The Maldives - Malé, Hulumalé, Villingilli and Maafushi

Travel, simply put, is an adventure. You are the lead and the world is your playground, full of experiences to be had? It's full of sights to be seen and people to be met. A pretty romantic notion, but not without its hard times too. Adventure and adversity then perhaps.

These two things seem quite at odds with each other at first, but the more I think about them the more interchangeable they become. Is it just a matter of perspective? 

I arrived in the Maldives ready to soak in a week in paradise. I'd originally decided on the unlikely backpacking spot so that I could meet a friend who is working there (hi Liz). Sadly she had to fly home due to some truly sad news. While this was obviously unfortunate, I was feeling positive and ready for sun, sea, sand and above all snorkeling, it was going to be a fantastic adventure. 

I suffered a long delay in getting to the country's capital and biggest island Malé, arriving at my apartment at 4am. I was shattered, but I had managed to successfully navigate the local ferry system and get a cab all for less than a couple of pounds, I was tired but also quite pleased with myself.

Malé had a bad rep, it's another 'city' without much in the way of culture or beaches I was told, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I strolled round the shops, all of which were independents, so no McDonalds or Starbucks on every corner, and got to know the lay of the land. One place of note is Newport Café, which is opposite the airport ferry terminal, if you're ever in Malé check it out. I had a peanut butter stack and a coffee, I only finished half of the stack and think I have actually shaved years off my life expectancy... Worth it!

I also walked around the edge of the island which takes around an hour and 45 minutes, this is when I met Paul, a lecturer with Imperial college who is working on his PHD and honorary consol to the British government. He suggested I take the boat to Villingilli a small Island with a nice beach, it's nice, but there's only enough to fill an afternoon with. I did find a stationers there and picked up some pencils, so that was good. 

I later visited Hulumale, an artificial island which is mainly residential. There isn't really a whole lot going on here either and the coastline is unnaturally straight. I didn't love it, but being on a man made island was a first and I do love to try new things.

Back on Malé I was quite pleased that in a short time I could confidently navigate the island, in fact I only used one taxi when I was there. Though we'll get onto that in a bit.

Before that I have to say that while Malé only has one very small artificial beach, it's impossible not to be captivated by the sea. It's just stunning, like a constantly moving precious stone of crystal clear turquoise and other bright and beautiful blues. It's hypnotic and inviting. It wasn't long before I ended up at the artificial beach.

I've never been to a man made beach, so that was fun. It's tiny, but not many people use it, so I was able to swim and leave my things on the beach, then sunbathe and watch tiny crabs clear out their burrows in the near-white sand. Is it a burrow if it's made by a crab? They certainly weren't sea bunnies... And now I wish there was such a thing as a sea bunny...

Anyway... I suppose I should get to the adversity bit. My plan had been to spend most of my time on Kurendhoo, a very out of the way island that promised excellent snorkeling and cheap accommodation. I met a contact from the hotel who had organized our travel as he was going the same way and together we headed for the boat. I was looking forward to spending 8 hours on the cargo boat where I could sleep on the top deck under the stars. Out in the middle of Nowhere the sky must be amazing. I sadly never found out, as when we got there the ship's crew let us know that it wasn't going to Kurendhoo anymore. As the island is so far out we couldn't get a boat for a few days making my visit pointlessly short. As such I had to cancel my trip and head back to Malé. The hotel contact was very apologetic and let me use his 3G to look up a local hotel for the night. It was now pitch black and raining, but I found a hotel and booked it online. I then tried to find said hotel... What a mess. They had listed themselves on the wrong road and so I walked by the side of the building several times before walking back to the ferry port to get a taxi. Finally I was at my hotel and I could sleep... Except that they had been having problems online and in fact didn't have any rooms. Thankfully I had looked up a back up and made it there some time later. Exhausted I collapsed into bed.

During this debacle I had contacted Paul who I had met earlier to ask for any suggestions on hotels. Unfortunately I didn't get his message in time, but we met up the next day for drinks at his place as he has a license for alcohol. So there I was, in a very nice apartment chewing the cud with a new found friend over a beer in an alcohol free city. Not many can say that! Paul actually put me up for a night and then suggested I go to Maafushi a more accessible island.

I luckily joined a group of travelers who had all come together to hire a speedboat as there was no morning service to Maafushi, despite what the online timetables claimed. There was also no ferry back until the next morning. This just about worked with my travel plans, as I had a flight to Singapore at 12:10pm the next day. So throwing caution slightly to the wind I agreed to go with whatever I had on me, which thankfully included a snorkel and mask that Paul had lent me.

Maafushi was the Maldives experience I had hoped for. More beautiful beaches, crystal clear seas and bright sunshine, but most of all snorkeling! I am fascinated by fish, I always have been. For some people it's dinosaurs or astronauts, for me it was fish. They live, breath and fly underwater! When I was young I could spend hours watching the fish at the local aquarium pet stores and had lots of fish of my own growing up. So you can imagine my excitement at seeing so many amazing fish up close.

I made my way to a quiet area of the beach and within minutes was looking at fish I'd never seen before. The majority were silver with a brown mark on their sides. I was eagerly following a group of these when I saw one that had different markings from afar, within a few strokes I was staring at a parrot fish. I actually gasped, which in a snorkel is a bizarre experience. I'd seen one once as a kid, but there it was in amongst the short reeds that lead down to the rocks below. I was so enthralled by its weirdly small mouth and fins that I almost careered into a puffer fish. I saw it in time thankfully and it hadn't puffed itself up, but that boxy shape and the flattened spines were unmistakable. 

Over the course of the day I saw all manner of fish, small royal blue and black and white ones protecting their tiny young around the coral, large silver ones that reflected the light to blend in with the shimmering waters, long green ones hidden amongst the reeds, even an intimidating pink eel which came out of its hole and looked like it would not only attack, but actually eat your soul, he was scary! I also walked round the island and saw small sharks about a foot and a half basking in the shallow water swimming in and out of the current, as well as a small wray of some kind. I would love to include photos, but sadly my GoPro was out of battery, despite having been fully charged the day before and not being used that much... Still I have the memories and an excuse to do more snorkeling!  

The next morning I made it back to Paul's and collected my things. We even had time for a coffee where, amongst other things, we discussed the fact that I would miss a traveling production of Hamlet by the Globe theatre, which was taking place at 2pm and to which Paul had been given a box, so I could have gone to for free! That's gutting! 

So that was my time in the Maldives. My entire trip had been affected by the adversity of one night, but I'm more likely to think of it as an adventure. If it hadn't been for that one night, I wouldn't have been able to catch up with Paul, had a beer in Malé, or met the group of people I went to Maafushi with, including Vicky a lovely flight attendant from China who even offered to let me use her discount on flights, how nice is that?!

So is adversity the opposite of adventure? I think that in some cases it is, but maybe adversity can be turned into an adventure... As Dolly Parton once said "If you want rainbows you have to put up with the rain."