Maldives Tour

Maldive Islands!! Which we cannot locate on Google map! Even when we zoom in only small dots are visible! Are we going there,’ exclaimed Radhika. Rahul was smiling while looking at her wide opened eye and raised eyebrows! Before planning for this Maldives Tour, he has also cross checked every detail of this queer-looking island. He was very much excited to see those islands situated in Indian Ocean.

Both of them started to prepare for the tour. Although, from the beginning of this year, from 1st of January they were traveling. The bags they took out of the storage were still out as they were going with different travel plans one after another. Both of their kids were out of India and after his father’s demise they had got a lot of free time.

Maldives are rainy especially in July so raincoats, sandals, bag covers are necessary, he thought.

Weather forecast was checked many times. Departure flight was on 13 July, at 2 pm from Mumbai international airport. In July Mumbai has very heavy rains, metro work is also going on by highway side, this leads to traffic jams on western expressway. So reaching airport from Borivali was not so easy. They decided to leave home at 9.30 and started packing accordingly.

While packing bags for USA she was not such worried but now for Male, her heartbeat is going fast. Why is she so anxious, she was thinking to herself with smile on her lips. It will take at least on hour, so Rahul booked Ola Cab. But it was Saturday so no traffic and rains also stopped. They reached airport in 35 minutes!

9.50, Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Row of palm trees on both sides of the road, washed with rains, cloudy sky was looking very beautiful. At 10 they were at airport. At K zone, Indigo flight, bags were checked in. Here they needed to give return tickets details and hotel details. Rahul’s friend Ravi, his wife Sangita with kids Shreya and Yash were also joining with them. After security check they had lunch at Visa lounge. Then cleared Immigration. There were no long lanes there. Boarding started at 1 pm. Due to bad weather there was turbulence during flight. Pilot instructed to tighten seatbelts many times

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And now Maldives is visible from plane. Everyone was enlightened by looking at the beautiful islands in the ocean. Those islands were looking as if a garland of pearls of different sizes is spread on the blue ocean. The spreadsheet of ocean was so beautifully painted that everyone was awestruck by the art of the almighty. As the plane descending the islands were clearly visible. Very beautiful resorts were there on some islands. Water villas in a line were attracting the viewers from above. Now airport can be seen. At 2.10 we landed Velana International Airport.

Hotel Sun Shine Beach was already booked. Their taxi was waiting for us outside the airport. Hotel was on Hulhumale Island. Taxi fare was US$ 10, ie US$ 60 in all. Shreya bargained and fixed him for 25. Island of Velana airport was connected by a bridge to Hulhumale Island.

It was unbelievable that it is a manmade island. Broad roads, gardens, newly constructed buildings, mosque everything was very well planned. Hotel was just in front of the sea beach. So we quickly freshen up and came down to have cool sea breeze. Tables and chairs are arranged there out on the beach.

Hotel has wifi so internet and WhatsApp was possible but we cannot make phone call as we didn’t have international call facility. One more thing we urgently needed was Maldivian currency, Rufiya, MVR.

So we started search for currency exchange. At currency exchange they accept US$ only. So we decided to withdraw MVR with debit card. There we had to pay 100 MVR charge extra. INR 4.45 for 1 MVR was the exchange rate. Why is INR value such low in international markets? A small country like Maldives is also so developed that tourists from all over the country come to visit it. Tourism is the first source of livelihood, fishing export is second here.

We booked a full day tour for the next day. That included- Sand Island, Dolphins, Snorkelling, village visit and lunch. We decided that all 10000 MVR will be with Rahul for further expenses and at the end of the tour expenses will be divided. 

We all were hungry so went to restaurant Tandoori Flame for dinner. The job of ordering dinner was given to Shreya and Yash. Rahul and Radhika were vegetarian but they enjoy non vegetarian food when they are with friends. 2 chicken biryanis, 1 chicken noodle cost 308 MVR.  Food was not very bad and not very good as well. As they were feeling full, they went to hotel for rest. Hotel was very near but the room was on 4th floor and there was no lift.

In morning we had breakfast bread omelette and tea / coffee.  That is continental complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Then the car arrived to pick us up for the full day tour. The car dropped us at ferry. A motorboat of 20-25 capacity was waiting for us there. We were only 10 persons there in the boat. It was 10 - 10.30 in the morning, it was a sunny day but not feeling very hot as cool air breeze coming from sea. The Swedish wooden boat, swinging on the water, ready to go for sail. Several shades of bright blue colour can be seen in the water. These bright shades of blue and green are due to the colour reflected by the microorganisms, Plankton. Enjoying this amazing beauty of nature we moved ahead. 

The blue ocean was spread everywhere, till the horizon where the sky joined with different blue shade. Clouds in a row also came to enhance the beauty. Due to big waves the boat was swaying and we all sat divided to two sides to balance the boat. Many beautiful resorts were there on the way. In-between we got time for photo shoot. Now we were 6/7 km away from Hulhumale. Here we saw Dolphins. They so quick that it was very difficult to catch them in camera. 

From here we can see a small, bright white island surrounded by blue ocean, where we are intented to go. As closer we were going to it, the beauty attracting us more. The boat was anchored near the island. Hear depth was about 10 feet. Life jacket was given to swimmers and for snorkelling glasses and a mask with tube attached given.  One scuba diver group was also nearby there.

For non-swimmers like Radhika and Sangita swimming in such big ocean is not les than an adventure. They changed their wet clothes in a small changing room in the boat and moved ahead. Then they reached to a small ocean island, there they had lunch. The dish was Dragon fish and Dragon chicken, which nobody had liked. At 10 pm they started their journey. At one place they stopped again for snorkelling lovers to swim. And reached Hulhumale by 5 pm, enjoying and catching snaps of the memories in their cameras.

Next day they went to Male for lunch, from there they went to Velingili island. In the evening they enjoyed bathing at the beach in front of the hotel. In morning they had flight at 8 am for Mumbai.

In rainy season visiting Maldives would be tough, they were thinking before living home. On the contrary the tour was full of excitement and energetic.