Off Guraidhoo, from Maafushi

Above:  Chained birds near Maafushi’s port area.  I had booked to dive with Arena Dive Club who offered the best rates of USD40 per dive and USD10 for all equipment per dive, plus a discount of at least 10%.  (The discount turned out to be 20% when I returned to pay that night). They were […]

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Finally diving

Above:  Chained birds near Maafushi’s port area.  After a relaxing day yesterday of chilling and swimming, it was time for me to do some diving before leaving tomorrow. I had booked to dive with Arena Dive Club who offered the best rates of USD40 per dive and USD10 for all equipment per dive, plus a […]

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More island time

Even though Maafushi is a lot more built up than Gulhi, it still has pockets of island vibe.  The bikini beach here is deeper but it doesn’t have the pure sandy bottom that Gulhi’s has. We had been skipping lunches a bit, at first to be virtuous, but now because we were running low on […]

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Changing islands

Above:  In front of Maafushi’s prison.  Because the prison offered employment to locals, they had capital to start guest houses and hotels when the tourism industry was liberalised in 2009. Today, we have a fifteen-minute ferry ride at 1615 from Gulhi to Maafushi, as we move our base over for the next three days. We […]

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Snorkelling excursion

Having rested well yesterday, we took a full-day excursion today.  Having done this excursion before last year, I tried looking for others but this was the best value one.  Shorter excursions cost only a little less. We met the group, consisting of two others, at 0920 and set off on the boat at 1000.  The young guide […]

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Rest & relaxation

Today was Boo’s first full day in Maldives.  As he’s still gainfully and sometimes stressfully employed, we took it easy with a morning swim and an afternoon one.  We skipped lunch and had junk food in bed in between the two swims. We organised our excursion for tomorrow and took little walks.  In the evening, […]

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Back to paradise with a friend

Flying to Male I had set the alarm for 0445 but woke at 0230, having had around 5h30 of sleep.  I lay down for a bit longer but hopped out of bed around 0420 and prepared for check-out. I managed to get on the first train to the airport at 0500 rather than the third […]

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Trying a different form of massage

Visitation I was still full from last night’s big dinner and had some milk and muesli for breakfast Amidst wet weather, I found a car to take me to visit Andre, a French friend of E over at Titiwangsa.   I had never met him before and he turned out to be more of an acquaintance […]

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Kay-El again

Flying to Kuala Lumpur Today I fly to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights en route to Maldives.  The Maldives flight leaves in the morning at 0840 and I didn’t fancy an early connection from Kuching.  Overnighting in Kuala Lumpur would be time-consuming with transport so I made it worthwhile with a two-night stay. […]

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Kuching old town by night

Colourful old town Kuching by night Tonight, I hit old-town with some friends for dinner.  I was hit with parking hell when I got there with three events on:  the river regatta, a craft fair and a drumming festival. But it was worthwhile as the place was alive with lots of food trucks.  It was […]

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