The Maldives Story

(Dateline Chris)

Otis at the airport

The Maldives (say mall-DEEVES) is a chain of 1,100-1,200 islands, arranged as a string of atolls south and west of the tip of India and extending all the way across the equator. It is by many magnitudes mostly water: the land area is only 1.7x that of Washington, D.C. Most of the islands are uninhabited; the ones with people are divided between those on which the majority of people are Suni Muslims (officially, they're ALL Suni Muslims) living a middle-class lifestyle from a global perspective and those dominated by resorts catering solely to fabulously affluent foreigners. The two don't really overlap. No Maldivians live on the resort islands, nor, I believe, are they allowed to visit; and until about five years ago, no foreigners were allowed to visit, or at least stay, on local islands.

The 12 item list of things you can't bring into the Maldives. They'll hold your liquor for you, but everything else they keep! 

About five years ago, the Maldivian government began allowing folks on local islands to open guest houses - some of these are now hotels even in name - and now its not impossible to visit the Maldives on a reasonable budget.

The white-sand street from the Stingray to Bikini Beach

When we were planning the trip heard round the world, one thing I wanted to do was to visit one of the impossible to get to Indian Ocean islands: Maldives, Mauritius, the Seychelles or Réunion. Because, hey?, when are you ever going to get back? Malé, the Maldivian capital, is only about an hour's flight west of Colombo, Sri Lanka, so we'd have been fools not to!

With 1,200 islands, it was bit tricky picking which one. We decided on Maafushi, because it was a relatively short ferry ride from Malé and because it seems to be the local island that has most thoroughly rededicated itself to tourism. One of our hosts told me "all of our fathers were fishermen, now everyone in my generation works in tourism." We figured that with more guests and more guest houses, we would have more food choices, more lodging choices and more excursion choices.

I think we were mostly right about that. We got ourselves a family room at the Stingray Beach Inn, which had a genuinely king-sized bed as well as a full-sized bed for Otis. We were very happy at the Stingray, and ended up eating almost every meal there. The food was good, the room was comfortable, the grounds were very pleasant, and the service was OUTSTANDING. Everyone on Maafushi was very friendly, but the folks at Stingray were really lovely. If we are to quibble, the wifi was very poor (may just be a fact of island life), and the on-loan snorkeling gear was often in poor condition. Nevertheless, if we were to go back, we would try to stay at the Stingray again.

Me at the Stingray's entrance 

Maafushi has a tourist or bikini beach where tourists can visit and wear western swimwear; on the rest of the island, you're expected to wear at least shorts and a t-shirt regardless of your gender. The Maldives also has a list of items you may not bring into the country, including alcohol, and there are not dogs and no pork on the country's local islands. Many women wear hijab, and some burkas, but not all of them. Maafushi has two mosques, and you will often hear the call to prayer. I never once felt judged, however, for not being Muslim. Bikini beach was only a few meters from Stingray, and it was lovely. The other beaches on the island were more for island business: Port, fishing and, of course, the Jail!

Bikini beach in the morning - there's a convenience store and a man who will sell you fruit

Jen strolling to the water

Jen and Otis head for an evening snorkel

We were often too busy in the water to photograph sunsets, but they were some of the best on the THRTW

Speaking of beaches, look man, the water is why you go. The water in the Maldives is jewel-like. It comes in the shades of blue that make your camera think its color balance is wrong. And the sand is white and soft like powder. The streets in Maafushi are literally made of it, and many guest houses fill their lobbies with it in lieu of carpeting. The blue water and the white sand blend like alchemy to make shades you simply can't believe. Go to see the colors.

I took so many pictures of water, hoping they'd come out

Picnic Island, a common excursion lunch spot

your boat will often pass by shallow areas where the turquoise waters get really stunning

Jen and Otis disbark at Picnic Island

It tends to make you smile

Picnic Island from the boat

The Shadow Palm guys brought a good camera (except for this and the next one, all our pictures are shot on a 5c/5s iPhone, a first gen GoPRO HERO or a really unimpressive point and shoot digital camera that we bought for Otis but rarely use

Jump shots are so in

We spent a lot of time at bikini beach, but you'd really miss out if you didn't book a few excursions. All the guest houses book excursions, either with their own gear or by sending guests to a company that specializes. There are trips that go to resort islands, but those are very expensive and not really my style (but I think Jen would have liked it!) and various snorkeling trips. We went on three snorkeling trips.

Otis on the Stingray boat in Maafushi Harbor

Jen takes in the view between snorkeling sites

Jen is a photogenic snorkel model

Maybe my favorite pic, this rainstorm lasted only about ten minutes; luckily most of our rain was at night

The three of us on the go

Otis was super excited for the Maldives because he had seen that the snorkeling there was off the charts. Unfortunately, the reefs apparently suffered extensive damage from the Tsunami. Maafushi's reef seemed pretty much reduced to rubble, though there were scattered healthy colonies before the reef slope. On our snorkeling trips, the reef structure was in pretty good shape, but most of the coral was dead. Makes me think that not all the blame should be based on the tsunami. Unlike the Caribbean, where the corals really have fared poorly because many of the herbivores have been removed from the reef by fishing or disease, there were TONS of herbivorous reef fish, and not really much algae. We saw no barracudas or sharks on the reef (I saw two sharks by the beach though), and hardly any urchins or sea stars. I don't know why the coral was in such rough shape - maybe heat.

Clown fish at Banana Reef

Tons of fish on the Banana Reef crest

A colony showing some bleaching

Reef landcape; the GoPRO can't do it justice

There are lots of giant clams

Two butterfly fish

Otis cruises by a colony with many resident azure fish

Many more fish at the slope

Six-Barred Wrasse are bold, curious, and willing to bite you

A surgeon fish at home

In addition to tons of reef fish, we also saw many dolphins, sea turtles and manta rays - which were not supposed to be around this time of year. We wanted to go on a whale shark excursion, but Stingray couldn't ever find enough other enthusiasts to fill a boat at an affordable price. We went on two trips with Stingray, and another at Shadow Palm Resort and found them more or less the same; keep an eye on your boat mates though, I don't think Maldivian tour operators fear much tort liability, and our Shadow Palm guides left a guest behind for a while until we pointed out the mistake!

Spinner dolphins

Lucky to see mantas, but they spent most of their time deep down

Hawksbill turtle at turtle reef

Hawksbill from her good side

Speaking of price, our inn cost about $115 a night (a Maldivian resort can easily cost 10 to 20 times as much) which included breakfast for everyone. An excursion cost about $30 per person depending on your itinerary, and we tended to spend about $35 on a dinner for three, but only because we almost always larded it with fresh juices and appetizers. Jen got a birthday massage for about $60 and we rented some stand up paddle boards for about $10 an hour. By taking the ferry to the cab to the ferry, we paid only about $10 total to get the three of us from the airport to our hotel; on the way back we sprung for the speedboat ride for $20 each and recommend that highly.

Maldivian breakfast, served without the traditional tuna, orange slices and papaya juice

So, for now, the Maldives and Maafushi are an affordable and lovely vacation destination - if you happen to be in the area. But the Maldives seem to be changing rapidly. I've rarely seen so much being actively built as we did on Malé and Maafushi. Our cab driver said they were benefiting from a lot of Chinese and Saudi investment. Maafushi had several out-of-scale hotels going up, and it will be interesting to see whether the island becomes more dominated by western values. We met a woman working for the United Nations who felt that the Maldives was falling dangerously into the Saudi orbit and would soon succumb to Wahhabism. And even if none of that happens, with a maximum elevation of 2.4 meters, it will soon be underwater.

Jen in a traditional Maldivian hammock

So we think you should go, and go soon. The good news is, its only a $1000, 19 hour flight from JFK, through scenic Doha! Happy travels!

Happy trails!