damn happy. But while taking flight from Mumbai, she became restless and didn’t want to stand in immigration line. She shouted, screamed, she was out of control. I gave her mobile, her fav books, even lollipops. But she was very bored standing in the queue. Thanks to Mumbaikars, who told us to go ahead. My daughter was calm after that. I set her free in the airport. She ran, she slept on the floor, everything she did, she wanted to do. But she thought she had reached Maldives and then shouted that she wanted to go to the beach. We made her trip more interesting, told her about the plane, the air hostess etc. Luckily she slept in flight. and upon reaching Maldives, she again yelp and didn’t want to stand in queue for a visa. Luckily My husband was quick in this and soon we got visas and were out of the airport. 

She was happy travelling on a speed boat. We reached this small island called “Maafushi”. A recommend place. Though this island is very small, you will get all the sports activity at reasonable rates. My daughter was on cloud nine looking at all those fishes around her legs. She was not ready to do hotel check-in. I told my husband to do all the procedures and me and my daughter sat on the beach. Though the end to end journey was long, I was very hungry and  I had a headache too. I badly wanted tea. But my daughter was in some other world. She didn’t come out of the beach until it was dark. Finally, my daughter did a hotel check-in. Now she was tired and hungry. Since I was with my kid, I was typical Indian mom with lots of food in my bags. I have kept all these healthy / unhealthy snacks for her. Finally, we were in a restaurant to have our dinner. Since I am Indian, I love Indian food a lot. i.e. masalas and spicy. On the other hand, My daughter wants blend food. On the food side, we didn’t enjoy that much. Even in the non-veg part, I didn’t enjoy it. But that’s the culture, that’s the food and we can’t do anything about it.

After 2 days of our Maafushi trip, we went to this island, called, “Paradise Island ”. This is a private island with its own restaurants, its own beach and its own watersports. But this island was more expensive than Maafushi. Even food was expensive. But here, we got to see Baby shark, Sting gray, and almost all the fishes, near the shore. We even took a 1 night stay in a water villa. My daughter had blast feeding sting gray. She enjoyed it a lot. More than me, more than my husband.

I thought My baby would be hungry in Maldives. Yes, she was but she was enjoying her trip more than hunger. She didn’t fuzz about food. She was happy playing on clean beaches. After reaching Mumbai, we landed at my mom’s house and my mom had prepared chicken curry. Looking at that, my daughter shouted, “No No. No. No chicken. Only dal rice. Only Dal Rice’. Even my child had enough non-veg food – haha!

One thing I learned from this trip, though we mothers are scared of travelling with kids, but we should take a chance at least. If not far, then at least nearby. In this way, you will be clear whether to make a long trip or not. and also we mothers need a break. Though for mothers, it’s just a change of place and nothing else, yet there is some relaxation and fun around. At least, you don’t have to make food every now and then..

Travelling with kid is fun.  You will come to know what your kids like. Whether plane or car or train. You will come to know whether your kid like to adjust in other environment and also food. Not only that, your bags will be get reduced in every trip. Even in case of food,  you will keep only required once. “Travel” the word itself says to “proceed” from one stage to another. “Travel” the word itself says to “move on”. “Travel” the word itself says to “progress”.

So keep traveling. keep exploring the place along with kids.

P.S. The Original Content was published by me on Momspresso site. Do have a look here . This is not paid promotion nor paid content. This is purely my story and I had travelled to Maldives in December 2019, before the pandemic. My daughter was 4 yrs old then.