Dream Year 3.0: Paradise Paralyzed

What comes to your mind when somebody is asking you to describe a paradise? How do you see it? Is it a nice hot place, with beautiful landscapes, sunny golden beaches, palm trees with hammocks attached, nice breeze coming from the sea touching gently your skin, crystal and transparent water with amazing, million-colored fish passing by your feet and you sitting in the shadow with a coconut in your hand? Well… if that’s your image of a paradise then definitely some parts of Maldives might be a place for you. Some! Cause as they are saying each pot has two handles…

- What are you doing here? – said a young, Muslim Maldivian girl in a black hijab.

- Just sitting and watching the sunset – I gently replied being so surprised that somebody starts a conversation with me.

- Alone? – Her dark brown eyes became a little bigger. She made few more steps into my direction and sat next to me on the edge of the dock.

- Yes, alone.

- Why are you alone? – Her face seemed to be so surprised with my answer.

- Because I came here alone. – I smiled

- So your family or friends stayed in Hotel?

- No, no. I came alone to Maldives. They stayed at their homes.

- So why did you come here alone? Your family didn’t want to come with you?

- They couldn’t come with me. It’s too far and too expensive. And by the way I wanted to come here alone. Well actually I always travel alone.

- Why? Why are you travelling alone? Nobody comes to Maldives alone… – I could feel compassion in the timbre of her voice.

And that question sums up how many backpackers visit Maldives. This is definitely a place for couples and actually to be more accurate for just married couples. Maldives consists of almost 1200 coral islands, spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometers (making it one of the world's most dispersed countries, so it’s not a surprise that the local buses on Maldives are either boats, ferries and ships or small planes). But what’s interesting on none of those islands you can find a hostel! Only hotels and expensive resorts (some of them you pay ‘only’ 13 364 USD per night! That’s a kind of promotion I like J). So if you want to visit Maldives on a low budget it might be a difficult task. But nothing is impossible J

I didn’t know what to do with my extra 5 days of holidays so by chance I decided to come to Maldives. Actually why not? J It’s a perfect place for a city break. After all problems at the airport in Kuala Lumpur I landed safely in Maldives and hop on the bus that took me to Hulhumale, a reclaimed island located in the south of North Male Atoll. This artificial island was reclaimed to establish a new land mass required to meet the existing and future housing, industrial and commercial development demands of the Malé region. For the first 60 years of the 20^th century population of the islands was around 100 000 but then in 70s and 80s it grew dramatically reaching at the end of the century almost 300 000. So it tripled within a century and it’s still growing in contradiction to the land available for living.

Maldives are ranked as the third most endangered nation due to possible flooding caused by rising sea level. In November 2008, President Mohamed Nasheed announced plans to look into purchasing new land in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia The purchase of land will be made from a fund generated by tourism. The President has explained his intentions: "We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades".

Environmental issues are definitely one of the main concerns of local government but still not for the most of the population. Walking in Male you can notice trash lying on the ground and most of it will end up probably in the surrounding sea. Actually I have notice that a lot of people simply threw trash directly to the sea without any shame. Bad waste disposal and beach theft are big threats for Maldivian economy and society. Although the Maldives are kept relatively pristine no good waste disposal sites exist. Most trash is simply dumped at Thilafushi, called ‘The Garbage Island’. More than 330 tons of rubbish is brought to Thilafushi a day, most of which comes from Malé. In 2005 it was estimated that 31,000 truckloads of garbage are transported to Thilafushi annually, where it is dumped in large piles and eventually used to reclaim land and increase the size of the island. So much is being deposited that the island is growing at a square meter a day. According to official statistics, a single tourist produces 3,5kg of garbage a day, twice as much as someone from Malé and five times more than anyone from the rest of the Maldives archipelago. Altogether, that comes to “300 to 400 tons of trash” dumped on the island every day. But that’s just a part of it. On other islands trash are basically burnt on home or locally managed dumpsites. However those things are kept away from luxurious excluded tourists resorts. #Keepingparadiseforanyprice

However I don’t want to make this post only about trash! Who wants to read about trash on travel blog?

Although Maldives have a lot of social, religious, political and economic problems, Islands are still well kept paradise, with really beautiful and amazing sights. If you get out of Male which is extremely crowded and loud place you can find a spot for you with almost nobody around. But even in Male you can have amazing time. The last day of my stay was in my friend’s apartment. I went on the roof, put a mattress outside and went to sleep watching the stars on the sky above me. For sure one of the greatest nights you can have. Skyline of Male (high enough to not hear the street noise) and clear sky with thousands of stars – those are my memories from the capital, the capital that everyone is telling to avoid. But that’s only one of the great memories I will keep from my short stay on Maldives.

Most of the time I spent in Maldives was on Maafushi Island, south of Male. To get there you need to take a ferry which takes around 90 minutes. When you land on the shore someone from the hotel is already waiting for you. That’s the customer service you would like to expect everywhere. In Maldives it is an absolute standard.

At the beginning I was skeptical about my trip to Maldives. What I can do there if I basically can’t swim? Getting bored to death?! Not at all! There are so many activities you can try that at the end of my stay I was regretting that I didn’t have more days. Apart of course from wandering around island, taking pictures and lying on the sand for a couple of minutes I decided to try kite surfing and so far it was one of the best sports experience I ever had. So demanding, challenging and enjoyable in the same time! You can really feel how powerful nature can be. Short and intense blow of the wind and within seconds you are dozens of meters away from the spot you were standing. Kite surfing is definitely a must on Maldives to try!

During a night together with a group of eight Chinese tourists we went for night fishing on the sea. Middle of nowhere, small boat, clear sky with millions of stars, sounds of waves splashing onto the sides of the boat, it might be a really magical experience. Moreover it was the first time in my life I was fishing and guess what!? I caught one meter long fish! One out of two we caught that night. So basically I saved the afterwards barbeque and fed all Chinese people in my hotel J

Leaving Maldives was really difficult. Amazing country full of extremes. On the one hand luxurious excluded resorts with one of the best hotels you could ever seen, breathtaking scuba diving and snorkeling spots, delicious food and very friendly, open and warm people, on the other hand woman in hijabs swimming in the sea, forbidden entrance for dogs (You won’t find a single dog in the whole country!), very high costs of living and Maldivian atheists that cannot share openly their beliefs to not lose the citizenships or even life.

Paralyzed paradise? You decide!