From Sri Lanka it is not a long way to get to the Maldives. We got the idea to get there after checking for cheap flights going anywhere on skyscanner ( I know covert advertising, but some things need to be advertised ). Also when you plan to stay in Malé or on Hulhumalé you can get a hotel for a normal price, okay then you are not staying at these perfect dream beaches in a cabin, but you get to know how the people live here and get a better experience of that place. And the beach is also very nice.
So what can we do in Hulhumalé, we did choose the island, cause it's close to the airport, rather cheap and is not like the capital island only an island with thousands of towers. First thing after taking a short look at the beach was exploring the island, it is also not too big so you do not walk to long around.
Near to the centre with all the shops and the restaurants we also found a very green area, which looked like a park, but it wasn't a park.
The mayor plan of our first exploration was to find the ferry terminal and get to know the prices for a cruise to Malé. The ferry was surprisingly cheap. So not everything in the Maldives is expensive.
Next we did what we preferred to do here. We got to the beach and relaxed for a long time. There we met a girl from Austria and got into a good conversation.
Later that day we went with our company to dinner and also met some people from the Maldives, who were very friendly and easy going. It seemed that nothing could stress them
After that night we took the next day the ferry to Malé, the capital. First we went along the bay to get to the place of republic, which did not look like a typical square.
From the square we headed to the national museum, don't know what you may see there, unfortunately we got there on a Friday so it was closed and no chance for us to learn something about their history.
For a small island it felt strange that the people have so many cars, scooters and bikes, well and also a bus transfer. Shows again how relaxed the people are, do not walk to much. The streets were very colourful, because it was election time when we got there, for us it made the place more welcoming.
Because we did not only want to stay on one island and see only our beach we went to another ferry terminal at the south east of the island. When we came back to the bay Bernd thought that we came back to the north and not to the east as we planned. But we could easily proof if we got the right direction, we found next to the bay a compass showing that we took the right way.
Near the place were the ferry departures we got to see a modern pirate ship, Bernd got quickly away and was not willing to take the ferry, because it might get entered by the pirates. After a short discussion he believed me that it won't happen, there were not enough pirates around for that.
At the island Villingili the beach looked more like the beaches shown on the commercial pictures of the Maldives and we were the only travelers here, only locals were around. What was quite good, so there were also no annoying people around trying to sell stuff to tourists and disturbing you all the time.
We spent a lot of time relaxing and doing nothing at the beach. And we did not stay too long there, Bernd did not get toasted this time. Maybe his skin not that tender anymore. Back on Male we walked along some random streets and to a very old cemetery, so we got to see something of there culture.
Back at our island we decided to get to the beach and spent there some time, before getting some rest and be prepared for the next day.
Next day we met at noon with the Austrian girl again and had our lunch before we all went on a boat trip for snorkeling. The ride on the speed boat was very amazing, sometimes it jumped into the air. Bernd tried to use both hands to hold the railing, which looked for us very funny because of his short arms, making it impossible to use both hands at the same time.
First he also wanted to go into the water for snorkeling, but when we arrived at the reef he changed his mind. He was to scared that there might come a shark, a moray or the smaller fishes will start eating him. I think they do not get feed with bread like fishes on fishing grounds do but the other two possibilities made it impossible for him to get into the water.
It could not stop the rest of the people on the cruise so we got to enjoy the view we got offered under water. We got to see many different kinds of colourful fishes and corals. Best part for me was seeing a small moray, only about two metres long, which surprised and a bit scared the others. Too bad that my phone is not water proof otherwise we would have been able to take many great under water pictures. When we got back to the boat and out of the water I was not really in the mood to leave, but we did not have any other chance, for swimming it would have been too far.
Back in Hulhumalé we stayed at the beach and enjoyed the sunset and also the fist star we could see in the night. A good ending for a wonderful day.
The last day we could not relax as much as we wanted to. From the hotels internet it was not possible to book our flight to our next destination online so we got to get to a ticket office in Malé, first they did not want to sell us a one way ticket, because they were telling me that for our destination we need to have a ticket that is showing that we are going to leave the country. What wasn't true at all, it felt like they wanted to sell us another ticket too. But not with us. After a long discussion they sold us the ticket with our agreement that it will be our problem when the employees at the airport won't let us take the flight.
Back at the hostel to make sure that this might not happen we booked a flight with another airline. At least it was a very cheap one, but for us it felt like were forced to make a flight again and we more wanted to keep on travelling from there in a different way.
At the airport first they did not ask about the ticket, but later when we were at the gate someone came to us and asked about our ticket, we had to go all the way back through the security to the check in and again discuss with this annoying people, why cannot they just know the correct travel rules. At the end they let us go back believing that the ticket we had is not a fake one, they kept at their point that we need to have a flight ticket.
And we could leave to our next destination.
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