We were in the Maldives just last week, yet it seems like such a faint distant memory, almost like a dream.
So why the Maldives?
A few years ago an 80 year-old had said to my mum, “Oh you haven’t been to the Maldives? It’s heaven on earth!”. Since then my mum has been wanting to go to heaven. Her last 16 countries didn’t cut the mark. Given the vulnerability of life and of the Maldives, and our ephemeral memories, we thought, YOLO, why not, let’s combine it with our trip to India (for a friend’s wedding, which ironically we couldn’t go to…).
So.. did we find heaven?
Short answer- no
Long answer: it was pretty darn close… but… read on below…
This is how we popped.
We took a direct 10.5 hour flight from Zurich to Male. I had heart palpitations about flying this long with the two baby bunny monsters, but with approx. 30 sec of colouring, 1 ish hour of videos (altogether), 5 ish hours of sleeping, and only a few hours of existential discomfort, we survived!
As soon as we arrived in Male, we were ushered straight onto a boiling seaplane. The seaplane was not fun.
It was supposed to be a quick 30 min hop but turned out to be a 2 ish hours odyssey because the airlines tried to optimize and drop and pick other passengers on the way. Like a bus. It was loud, hot, smelly (because the children threw up both ways), and just unpleasant. The views though … unreal.
We finally landed in a little floating buoy in the middle of the ocean and a speed boat came to pick us up for a bumpy 10 min ride to our resort on a tiny island called Kuda Rah in South Ari Atoll. The orientation day to heaven was disorienting.
Why Kuda Rah?
Out of 180+ resorts that all look suspiciously identical (honestly, it’s like choosing between turquoise and aquamarine), we picked one with great reef reviews — and wow, did it deliver. We saw sharks EVERY DAY – while snorkeling, diving, and even from the shore. The reef just beyond the island wall felt like an underwater carnival: schools of technicolor fish, rays, reef sharks (oh so many of them!), and lots and lots of broken coral – more on that later.
And many many other fish.
A few things we did during our stay
Another big impression – the mystery of the broken coral
We realised the biggest threat to Maldives is not global warming or rising sea levels or temperatures, it is the tourism industry. They are reclaiming islands and building resorts on it and once the resorts are built, it takes a LOT of work to maintain them.
The islands needs to be protected from the sea, the guests need a lagoon to get their pictures in large flamingo floats, they need nice beaches with creamy white sand without a trace of stone/ broken coral – so a wall needs to be built around the islands, often at the expense of the natural reef, breaking coral on the way.
ALL Maldivian islands need to adopt really environmental unfriendly measures like burning diesel generators for electricity and incinerating all the trash (any type of recycling would perhaps be even more environmentally unfriendly). Cargo ships come and go bringing all that the islands need from fruits to wines to ice creams every other week. Guests need a cornucopia for every meal after all!
Lesson learnt: heaven is manmade and very fragile to maintain.
So will we go to the Maldives again?
Despite realising the fragility and fakeness of what the Maldives has to offer on land, the sea life was crazily amazing (it was pas mal dives :P). It is definitely amongst the top few in our list for sea destinations (top is still Bali). The sea was unbelievable shades of blue and the sand was creamy soft. We never felt sand like that before. We would love to plop there again, may be this time to an unassuming local island, just to enjoy the local spicy tuna curries, the sand and the sea.
In case you are planning a trip to the Maldives: The price to quality ratio of the resorts is disproportional*. Given what we were paying, I thought we are going into something super luxury. It wasn't. But then they must have really really high running costs. I think unless one is diving, the different resorts/ atolls are unis bees (literally 19 20 - i.e. very similar). One of our hotel staff nicely put it: choosing a resort in Maldives is like choosing a car. You can spend a lot or very little - depends what you want from the car. The more expensive resorts have more restaurants and more types of cereals for breakfast. So you have to decide how many cereals you need to be happy. If you are diving of course the sea life becomes the criteria.
*Fun fact: Justin Bieber paid 40k USD/ night (meals not included, what a cheapo) recently to stay at a private island in the Maldives.
bunnygoespoppoppop 