Desi Girl Traveler

Ok, if you’ve been following me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you know where I’ve been for the past week. YES, THE MALDIVES! And this Desi Girl Traveler has had blast! Here’s the recap of my epic vacay (one blog at a time) so hopefully – aside from being utterly jealous *grin* – you’ll pick up a whole lot of useful tips for when YOU decide to go live the #clubmedlife :)

Desi Girl Traveler, Maldives

The thing about Male (that surprisingly most people fail to mention online) is that it’s an alcohol-free city. So if you were thinking you’d land, kick-back and get your cocktail on while you watched the world go by, you thought wrong. While all the resorts in The Maldives are allowed to serve alcohol the capital city is 100% dry (all except for the airport hotel “Hulhule” which actually has quite a fancy sports bar!)

This probably explains why most travellers simply transit in Male for a few hours on their way to a resort. BUT should you decide to be a little adventurous like us, here are a few things we recommend you do! #ReadySetGo

Male, Maldives Day 1

view from the sky

It is really THIS blue and this beautiful from the second your plane starts to land. Soak it in so you can make it your happy place when you come back to the city.

view from the sky

Oh, allow me to introduce our awesome travel companions on this trip :) Sujal Shah and Surelee Joseph aka our Travel BFFs for Life!

Sujal Shah and Surelee Joseph

Your plane will almost sweep the ocean on it’s arrival. We’ve discussed it and next time we plan to parachute off immediately into the water!

Male, Maldives

Male, Maldives

There is a main road in Male where all the action appears to happen, this was of course my favorite sign :)

Male, Maldives

Male, Maldives

If you get bored just hop on a ferry back to the airport and grab a non non-alcoholic beer at the Hotel Hulhule!

Male, Maldives

Male, Maldives

Hulhule

It is quite amazing how many things you can find to entertain yourself with, given you have the will (and vodka.)

Hulhule

Hulhule

Hulhule

Now THIS I totally recommend. Instead of taking a regular closed cab back to your hotel *boring* take one of these tempos that function as semi-legit taxis. The ride down main street will be ever so much more entertaining.

Male, Maldives

Male, Maldives Day 2

We discovered quickly that our two-day city sojourn was probably not time well spent (especially since you can pretty much walk the perimeter of the entire city in under 2 hours.) So we booked a day trip to a nearby island which picked us up at 9am and dropped us back at 5 (to Hotel Hulhule of course.)

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Yes, this was the first of many seaplanes we pointed out to each other over the next 5 days!

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Swimming in the Maldives is like taking a warm, gentle bath (with harmless little reef sharks in it.)

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip from Male

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip from Male

We even found a quaint little spot with a tree swing to play on! So that was our welcome to The Maldives, next stay tuned for the pièce de résistance – Club Med Kani – where we spent the next three utterly blissful days…

Maldives island day trip

Maldives island day trip

More photos from Male & our day trip here! Psst, leave me a comment if you like our pix! xoxo

Pix by Surelee Joseph for MissMalini