Maldives - Male and Maafushi

Again, delayed in true Sri Lankan fashion. A cab we called for to pick us up at 4am to take us to the airport didn't find us until 4:30am. Anyways, we get to the airport, checked in, then after a short wait our flight was off to the Maldives!

About an hour later we could see below us the beautiful atolls and islands that makes up this incredibly beautiful nation. Being handed a landing card also provided us with some interesting facts. For example, did you know that materials deemed contrary to Islam, including "idols for worship" and "bibles" are illegal? Before arriving I had no idea the country was 100% Islamic.

The local ferry fully equipped with couch up front - probably just someone
shipping it from Male to Maafushi. 

We landed in Male on Saturday morning and it was an Islamic holiday so not much was open. We walked around trying to find some traditional Maldivian breakfast, but as it is often like in Sri Lanka, these local shops were filled with men and I just wasn't comfortable enough to walk in, even with Chad by my side. I think it's mostly because tourists to the Maldives don't see much of Male or local life as they only go through the airport to their waiting resort transfer. We eventually found a more Western cafe that served a Maldivian breakfast. We had about 4 hours to kill so we walked around some more after breakfast, found a supermarket, bought some food I hadn't in forever (i.e. Grass Jelly Drink!) and went to the city beach to snack a bit. After sometime, our guesthouse owner helped us find the local ferry and we were on our 1.5 hour boat ride to Maafushi!

Weather didn't look too great, but we were hopeful. On our way to Maafushi it started to rain a bit. We passed by numerous giant resorts and were anxious to see what our accommodations would look like for the next 5 nights. We arrived to gorgeous green and turquoise waters and a gentleman with a wheelbarrow waiting to walk us to our guesthouse. A short 300m walk later, we arrived at the White Shell Beach Inn that was well, right on the beach!

The gorgeous view - every day! 

The beach itself was small but where the locals frequent for a "sea bath" - Sri Lankan and Maldivian talk for a dip/swim in the ocean. It was GORGEOUS ... every morning we woke up and had breakfast with a view of the gleaming turquoise waters and bright white sand.

Some of the garbage strewn about and washes up ashore
on Maafushi.

We took our first day easy and met up with a local Council Member/Couchsurfer host, Ibrahim (thanks Habib for the connection!) who chatted with us and told us about the island, politics, culture, and environmental issues plaguing his country. As beautiful as the beach we stayed at was, not far from it and also on the other side of the island were piles of garbage strewn everywhere. The locals have not yet learned how to respect their land and the ocean, despite the fact their economy depends highly on both. After a slooow morning and afternoon just hanging out, we went on a night fishing trip with a Singaporean couple that arrived in the afternoon. We had a great night catching loads of fish while floating peacefully in the dark near a reef. We returned to the guesthouse with our catch where we got to pick the fish we wanted to eat and the guesthouse bbq'd it for us. YUM!

Relaxing at Biyadhoo!

Day two took us to Biyadhoo Island Resort where we could freely drink and sun tan in bikinis. Yes, those are also restrictions in this Islamic country. Being ultra-conservative, alcohol is illegal except on resort islands along with women wearing bikinis. Women in the Maldives go for a swim usually covered head to toe and if not, with pants/capris and a t-shirt on. We asked our guesthouse to pack us a breakfast which we had on the beach and then had lunch in the bar at the resort. I spent most of the day chasing fish in the water - best snorkelling I've had so far. Lots of coral (not multi-coloured everywhere though like they show in the tour guides) but plenty of fish and other sea life including a Moray eel. It was great!

The giant fish. See sunglasses for scale.

Day three was mellow day where we hung around the guesthouse until late afternoon where we went on a snorkelling excursion. The snorkelling was alright ... nothing we hadn't seen until we saw a manta ray! It was just chilling in the sand. Along the way, what did irk me was the family, who were weak swimmers, were taken on this excursion. The currents were moderate and they struggled the whole time even with life vests. They didn't use flippers and they probably should have. Not sure it would have made a difference, but my heart broke a little when the mother and father stood on coral, then broke some coral when the father kicked off again go get back to the boat. We never made it - the boat had to come to us. Props to the Maldivian snorkelling guide! He was practically dragging the family of three. We followed this up with more night fishing. It would have been peaceful except the little one of that family of three was a little terror - as he was through the entire stay. That aside, it was a quiet night without many bites, but it was this night that Chad caught the biggest fish of the trip!

Day four was another fairly slow start. I had been set on doing some squid/octopus catching so the guesthouse arranged for a couple locals to come guide us along the reef just off the shore of Maafushi. We were out there for about an hour and thought we were going to go back empty handed. However, at the very end when we were nearing our starting point, one of the guys did spear and catch an octopus. We were going to eat it for lunch but the poor time management of the guesthouse and kitchen ran the octopus excursion into our dolphin watching excursion. We asked them to save it for our dinner so that we and the Singaporean couple could take it to Ibrahim's for dinner that night. And quickly we were off again! On our first and third day we were able to spot dolphins from our guesthouse so the chances of spotting them by boat seemed like a shoe-in. Sadly, we scoured the waters around North Male Atoll for probably an hour with no luck. Our captain figured he needed to turn this excursion into something somewhat exciting so we did more night fishing! A few more bites than the night before (but nothing like the first night) and before we knew it we had dinner for the evening and headed back in.

Picnic Island. 

Day five was our final day and the day we were heading back to Male. We were going to take an early morning ferry, but was offered to share a speedboat transfer with the Singaporean couple later that day. It made a lot of sense since it would let us enjoy the day at Picnic Island before we went back to Male late afternoon. What a brilliant decision. Had a fantastic day on the almost deserted island with the occasional boat stopping over. This island truly was set up for for picnics. There were plenty of picnic tables and loungers for people to spend the day there. There was a stranded ship that looked like it had been there for quite some time about 300m off shore (Chad walked to it, I didn't). The waters were gorgeously clear and there was a sandbank at one end of the island. Bliss! When the boat came back to pick us up to go to Male we were certainly sad to go!

Male wasn't so bad. Many people say it's just a really busy city with nothing much to it. Yes, in some respects it is that, but I quite enjoyed their fruit market and seeing the mosque and Islamic Centre at night. Also to top it off, we booked at Sala Boutique Hotel which was an amazing place that was totally worth the splurge. Thomas, the owner, was such a hands on manager who looked after every detail to ensure our stay was perfect - even though we were only there for one night. He certainly knows the value of a happy guest! We had dinner there that night in his Thai restaurant where all the ingredients are flown in from Thailand each week (sorry my carbon footprint was not small that meal). That may have very well been the best Thai meal I've ever had. Then for breakfast it was German with ... you guessed it; ingredients flown in from Germany each week. He had bread that was homemade and baked in house - the best bread I'd had since leaving Vancouver! Chad was raving about the yogurt ... so good that I broke my lactose ban and had some. Agreed - so good I would replace ice cream with it.

After that wonderful breakfast we explored Male a little more before going to the airport late morning to catch the flight back to Colombo. I really didn't want to go! Now our mission is to find somewhere just as nice in the Caribbean which is just a little easier to get to!

Chad then had two more days in Colombo. I was really happy that he got to see and hang out with some of my friends here when one of them hosted a little get together at her place. We got to have some what of a "normal" routine where we actually cooked some meals and Chad got some homework done (he's finishing his CMA). It was a sad goodbye at the end of the weekend, but also optimistic knowing the larger half of my placement was over and that we would be able to spend time together in person again in less than 6 months.

You can see the Facebook album here.

And that my friends, is the end of Denise and Chad's Excellent Adventure. I'm certain we'll have many more adventures to come, and I promise not to take so long to blog about them!