Maldives

Maldives is a fascinating country. It’s a string of tropical islands, so the fact that tourism is big is not a surprise. What is surprising is the fact that Malé, the island where the capital is, is completely covered with modern buildings and is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. The airport, which is on a different island, is connected to Malé by the Chinese-built Sinamalé bridge that opened in 2018. And it is a busy airport – planes, both large jets and tiny float planes, are constantly taking off and landing. And the harbor is just as busy. Speedboats, ferries, fishing boats, you name it, they are constantly zooming all over. It’s the antithesis of the laid-back palm thatch vibe that comes to mind when you think of a tropical resort locale.

But tropical resorts there are, strung out all over the Maldives’ 1,200 islands. The revenue generation potential of these is obvious, but it’s not really clear what drives the population and construction density on Malé. In Dr Sherry’s talk on the Maldives she mentioned duty on imports, of which there are many, of course. Nearly everything needs to be imported, so import duties could certainly raise a lot of money. Presumably the costs are passed on to the tourists at the resorts. A quick check shows the Adaaran Prestige Valoo, a resort near Malé, going for $700/night and up.

Not our concern, being on the ship, but interesting. For us, we had an excursion on our first day in Maldives (we’re here overnight) that would take us to Gulhi Island. We took the tender in to the lovely dock (it was really nice – clean and new-looking) and then hopped on a speedboat to take us to Gulhi. And when I say speedboat I mean SPEEDboat. Looking at the boats in the harbor it appeared like there was a competition to see who could mount the most outboard motors on their boat. We had three, and they were opened up pretty far right away. We bounced and skipped our way to Gulhi Island in about 20 minutes, passing several resorts on the way. The excursion was ostensibly a tour of the village on Gulhi and then some beach time, but the guide who was to take us around the village was a no-show. That didn’t bother us as we were there for the beach and snorkeling. So we just asked our guide from the boat when we needed to be back at the dock and found a shady spot on the beach, where a pair of beach lounges were available for $15. Shade was mandatory as the sun was fierce.

Thomas and I went for a snorkel first. There was a long stretch of sandy bottom, then some dead and broken coral. I was starting to think that this was all there would be, but we swam out further and found some live coral, then more live coral, and then a dropoff to deeper water where there was abundant coral and tons of reef life. This was snorkeling like we’d told the boys about before. Parrotfish, Moorish Idols (or “Willem Dafoe fish” as I like to call them), giant clams, and a slew of fish I don’t know the names for. But the highlight was seeing a giant moray eel. And by giant I don’t mean he was just big, which he was; that is the name of the species (Gymnothorax javanicus). He was at least as long as I am tall, so a good six feet. Very impressive.

We all wound up going out to he dropoff and snorkeling and it was great. There was a bit of a current so the swim out and back was a bit of a workout, especially since we don’t have fins with us. But well worth it! As a topper, as we were boarding the boat to return to Malé we saw two sharks swimming in the shallow water near the dock. Possibly nurse sharks, but we were not sure. Cool in any event.

After returning to the ship we needed to deal with Indian immigration. The original plan for this was that they would be on board from 1:00-6:00 PM, and you’d come down at your convenience and go through the process. But for whatever reason they didn’t get going until past 2:30. Cruise Director Bryn informed us that the process was “lengthy.” The line to get into the lounge extended out past the casino, and word was that people were spending over an hour in line. We had little taste for that, so we waited it out. This turned out to be a good plan as later they switched to a system where blocks of staterooms were called. We were in the final block and did not get down to see them until after 9:30. The rest of the passengers were pushed to the next day. I’m not sure how this got so messed up, but you could tell that several of the ship’s officers were not pleased. I think the Indian immigration authorities changed things up at the last minute and the crew were scrambling to keep up. Kind of a mess.

We had no plans on Sunday so we decided to get up early and walk around Malé before it got insufferably hot. We were on the island by 8:00, but it was still warm and humid. We walked through town to the tsunami memorial on the west end. DJ noticed that despite the density of buildings and population, there was not a single traffic light or stop sign anywhere. This made crossing some of the streets a bit of an adventure, but we made it. We had thought maybe we’d stop for a cool drink or snack on the way back, but nothing was open. It was Ramadan, so it’s likely that places with food or drinks were closed for that reason. Or maybe we were simply too early.

Walking a couple of miles in the heat and humidity was enough, so we headed back to Insignia for some pool time. We’ll remember Maldives as a thoroughly intriguing stop on our journey. Czytaj więcej