There is a heaven, and it is the Maldives! A tiny, isolated, country made up of many tiny little islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, who would have thought that it was here that you can find heaven on earth? It’s an interesting story about how we came to find this little paradise. As many of you know, as part of the travel theme at our wedding, we had boarding passes made up to act as name tags at the reception. Each table was identified by the name of a country rather than a table number, and people were seated based on where their boarding pass said they were travelling. I decided to label the head table as the Maldives. I wanted somewhere unusual, and decided to Google what the smallest country in the world was. Apart from the Vatican, the Maldives was what came up as the country with the smallest landmass. And with that, the Maldives became our head table and it will forever be intimately linked to us, even if irrationally.
After we decided to make the trip to the Maldives, I did a little more research and discovered a lot of interesting facts. For example, did you know that the Maldives is so small that in fact many scientists believe that as a result of global warming (ice melting and ocean levels rising) this little country of islands will no longer exist by the end of the 21st century? In fact, I read that the government tourism agency for the Maldives even considered a slogan that read something like, ‘get here while you still can’.
I also discovered that the Maldives has been under the dictatorship of Maumoom Abdul Gayoom for the last three decades. Our Lonely Planet guide informed me that because Gayoom runs the Maldives like a giant tourist corporation, he is jokingly referred to as the country’s CEO. However, the way in which he rules (with an iron fist that often includes human rights abuses and police brutality) is nothing to laugh about. In fact, I agree with the Lonely Planet author who feels it’s a shame that his shocking tactics are virtually ignored by the rest of the world.
My research also revealed that the Maldives, like any country, has its fair share of problems. Currently over- population is plaguing the capital, and a nearby island is beginning to be built up in order to cope with the overflow. Some other interesting details about this little country include the fact that with the help of the Japanese, the Maldives built a huge sea wall around the island capital of Male with the intention of protecting the countries only city, and therefore the countries lifeline. The sea wall proved handy on the 26th of December 2004 when the Maldives was hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Though Male was spared, 21 other islands were devastated, leaving 108 dead, and over 11,000 people homeless. A large number of resorts had to close. One resort was totally abandoned, but the others were rebuilt within one year.
The more we read about the Maldives, the more we learned about this little paradise and the people who inhabit it. The Maldives may be small, and the population little, but boy, are they mighty! There were many attempts to colonize the Maldives throughout history, but none were successful. To this day, the Maldivian people remain friendly and welcoming, but intensely independent. Interestingly, the Maldives claims that 100% of the population are devout Sunni Muslims. Unfortunately, our only interaction with the people were with those who worked at the resort. As it turns out, a special permit is required to visit any of the inhabited islands, and almost never are foreigners allowed to stay overnight. Instead, visitors are ferried from the airport directly to and from their resort, of which each usually has it’s own island. Tourists are permitted to take a pre-set tour of Male, the capital, or they can opt to visit an island with a village, but usually only for an hour or two. All these visits are organized and include structured interactions with locals. Because it is extremely uncommon and difficult for tourists to explore the Maldives independently, it is very unlikely that any visitor will get a true and authentic look or feel of the country, its people, and its way of life.
With its colourful history and despite the cost, distance, and difficulty to access, the Maldives did not disappoint. The long trek was a fun adventure that included my first trip on a sea plane! We made sure to fully enjoy all that the resort had to offer, not knowing if we’d ever make it back there. Our beach bungalow was the perfect hideaway. With beach access, a jet tub, an outdoor and indoor shower, as well as AC and plenty of space to sprawl, our room was our haven. We opted to borrow the complimentary kayaks for a paddle around the island on which we saw lots of fishies and two giant manta ray. The first thing you notice when you step off the plane is just how clear and blue the water is, it was even bluer than we imagined! While at the resort we spent as much time as we could in the ocean. We made use of the available masks and snorkels and enjoyed afternoon snorkelling sessions around the resort’s house reefs. The resort also had a dive shop and we were able to get out for two dives. We had planned to do more, but after an air gauge malfunction on Austin’s first dive, and a faulty mask and BCD inflator hose problem for me on our second dive, we decided that we would stop at that. The issues didn’t take away from our enjoyment of our surroundings on the dives. We saw a spotted ray, a number of lionfish, a moray eel, a clam emitting what looked like red smoke, and many other tropical fish and colourful coral. We had hoped to see sharks, or turtles, as is often seen on dives throughout the country, however we did not. We still feel lucky to have had the opportunity to dive in a country well known for it’s underwater beauty. The sunsets were also a daily treat as we enjoyed evening strolls on the beach.
Not only is the Maldives the smallest country we’ve ever been to, but Austin and I agreed that it is the most beautiful beach destination we’ve ever been to. That’s quite the accolade considering we are both well-travelled and the fact that I grew up for a time on the glorious island of Bermuda. However, to the detriment of many would-be visitors, the tiny country also gets the prize as the most expensive place we’ve ever been. We had previously considered the Maldives as a stop on this trip (after India and before Africa), but decided it was way out of our budget. After a couple more months on the road, and motivated by intrigue and excitement of world-class diving and warm temperatures, we ignored practicality (our budget) and booked a flight and five nights accommodation at the 5-star Hilton Iru Fushi Resort and Spa. Why not?! You only live once, and who the heck knows when we’ll next be in this neck of the woods and in the game of travel, you gotta take the good with the bad. In attempt to pull off this luxurious stop over as affordably as possible, we had pre-studied the menus of the hotel’s restaurants and saw that a meal would run about $30+ a head. So, we loaded up on soup, Mr. Noodles, and other snack foods before leaving Jordan. The preparation paid off. We managed to not to spend a single dollar on food while in paradise. We did however make the absolute most of the incredible included buffet breakfast and did not feel as though we went without, despite not splurging on the meals.
Anyways, enough chat! As with all our posts, pictures speak volumes, so no need to continue with the novel. Here are pictures from our fabulous five days in heaven…
Our first taste of luxury… the Hilton lounge where we waited for our sea place. We were treated to complimentary massage, free eats and free internet access. Bonus!
Excited for my first sea plane flight…
We had front row seats! Interestingly, our sea plane was a Twin Otter, the same plane we frequently flew in the arctic from Iqaluit to Pangnirtung, and whose skies can also be sued to land directly on ice.
A look from our window at one of the many islands we fly over…
Do you see that water?! Wow!
We’re here!
Our first glance at the resort… A-MAZING!
Our digs…
The room’s bathroom was a bit samll though as you can see, with barely enough space to fit the outdoor Jacuzzi and my favourite feature, the outdoor shower!
The access to the beach…
Our view of the beach…
A few more shots from around the island…
Aus cooling his feet during a very hot stroll on the board walk…
Our kayak trip around the island…
A look at the over-the-water bungalows that go for over $1000 a night!
One of the giant rays we saw. It was almost as long as the kayak!
This area of coral was the best for snorkelling…
A couple shots from the dive boat.
Excited to get in the water…
Happy after our dive…
A look at some of the sunsets we enjoyed…
Completely relaxed, and clearly at ease…
The evening of our last sunset…
Lovers in paradise….
My extremely handsome husband…
Niiiiice!
Ahhhhh… how beautiful! I already wish I was back there and I only just left. Austin and I are now headed to Hong Kong & Macau, where we will spend a few days before heading to Japan. At the end of this month we head to China to meet up with his parents. We’re very excited! We hope all continues to go well for all of you. We think of everyone often, and as our time travelling ticks by ever so quickly, we look forward to being reunited with those we love and miss. Before we leave you, Austin has put together this little interactive map to illustrate our travel route thus far, and to help you find all these curious little places on the map that we have been, and for those we’ve met along the way, you can also see our home way up in Nunavut on this map. Here it is, if you are interested (you can use the zoom feature if you want more detail):
View Knotty RTW in a larger map</small
Cheers to all,
The Knotty Travellers
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