The Maldives

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The Maldives
Trivanthinum Airport must have been built in the days of Biggles.

We went to the airport by taxi, from Kovalum, and entered the Airport from it’s seafront entrance. The road into the airport enters the terminal area, and goes around the car park. As you face the Airport building, the architecture shows, with the wave shaped corrugated iron awning , and rust colouring, that this is a very old airport, and nothing has been done to maintain the exterior since it was built.

After a security interrogation by the guard at the entrance door, we lined up in two queues to have our luggage scanned, and banded. Once through the banding, we lined up at a counter behind other people in the hope that it was the correct counter for our flight. I say that, as there was no signage at the counter, and the LED light above the counter that would, at any other Airport in the world, tell you the name of the airline, and the destination of the plane being checked in, did not work. None of the displays were working, and really, the only items that did work were the computer terminals, and the baggage scales. It is lucky that they were working, as I have never ever seen the amount of baggage carried into this airport to be put on the plane as I did here. There were TV sets, Satellite dishes, Thatched bags full of I don’t know what, and cardboard boxes full of all sorts, that people wanted to check onto the plane. The process was particularly complicated as well, as the passengers would check in, have their baggage weighed, argue with the poor girl on the desk about the excess baggage charge, go to another office around the corner to pay the charges, come back with their receipts and then pick up the boarding passes. It made Ryan Air, with their 15kg baggage limit look easy!

There were cleaners around the airport with their straw brooms, sweeping and cleaning, but I have no idea what they cleaned. Under the check in counters, and baggage scales was years and years build up of old tickers and litter from the check in counters. The walls of the airport looked like they still had the original coat of paint on them, and as I said, the airport was not a new one.

To get through to the plane, we had to walk through the departure gate, and down some stairs, to a ground level lounge. From there we boarded a transfer bus. Air India share their flights with domestic Indian airways, so the bus took us to where the aircraft was parked, between the domestic and International terminals. The Bus too was a show of confidence in the airline, as it had panels in the roof hanging down, the Air conditioner was broken, and the entrance doors only just closed. Still, we made it to the plane, an Airbus A320, albeit an old one, and things on the plane seemed better.

We were impressed with the airline, in fact, as this was the first time since we left Australia, that we were given a cooked meal on a flight. The hosties were very efficient, as the flight was an hour and ten minutes, and as soon as the seatbelt sign was out, they were in the aisles handing out food. Five minutes later, when we had just about finished eating the meal, and they were back in the Aisles, picking up the trays. Got to hand it to them though, we all got fed, and the food wasn’t bad.

While we were Mid Ocean, the plane started to descend, and the next thing we knew, we were landing at Male Airport, in the Maldives. Male is an interesting place, as the city is on is nearly circular island 1.4KM in diameter. The Airport is located on another island, about 1000m from the island of Male, called Hulhule Island. Hulhule Island is a manmade island that is on a North/South reef on the North Male Atoll . Apart from the Airport, on Hulhule, there is a fairly large town, with some decent industry on it. This portion of the island is called Hulhumale Island, and is attached to Hulhule Island by a causeway along the reef top. On Hulhumale have built a desalination plant here, to produce water for Male, as well as a Power Generation plant for the local islands. There is another industrial area under construction, as well as a fish cannery. Looking back from the Airport, towards Male is an impressive sight. The whole of Male island is covered in buildings, about six to nine stories high, and when I said the whole island, I meant the whole island.

To get to Male, you have to go by boat. The traditional way is to catch a Dhoanis, which only costs RF10 (equates to about $A0.80) which no one would complain about. You will need the Madlives Rufee currency to pay for the boat. They only take the local currency. If you are in a hurry, you can transfer by speed boat, which then takes about 2 minutes, instead of 10, and these are about $us20 PP. If you have booked into a resort that is not on Male, chances are that you will have a transfer boat already at the airport, to take you straight to your destination, without going into Male.

We were staying at the Mookai Hotel, which is easy to find, as it is about 100 metres from where the Dhoanis land on Male, and it has a huge sign on top, that you can see as you are crossing the channel. The walk for the three of us only took about five minutes, and we were checked in to the hotel.

The Mookai is a compact hotel, with about 6 rooms to a floor, each attached to a kind of common louge room (one lounge room to three rooms). It is not modern, or exceptionally luxurious, but it is comfortable and well priced. It is also one of the only hotels, in Male that has a swimming pool, on the 9th floor. It also has a restaurant and coffee shop, but we found these closed, and used the restaurant on the adjoining Kai Hotel instead. The Kai is a sister hotel, and room charge can be made back to the Mookai.

As we arrived in Male just after lunch, the first day was spent looking around this small island, and getting our bearings. We had three days in Male, and wanted see as much as possible both in Male, and on the surrounding islands. I was also hoping that I could do some diving or snorkelling.

It seems difficult to find day trips from Male. The Islands of the Maldives are so spread out, and sparse, that most of the trips go a long way from Male, and the operators expect you to spend at least one night away. Male is an okay place to stay for a couple of nights, however the best of the Maldives is found away from Male, on the reefs, and in the beautiful resorts.

I talked to a couple of tour desks, and found that the islands of Villingili and Hulemale were accessible by Dhoanis, for the paltry sum of three and five Rufee per trip. This makes for a really cheap day trip. It was also reported that Villingili Island had some good snorkelling, so we went there and asked, the locals, who said that there wasn’t a dive shop. I went snorkelling in a local swimming lagoon, but it was shallow and there was no coral. We did, however find that near the ferry terminal is a very nice restaurant, set amongst some shady trees. After a bit of lunch, and a swim, we went back to Male, and I went to book myself onto a dive trip, and Mum and Dad onto an Island excursion.

I put my name down with two dive companies that said they may have trips going in the morning, but nothing was confirmed. I then booked Mum and Dad onto the Island of Embudu Village resort. Embudu is close to Male (about 30 minutes boat ride, across to the South Male Attoll) and is a partner resort to the Mookai Hotel. I’m not sure if it is available to other than house guests, but the deal at Embudu is excellent. The day costs $US45PP, but that includes transfers, Buffet lunch, and a room for the day, so that you can rest and shower if you wish. I received no reply from my Dive excursion companies for the day, so at the last minute decided to also go with Mum and Dad to Embudu resort, as they had a dive shop on the island, and I may have been able to go for a dive with them.
In the morning, it took a while to find the boat to Embudu resort, as the boats all come into the harbour at different times, and end up parking their vessels where they can. At the departure time of 9am, we eventually found the boat, and jumped on it for the trip to Embudu via the Airport. The trip was spectacular, as we went around the Eastern side of Male Island, and headed south into open water. The day was perfect, with light winds, and clear skies. The Water colour was just brilliant, and changed from deep green in the deep areas, to light turquoise in the reef areas. We entered the South Male Atoll by crossing the reef edge between two poles marking a channel in the water, and traversed the reef, running close to the Bommies below, as we sped past another marker pole in the reef.

As we made our way past the Taj Exotica resort, with its long arms of resort rooms over the coral reefs we could see what was available in some of the exclusive 5 star resorts . Also interesting was the water pagoda, where you could be dropped by speed boat, and enjoy the reef to yourself, as it was located about 400m away from the island.

We then made it out to Embudu resort. The Resort is on an island that measures 200m from North to South, and 100m from East to West. We walked into reception, which was in the middle of the Island, and after complimentary drinks, we were shown to our day room. The Island is completely circled by a coral reef, and many of the rooms face the edge of the Island. Needless to say, there were people all around the edge of the island, sunbaking, snorkelling and swimming. There are two jetties on the island, on the East side, and the West side. The West side jetties are also used for delivering stores to Embudu. To the North is a large shallow reef area, perfect for shallow swimming, and adjoining the island at that end, is a sand spit, which is a popular spot for the fibreglass beach chairs that are scattered around the island. For those who didn’t like being in the sun, there were wooden hammock style frames hanging from trees all around the island. The Island was idyllic.

One of my objectives in the Maldives was to go for a Dive. Once I had Mum and Dad comfortable in their room, I wandered over to the Dive shop, to see about Diving in the Maldives. I was very lucky, as there was a resort dive happening ten minutes later, so I raced back to the room, got changed, and headed back to the Dive shop.
After a dive brief, and the standard for filling I was teamed up with an English Gentleman, called Mark, for a resort Dive. The more desirable boat dives were both too early for the day boat, and too late for the return boat, but to me it didn’t matter. A resort dive in a new location was as good as any. We strapped on all of our gear, and walked across to the west Jetty, where we did some skills exercises before heading out into the water. The Water here is crystal clear, and the normal visibility is about 15 metres near the island, and much more on the reef dives. The water temperature was 29 degrees C, so I didn’t mind that I had no wetsuit covering.

The surrounding reef on the island is about 1.5 metres deep, but at the edge it drops to about 6 to 7 metres very quickly. This shelf goes out from the island for about another 50 metres, where the depth then drops to about 20 Metres. The whole of the island is surrounded by good quality coral, and there is no evidence of sustained anchor damage. There are three wrecks on this side of the island, probably dhonias, judging from their size, bit the one I saw appeared to have been laid on a sandy section of the ocean floor, to minimise damage to the reef. It was also incredible that during our dive, the sea life did not appear to be frightened of the divers. The schools of fish were unperturbed by us, and even the turtles allowed our dive instructor to hand feed them He said that one of the turtles regularly swims over to him and sits on his shoulder. We had a good dive down to about 10 Metres, that lasted for an hour. The only drama was that my dive buddy, Mark , who was a big fella, used up his air very quickly, and had to share air with the dive instructor, until we had all caught up with his air usage, near the end of the dive.

We went back to Male that afternoon on a slower boat than the speed boat that we arrived on, but still, it made a great end to an excellent day. The only question left was what we would do the next day.

When We got back to Male, I made some calls as some people told me about day trips to other islands. One was about 5km North of Male, and is called Bandos Island resort, and apparently catered for day guests. I tried to call them to book another day on a resort, but couldn’t get onto them. Instead, I went back the next day to Embudu, and Mum and Dad spent the afternoon, after a much needed sleep in, at Villingili Island. We met up again at about 6pm, had dinner at a waterfront cafe, and then took a dhonias to the airport for our midnight flight to Singapore.

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