Maldives – cont.

Part III – I Fell in Love

18/2 – Saturday

The next morning we were happy to have our breakfast on the sand and salty wind blowing away. It was sunny and already buzzing with people. Couples and families with small kids strolling the jetty towards the east of the island where it’s busier with shops and the most famous beach here – Bikini Beach. It’s one of the public beach in Maldives where you can wear your bikinis and not get chased by the law enforcers. I heard you could also fined as it is an offence in Maldives. Anywhere else in private beaches you can, of course, wear and do anything you want. I think it’s sensible enough. So we were planning to take a dip at Bikini Beach later in the evening after our trip today to a local island named Guraidhoo, located 15 minutes fast boat ride from Maafushi. We were greeted by local boys playing football by the jetty. Like Maafushi, Guraidhoo also don’t have any paved tar roads, just sand.

Our guide told us little by little about the island as we went walking from sleepy streets to another. When we were near the jetty a local man who was carrying a load of construction debris, suddenly called up to us and pointed to the waters. We were crazed and delighted by two stingrays passing below the boats!

I have never even seen stingrays so close to civilization lol I had touched a stingray during feeding time at a fish farm in Langkawi Island. But never in the wild like that. Hell man I’m so in love with Maldives by now. There were only 3-4 hotels in the whole island, which is larger than Maafushi itself (but Maafushi has the most number of guest houses in Maldives). The local women sat chatting quietly but greeted us when we passed by. People just chilling in their basket chairs…tending little pots of edible veggies…just keeping to their daily lives. The houses were colorful and clean.

We walked to one end of the island and from there we could see another island close by. But you couldn’t pass through through the shallow waters because it’s a luxury private island with water villas and a private lagoon of turqoise beaches. That would cost around 650USD per night. We were like nah man…we won’t be able to afford that in the next 10 years lol!
Guraidhoo is a step behind in development despite its size and you could see it the moment you stepped on the island. It was a shame but also a blessing. The air was so tranquil and quiet. It was so lovely to a city girl like me. I think it’d attract a certain kind of travellers…with a population of 700 people, less humans and frankly nothing to do 😀
We spent about 2 hours walking around and taking all kinds of pictures. When we get on the boat, the driver gave us a free thrill ride that almost made my heart leaped out on its own. I swear it was so fast and frequently cutting through the air like literally flying. I’ve had the worse back in Perhentian where the guys would drive the boat in between two pointy big rocks protruding from the water and I thought I was gonna die lol point is I had so many bad boat travels 😅😅
After lunch back in our hotel, we got ready for a full evening at the beach as planned. There were so many people by the time we were there. As usual what we did first was people watching 😂 while sipping coconut drinks and chatting. I love people watching. And we got in we were like spoiling the scene with our fully clothed bodies unlike the bikinis and shorts around us 😂 sorry guys but this beach is the prettiest here so we also came here to swim xD

The first time I saw the beach it was a jaw dropped moment. So glowing in light blue, like how I saw it on the internet. The pictures literally aren’t a lie! Sooo amazingly clear and perfectly tucked in the artificial rocky barriers they made around it (shaped like the letter Y) so you have an area to play around before it gets deeper. Plenty of metres I would say. Anyone have this as their backyard is so lucky. But, like anywhere else in Maldives, as you swim at the beach wild sea creatures also swim with you 😂😂 I saw baby stingrays and small fishes and more of it the farther you go from the beach. My friend who was freaked out didn’t continue to swim hahaha I love this fact so much about Maldives. I don’t think I’ve ever went to a beach so flat and wide like this with plenty of space to swim and has that many creatures. Sometimes I hated wearing goggles because I’d jumped when I saw things swimming in the shallow waters…if it’s in a deeper ocean it’d be okay for me lol
At night we went for dinner in one local eatery. My friend had a really weird tasting milk tea (where it says Ceylon Milk Tea) as the most experienced and adventurous food seeker that is myself I had to gave this verdict. The milk has a strong milky taste if that even make sense! And fish and chips, is actually Tuna and chips. Again. Maldives with its favorite fish!! Haha it wasn’t bad though, just different. I also had my friend’s pancakes, which were really dense.

Everyone else couldn’t finish their food except meeee be adventurous next time guys! It was good times with mostly jokes, and, calculating the shared bills. We paid with both Maldivian Ruffiya and USD and hoped the shop doesn’t mind. They didn’t and we got changes in Ruffiya. Good thing because that’d surely ended up with random junk food to accompany chats on our bed before going to sleep lol we’re in the middle of our stay in Maldives and I started to feel heavy and sure that it’d be so long for the next Maldives visit. I was overwhelmed but I told myself to focus on days spent so lazily and not gave in to thoughts that brought me down. But dear time, please slow down.