Yellow Polka Dot Burqini

Thursday, March 12, 2015
Maafushi, Kaafu Atoll, Maldives
Yesterday we were up at 5am to make our 7am flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Male, the capital of the Maldives Islands. The Maldives are just a short one hour flight southwest, but culturally a world away.

The Maldives has been a rich-person-only destination for decades- until 2010, tourism was illegal on inhabited islands . Apparently in the 1970s, stoned hippies started showing up on the beaches and horrifying the very Muslim, very conservative locals. So they decreed tourism would exist away from real-life Maldives, and hyper-luxury, hyper-expensive resorts shot up on gorgeous isolated islands. These resorts are stunning- overwater bungalows, white sand, blue water...pretty much your tropical isolated beach fantasy. However, at upwards of $800 per person per night, that's a ridiculously overpriced fantasy. But in 2010, the laws were changed; guesthouses were now allowed on inhabited islands, but visitors are required to adhere to the laws of the Maldives: Alcohol is illegal, as are bikinis. Yes, you read that right: The Joneses have voluntarily headed to a completely dry nation.

We landed at 8am, and the big-city chaotic airport we departed in Sri Lanka was replaced with an open-air, waterfront airport. The Maldives are a collection of about 1,200 islands scattered 56,000 square miles around the equator, and the airport is one of the islands . So you get off your flight, and get right onto a ferry or speedboat to your destination island. We were headed to Male, the capital of the Maldives, which was just a 15-minute ferry ride away. Once on Male, we could catch another ferry to our island destination, Maafushi.

To get to the resort islands, visitors are forced to take speedboat "taxis," which in keeping with the astronomical prices of the Maldives, cost about $250 per person each way. But since we're heading to Maafushi, a locally inhabited island, we planned to take the locals' ferry from Male, costing a mere $2. The only caveat was that our flight landed at 8am, and the Maafushi ferry only departs once per day, at 3pm. So we had 7 hours to kill in Male- and let me tell you, a tropical island nation's capital is not very interesting. Take away the sand and palm trees and beach vibe, and replace it with concrete and cars and ugly buildings. But keep the oppressive heat. That's Male!! No interesting sites to speak of . We spent a few hours just sitting by the water chatting- the water is jaw-droppingly blue and clear- and then found refuge in fan-cooled rooftop cafe with a cheap lunch menu and free wi-fi. We had been warned that sticker shock in the Maldives is painful and often fatal to the cheapskate traveler, but we were quite surprised to see Male's prices to be reasonable, even cheap. Our entire lunch bill was barely $20 USD. There's quite definitely a "real life" and a "sock it to tourists" economy here.

At 3pm, we boarded the ferry for the 90-minute ride to Maafushi. Stepping off the ferry, we were greeted by our resort hosts, who carried our bags down the beach to our hotel. We were shown around the tiny hotel- it has a rooftop cafe, a nice little pool, and our room featured such luxuries as (oh thank you lord) air conditioning, a rainshower showerhead, and our own private patio. We were exhausted- we hadn't fully realized this jaunt would take 12 hours of our time- so we took a dip in the pool to relax before dinner and an early bedtime .

This morning we were up early, and strolled the island of Maafushi. It took about 20 minutes. This island is so small that from our hotel's second-storey rooftop, we could easily see all ends of the island. All that's here are guesthouses, a few souvenir and dive shops, some small restaurants, a few groceries, a cricket pitch, and a school.

We headed to Bikini Beach, so named because the tourism industry compromised with the locals, and bikinis are allowed here- but only on the northwest corner of the beach, which is surrounded by a 6-foot-tall fence of palm fronds so that the locals' eyes don't bleed when they see us in bathing suits. Much like the camouflaged beer in Galle, apparently if you don't SEE something, it ceases to exist. Anyway. It is just a short walk from our hotel, and it was quite interesting to see local women in black full-length abayas, while all the tourists were in beachwear. (things I've learned in my travels to Muslim nations: a burqa is a black, full-length robe with just a hole cut out for the eyes; an abaya is a black, full-length robe that exposes the full face; and a hijab is a headscarf. You're welcome!) It's a very strange collison of cultures, but hey, we're going without beer, so I suppose they can deal with bikinis.

I've been to beaches all over the world, but I must say that the Maldives' are quite unique. The entire country is either at or below sea level (and thanks to climate change, getting lower), so islands and sandbars that are there in the morning are gone by afternoon. You can walk 500 feet into the ocean and still only be waist-deep, and then suddenly find yourself on a new "island." And on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by sugar-white sand and the turquoise waters, you really do feel in a different world.

There's not much else to say about today; I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
Cheers :)

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