Majestic Maldives
Majestic Maldives
Paradise Island
As the aircraft began to descend, I peered
out the window, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of land. We got
dangerously close to the intense blue water before we felt the thud that
indicated that the plane had just met
land.
You know when you see pictures of stunning
Maldivian islands and you’re almost sure that it can’t really look that
perfect? I mean, those pictures are beyond words. But the Maldives actually
look like those stunning pictures. In fact, it looks better than the pictures.
The sight of the turquoise waters is sure to make you wonder if you’re
dreaming.
The first thing I realised when we reached
Male, the capital of the Maldives, was that it was incredibly hot. We went late
August, the monsoon season, and there were barely any clouds in the sky (we
only experienced light drizzles twice).
After we collected our luggage and went
through passport control, we were met with a breathtakingly beautiful ocean
view. The harbour was lined with countless speedboats or larger, taxi-like
boats.
Island
Island: Makunudu Island Resort
Room Rating: 3.5
Island Rating: 5
We stayed on a small island that has about
36 land bungalows. It was an hour and a half from the airport with a speedboat.
The boat ride was quite bumpy but it was enjoyable as we got to see stunning
islands on the way. When we finally reached our island, we realised that we had
to wear slippers. Shoes were not going to cut it on the island because most of
it was beach sand.
Our bungalow had a straw roof and wooden
finishes. It was a comfortable size and the back door was about five meters
from the beach.
There was not a single TV on the island
and there was no time to miss it. There was WiFi but it wasn’t very strong.
Each bungalow had their own beach chairs.
The awesome thing was that the beach chairs were placed so strategically
between all the lush greenery, that we were hidden from others.
Every two bungalows had their own beach.
However, each beach was not limited to the guests of the bungalow. There were
many occasions where we were the only two people in the ocean as it was a quiet
time of the year.
The bathrooms were probably my least
favourite part of the entire trip. We had issues with our flush and the plumber
had to fix it three times before it finally worked, hot water ran out very
quickly (it’s really hot on the island so some people
may not mind this), and the shower was kind of placed outside (it’s obviously enclosed though).
Anyway, from our ‘section’ of the beach,
we could go snorkeling (all snorkeling gear, including life jackets were
supplied by the resort).
The island was lush and cosy. The water
that surrounded the island was a gorgeous turquoise blue, it was absolutely
breathtaking!
The islands that make up the Maldives are
some of the most gorgeous islands I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Our island was
pretty small, we could canoe around it in less than an hour and we could walk
around it in about fifteen minutes.
Throughout the island, there’s beach sand so we were always in
slippers.
The
sands were white and some parts of the island had super soft sand while other
parts had rough sand (from all the coral).
Food
Since
the Maldives has a 100% Muslim population, all the food was halaal and every
island had a dedicated prayer room/mosque.
Like
most hotels, they had a separate bar and they served bacon during breakfast.
The
staff assured us that the food was halaal since almost all the staff were Muslim as well. In fact, everyday during
breakfast, they would open up all the dishes except for the bacon and they
would warn us to stay away from it.
Also, they do not include alcohol in their
dishes. On one afternoon, they had a coffee fizz drink and when my husband went
to see what it was, the staff immediately stopped him because there was alcohol
in it. We were assured by the chefs that there is no contamination with the
pork dishes as pork is cooked separately.
The food on the island was simply
delicious! It was hands down, the best food I’ve ever had on a holiday. And
some of their desserts were the most amazing desserts I’ve ever tasted. The
chocolate mousse was pure perfection and the panacotta was the smoothest dish
I’ve ever tried.
My favourite meal though, was the fish
that my husband had caught and the chefs had prepared. We went night fishing
(fishing just before sunset for about an hour - we ended up praying the prayer
after sunset on the roof of the boat. It was hard to balance but pretty cool.)
Anyway, the husband caught a red snapper
and I didn’t catch anything. Nonetheless, the chefs
prepared the fish for us and I can confidently say that I have never tasted
such delicious fish in my entire life.
Dinner on the beach
The husband and I decided to have a
romantic dinner on the beach as it is a fun tradition that we began two years
ago. However, it was pretty expensive and probably not completely worth it. We
chose the seafood platter and it was quite nice. Most of the courses had raw
fish (to be eaten like sushi). Normally, I would never eat something that’s
completely raw (unless it’s sushi and it doesn’t look too raw) but this was
actually quite interesting on the palate and somewhat enjoyable.
The set up of the dinner was absolutely
stunning! Unfortunately, it was one of the nights it started to drizzle so we
ended up having to run for cover.
Sunrise and sunset
Staying on such a small island truly has
its advantages! On one side of the island we could watch the sun rise and on
the other side of the island we could watch the sun set. Since we were always
too tired to watch the sunrises (although we did catch one), we opted to watch
almost all the sunsets. The sunset could be viewed from ‘Sunset Beach’ - a
dedicated area dressed for catching sunsets.
Activities
There weren’t many things to do on the
island so if you’re
looking for something that’s action packed, this is not for you. But if you’re looking for something relaxing, this is
the perfect destination.
We went snorkeling, night fishing (as
mentioned), canoeing and we did a main island tour.
We saw some of the most beautiful sea
creatures ever when we went snorkeling.
From bright, multicoloured fish, to
thousands of silver fish. On one occasion, my husband saw a large shark whizz
past him whilst we were snorkeling.
We saw sharks often. However, these are
the type of sharks that only eat fish. During the nights, we would see hundreds
of sharks close to the shore. The sharks were about 2 to 3 meters long and
there were plenty of baby sharks.
There were countless other sea creatures
as well. From stingrays to Dory’s (royal blue tangs) to turtles. The best way to view
these fish is to go snorkeling. Once in a while we would see them close to the
shore.
On other parts of the island, we could
comfortably swim (or try to - if you’re not a great swimmer like me).
The water was warm, warmer than any of the
other island waters I’ve been in. Since it was so incredibly hot, we were
almost always trying to walk in the water or be in the water.
Tour
We were quite disappointed with the main
island tour. Our tour guide was not all that great and he barely gave us any
information. To get to the main island, we had to take a speedboat back to the
airport, hop onto a boat taxi and make our way to the city.
There is a rich Islamic history in the
Maldives. There was a mosque (masjid) that was built about 300 years ago. All
the engraving was in wood and it was beautiful. There was also a very large
Islamic center which housed a huge mosque (masjid).
We then went to the local fish market. I
couldn’t wait to get out of there because the
smell was driving me crazy. I had to stop myself from gagging.
The tour guide seemed to not know where to
take us next so he took us to his home island - Hulumale. It’s a quiet, pretty island but there’s not much to do there except relax or
walk around and enjoy the scenery.
What was meant to be an informative tour
ended up being a less than ideal tour with lots of walking. Nonetheless, we
enjoyed touring the main island even though we weren’t provided with the greatest amount of
information or historical facts.
Miscellaneous notes
It should be noted that there are plenty
of lizards and chameleons on the island we stayed on. A lot of them are quite
big. Also, you will see countless little shells on the island - most of which
move. These stunning shells have been inhabited by crabs. The moment they hear
you close by, they retreat into their shells and stay still. I don’t know how many times I picked up a
stunning shell, only to find a crab in there.
The lizards and the crabs didn’t bother me, so that was a plus.
There were no cats or dogs on the island,
but there were seagulls and a grey heron or two. The grey herons often joined
us for breakfast by standing right next to us. I also did not see any land
animals on the main island apart from birds and I saw one cat in Hulumale.
If you don’t like birds, this will definitely be a
problem for you but since they didn’t bother me, I had a great time.
All in all this was the most amazing trip
I have ever experienced. I would go here over and over again. In fact, I’d love to stay on an island as beautiful
as the islands in the Maldives. There are more than 1000 islands of which 200
are inhabited by the local Maldivians and about a 100 of them are resorts so
you have a large selection to choose from!
This was truly one of the best holidays I
have ever been on! It was absolutely indescribable but hopefully, this post can
give you a vague idea about it.
0 comments: