Maldives

February 2000

Here is a simple 25-step guide to using Indian Airlines to fly to the Maldives:
1. Make a booking and pay the fare. You are on the waiting list but "there should be no problem".
2. Two days before departure, reconfirm your flight and discover you are 37/38th on waiting list.
3. Get to airport at 9am, 3 hours before departure.
4. As you enter - all luggage goes through an x-ray. machine.
5. Line up at check in counter and get told to come back at 11am.
6. At 11am, try and wrestle your way through the mob of waiting list Indians.
7. Now that economy class has already filled up, the top man says upgrade to 1st class if you want a seat.
8. Go to Indian Airlines desk to upgrade the ticket and discover you need to pay in rupees.
9. Since you have no rupees (because you are leaving India), you go and get money changed.
10. Return to Indian Airlines and upgrade the ticket for $23 each in rupees.
11. Check on luggage and get boarding card.
12. Fill in immigration form and go through passport control. Passport detained because they don't like the Pakistan visa in it.
13. Go through X-ray machine, get body security swiped and then put hand luggage through X-ray machine. Argue with them that yes your camera does have a battery and that it will not blow up the plane.
14. Arrive airside and discover that your 12.15pm flight now has a 1pm departure. Get small freebie snack while waiting.
15. 1.30pm - go through another passport check, ticket inspection to get to departure gate. Official queries ticket.
16. Bag goes through another X-ray machine.
17. Discover that flight now delayed until 3pm.
18. Watch large group of Indians, led by one, give serious grief to top man about lack of food while waiting.
19. Free coffee and biscuits arrive.
20. At 3pm, a rumour goes around that the flight may be cancelled.
21. 3.15pm - finally told to board. Watch luggage fall off trolley on way to aircraft.
22. Ticket and passport inspection. Another X-ray machine.
23. A bus takes you 200ft to aircraft.
24. More security checks at a desk outside the aircraft - open all bags again and get swiped by metal detector.
25. 3.30 - finally take off for the hour flight.

Simple eh?

It was the first time I could ever remember flying first class. While stretching out the legs we filled in a Maldivian Arrival Form. This provided us with a list of import-prohibited and restricted items which included:

So right from the start, the Maldives sounded like a fun place!

The Maldivian archipelago, located 300 miles SW off the southern tip of India and 450 miles west of Sri Lanka, is a beautiful string of 1,190 low lying coral islands scattered across the equator in the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean. The tourist blurb always describes it as a "tropical paradise" with "sparkling white sunkissed beaches; crystal clear lagoons studded with profusely coloured corals; azure warm seas with an undisturbed exotic marine life; palm fringed islands; the pervading serenity". For once they were right and as we flew into Mali airport we could see the wonderful turquoise colours and yellow/green islands below.

What they didn't tell you was to sell everything you owned to afford it. There is a strange warped metal sculpture near the giant mosque in Mali that looks like a strange currency symbol. This should be replaced with a large US $ sculpture and a "Please leave your life savings here" sign.

Most tourists come on package holidays. We decided to turn up and see what we could afford for 5 days/nights. Hotel chains own all the islands. You purchase a package of full/half board and boat transfers. Outside the clean and tidy arrival door, we haggled with the reps and bagged 5 nights half board at the "Huduveli Beach Resort" for $250 each. This turned out to be the cheapest island around and we soon found out why.

Nevertheless, you can't fault the Maldivian style. The airport is on an isolated sandbank. To get to Mali itself and the boat connections, you have to take a ferry from the airport to the largest island. It was like something out of the "Rich and Famous". The temperature was over 30'C even at 6pm (which occurs all year round).

A battered old ferry took us on an hour's ride to our tropical paradise. Large motor boats would cruise past leaving us rolling in their swell. These contained the wealthier tourists who got the 5-star treatment. Some flew to the resorts.

We then spent 5 days on an island that took 5 minutes to walk end to end. It contained a staff quarters, reception, a large round open air dining room, bar, outside TV room, diving school, windsurfers, boats and about 35 cabins for 2 people each surrounded by palm trees. We could hear the water lapping less than 20ft from the door and every cabin had a tiny private beach. The cabins were great with hot water (luxury!) and small green rubber looking lizards hanging off the walls at night looking for insects (very few mossies here). Colourful budgies (wild ones!) chirped and played in the trees all day. Just offshore was the coral barrier. The water was very warm and crystal clear and you could walk out across the sand for a quarter of a mile to the coral and it was still only a foot deep.

I was in my element - snorkelling at different points off the coral barrier and around the island itself. Over 5 days, I spotted over 40 varieties of fish (I became, I'm sad to say, a "fish spotter", documenting every one). The most colourful and strangest looking were the Picasso Triggerfish that looked like the Beatles "Yellow Submarine" cartoon but with lots of different shades of blue and yellow and two large eyes on top of its back about half way back. Another strange one was the Young BoxFish. These were shaped like orange dice with spots on each side. Most of the fish were Angelfish, Butterfly fish, Wrasse, Humbug and Triggerfish. There were reef and leopard sharks out there somewhere, but my most memorable image was wading out and seeing a huge black stingray on the sandy floor. It was over 4ft square and as I approached it, it took off like a stealth aircraft across the sand.

Jo had a slight problem. She hates fish - the sight, smell etc. Therefore she never swims in the sea. Her problem was the lack of swimming pools at this resort (very few have them because the sea is perfect) so she was landlocked for 5 days and had nowhere to go. Just reading and sunbathing.

Meanwhile, in my Tarzan pose, I was able to swim out to neighbouring islands to explore. I swam a kilometre to "Fish Island" which turned out to be a Maldivian island of locals - no resort. Since they are all Muslims, and I arrived on the island in just swimming trucks, a local shopowner lent me a sari to cover my legs. Someone else took me for a tour of the island with its school, rehabilitation centre, mosque, and graveyard. People were very friendly, offering me cups of tea. They didn't get many strangers swimming in. Usually a boat of tourists would make a brief stop on their expensive "island hopping" excursion. I learnt that the national tree is the coconut palm (no surprise there - there are no other trees), Maldivian Population - 270,000, literacy rates were 98%, Dheveli is the national language and that they are Sunni Muslims. They even have a TV Channel - TVM (TV Maldives). The major industries are fish canning, manufacture of garments, boat building and of course, tourism - big time.

The biggest problem for us was the cost of everything. Once you were stuck on an island, you were at the mercy of the hotel that could charge what they wanted and since everything is imported, the prices were high. We discovered at our first evening meal that a bottle of mineral water cost $3.30 (a little excessive after 50 cents in India). A cup of coffee - $2.50. Beer $3 for a small can. To send a postcard with stamp - $1US. Which is why none of you got one. Windsurfers rented at $15 an hour, a boat at $35, don't even mention the diving. Even getting off the island cost $10 by boat which is why I swam and Jo stayed. To cut costs we filled up our mineral water bottle with tap water and used iodine pills. The meals however were excellent. Breakfast was an all you an eat buffet - Cornflakes, cream, fresh pineapple/coconut, fruit juices, omelettes, sausages, cake, toast, jam, tea, coffee. I usually spent an hour in there from 7.30am eating as much as possible, after which I was physically lifted by the waiters to the beach for my first snorkelling of the day. We didn't need lunch. Evening dinners were 4/5 courses - soup, salad, meat/fish/veg, desert, fruit, and coffee. It was strange to eat western food again after weeks of rice and noodles.

On another day, I swam out to nearby Paradise Island - a five star affair. $75 a night just for a room. Mineral water was $4.40 a bottle here! It was full of fat Japanese/Korean families. While it had lovely beaches and a small pool, and certainly had a magnificent setting/design, it all looked a bit crowded and anonymous. I rather enjoyed our tiny island, which was only a third full. You hardly saw anyone. When I wasn't swimming, snorkelling and generally pretending to have won the lottery, I read Louis De Berniere's excellent book "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (very recommended) and burnt up in the heat so badly that my walnut Indian suntan peeled away and left my top half looking like a lobster. It was hot. All the time.

The days drifted by slowly. We got up to watch the wonderful sunrises and every sunset. It was our first rest in nearly 3 months.

On our last day, we paid off the resort with all the extra expenses we had incurred - which was $3.30 for the only bottle of mineral water. They nearly cried. We caught the ferry back to Mali to explore the capital which didn't take long. The impressive blue and white Presidential Palace had watchtowers on the corners of the surrounding walls with narrow gun embrasures. The last coup attempt was as recent as 1988 (probably by tourists over the prices). I had a personal tour of the Islamic centre and modern 1984 Grand Friday Mosque which dominates the skyline in the centre with its gold dome glinting in the sun. We watched the boats (dhobis) getting loaded with supplies for the resorts and hung around the markets. We did not use the Internet cafe which cost (wait for it) $8 an hour!

If you do want to experience a Tropical Paradise, then this is the place - the beaches/sea/fish/coral left anywhere else I've visited behind (except maybe Tobago which was also affordable) - but come on a package that includes all your watersports, drinks etc. Even as a tight fisted backpacker, I still had a great time. And it counted as a country!

Travel - £15.14 (13.94 1st class upgrade)
Accommodation & Food - £152.42
Other - £21.81
Total - £189.37

Grand Total - £1314.16