On the morning of the 14th I flew from Trivandrum, near the southern tip of India, to Male, the capital of the Maldives. My Air India flight, which cost only $112, left soon after 11, about two hours late, and took just a bit more than an hour to arrive, flying southwest from Trivandrum for about 450 miles over the Indian Ocean. The Maldives are in a time zone half an hour earlier than India, so we arrived just before noon. Just before landing, the plane circled over North Male Atoll, affording great views of coral reefs and small jungle-covered islands with white sand beaches. I also saw ferries, dive boats, and a few luxury resorts from the air. I had some close up views of some of the resorts, with rooms built out over the water, just as we approached the runway. There were lots of foreign tourists at the modern airport. I briefly looked around the airport, on its own island, and then took a wooden ferry from the airport to Male, less than a mile southwest of the airport island. Male's northern waterfront is lined with buildings about eight stories high. The ferry docks near Male's northeast point, and I found a hotel nearby where I got a room for $40 a night, which is cheap for the Maldives. The room was nice, with a comfortable bed, air conditioning, hot water, and a television.
The Maldives are composed of 26 atolls and something like 1200 islands, 215 of them populated. There are only about 380,000 people in the country, with about 100,00 in crowded Male, which is roughly rectangular and about a mile and a quarter from east to west and about three quarters of a mile north to south, so about a square mile in total. The nation as a whole has only 115 square miles of land, but lots of ocean, running from about 7 degrees north latitude to 1 degree south latitude, about 475 miles in length. Male is a little north of 4 degrees. These islands, and the Lakshadweep Islands to the north and the Chagos Archipelago to the south, are mountaintops on a plateau that rises over 16,000 feet above the floor of the Indian Ocean. Despite being the tips of mountaintops, the Maldives are the world's lowest country. The highest natural point is only eight feet above sea level.
After checking into my hotel, I had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the wide lagoon near Male's northeast point, with great views of all the boat activity on the water. The lagoon is huge, something like 35 to 40 miles from north to south and about 25 miles at its widest from east to west. Male is on the southeast side of the reef. The Maldives is 100% Muslim, and no alcohol is allowed in the country (although I did see bottles of wine on sale at the airport duty free shop in the departure lounge). At lunch I saw Maldivians drinking Red Bull and Coke, and I saw quite a few caffeinated energy drinks and lots of fruit drinks in fancy bottles on sale in stores. Non-Muslim religious items are also prohibited, with signs at the airport to that effect.
After lunch I began a walk around town, passing the early 20th century palace of the former Sultan, now the President's residence, and a 17th century mosque made of coral blocks, plus the new big, gleaming white mosque with a golden dome built in 1984. The afternoon was hot and humid, so I went into the National Museum in a big air conditioned building built by the Chinese and spent a part of the afternoon in there until it closed at 5. The collection wasn't great, but there were some interesting items, including the old thrones of the sultans, carved chests, laquerware, weapons, and some skeletons of really big fish. The old photographs were the most interesting items. Just outside the museum is a park on the site of a former palace of the sultans, with shady trees, one two story old building, and a very small coral stone mosque with a metal roof. Men on the streets were in western clothes, as were most women, though most had headscarves. Some women wore long black Islamic robes. I saw some photographs of Male in 1973 and all the men in the photographs were dressed in long dhotis, as in southern India.
Not much is known about the early history of the Maldives. It was Buddhist at one time, but the people were converted to Islam in 1153 by a Moroccan Berber. It has remained independent for most of its history. The Portuguese conquered it in 1558 and set up a fort on Male, but in 1573 the soldiers in the fort were massacred in an uprising and the Portuguese never returned. In the 18th century Malabaris from India conquered it, but only briefly before being thrown out. In 1887 it became a British protectorate at the request of the Sultan who wanted protection from the traders from Bombay who were gaining political influence. The Maldives became independent in 1965. Tourism began in 1972 after the islands were discovered by divers and tourism has greatly transformed the county. There are scores (well more than a hundred, I think) of luxury resorts, some with rooms for $4000 a night, and the Maldives derive a great amount of money from tourism. Every luxury island is situated on a previously uninhabited island. In 2010 the government decided to allow cheaper guesthouses on inhabited islands if the residents of those islands wanted them, so it is now possible to visit the Maldives without paying resort prices.
Leaving the museum, I walked to the northern waterfront and walked along the breakwater enclosing the fishing harbor, full of fishing boats. At the end of the afternoon, boats were being unloaded of giant yellow fin tuna, some about five feet long. I watched two being weighed. One was over 40 pounds and the other 54 pounds. Men were fishing from the breakwater and I saw hundreds of colorful reef fish just offshore. Several had been caught by the fishermen. I saw tuna, pehaps 50 to 100 of them, being packed in ice on a boat to be taken elsewhere in the Maldives, perhaps to resorts. The guys working on the boats were very friendly and posed for photos with their big fish.
I watched a beautiful sunset from the breakwater, with the sun setting through clouds and over big cargo ships anchored off Male to the west. As the sun set, to the east a full moon was rising. First time I've seen that since seeing the setting of the sun and the rising of the full moom at the southeastern tip of Moen (now Weno) Island in Truk (now Chuuk) Lagoon in 1987. I walked around the port area some more after the sunset and after it became dark. There was a lot of activity. I stopped at one place to watch the evening news in English on television, delivered by a Maldivian in suit and tie. The Maldives just had parliamentary elections in March and there are lots of political posters still on walls around town. In almost all, the candidates are wearing ties. Quite different from India, where no political candidate would dare to be seen in western garb. I walked back to my hotel along the waterfront and ate dinner at the restaurant where I had eaten lunch, with a cool breeze off the water.
After sleeping in an air conditioned room for the first time in ages, I began another walk around town about 7:30 the next morning. I walked again along the northern seafront, passing banks, travel agencies, and government buildings, including the President's Office in a new building. A huge Maldivian flag, green with a red border and a crescent moon in the center, flies over an open square on the waterfront. Just inland from the square is the big new mosque. I walked past it to the park on the grounds of the old palace of the Sultans and then to the old Friday Mosque, built out of coral blocks and wood in 1656. It is a lovely old building, though now with an ugly metal roof. Sand surrounds the small mosque. I was allowed to go inside and was showed around by a friendly guy who told me he spends his days there reading the Koran. The wood inside is finely carved, with designs and Koranic script, and the coral blocks also have intricate designs carved onto them. A carpet inside has lines on it showing the direction to Mecca, as the building is oriented due west rather than towards Mecca. It is believed it may be on the site of a former Buddhist temple. I left as the caretaker was about to vacuum the carpet.
Outside is an graveyard full of tombstones with intricate designs. Pointed ones are for men and rounded ones for women. A group of them had round gold plaques on them. These are graves of the Sultan's family.
There are are several mausoleums made of coral block containing the remains of Sultans and their families. The Maldives was a sultanate until 1953 when a president replaced him. The president lasted just a year and then was replaced by a new sultan, who reigned until 1968, when the presidency was reestablished by referendum. The Maldives have remained a presidential republic since then, although a dictatorial one until there were free elections in 2008. The man who won the country's first free election, however, was forced to resign in 2012 in a sort of coup. He was allowed to run again in the 2013 elections, but lost by a small margin.
Outside the old mosque is a squat minaret almost as old, dating from 1675. Across the street is the early 20th century Sultan's palace, now the President's residence and closed to the public. Next to it is the mausoleum of the man who converted the Maldives in 1153. He died in 1154. These old buildings, once the finest on the island, are now dwarfed by multi-story buildings. I saw a several photos of Male in 1973, before the tourism boom, and it looks like it had one three story building and only a few two story buildings. Trees dominated the landscape and there are no motor vehicles in sight. Now highrise buildings dominate the landscape and the streets are clogged at times with cars and, especially, motorcycles.
About 9:30 I made my way to the restaurant where I had eaten before and ate a buffet breakfast for about $7, with a view of the lagoon. The breakfast included eggs, pancakes, "chicken sausages" (hot dogs), fruit, cereal, and several Maldivian dishes, including one called mas huni, made of shredded coconut, shredded tuna, onion, and chili.
After breakfast I made my way back to the new Grand Mosque, gleaming in the mid day sun. It has no decoration outside, but is very nice inside. Only one man was praying inside the giant carpeted main hall, though there were a few other people seated out on the marble floors around the hall. The mosque is said to have room for 5000 worshipers. From there I walked south a few blocks to a very tiny old coral block mosque with the mausoleum of the Maldives' national hero next to it. This mausoleum houses the body of the man who defeated the Portuguese in 1573 and then ruled as sultan until 1585. I sat outside this small mosque as it filled with men for noon prayers. Before entering the mosque they washed their hands, faces, and feet at water taps, except for one guy who did it the old fashioned way. In the courtyard of the mosque is a well, with a couple of long poles with buckets attached nearby. This old man used one of the poles to bring up water from the well, and then expertly held the long pole between his arm and body while he poured water from the attached bucket onto his arms, hands, feet, and face.
From the mosque I continued walking south through neighborhoods with more multi-story buildings until I reached Male's southern seafront. Male's streets certainly seem cleaner than any place in India. The town seems prosperous, with lots of shops. Most women wear headscarves, and some are fully clothed in black robes. I think I saw only one with her face covered. Many of the young women, although wearing headscarves (often a sort of bouffant version), were also attired in very tight, clinging clothes and wore a lot of make-up.
I walked west along the southern sea front, with a boat harbor the whole way behind masses of concrete tetrapods (those concrete blocks with four thick protrusions, each protrusion about three feet long) serving as a breakwater, the gift of Japanese foreign aid about 25 years ago. At Male's southwest corner is another ferry terminal, from where I took a ferry about 2 p.m. across to the small island of Villingili, less than a mile west of Male. The ferry took only five or ten minutes. Villingili is a very nice island, much quieter and much smaller than Male. It would guess it is about one sixth the size. There are hardly any cars or motorcycles. I walked along a sandy beach on its east end, facing Male, with a "No Bikini" sign, and then to the coral strewn southeast point, where I sat for a while and watched two guys fishing from the rocks. Villingili (and Male) are on the southern side of North Male Atoll, and from the point I could see Male to the east and the northern islands of South Male Atoll to the south across the four mile or so wide strait between the two atolls.
Later I walked across the island to the west and then back to the ferry. People were very friendly. Almost all the women wore headscarves, but again some young women wore very tight clothes. Along the streets were Maldivian chairs, made of metal bars forming a rectangle with rope or fishing line strung between the metal to form a sort of chair. I sat in a few and they were cool and comfortable. Similar chairs hang from trees. Again, the little island seemed very prosperous. There were lots of shady trees.
I took the ferry back to Male about 4:30 and walked to the northern seafront, stopping first at a colorful fruit and vegetable market and later at the fish market. There were dozens of big yellow fin tuna on display, and I watched a guy expertly cut up several four to five foot long tuna for customers. Another guy was cutting up smaller fish, about a foot long, for a customer. I timed him and it took him a little less than a minute to gut and cut up each fish. Their knives seemed to be very sharp. Besides yellow fin, I recognized skipjack and barracuda. I again watched the sunset from the breakwater, this time marred by burning garbage on the island hosting the garbage dump and a cement factory west of Villingili. Sunset was at 6:10 and about 20 minutes later I spotted the red full moon rising as I walked back to my hotel.
The next morning I took a ferry from near my hotel at Male's northeast point to Hulhumale, an artificial island just north of the airport island. Beginning in 1997 sand and coral were dug up and dumped onto the reef to create a new island about three quarters of a square mile in size to provide additional space for Male's burgeoning population and to provide area in case global warming inundates lower lying islands. The ferry took about 20 minutes and upon arrival two modern, air conditioned, red buses were waiting, one for Neighbourhood 1 and one for Neighbourhood 2.
Rather than take the bus, I walked first to Neighbourhood 1 and then to the newer Neighbourhood 2, both full of multi-story residential units and with commercial buildings, too. In addition, Neighbourhood 1 had maybe ten relatively inexpensive hotels along the beach along its eastern shore. Lots of Chinese appeared to be staying there. Despite the central planning layout of the streets and buildings, it seemed a pleasant area, especially Neighbourhood 1 with its older and bigger trees. The streets had few vehicles and people were curious but friendly. A lot of construction was going on. In the water off the white powdery beach on the eastern side played a group of completely clothed women in headscarves. Off the northern shore is a resort hotel, which is planned to be replaced in the future when the artificial island is extended to that part of the reef.
I walked around for about an hour and a half and then took the ferry back to Male. The lagoon was full of boats, including government ferries, dive boats, fishing boats, cargo boats, and others. Just north of Male is a very small island, which we passed, that formerly served as the residence of the British Governor General.
I returned to the restaurant with the lagoon views for their buffet breakfast and then checked out of my hotel at noon. Leaving my backpack there, I took another walk around town, heading towards the big building how housing the Supreme Court, and formerly the President's residence. After the President elected democratically in 2008 took office, he decided the building was a little too grandiose. I walked again to the fruit and vegetable market, where a guy gave me a lesson in the varying qualities of green and brown coconuts. I also walked by two more very tiny, coral block old mosques.
About 2:30 I took an air conditioned, and very cold, taxi from my hotel to the ferry terminal at Male's southwest corner, at a cost of only about $1.30. I was heading to the island of Maafushi about 20 miles away on the eastern side of South Male Atoll, another big atoll, though not as large as North Male Atoll. The ferry, with about 50 passengers, most of them foreigners, left promptly at 3. The ferry headed southwest from Male across the Vaadhoo Kandu, the channel between North Male Atoll and South Male Atoll, towards a break in the reef on the northern side of South Male Atoll. We went through the break, past resort hotels on little islands on each side, and entered the big lagoon. The ferry, once in the lagoon, headed southeast to Gulhi Island on the atoll's eastern side. We docked there about 4:15, where most of the Maldivian passengers disembarked. From there it was about 20 minutes more south to Maafushi. My guidebook, dated 2012, says there are four guesthouses on Maafushi, but now there must be about fifteen. I finally settled on one, for $45 a night. The room was very nice, with a comfortable bed, air conditioning and hot water. Maldivians seemed to think that all tourists need to have air conditioning and hot water. I would have been happy with a fan and cold water, especially as there was always a nice breeze off the water.
I walked around the island a bit, through the sandy streets with almost no vehicles. With fifteen or so guesthouses, people here are used to tourists. I watched the sunset and then walked north along the little island's western edge and came across an outdoor restaurant with tables right on the water, and decided to have dinner there. The spot was beautiful, as the western sky lit up with reddish streaks after sunset. With darkness the stars came out and I could spot Orion. The service and the food, however, were terrible. After waiting about 40 minutes I got a plate of cold rice, cold french fries, cold potatoes and carrots, plus a piece of fish that, while I have never tried to eat shoe leather, I believe was a reasonable facsimile.
After dinner I walked to the eastern side of the island and saw the now past full moon rising just above the horizon through clouds, making a bright streak across the water. I walked south and then north along the eastern shore and then circled back to my hotel. The town was pretty quiet, with only a few people out on the sandy streets. A wonderful breeze blew off the water from the west or southwest.
I got out about 6:30 the next morning, just after sunrise. I walked to the island's eastern side, maybe a five minute walk through the little town from my hotel on the western side, to see the sun over the ocean. I walked along the shore, past a big new mosque, to a prison covering the southern end of the island. I've read this is the Maldives' biggest prison. Interesting that the prison and the budget guesthouses are on the same island. The prison had razor wire fences 15 feet tall, but looked rather nice inside, at least in one area with sand and palm trees. A couple of the prisoners waved at me as I walked by. I reached the western shore of the island just north of the prison and then walked back to my hotel, and then up and down the two main north-south arteries in town, wide sandy lanes with a few pedestrians and even fewer vehicles.
My hotel had a buffet breakfast, with eggs, beans, hot dogs, mas huni, and fruit, included in the room price. After breakfast I walked around a bit and then spent several hours in a hammock outside my hotel and in the shade of palm trees reading my Sri Lanka guidebooks. A consistent cool breeze blew off the lagoon from the west. In the late afternoon I took another walk. I watched the ferry, full of local people as the next day was Friday, come in from Male and then walked to the little beach near the northern end of the island. A palm thatch fence has been erected between the beach and the town and women tourists are allowed to swim and sunbathe in bikinis. I would guess there must have been something around a hundred tourists on Maafushi. I watched the sunset from the beach and then had another terrible fish dinner at my hotel's restaurant. After dinner I took a walk around town with a Swedish woman also staying at my hotel. The moon had just risen over the ocean and the town streets had quite a few people walking around.
The next morning I walked to the little beach about 7. Little wavelets were lapping over the sandbank extending out from the beach into the lagoon. I sat under the palm trees, one growing almost horizontally, for about an hour and then walked back to my hotel for breakfast. About 10 I boarded a boat with ten other tourists for a snorkeling trip to various sites in the southern portion of the lagoon. From Maafushi we headed west into the lagoon towards an exposed sand bank, where we disembarked, walked around a bit, and then snorkeled around the edges. A couple of live aboard dive boats were also anchored there, as well as another boat or two like ours. There were lots of colorful fish to be seen and it was wonderful to snorkel again. We didn't spend a lot of time there as we reboarded and went to two or three other snorkeling sites around the lagoon before lunch. The water was very clear and the fish and coral were spectacular. The Maldives had a lot of coral bleaching after the El Nino year of 1998 caused water temperatures to rise and kill off algae and coral, but the spots we saw are still very beautiful, although with some bleaching.
Lunch was on an island with an abandoned resort hotel. One of our guides told us the government closed it down in 2007 after it did some landfilling without approval. Quite a few Maldivians were also enjoying the island on a Friday, their day off. Fully clothed and headscarf wearing women were in the water. Others were sitting under the palms, sometimes in those peculiar Maldivian chairs, tending their children and chatting. A group of young people, teenagers or perhaps in their early 20's, were playing in the water and there seemed to me to be some unIslamic pre-marital touching going on, unless, of course, they were married.
We had a big red snapper, maybe two feet long, for lunch, along with rice, salad, and fruit. After lunch we snorkeled at two or three other spots. The last spot, called Banana Reef because it is shaped like a banana, was particularly spectacular, with very clear water and a strong current, and lots of fish and spectacular coral. Other than at Palau, I've never seen such underwater beauty. Our guides were disappointed that we hadn't seen any turtles, so we headed to one other spot, just off a resort, while one of them jumped into the ocean and scouted for turtles. He didn't spot any, though, so we headed to our last stop, the inhabited island of Guraidhoo, south of Maafushi. As we landed on the beach about five guys were cleaning octupi along the shore. Guraidhoo is more populous than Maafushi (1800 people versus 1200), my guidebook says, and didn't seem as nice, with a lot more litter. It has a lot of souvenir shops, which is probably why we stopped there. We walked around the island and then boarded our boat just after the sun set, getting back to Maafushi just before dark.
I really enjoyed the snorkeling and now wish I had given myself a few more days in the Maldives and gone snorkeling a couple of more times. It was relatively expensive, $65 for the day for each of us. Actually, that is probably relatively inexpensive for the Maldives. That evening after dinner with a couple of others from the snorkeling trip, I took a walk around the island and came across about six young men in white dhotis performing bodu beru in the courtyard of a guesthouse. Bodu beru means "big drum," and is the traditional music of the Maldives. The young drummers pounded away, sounding a bit African, while another young Maldivian guy and about five tourists danced. I've read that in traditional Maldivian bodu beru the drumming and dancing may last all night, getting more frenzied as the night wears on. Only men participate.
The next morning I again walked to Maafushi's little beach about 7 and stayed there for maybe an hour and a half. It is mostly deserted in the mornings. Four young Chinese women came along and spent a half hour posing and taking photos on the horizontal palm tree, and that was amusing to watch. I also watched the early morning ferry head off to Male, as I had the day before.
After breakfast I hung around the hotel until the afternoon ferry left at 1. My flight to Sri Lanka left the next morning so I had to return to Male for the night. The ferry was crowded, with maybe 80 passengers. This ferry was considerably smaller than the larger one that had left in the morning. The ferry took a different route back to Male than the one we had taken upon arrival. It left the lagoon through a channel just north of Maafushi into the open ocean and traveled north outside the east side of the reef. As we left the lagoon we passed by a resort that my guidebook says has rooms for $2500 a night and is favored by security concious Russian millionaires. The ocean was calm, though the sky was cloudier than any other day previously during my stay. There were even a few drops of rain. Usually, days were sunny with just a few white clouds. After the hour and a half trip to Male, another tourist and I took a cab to the hotel where I had stayed before. She had a flight that evening, but I checked in. Male seemed like a big city after Maafushi.
About 4 I walked to Male's eastern side, as I hadn't yet been there. A man made beach in a little cove was full of people sitting on the beach and swimming, the women again fully clothed. I walked south past some nice recreational facilities and reached a couple of monuments near Male's southeastern point. One featured a tetrapod on a pedestal, a testament to the Japanese aid program. I hadn't meant to, but ended up circling the island's periphery. Walking west along the southern shore I came to a swimming area inside the tetrapod breakwater and near the island power plant. Lots of people were in the water. I continued walking west along the long boat basin inside the breakwater, full of pleasure boats. Along the way were little cafes with men and a few women drinking energy drinks and eating little snacks.
I reached the ferry terminal and turned north as the sun was dropping in the sky. A lot of folk were along the shore. Male's commercial port is at its northwest end and when I had walked past that, all the shops nearby, the vegetable and fruit market, and reached the breakwater with a view to the west, the sun had disappeared behind thick clouds on the horizon. The sky was much cloudier than on previous days. I watched a guy on one of the boats cleaning two very big red snappers, maybe three feet long. Further along I saw six big yellow fin tuna being offloaded from a boat and placed, three at a time, on a cart to be taken to the fish market. I got back to my hotel just before dark.
The Maldives turned out to be less expensive than I had expected. I averaged less than $70 a day. I should have planned an extra couple of days there.
The Maldives are composed of 26 atolls and something like 1200 islands, 215 of them populated. There are only about 380,000 people in the country, with about 100,00 in crowded Male, which is roughly rectangular and about a mile and a quarter from east to west and about three quarters of a mile north to south, so about a square mile in total. The nation as a whole has only 115 square miles of land, but lots of ocean, running from about 7 degrees north latitude to 1 degree south latitude, about 475 miles in length. Male is a little north of 4 degrees. These islands, and the Lakshadweep Islands to the north and the Chagos Archipelago to the south, are mountaintops on a plateau that rises over 16,000 feet above the floor of the Indian Ocean. Despite being the tips of mountaintops, the Maldives are the world's lowest country. The highest natural point is only eight feet above sea level.
After checking into my hotel, I had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the wide lagoon near Male's northeast point, with great views of all the boat activity on the water. The lagoon is huge, something like 35 to 40 miles from north to south and about 25 miles at its widest from east to west. Male is on the southeast side of the reef. The Maldives is 100% Muslim, and no alcohol is allowed in the country (although I did see bottles of wine on sale at the airport duty free shop in the departure lounge). At lunch I saw Maldivians drinking Red Bull and Coke, and I saw quite a few caffeinated energy drinks and lots of fruit drinks in fancy bottles on sale in stores. Non-Muslim religious items are also prohibited, with signs at the airport to that effect.
After lunch I began a walk around town, passing the early 20th century palace of the former Sultan, now the President's residence, and a 17th century mosque made of coral blocks, plus the new big, gleaming white mosque with a golden dome built in 1984. The afternoon was hot and humid, so I went into the National Museum in a big air conditioned building built by the Chinese and spent a part of the afternoon in there until it closed at 5. The collection wasn't great, but there were some interesting items, including the old thrones of the sultans, carved chests, laquerware, weapons, and some skeletons of really big fish. The old photographs were the most interesting items. Just outside the museum is a park on the site of a former palace of the sultans, with shady trees, one two story old building, and a very small coral stone mosque with a metal roof. Men on the streets were in western clothes, as were most women, though most had headscarves. Some women wore long black Islamic robes. I saw some photographs of Male in 1973 and all the men in the photographs were dressed in long dhotis, as in southern India.
Not much is known about the early history of the Maldives. It was Buddhist at one time, but the people were converted to Islam in 1153 by a Moroccan Berber. It has remained independent for most of its history. The Portuguese conquered it in 1558 and set up a fort on Male, but in 1573 the soldiers in the fort were massacred in an uprising and the Portuguese never returned. In the 18th century Malabaris from India conquered it, but only briefly before being thrown out. In 1887 it became a British protectorate at the request of the Sultan who wanted protection from the traders from Bombay who were gaining political influence. The Maldives became independent in 1965. Tourism began in 1972 after the islands were discovered by divers and tourism has greatly transformed the county. There are scores (well more than a hundred, I think) of luxury resorts, some with rooms for $4000 a night, and the Maldives derive a great amount of money from tourism. Every luxury island is situated on a previously uninhabited island. In 2010 the government decided to allow cheaper guesthouses on inhabited islands if the residents of those islands wanted them, so it is now possible to visit the Maldives without paying resort prices.
Leaving the museum, I walked to the northern waterfront and walked along the breakwater enclosing the fishing harbor, full of fishing boats. At the end of the afternoon, boats were being unloaded of giant yellow fin tuna, some about five feet long. I watched two being weighed. One was over 40 pounds and the other 54 pounds. Men were fishing from the breakwater and I saw hundreds of colorful reef fish just offshore. Several had been caught by the fishermen. I saw tuna, pehaps 50 to 100 of them, being packed in ice on a boat to be taken elsewhere in the Maldives, perhaps to resorts. The guys working on the boats were very friendly and posed for photos with their big fish.
I watched a beautiful sunset from the breakwater, with the sun setting through clouds and over big cargo ships anchored off Male to the west. As the sun set, to the east a full moon was rising. First time I've seen that since seeing the setting of the sun and the rising of the full moom at the southeastern tip of Moen (now Weno) Island in Truk (now Chuuk) Lagoon in 1987. I walked around the port area some more after the sunset and after it became dark. There was a lot of activity. I stopped at one place to watch the evening news in English on television, delivered by a Maldivian in suit and tie. The Maldives just had parliamentary elections in March and there are lots of political posters still on walls around town. In almost all, the candidates are wearing ties. Quite different from India, where no political candidate would dare to be seen in western garb. I walked back to my hotel along the waterfront and ate dinner at the restaurant where I had eaten lunch, with a cool breeze off the water.
After sleeping in an air conditioned room for the first time in ages, I began another walk around town about 7:30 the next morning. I walked again along the northern seafront, passing banks, travel agencies, and government buildings, including the President's Office in a new building. A huge Maldivian flag, green with a red border and a crescent moon in the center, flies over an open square on the waterfront. Just inland from the square is the big new mosque. I walked past it to the park on the grounds of the old palace of the Sultans and then to the old Friday Mosque, built out of coral blocks and wood in 1656. It is a lovely old building, though now with an ugly metal roof. Sand surrounds the small mosque. I was allowed to go inside and was showed around by a friendly guy who told me he spends his days there reading the Koran. The wood inside is finely carved, with designs and Koranic script, and the coral blocks also have intricate designs carved onto them. A carpet inside has lines on it showing the direction to Mecca, as the building is oriented due west rather than towards Mecca. It is believed it may be on the site of a former Buddhist temple. I left as the caretaker was about to vacuum the carpet.
Outside is an graveyard full of tombstones with intricate designs. Pointed ones are for men and rounded ones for women. A group of them had round gold plaques on them. These are graves of the Sultan's family.
There are are several mausoleums made of coral block containing the remains of Sultans and their families. The Maldives was a sultanate until 1953 when a president replaced him. The president lasted just a year and then was replaced by a new sultan, who reigned until 1968, when the presidency was reestablished by referendum. The Maldives have remained a presidential republic since then, although a dictatorial one until there were free elections in 2008. The man who won the country's first free election, however, was forced to resign in 2012 in a sort of coup. He was allowed to run again in the 2013 elections, but lost by a small margin.
Outside the old mosque is a squat minaret almost as old, dating from 1675. Across the street is the early 20th century Sultan's palace, now the President's residence and closed to the public. Next to it is the mausoleum of the man who converted the Maldives in 1153. He died in 1154. These old buildings, once the finest on the island, are now dwarfed by multi-story buildings. I saw a several photos of Male in 1973, before the tourism boom, and it looks like it had one three story building and only a few two story buildings. Trees dominated the landscape and there are no motor vehicles in sight. Now highrise buildings dominate the landscape and the streets are clogged at times with cars and, especially, motorcycles.
About 9:30 I made my way to the restaurant where I had eaten before and ate a buffet breakfast for about $7, with a view of the lagoon. The breakfast included eggs, pancakes, "chicken sausages" (hot dogs), fruit, cereal, and several Maldivian dishes, including one called mas huni, made of shredded coconut, shredded tuna, onion, and chili.
After breakfast I made my way back to the new Grand Mosque, gleaming in the mid day sun. It has no decoration outside, but is very nice inside. Only one man was praying inside the giant carpeted main hall, though there were a few other people seated out on the marble floors around the hall. The mosque is said to have room for 5000 worshipers. From there I walked south a few blocks to a very tiny old coral block mosque with the mausoleum of the Maldives' national hero next to it. This mausoleum houses the body of the man who defeated the Portuguese in 1573 and then ruled as sultan until 1585. I sat outside this small mosque as it filled with men for noon prayers. Before entering the mosque they washed their hands, faces, and feet at water taps, except for one guy who did it the old fashioned way. In the courtyard of the mosque is a well, with a couple of long poles with buckets attached nearby. This old man used one of the poles to bring up water from the well, and then expertly held the long pole between his arm and body while he poured water from the attached bucket onto his arms, hands, feet, and face.
From the mosque I continued walking south through neighborhoods with more multi-story buildings until I reached Male's southern seafront. Male's streets certainly seem cleaner than any place in India. The town seems prosperous, with lots of shops. Most women wear headscarves, and some are fully clothed in black robes. I think I saw only one with her face covered. Many of the young women, although wearing headscarves (often a sort of bouffant version), were also attired in very tight, clinging clothes and wore a lot of make-up.
I walked west along the southern sea front, with a boat harbor the whole way behind masses of concrete tetrapods (those concrete blocks with four thick protrusions, each protrusion about three feet long) serving as a breakwater, the gift of Japanese foreign aid about 25 years ago. At Male's southwest corner is another ferry terminal, from where I took a ferry about 2 p.m. across to the small island of Villingili, less than a mile west of Male. The ferry took only five or ten minutes. Villingili is a very nice island, much quieter and much smaller than Male. It would guess it is about one sixth the size. There are hardly any cars or motorcycles. I walked along a sandy beach on its east end, facing Male, with a "No Bikini" sign, and then to the coral strewn southeast point, where I sat for a while and watched two guys fishing from the rocks. Villingili (and Male) are on the southern side of North Male Atoll, and from the point I could see Male to the east and the northern islands of South Male Atoll to the south across the four mile or so wide strait between the two atolls.
Later I walked across the island to the west and then back to the ferry. People were very friendly. Almost all the women wore headscarves, but again some young women wore very tight clothes. Along the streets were Maldivian chairs, made of metal bars forming a rectangle with rope or fishing line strung between the metal to form a sort of chair. I sat in a few and they were cool and comfortable. Similar chairs hang from trees. Again, the little island seemed very prosperous. There were lots of shady trees.
I took the ferry back to Male about 4:30 and walked to the northern seafront, stopping first at a colorful fruit and vegetable market and later at the fish market. There were dozens of big yellow fin tuna on display, and I watched a guy expertly cut up several four to five foot long tuna for customers. Another guy was cutting up smaller fish, about a foot long, for a customer. I timed him and it took him a little less than a minute to gut and cut up each fish. Their knives seemed to be very sharp. Besides yellow fin, I recognized skipjack and barracuda. I again watched the sunset from the breakwater, this time marred by burning garbage on the island hosting the garbage dump and a cement factory west of Villingili. Sunset was at 6:10 and about 20 minutes later I spotted the red full moon rising as I walked back to my hotel.
The next morning I took a ferry from near my hotel at Male's northeast point to Hulhumale, an artificial island just north of the airport island. Beginning in 1997 sand and coral were dug up and dumped onto the reef to create a new island about three quarters of a square mile in size to provide additional space for Male's burgeoning population and to provide area in case global warming inundates lower lying islands. The ferry took about 20 minutes and upon arrival two modern, air conditioned, red buses were waiting, one for Neighbourhood 1 and one for Neighbourhood 2.
Rather than take the bus, I walked first to Neighbourhood 1 and then to the newer Neighbourhood 2, both full of multi-story residential units and with commercial buildings, too. In addition, Neighbourhood 1 had maybe ten relatively inexpensive hotels along the beach along its eastern shore. Lots of Chinese appeared to be staying there. Despite the central planning layout of the streets and buildings, it seemed a pleasant area, especially Neighbourhood 1 with its older and bigger trees. The streets had few vehicles and people were curious but friendly. A lot of construction was going on. In the water off the white powdery beach on the eastern side played a group of completely clothed women in headscarves. Off the northern shore is a resort hotel, which is planned to be replaced in the future when the artificial island is extended to that part of the reef.
I walked around for about an hour and a half and then took the ferry back to Male. The lagoon was full of boats, including government ferries, dive boats, fishing boats, cargo boats, and others. Just north of Male is a very small island, which we passed, that formerly served as the residence of the British Governor General.
I returned to the restaurant with the lagoon views for their buffet breakfast and then checked out of my hotel at noon. Leaving my backpack there, I took another walk around town, heading towards the big building how housing the Supreme Court, and formerly the President's residence. After the President elected democratically in 2008 took office, he decided the building was a little too grandiose. I walked again to the fruit and vegetable market, where a guy gave me a lesson in the varying qualities of green and brown coconuts. I also walked by two more very tiny, coral block old mosques.
About 2:30 I took an air conditioned, and very cold, taxi from my hotel to the ferry terminal at Male's southwest corner, at a cost of only about $1.30. I was heading to the island of Maafushi about 20 miles away on the eastern side of South Male Atoll, another big atoll, though not as large as North Male Atoll. The ferry, with about 50 passengers, most of them foreigners, left promptly at 3. The ferry headed southwest from Male across the Vaadhoo Kandu, the channel between North Male Atoll and South Male Atoll, towards a break in the reef on the northern side of South Male Atoll. We went through the break, past resort hotels on little islands on each side, and entered the big lagoon. The ferry, once in the lagoon, headed southeast to Gulhi Island on the atoll's eastern side. We docked there about 4:15, where most of the Maldivian passengers disembarked. From there it was about 20 minutes more south to Maafushi. My guidebook, dated 2012, says there are four guesthouses on Maafushi, but now there must be about fifteen. I finally settled on one, for $45 a night. The room was very nice, with a comfortable bed, air conditioning and hot water. Maldivians seemed to think that all tourists need to have air conditioning and hot water. I would have been happy with a fan and cold water, especially as there was always a nice breeze off the water.
I walked around the island a bit, through the sandy streets with almost no vehicles. With fifteen or so guesthouses, people here are used to tourists. I watched the sunset and then walked north along the little island's western edge and came across an outdoor restaurant with tables right on the water, and decided to have dinner there. The spot was beautiful, as the western sky lit up with reddish streaks after sunset. With darkness the stars came out and I could spot Orion. The service and the food, however, were terrible. After waiting about 40 minutes I got a plate of cold rice, cold french fries, cold potatoes and carrots, plus a piece of fish that, while I have never tried to eat shoe leather, I believe was a reasonable facsimile.
After dinner I walked to the eastern side of the island and saw the now past full moon rising just above the horizon through clouds, making a bright streak across the water. I walked south and then north along the eastern shore and then circled back to my hotel. The town was pretty quiet, with only a few people out on the sandy streets. A wonderful breeze blew off the water from the west or southwest.
I got out about 6:30 the next morning, just after sunrise. I walked to the island's eastern side, maybe a five minute walk through the little town from my hotel on the western side, to see the sun over the ocean. I walked along the shore, past a big new mosque, to a prison covering the southern end of the island. I've read this is the Maldives' biggest prison. Interesting that the prison and the budget guesthouses are on the same island. The prison had razor wire fences 15 feet tall, but looked rather nice inside, at least in one area with sand and palm trees. A couple of the prisoners waved at me as I walked by. I reached the western shore of the island just north of the prison and then walked back to my hotel, and then up and down the two main north-south arteries in town, wide sandy lanes with a few pedestrians and even fewer vehicles.
My hotel had a buffet breakfast, with eggs, beans, hot dogs, mas huni, and fruit, included in the room price. After breakfast I walked around a bit and then spent several hours in a hammock outside my hotel and in the shade of palm trees reading my Sri Lanka guidebooks. A consistent cool breeze blew off the lagoon from the west. In the late afternoon I took another walk. I watched the ferry, full of local people as the next day was Friday, come in from Male and then walked to the little beach near the northern end of the island. A palm thatch fence has been erected between the beach and the town and women tourists are allowed to swim and sunbathe in bikinis. I would guess there must have been something around a hundred tourists on Maafushi. I watched the sunset from the beach and then had another terrible fish dinner at my hotel's restaurant. After dinner I took a walk around town with a Swedish woman also staying at my hotel. The moon had just risen over the ocean and the town streets had quite a few people walking around.
The next morning I walked to the little beach about 7. Little wavelets were lapping over the sandbank extending out from the beach into the lagoon. I sat under the palm trees, one growing almost horizontally, for about an hour and then walked back to my hotel for breakfast. About 10 I boarded a boat with ten other tourists for a snorkeling trip to various sites in the southern portion of the lagoon. From Maafushi we headed west into the lagoon towards an exposed sand bank, where we disembarked, walked around a bit, and then snorkeled around the edges. A couple of live aboard dive boats were also anchored there, as well as another boat or two like ours. There were lots of colorful fish to be seen and it was wonderful to snorkel again. We didn't spend a lot of time there as we reboarded and went to two or three other snorkeling sites around the lagoon before lunch. The water was very clear and the fish and coral were spectacular. The Maldives had a lot of coral bleaching after the El Nino year of 1998 caused water temperatures to rise and kill off algae and coral, but the spots we saw are still very beautiful, although with some bleaching.
Lunch was on an island with an abandoned resort hotel. One of our guides told us the government closed it down in 2007 after it did some landfilling without approval. Quite a few Maldivians were also enjoying the island on a Friday, their day off. Fully clothed and headscarf wearing women were in the water. Others were sitting under the palms, sometimes in those peculiar Maldivian chairs, tending their children and chatting. A group of young people, teenagers or perhaps in their early 20's, were playing in the water and there seemed to me to be some unIslamic pre-marital touching going on, unless, of course, they were married.
We had a big red snapper, maybe two feet long, for lunch, along with rice, salad, and fruit. After lunch we snorkeled at two or three other spots. The last spot, called Banana Reef because it is shaped like a banana, was particularly spectacular, with very clear water and a strong current, and lots of fish and spectacular coral. Other than at Palau, I've never seen such underwater beauty. Our guides were disappointed that we hadn't seen any turtles, so we headed to one other spot, just off a resort, while one of them jumped into the ocean and scouted for turtles. He didn't spot any, though, so we headed to our last stop, the inhabited island of Guraidhoo, south of Maafushi. As we landed on the beach about five guys were cleaning octupi along the shore. Guraidhoo is more populous than Maafushi (1800 people versus 1200), my guidebook says, and didn't seem as nice, with a lot more litter. It has a lot of souvenir shops, which is probably why we stopped there. We walked around the island and then boarded our boat just after the sun set, getting back to Maafushi just before dark.
I really enjoyed the snorkeling and now wish I had given myself a few more days in the Maldives and gone snorkeling a couple of more times. It was relatively expensive, $65 for the day for each of us. Actually, that is probably relatively inexpensive for the Maldives. That evening after dinner with a couple of others from the snorkeling trip, I took a walk around the island and came across about six young men in white dhotis performing bodu beru in the courtyard of a guesthouse. Bodu beru means "big drum," and is the traditional music of the Maldives. The young drummers pounded away, sounding a bit African, while another young Maldivian guy and about five tourists danced. I've read that in traditional Maldivian bodu beru the drumming and dancing may last all night, getting more frenzied as the night wears on. Only men participate.
The next morning I again walked to Maafushi's little beach about 7 and stayed there for maybe an hour and a half. It is mostly deserted in the mornings. Four young Chinese women came along and spent a half hour posing and taking photos on the horizontal palm tree, and that was amusing to watch. I also watched the early morning ferry head off to Male, as I had the day before.
After breakfast I hung around the hotel until the afternoon ferry left at 1. My flight to Sri Lanka left the next morning so I had to return to Male for the night. The ferry was crowded, with maybe 80 passengers. This ferry was considerably smaller than the larger one that had left in the morning. The ferry took a different route back to Male than the one we had taken upon arrival. It left the lagoon through a channel just north of Maafushi into the open ocean and traveled north outside the east side of the reef. As we left the lagoon we passed by a resort that my guidebook says has rooms for $2500 a night and is favored by security concious Russian millionaires. The ocean was calm, though the sky was cloudier than any other day previously during my stay. There were even a few drops of rain. Usually, days were sunny with just a few white clouds. After the hour and a half trip to Male, another tourist and I took a cab to the hotel where I had stayed before. She had a flight that evening, but I checked in. Male seemed like a big city after Maafushi.
About 4 I walked to Male's eastern side, as I hadn't yet been there. A man made beach in a little cove was full of people sitting on the beach and swimming, the women again fully clothed. I walked south past some nice recreational facilities and reached a couple of monuments near Male's southeastern point. One featured a tetrapod on a pedestal, a testament to the Japanese aid program. I hadn't meant to, but ended up circling the island's periphery. Walking west along the southern shore I came to a swimming area inside the tetrapod breakwater and near the island power plant. Lots of people were in the water. I continued walking west along the long boat basin inside the breakwater, full of pleasure boats. Along the way were little cafes with men and a few women drinking energy drinks and eating little snacks.
I reached the ferry terminal and turned north as the sun was dropping in the sky. A lot of folk were along the shore. Male's commercial port is at its northwest end and when I had walked past that, all the shops nearby, the vegetable and fruit market, and reached the breakwater with a view to the west, the sun had disappeared behind thick clouds on the horizon. The sky was much cloudier than on previous days. I watched a guy on one of the boats cleaning two very big red snappers, maybe three feet long. Further along I saw six big yellow fin tuna being offloaded from a boat and placed, three at a time, on a cart to be taken to the fish market. I got back to my hotel just before dark.
The Maldives turned out to be less expensive than I had expected. I averaged less than $70 a day. I should have planned an extra couple of days there.
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