Woman Films Her Last Night in Maldives, Disaster Ensues: 'Still Recovering'
A woman on her final night in the Maldives found herself diving into rough waters to retrieve her phone after it was swept into the sea while trying to film for TikTok.
The clip, shared on July 13 by TikTok user @georginagrigg88, has amassed more than 96,000 views and captures the moment a relaxing vacation turned into a search mission.
"It's my last night in the Maldives, I've been there two weeks," she says in a voiceover in the video. "Every time I left the villa, I have set my tripod up...so that I can record a video of me leaving the villa for my TikTok [video], that I'm gonna make when I get back, of me every time I leave the villa."
The video shows the woman wearing a dress and walking away from the camera before a sudden shift in weather changes the mood. "There'd been a storm that afternoon, it was a bit windy but no windier than it had been earlier in the week, so I thought it was fine," she says. Moments later, she adds: "Just as I'm opening the door, I see the tripod fall into the sea, next to my villa."
What follows is a chaotic realization as she sees that her "phone's become detached from the tripod. The tripod and light [on it] had been swept out to sea—God knows where they are now."
Faced with the possibility of losing her phone on the last night of the trip, the woman remained calm but aware of the stakes. "I tried not to panic. It's my last night. I'm flying home the next day. I've got no way of contacting the taxi man. I've got work the day after...everything's all on my phone," she said.
She later spotted a "glimpse" of the phone in the water beside the villa and thought "that looks like it's settled on the sand." So, she "stripped off" and "shoved a bikini" on as well as a life jacket and jumped into the sea, swimming around where she thought she saw the phone.
Despite the rough conditions, she didn't give up. "I'm feeling around with my foot. I can't find it. I'm about to give up and like a miracle, I find it," she says.
Remarkably, the phone was still functioning. "I feel it underneath my foot and I grab it with my toes and pull it up. As I'm pulling it up, I hear an Instagram notification. I can't believe it is still working. I literally can't believe my luck," she said.
While the brand of the woman's phone is unknown, the durability of her device echoes broader market trends. The global market for waterproof and rugged smartphones was valued at $993 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $1319 billion by 2031, according to QYResearch, a market research firm founded in California.
The report said that such phones are built to higher standards than conventional smartphones, with more rigorous structural designs and sealing technologies.
The report also noted that these some high-end models "comply with military-grade certifications...enabling stable performance under extreme conditions such as high/low temperatures, humidity, and vibration."
In a caption shared alongside the TikTok video, the woman said: "Still recovering from the trauma to be honest. P.S. I can swim, but the sea was so rough from the storm that I was worried I might get swept out to sea and no one would know I was gone...plus I was trying to save the glam."
The woman remained astounded not just by the successful rescue of her phone, but the condition she emerged in. "If ever I believe there was someone looking down on me, it would be now," she said. "I didn't even get my hair and makeup wet, which was a miracle in itself."
She ended the night on a high note: "I got out of the sea and put my dress on and I went for dinner and I had a lovely last night in the Maldives."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.
A stock image of a woman sitting on the deck near a villa at a Maldives resort.
A stock image of a woman sitting on the deck near a villa at a Maldives resort.
Getty
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