RestlessNatives.net NativeGuide to
MALDIVES
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The following is based on our ten-day trip to the Maldives in February-March 1999.
The good news is that the Maldives is paradise. The bad news is that paradise runs a tight ship and you have to pay plenty for the privilege of obeying all the rules.
A note about names: the country is probably more properly referred to as just "Maldives," but we use "the Maldives" because it reads better. And, for more useless information along the same lines, the name of the capital city (Male') should technically be written with an apostrophe after the "e" rather than an accent mark above it, since it is really an abbreviation of a longer name (and the accent is actually on the first syllable anyway).
Choosing a Resort
The Republic of Maldives is a nation of coral atolls bobbing up through the
crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean. The government has leased several
"uninhabited" islands for resort development, mostly in the northern atoll
closest to the airport and capital city. There is generally one resort per
island, with each resort having its own character, its own scheduled activities
and a nationality that seems to frequent it. Most resorts have a selection
of accommodations (more on that below) and meal plans. The best deal as far
as meal plans is to include breakfast and dinner but not lunch, as lunch is
a good time to try other restaurants at the resort or on neighboring islands.
You'd be hard pressed to find a bad resort in the Maldives, not least because
the government is extremely involved in setting and enforcing standards for
resort development and operation. This is good to a point, since no one wants
to stay in a bad resort, but it also makes it pretty tough to find inexpensive
accommodation. Our understanding is that the only real chance for reasonably
priced lodging is to stay in Male', the capital city.
Another (very slim) possibility, if you have the time or contacts, is to try to get yourself invited to one of the non-tourist islands, where Maldivians actually live. Foreigners are not allowed to visit these places without an invitation and are not allowed to pay for their stay. Basically, the Maldivian government is paranoid that we heathens are going to corrupt their innocent Muslim populace with our heretical ways, and this shows in all sorts of regulations and restraints. On the resorts themselves, the restrictions on alchohol, bikinis, etc., aren't enforced. But, as a general rule, you do not want to go to the Maldives carrying a bunch of liquor (which will be confiscated upon your arrival and returned to you at departure time) or porn, let alone drugs, and you definitely don't want to go there as some kind of missionary.
Arrival and Departure
The first thing we noticed about the Maldives after the high degree of resort organization is that it has easily the neatest airport in the world – a strip of concrete on a strip of sand in the middle of the ocean (see postcards at bottom of sidebar). Unfortunately, our arrival and departure were via Singapore, and those flights land and take off around midnight, so we didn't get to see the airport or anything else from the air. We regret not having a chance to take one of the seaplane rides, since the Maldives are pretty spectacular from the air, judging by all the postcard photos.
Upon arrival, our resort’s tour operator confiscated our return plane tickets just before he planted us on a speedboat that took us to the resort. We never figured out a very good reason for this practice, but it didn't matter because we were whisked to the airport at the appropriate time and our plane tickets were returned just in time for us to hand them back over to the appropriate airline representative.
Currency and Prices
We should have known that any place that has its own currency but prices exclusively in U.S. dollars would be expensive. If you visit the Maldives, bring your U.S. dollars and bring a lot of them. At one point, even a vendor in a little food market stall was able to make change for a US $5 bill when we bought one of his baked-coconut-wrapped-in-a-husk thingies.
Paradise Island
We chose to spend our holiday in paradise on - where else - Paradise Island. It's one of the larger resorts and consequently has a greater variety of restaurants and activities than you may find on some of the other islands. The staff at Paradise Island is unfailingly friendly and helpful and speaks an amazing variety of languages with what appears to be relative fluency. However, it is pretty difficult to stray too far from the beaten path in terms of activities - we tried to organize a trip into Male', the capital city, at a time other than the resort's scheduled trip and discovered that the price of the activity more than quintupled! There are a lot of scheduled activities, though - the resort offers several trips to various reefs for snorkeling and diving, trips to neighboring islands for picnics, trips to the capital city, seaplane excursions and morning, night and big game fishing.
Accommodations
Paradise Island (like most of the other resorts) has two styles of accommodations, individual (actually duplex) bungalows on the beach and slightly more expensive "water bungalows", which are built on stilts out in the water.
From the decks of each water bungalow you can dive right into the clear blue water for excellent snorkeling (well, technically you'd kill yourself on the bottom if you dived in, but you get the idea). We'll probably try for a water bungalow if we visit again. The beach bungalows, however, have private outdoor showers in addition to the regular shower, which is a very nifty feature.
Restaurants
The huge main restaurant serves buffet style meals featuring a variety of cuisine for those travelers who have purchased partial or full board. In addition to the main restaurant, Paradise Island has a Japanese restaurant, a seafood restaurant and an Italian restaurant (indicative of Paradise Island’s popularity with Italian tourists). All of the food is great. We ate as much fish as possible, and enjoyed all of it.
Snorkeling/Diving
One of the main reasons people travel to the Maldives is to enjoy its pristine blue waters and the myriad of tropical fish and bright coral that make the Maldives one of the best snorkeling and diving spots in the world. The water is without question the clearest seawater we have ever seen (but for the salt it beats the heck out of the drinking water in Hong Kong). The photos of the stingray, eel, and pufferfish (boxfish?) (sidebar) were taken from the shore! We also spotted several eagle rays and a baby black tip shark just by keeping our eyes open while walking around the island.
We went snorkeling on six different reefs during our visit, including Paradise Island's house reef. The house reef actually had the best variety of animals, but we would recommend any of the other reefs for good snorkeling as well. We saw a huge variety of tropical fish (including numerous parrotfish, snappers, anthias, groupers, wrasses, angelfish, surgeonfish, triggerfish and more), an octopus desperately trying to camouflage itself out of existence, several moray eels, beautiful giant clams with royal blue and purple mantles, and more.
The major caveat in this area is that el nino apparently wreaked havoc on the coral in the Indian Ocean (the water became too warm), and the coral is virtually all dead and bleached white as of this writing (1999). As you can see from our photos, the damage to the reefs is horrible. We're not sure how the reef fish will survive without healthy coral. If coral is what you are after, you may want to wait several more years before making your trip to the Maldives.
George was not yet a certified scuba diver at the time we were in the Maldives, so we can’t say much about the diving. Reports from other travelers were that the diving was excellent, except for the bleached coral. And even that may be less of a concern at depth than it is for snorkelers at the surface.
Fishing
Fishing Maldivian style is another popular activity at Paradise Island, and
the catch is hauled back to the resort’s Italian restaurant to be served up
by the chef. We signed up for night fishing (since that's when we weren't
snorkelling anyway). Upon boarding the fishing boat, we were entrusted with
(a) a line of fishing twine decorated with a mean looking hook and (b) several
pieces of fish to be used as bait – apparently the guys running the boat knew
a thing or two about catching fish. We swung our lines over the edges of the
boat and waited…and waited…and waited….
The one that got away
George actually caught the first fish of the evening - a little foot-long barracuda that got a chuckle from the chef back at the restaurant - but then it was back to waiting hopelessly for the rest of the evening. Our lofty dreams of escaping our lawyerly lives to become simple fisherfolk on the Indian Ocean were dashed as the Japanese tourist in heels (with help from the boat guys) caught three fish, each big enough to feed the family. We think this really got to the Russian on board, who fancied himself a major fisherman.
Well, we may not have caught anything else, but we fed a good pound or two of bait to the fish in the water by the time we left a couple of hours later, so they should be big enough to make a meal by the time the next tourist snags them. And at least we were done listening to the girlie squeals as the Japanese woman tried to avoid touching the fish that she caught.
Trip to Male'
We took the resort's scheduled afternoon boat trip to Male' (as mentioned above, there's not much alternative), and their schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for sightseeing. Upon arrival in Male', we were treated to a 45-minute guided walking tour of some of the more important landmarks in the city.
Although the town is small and could easily be explored in an afternoon, the walking tour leaves little time for independent exploration (though they carefully leave enough time for a little shopping at the souvenir shops). Although you may miss out on explanations of some of the cities more notable monuments, we would recommend skipping the walking tour and making a foray into the "real" Male'. Or, better yet, look into staying in Male' rather than a resort for the first or last day or two of your trip.
Male' itself is an interesting place, especially for its size. On our tour, we visited a couple of local markets and the impressive mosque at the center of town (no shoes or shorts!), walked through the local park and near the presidential residence and other official buildings (no photos!), and of course spent a few minutes at the souvenir shops (no leaving empty-handed!). We were looking for something authentically Maldivian to remember the trip by (in addition to a t-shirt or two), and found a great prayer mat that was woven from coconut fibers. Unbelievable handiwork, considering how tiny those fibers are.
Sitting on the Beach
This is one of Deb’s favorite activities, as we have mentioned on previous travel pages. And on our resort there was plenty of peaceful blue water to stare at while one lazes away the afternoon on the beach. In fact, the Maldives is one of those places where there are even little uninhabited islands with deserted beaches, if you can get a boat to take you there.
Sunsets
See the photos ... need we say more?
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