An affordable and accessible paradise

We were pleased to see our noisy mainland neighbours move out today. Little did we know till the evening that a bigger group of mainlanders were moving in.

After breakfast, Kim spent a bit of time catching up with friends on the internet till mid-morning when we walked to the beaches. We walked east past the power station then north to the public beach. The tide was low and it wasn’t suitable for swimming at all.

Moving across to bikini beach (where bikinis and speedos are permitted), we were surprised to find to see a waist-high light turquoise pool stretching a long way out. We found a table and two chairs outside the Seashell Inn and parked ourselves there for a few hours.

It was such a beautiful sight it didn’t feel real. I couldn’t believe a paradise like this can be so reasonably priced and so accessible! Ferry ride of 1h30 from Male to the tiny island-village of Maafushi cost USD2, nice clean room in boutique hotel USD40, good meals in nice cafes USD3-6 and diving is only USD35 including all equipment.

If you don’t like this kind of thing, you can still pay USD500 (per person each way) for seaplane transfer to a luxury resort further away. But we like being close to our village; our presence is opening Maldivians to the world and its wicked ways. But small scale tourism is offering them access to a higher standard of living which most human beings aspire to.

The prohibition of alcohol means that there are no Pattaya-type people. The big surprise was that Israelis are actually admitted into the country. In view of the strong Islamic prohibitions on alcohol, pork, religious material and idols, I thought they wouldn’t be. Many Islamic countries do not admit Israelis but then it is a political issue rather than religious.

We had several rounds in and out of the gorgeous water at bikini beach. When the tide came in, the water was at chest height but I imagine at full tide, it would be higher. Nevertheless this was a beautiful anytime natural pool.

We ordered lunch from Seashell Inn but we had to move to the inside of their premises. They can’t serve food outside even though it was there furniture (but probably on public land). As we packed up and left, we found a fruit stall around the corner and ordered a papaya to be cut up. I chose well and it was delicious; it was also expensive but it appears that fruit and ice-cream are both pricey compared to most things here.

We rested till the evening when we ventured out to the south. There was a large building with boarded up windows behind razor wire. It turned out to be Maafushi prison, a facility for inmates from various areas and not just this island.

Returning to the more central part of the island, we organised our dives at USD35 per pop at Shark Diving & Watersports. I asked the dive master why there were so many Bangladeshis (and Sri Lankans and some Nepalis) working in Maldives. It wasn’t just in the hard labour jobs but in more “comfortable” occupations in hotels and restaurants. He said that foreigners get paid around USD150 per month while locals would require about USD750! That’s a big difference. I thought that the pay of USD150 was pitiful but then I realise that it is about 75% of Malaysian minimum wage and should translate to something decent in less developed countries.

Incidentally, it was quite hard to distinguish some Maldivians from Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.  But some Maldivians definitely looked different from the foreign workers, having a strong hint of Australian Aboriginal looks (to my untrained eyes anyway).

We had pizza for dinner at the same place as last night. I chatted with a group of three Indonesians; there was plenty to talk about ranging from travel advice (in both direction) to culture.