Maldives January 7 -10, 2016

I was in Maldives with my brother Lawrence, my nephew Wai Leuk and my HKU friends in 1997. We stayed in a resort on Paradise Island followed by a short stay in Sri Lanka. This time, Lawrence and I revisited Maldives for three days with Sally, my sister-in-law.Maldives lying between latitudes 1ºS and 8ºN and longitudes 72º and 74ºE, is an island country and archipelago. The smallest Asian country in both land area (298 km²) and in population (about 380,000),its territory spreads over roughly 90,000 km²in the Indian Ocean.

After a long Buddhist period of Maldivian history, Muslim traders introduced Sunni Islam and Maldivians converted to Islam by the mid-12th century. From the mid-16^th century the islands were dominated by Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain and finally gained independence from the UK in 1965. It became a republic headed by an elected president in 1968 with Malé as the capital. Maldives is a Muslim-majority country. 

Geography

The 1,192 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 27 atolls stretch from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll to the north to the Addu Atoll to the south. These atolls are organised into 21 administrative divisions with 31 protected areas. With an average ground-level elevation of 1.5m above sea level, it is the planet’s lowest country. It is also the country with the lowest natural highest point in the world at 2.4m. It is one of the places which would vanish if sea-levels continue to rise. The UN’s environmental panel has warned that at current rates, sea level rise would be high enough to make Maldives uninhabitable by 2100. The government has pledged to make Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2019. 

Tourism

Maldivian waters are home to several ecosystems and noted for their variety colourful coral reefs, home to 1100 species of fish, 2 species of sea turtles, 21 species of whales and dolphins, 187 species of corals, 400 species of molluscs and 83 species of echinoderms. Moreover, it has hundreds of crustacean species (120 copepod, 15 amphipod, 145 crab and 48 shrimp species). It also boasts rich marine families.

The country was largely unknown to tourists till early 1970s. The first tourist resorts were opened in 1972 with Bandos Island Resort and Kurumba Village which transformed the Maldives. Owing to itsnatural assets including beautiful white sand beaches,idyllic islands, amazing coral reefs and fish, turquoise coral seas and warm tropical climate, Maldives has become a world famous holiday destination with many luxurious resorts.

With the advent of cheap air travel and arrival of backpackers and less affluent holiday-makers, the Maldivian government has allowed guest houses and budget hotels be built in some of the inhabited islands. Such a move has enabled some island communitiesto benefit. Tourism now accounts for 28% of the GDP and more than 60% of Maldives’ foreign exchange receipts. Over 90% of government tax revenue come from import duties and tourism-related taxes.

The development of tourism has spurred the overall growth of the country’s economy while fishing remains the second dominant industry. The 2014 estimate of GDP(PPP) is US$4.92billion. Maldivians enjoy the highest GDP per capita (PPP) at $14,383 (2014 estimate) among the south Asian countries. The exchange rate is US$1 to 15 Maldivian Rufiyaa (MRf).

January 7 Thursday: Doha, Qatar – Male, Maldives (GMT+5)

The flight from Doha to Malé takes four hours. Time passed quickly as I watched a couple of films. We landed in the airport built on a man-made Hulhulé Island after 7am. My wish to have a scenic flight over the coral seas did not come true: the weather was not good, grey and gloomy.

I stayed in a resort on Paradise Island in 1997. But the quotes I got from an agent for three nights ranged from US$1500-2200 for three of us. Ridiculous!

As a result, we booked a 3-star hotel in Hulhulé Island with online for over US$110 a night. The hotel picked us up. We were disappointed to find a small room with two single beds. The hotel only provided us with an extra mattress: Lawrence slept on the floor.  Later I asked a few hotels nearby which could give us a much better room for US$70-100. Well, we had a poor deal! As we had no sleep, we had a rest till almost 4pm.

It’s time to eat and sort out our programme for the next three days. The airport occupies one end of the island while the residential area neatly laid out with modern 4-5 storeyed housing blocks is located in the middle part of the island. The other end is occupied by a prison. The island is well served with public buses (3 MRf for a ride) and is connected with Malé by a normal ferry with over 100 passengers (15 minutes) or a fast one for a dozen passengers (10 minutes). We found a diver/snorkelling shop operated by Chinese from Taiwan. We met Mei, a young diving instructor from Beijing, who is cheerful and lovely. Then another couple from Beijing came in. Mei suggested five of us take a private boat for $66 per person for eight hours. But as the boat had another assignment in the afternoon, we had to leave at 6am. Mei asked us to meet her at the shop at 5:30am. On Mei’s recommendation, we had a nice Indian restaurant on the main street. A meal with two main dishes cost around 100 MRf, much more expensive than Doha!

January 8 Friday: Fishing & Snorkelling

We arrived at the diving shop before 5:30am. No one was there. After waiting for a while, we started walking towards the pier. Mei turned up just before 6am and met us mid-way. The Beijing couple was late too and the boat did not set off till almost 6:30am.  The boat, though small with a 3-member crew, can take a dozen people.

After heading north for an hour and a half, we stopped in the middle of a channel and fished for an hour before moving to another spot for half an hour. We ended up with three fish: one caught by Sally and two by the Beijing couple. We ate two of them as one was not edible. Sally’s fish was filleted and grilled while a small tuna was consumed as sashimi.

Later we spent an hour on an idyllic white sandbar. The water was nice and warm but it’s a windy day with a rough sea. I spent most of the time watching the birds and the blue sky and water in all shades of blue. Anyway, the place is not unearthly beautiful or special by my standards.

The sandbar must be a popular spot: a private boat with four foreign tourists came before us and a boat full of local young men arrived later. I watched them playing football: this paradise belongs to them!

According to our Beijing friends, the coral reef and fish are much better in Maafushi Island. We were back to our island before 3 pm and had a late lunch in the Indian restaurant. Then we went back to the pier to watch sunset.   Though the sunset was not special, I had a peaceful and restful time.

January 9 Saturday: Male & Villingili

We planned to go to Maafushi Island. A tourist told us the daily ferry would leave at 3 pm with an additional one in the morning on certain day of the week. We decided to try our lucky. First we took a ferry to Malé (5.5 MRf) and a taxi (30MRf) to the pier at the northwestern end of the island. We found out the morning ferry to Maafushi would only leave on Sunday. I want to see life on a local and not touristic island. So we hopped onto the ferry to Villingili Island opposite Malé. The trip only takes about ten minutes. Villingili is very small island which still has a rustic atmosphere without few guest houses. People at the beach next to the pier were all locals except three of us and two Russian tourists.

I did not get into the water. Instead, I watched the Maldivian families enjoying themselves at the beach and talked to a couple of ladies. One told me that her father and mother has an extended family of 68 (including children, grand-children and great-grandchildren). An example of a traditional family with many children!

I had a long conversation with a young lady with two sons. She is educated but has to stop working in order to look after her autistic son of seven years old. Standard of living has improved a lot with better education and medical services. Most young people can speak English. However, Maldives still lack good medical service for cancer patients and children with special needs.

Around midday, we took the ferry back to Malé. While we were walking towards the fish market located close to the ferry pier to HulhuléIsland, a Maldivian man tried to take us to a restaurant. It is a tourist trap: the restaurant charges 800 MRf for a steamed fish. We left and went to the fish market to buy two live fish for 80MRf and a piece of yellow fin tuna for MRf 50.

The man then took us to another restaurant where we asked the kitchen to boil the fish for us. They cooked the fish in Maldivian way with too much water. Anyway the fish is tasty. We bargained hard with the manager who comes from Bangladesh: he finally agreed to charge us 500 MRf for preparing the fish, rice and a drink each. Lawrence asked the man to leave us alone after giving him 100 MRf. We walked along the busy waterfront and spent time looking at the vegetable and fish markets.

	Public ferry pier to Hulhule Island

Lawrence and I were in Malé in 1997 and we had walked along the same waterfront. The capital has changed a lot and for the better, in my view, since 1997. There are more new/renovated buildings, shops, cafes, restaurants, airline offices and banks. The tiny island with only 1.77km² with an estimated population of 63,000 though crowded and noisy, is vibrant and looksprosperous. The harbour and waterfront are busy with working vessels, ferries, pleasure boats and speed boats. I also saw the luxurious boat of the Regent Seven Sea Cruise on a 44-day journey from Cape Town to Bangkok in the harbour.

We returned to our island around 4pm and I went to the nearby man-made beach for a swim. There were many local kids and fully dressed ladies in the water. A good sign of happy life for the Maldivians! We asked our hotel owner to reserve three places on a fast boat leaving Malé at 9:15am ($40 each) the following day. He told us to go to Malé pier to wait for him at 9am.

January 10 Sunday: Male & Maafushi – Hong Kong

As our flight to Hong Kong did not leave till 11:35pm in the evening, we had a full day. We checked out, had breakfast and took the 8:10am ferry to Malé. We waited for the hotel owner to take us to the fast boat pier. We did not see him till 9:15 am and by the time we arrived at the pier, the boat had gone. Apparently there was misunderstanding: we did not know the location of the fast boat pier and thought he would meet us at the public pier at 9am. He waited for us at the fast boat pier instead.

As it was Sunday, we knew the public ferry would be leaving at 10 am from the other side of the island. We therefore took a taxi and got there in time. The ferry was full with overseas holiday-makers as well as locals. The fare is only 53MRf.

It was very windy and the sea was rough. As the boat is quite big, it is an enjoyable journey. Maafushiis26 km from Malé and the journey takes about 90 minutes. As there is no ferry back to Malé, we booked a single journey with the fast boat ($20 pp). We saved almost $50 accidentally.

Maafushi, one of the inhabited islands of Kaafu Atoll,was heavily damaged in the 2004 tsunami which impacted on a third of the Maldivian population. It is noted for the Maafushi Prison. The island with a population of about 2,500 has benefitted from the restoration work with improved sewage and other infrastructures. As a result, it has now a thriving local tourism economy boasting the largest number of guest houses (the first was opened in 2010) and beds in the country.

We had a leisure afternoon strolling around the eastern end of the island. By chance, we found a local shop selling frozen fish and asked the owner to cook two groupers for us. We had fish, coconut juice and naan (Indian flat bread) for about 200 MRf. A nice nutritious light lunch.

A simple & cheap lunch

Dream holiday for sun-seekers

Then we spent a few hours at the beach snorkelling. It’s a nice sunny but windy day. As the waves and currents were fairly strong. I dared not snorkel too far from the beach. I did not see too many varieties of fish and coral. By the time we left at 5 pm, it was raining again!

We got back to Malé before 6pm. Sally and I went to the fish market and brought two fish for 80 MRf. The hotel staff kindly cooked it for us but did not know how to prepare steam fish. We cannot ask for more!

The hotel arranged a taxi (US$10) for us at 9:30pm. Our plane took off before mid-night and touched down in Hong Kong after 7 am on January 11. I was back home after another 93-day round-the-world trip to three continents and 11 countries.

Remarks

I spent three and a half day in Maldives and had a totally different experience from my first visit when staying in a resort. The postcard and stereotype beauty of Maldives and luxurious exclusive resort life do not appeal to me. I enjoyed meeting the local people: I stayed in a local hotel in HulhuléIsland, took local ferries and explored Hulhulé, Male, Villingili and Maafushi Island on foot. I went to the fish, fruit and supermarket, had my meals in local restaurants and talked with local residents.

Maldives have changed for the better since my last visit in 1997. The capital looks tidier (and sadly with more cars and pollution). The Maldivians I have met are proud of the country’s progress with improved education and social services. They enjoy more opportunities and rising standard of living. Of course, the cost of living has risen considerably too. I am glad the people look healthy and happy.

Tourism has been the driving force behind the country’s economic growth. It has also brought adverse impacts including pollution, noisy and crowds. As the weather during my stay was not good and the sea was rough, I saw few fish and unimpressive coral while snorkelling. But Mei, the diving instructor whom I met, assures me there are still many amazing sites with beautiful coral and rich in marine life with plenty of whale, shark, manta ray, wrasse, grouper, snapper, batfish, fusilier, Jackfish, lionfish, batfish, angelfish, butterflyfish, soldierfish, glassfish, surgeonfish, barracudas etc. and the best way to appreciate what Maldives can offer is by boat.

Maldives will vanish if global warming continues. In order to check out and appreciate its unspoilt beauty, I decide to join Mei on a diving trip from April 23 to 30, 2016. I hope I shall not be disappointed.