Today is my third and last full day in Gulhi. Due to the dive times and opportunities, I had fallen into a routine on all my days here, meaning the last two days and today.
- The day would begin with an early wake-up around 0630 to 0700, followed by the hotel breakfast which began at 0730.
- I’d then walk across the alley to the Ayala Bubbles Dive Center for a 1000 start for the day’s dive. It’s only a short walk to the boat and after the dive, I’d be back in my room around 1130.
- My three dives ranged from awesome to non-event and you can read about them here.
- I’d then take lunch at the island’s only open daytime restaurant, being Ramadhan.
- In the afternoon, around 1530 to 1600, I’d go to Bikini Beach for a swim and play in the water for maybe 1h30.
- Back in my room around 1730 for a wash, it’s only a short wait till the breaking of the Ramadhan fast around 1820.
- I would then go look for dinner soon after. There’s only a handful of eating places at dinner time and some don’t start till a bit later.It turned out that the Benha Restaurant attached to the Ayala Hotel was the best in terms of food and price. They’re cheaper than some of the simpler places and they accept card payments. Conserving cash is a key consideration on Gulhi.
- I’d finish the day with a very sound night’s sleep.
With such fragmented days, time went very quickly. Between the various things, I spent time doing essential admin such as tax, rebooking a cancelled flight etc.
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- Gulhi’s bikini beach is stunning with soft white sand, clear waters and lack of broken coral.
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- Gulhi’s bikini beach is stunning with soft white sand, clear waters and lack of broken coral.
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- Gulhi’s bikini beach is stunning with soft white sand, clear waters and lack of broken coral.
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- Gulhi’s bikini beach is stunning with soft white sand, clear waters and lack of broken coral.
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- The waters around the area are very clear in parts.
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- Setting up for my dive.
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- One of four nurse sharks sleeping on the seabed under an overhang.
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- Happy with the dive seeing four nurse sharks sleeping.
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- Happy after a good dive seeing four nurse sharks sleeping.
Incidental observations and learnings
- I had dinner tonight with two German sisters. One is a yoga teacher and the other, my dive-buddy, a school teacher. I learnt that in Germany, people pay a church tax from their salary. One can opt-out of it though.
I’ve tried to be virtuous by eating only meals with no snacks or the very tempting ice-cream from the minimarkets after dinner. However, with encouragement from the sisters, we went to get one tonight but being Friday night, the shops were closed. - Many visitors in Maldives (and Gulhi) are Russian, compared to Mainland Chinese eight years ago. Women outnumber men. While there are some couples and families, there are many women travelling together as groups. I’m guessing the men are busy working (and hopefully not fighting in the Ukraine war).
- Credit card payment terminals here have a glass input screen like a smartphone; like the ones in Malaysia. But the virtual keypad changes everytime, putting numbers in random places. It’s tricky for people like me who are used to numbers being in certain places. It also makes it pointless for people to spy on you entering your PIN.
- Visitors to Maldives don’t encounter many Maldivians in the tourism industry, especially away from Male. Many roles employ Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Filipino and Indonesians. Locals are the minority. With the Maldivians I see, many of the men like to keep long hair. Some look South Indian, others somewhat native Australian, but many are quite distinctly Maldivian with no resemblance to other ethnicities.