Its going to be quite difficult to write this blog without it seeming like marketing from the Maldives Tourism Board. But these islands really are magical. Where it will probably differ is the advice and extremely strong encouragement to stick to the inhabited islands. While we didnt actually visit any of the resort islands – despite getting an offer of a mates rates deal on a few of them through a friend, which she said were but the cheapest was US$2000 per night – we could often see across to resort islands and actually pitied the people staying on them who couldnt have the experience we were having.
When you arrive into the Maldives at 07:30 and have onward domestic flights at 15:20, what do you do? Certainly dont linger in the little airport and we would have to stopover in Mal later in the trip. Instead, we stuck to Hulhumal, the mostly manmade island which connects via a causeway to Hulhul where sits the airport (so I suppose Hulhul was actually the first island).
that later. Hulhumal has wider streets, much more green space, and lower apartment blocks with vegetated spaces in between designed to funnel and cool air flow. The aim of this design is to reduce reliance on the Maldives after all is probably the last place on Earth that wishes to contribute to global warming and consequent sea level rise. For that reason, Hulhumal has also been constructed/reclaimed higher than Mal, though only two metres rather than one metre above sea level.
Reaching the centre of Hulhumal we had our first experience of Maldivian hospitality. After leaving our bags in left luggage at the airport, we planned to take the bus. We asked an airport security guard where it leaves from as the internet advice of next to Burger King proved incorrect (it leaves from in front of the Domestic Terminal). He pointed out the bus stop but informed us we needed a transport card to use the bus and directed us towards where we could find one. We then spoke to another security guard who saw us wandering confused who told us we could only buy the card in Hulhumal but we could pay by cash (we had
already taken out Maldivian Rufiyaa from an airport ATM). The bus promptly arrived but we couldnt get on because they didnt accept cash, only transport cards. There appeared the first security guard who lent us his card to tap ourselves in. It wasnt a lot of money but it was very good of him; we would have been stuck otherwise.
Hulhumal has a long beach running down the east side of the island. The adjacent road has lots of little cafes/restaurants. We staggered into one of the first we came across following the overnight flight finding one that seemed popular with locals – not that we ever saw any on the island. We loaded plates from a breakfast buffet having no idea what we were about to eat. It was delicious. Extremely spicy coconut fishy stuff, scooped up with stacks of rotis. We ended up sitting under the trees on the surprising pleasant beach for a while – nobody else was on it in the heat of the day. Theres also a nice park in the middle of the island that we wandered around to look at the flowers, the birds, big lizards and overhead streams of seaplanes
We were told at the Hulhumal ferry port that they didnt have any transport cards left but they sold us two bus tickets for the trip back to the airport. In our second caf of the day while drinking our second delicious fruit juice of the day, I think we went passion fruit then mango, we asked where the nearest bus stop was. A man in the caf decided he would take us. After walking a few blocks we got to the bus stop and we asked when the bus would be. Dont worry, Ill call the driver. Turns out it wasnt soon because he then flagged down a taxi to take us. We said we already had a bus ticket and he said No problem, I will pay. Dont worry, Im a policeman. So in we got and we whizzed back to the airport.
I dont know how I first heard of this island, probably when Googling best diving in the Maldives.
