A birthday in Maldives

Once you start traveling, you never want to stop. Funds or no funds, its addictive! So, in keeping with a little family tradition of using the school holidays around my birthday to do a family trip, this year we chose Maldives or Malé as it is called after it's capital city/island.

 

 

While checking for flights we found Air Asia to be one of the cheapest though it had a 1 hr layover in KL. Singapore airlines flew direct but was much more expensive. We booked for Air Asia but later on saw that Saudia had a direct flight from Singapore which was closer to cost of AirAsia and might have been a better option.

Also, we were pleased about the fact that Malé required no visa for most countries including India for a stay of upto 30 days. As long as we had forward tickets, a place to stay and sufficient funds, we were allowed into the country.

Another reason, we chose Malé was that our tip was planned towards the end of October. That is towards the end of the Monsoon season and beginning of tourist season which lasts all the way up-to May. So we expected reasonably fine weather and low prices.

Once we narrowed in on Malé, I started checking out blogs to shape our itinerary. 

Since Male is comprised of a mind boggling 1200 small islands arranged in various atolls; choosing which ones to visit and for how long can be quite formidable, a task.

Luckily, Malé is a well-visited destination which celebrated 50 years of it's tourism industry in 2022. That's a lot of blogs, catering to all needs.

We found one on traveling with children which recommended the island of Gulhi.

The pics were nice and there was some good advice on carrying appropriate snorkeling gear. Rasdhoo was the other island that struck our fancy. It is an atoll towards the Western side of Maldives.

 

We then checked out the mode of travel between atolls which was either ferry(cheaper and slower but the best way to mingle with locals) or speedboats(more expensive and touristy but faster). 

We chose guest houses in Gulhi (Gurus) and Rasdhoo (Summer Vibes Beach Front) opting for the more local flavor and avoiding the expensive, isolated island resorts.

Our flight to Male via KL landed late in the night.

We hired a taxi from just outside the airport for 6$(USD) which took us to our lodgings at Hulumale

It was Three inn on Nirolhu Magu road, which was just a 10 min drive from the airport.

The room we got was fairly comfortable and we settled in for the night. We had booked a speed boat transfer to Gulhi through Gurus, guesthouse in Gulhi, as recommended by the blog. The speedboat would leave at 12 noon the next day  from Male ferry jetty.

We were in Maldives during the tail end of it's Monsoon season and were a bit apprehensive of our holiday being ruined by rains. However, we were lucky and awoke to a bright sunny morning the next day.

After having a complimentary breakfast of toast, omelette and fruit, we headed out to check out our surroundings. We had time to kill as the speedboat transfer from Male was only at noon.

It was a sunny day and as we wandered around Nirolhu Magu, appreciating the well planned main road and pathways. It was a pretty, well planned road. 

 

We met people from Bangladesh, India, China and Nepal employed in and owning many of the business establishments along this main arterial street.

 

 

 

 

We slathered ourselves with sunscreen to avoid sunburn as we headed to the beach which stretched out in front of the hotels on the Nirolhu Magu.

That's where we saw the other mode of transport between the atolls. There were seaplanes  zipping above us quite frequently.

The beach in Hulumale was bright and beautiful but we did not see a lot of people there. 

We walked a stretch of the beach before returning to our hotel to check out. Our hotel reception called us a Taxi back to Ferry Terminal in Male from where we had to take our speed boat to Gulhi.

 

On the way to the Ferry Terminal, we crossed the China-Maldives Friendship bridge which connects Male to HuluMale. Chinese investment has brought prosperity and ease to Maldives in exchange of soft power and influence for China. Our holiday was giving us some first hand insight into Chinese diplomatic strategies😏

The Ferry Terminal is close to Male Market . We spotted the jetty where we were told the boat would arrive  to drop us to Gulhi. 

 

Sure enough we saw the 'Tropic Express" zoom into the jetty  short while later. After depositing our bags in the speedboat, we headed towards the main market.

 

The market was an exhilarating experience. There were bananas, breadfruits, various vegetables being sold there. 

 

Local sweetmeats and savories were also on display.

 

 

 

Huge tuna were being unloaded from fishing boats.

 

Grey herons sat perched on the buildings waiting for fish thrown by the fishermen.

 

It was a busy, bustling place. We bought ourselves some bananas and local savories land sweets before heading back to the boat.

As we headed back to the boat, we peeked into the water by the jetty and were surprised to see it teeming with colorful fishes, so close to the boats.

 We paid upfront on boarding the speedboat as agreed with the guest house in Gulhi.

It is a bit pricey at 25 US$/person but the journey was pleasant and it took us only around 25-30 minutes to reach the island. 

We had a sea-view of the China-Maldives friendship bridge as well😊

 

Gulhi island is a very small island and it was a short walk to Gurus from the boat jetty.

We were amazed that there were vehicles on this small island and a pick up carried our bags to our lodgings while we walked there.

Gurus is a quaint little guesthouse on Gulhi beach. It's entrance opens to the beachside market with stalls selling the usual touristy, attractive knick-knacks on a beach. 

The reception had one person who checked us in but since she only spoke the sing-song Dhivehi, we had to wait for the sole English speaking man on the premises to answer our queries.

 

Our room was adequate and comfortable, right next to the reception. Although the plumbing was nothing to go crazy about, it fitted the description of a budget family room😊

 

We dumped our luggage and headed out for a stroll in the hot Maldivian sun. 

 

On our first stroll around the island we saw some strange looking birds. Are they geese, are they turkeys or are they ducks?! A little but of everything in their looks and mannerisms. Turgeese 😕

 

The island had a few shops and a school and also a football ground tucked away in a corner.

One of the hotel's offered scuba diving and snorkeling trips which we planned on checking out.

We wrapped up our walking tour of the tiny island with an early dinner at a local restaurant.

The next morning we were treated to a sumptuous, Maldivian breakfast of  Mahsuni and Roshi, omelette and fruits.

Roshi is a soft roti made of flour and Mahsuni is a dish of  canned tuna with squashed onions, grated coconut, chilli and lemon juice and salt.

We downed it all with freshly brewed tea and juice.

The tourist season was just starting and we were the early birds. So, we had the breakfast deck all to ourselves, with it's amazing view while we ate.

The sky looked bright and sunny and the beach stretched invitingly ahead of us, devoid of crowds.

As amazing as it was just where we were, we couldn't wait to change and head out to the beautiful blue waters! 

 

Although we had snorkeling equipment which we had  brought along for this trip, we didn't need them much. The waters were clear and shallow for quite a distance.

Little fish bandied around my daughter's legs as she whooped in delight. You could swim right to the edge, where the beach drops off to coral reefs and their amazing aquatic life, if you felt up to it.

We spent the whole morning alternating between the cool blue waters and the hot sandy beach and were red like lobsters by the time we decided to head back to the hotel.

Thankfully the sunburn was minimized due to our choice of clothing. Previous misadventures had taught us that there is no more effective sunscreen than a full sleeve 😀

After a mammoth siesta to get over the sun exhaustion, we headed over to "Cafe" Dhilakeni. 

A long wooden table in the center of the room, benches on either side, some smaller tables tables and plastic chairs.

A cement ledge serving as a counter on top of which were displayed in a wooden glass case some sweetmeats and savories.

A washbasin located at one end with a bottle of hand soap completed the look.😊

Some  tourists sat chatting on the central table while some locals at another table were drinking coffee

We had just entered the "watering hole" on Gulhi island. It's an island sustained by and for tourism, like many of the islands in Maldives.

The wily owner sold us on all the dishes prepared that day. So we had a lunch of cod in kokum paste, mutton curry, chicken, vegetable curry and white rice. We had lunch like guests in a home!

We had yet to do what we really had come for - snorkeling in the sea! So, we booked a day tour for the next day. Finally, some more tourists had arrived on the island and there were enough for a tour.

I am prone to motion sickness and expected the worse as I was told the speedboat ride itself would be an hour across to the very first point. I prepared for it by skipping breakfast, keeping my tummy empty meant there was less to jangle around. The ride was fairly smooth, thanks to the Danish couple who gave me the best seat on the boat to avoid sickness. It was only when they anchored the boat in high waves, and it rocked like nobody's business, that my body decided it couldn't hold in even the meager contents of my stomach.

We were a relatively small group of a Danish family of 5, a French couple and the three of us apart from the boat captain and guide. At 75 USD per person, it was a bit steep but boy was it worth it!

My daughter squealed with fright when the first reef shark swam up close to her. It was only minutes later that she was eagerly reaching out to touch these friendly, gentle giants. To observe at close range sharks, manta rays and other aquatic life in their natural environment was the highlight of our trip.

 

We stopped for lunch at Fulidhoo which was again a pass for me.

Fulidhoo has beautiful scenery and the reef sharks and manta rays just swum up close to the shore for feeding.

That was our last night on Gulhi island. The next day we caught a ferry back to Male. 

Ferry is much cheaper and more preferable mode of transport, especially for someone with time on their hands and recovering from a recent bout of sea sickness.

Our speed boat from Male city to Rasdhoo was at 10:30 am. It was the same place, we had taken the boat to Gulhi from.

We again replenished our supplies of "Bodhi", a coconut jaggery and coconut sweet wrapped in leaves like a candy stick and "Kanamadhu Meta" a disc shaped sweet made of caramel and sea almond which my daughter fell in love with instantly!

The speed boat from Male to Rasdhoo took approx 1hour and 30 mins and cost us aaround 35 USD each.

Rasdhoo is an atoll towards the north western edge of Maldives. It was relatively larger than Gulhi and thus had more tourists, resorts, locals and other establishments.

Our lodge was the Summer Vibes resort. We met a very friendly and enthusiastic couple from South Africa, Rianna & Riaan

 

We hired a boat to check out the sandbank and turtle island  near Rasdhoo. 

We saw a number of turtles and fishes and sharks as we snorkeled around Rasdhoo.

I really envied the guide who was getting in and out of the water like a fish himself , wishing I had even half his swimming prowess!

The sandbank near Rasdhoo is an astonishingly beautiful place where you can spend hours together.

While on Rasdhoo we were privy to an adventure that Riaan had planned for himself and Riaana. They had brought along an inflatable boat and tent on their vacation.

There is also an uninhabited tiny island near Rashdhoo. They planned to row across to the island spend a night there. It was Rianna's 50th birthday treat planned by Riaan!

The lovely couple managed this astonishing feat, mosquitoes and all!

It was our last day on Rasdhoo when we spent the morning snorkeling and hanging out on the sandbank. The beach in Rasdhoo is relatively smaller with the reef fairly close to the island. 

We could see many more beautiful fish and corals here. That's where I saw my first wild starfish!

In the evening there was a wonderful surprise! Hubby had ordered a cake and the staff had set it up at the breakfast table by the beach.

Birthday anywhere with my loved ones with me is great but at this paradise it was amazing:)

Riaan and Riaana gaves us a lovely gift of the drone footage of us walking around our resort in Rasdhoo.

This was our last night at Rasdhoo. The next day we took a ferry back to Male. Checked in to the Contento Retreat at Nirolhu Magu.

We spent the last evening in Hulumale again before checking out the next morning .

Our flight back to Singapore was from Male early in the morning!

All in all a wonderful 46th birthday!!

P.S: What we noticed was that Male' airport was crowded with Russian tourists. Vacationing in the middle of a war seemed strange.

A trip to Song river

Our summer holidays in Dehradun were quite uneventful for the first two weeks as Ritesh was working on vacation and it was up to me to keep my daughter busy while she missed her friends back home. As she is a late sleeper, it was usually 12 by the time she woke up and accosted me with her favourite “Mummy I am bored” phrase. I saw my husband in between meetings and asked him if he would like to go for a walk to the river. It was a hot day and we weren’t so sure about what we would see on the walk. However, the hubby really needed a break since he had been working since early morning. I could do with one too as parenting my tween daughter, on my own,  at my in-laws place was not my cup of tea. So we decided to walk to the river bank. It would be the first walk to the river on this visit. We had been there twice, couple of months ago, on our last visit to Dehradun. 

As we walk, we spot a dog under the neighbours car. It looks at us and we look at it and we walk ahead. We seemed to have forgotten the way. New houses were being constructed in the colony blocking some old pathways. We reached a dead end and decided on exploring a different route. That’s when Oscar joined us. My daughter knew his name from our last visit here. He is friendly stray, adopted by a local family. He follows us and she encourages him and I allow it having no inkling that he will follow us further. He seems friendly enough looking askance at us with a wag of his tail.

Somehow he made us less unsure. Trotting behind us initially, then beside us and then when he knew he was invited on the trip, taking the lead. He lead us on to the pathway between the brambles and undergrowth to the river bank. Running up ahead and then waiting patiently for us to catch  up, he behaved like he was our dog. 

When we reached the bank we could see the river, narrow but in spate.  Oscar ran up to it and refreshed himself with a drink and dip that did him good in the hot sun.

We sat down on some of the boulders near the edge, dipping our feet into the cool water. As the water was slightly muddy because of the rains we did not wash our hands or faces. The view was breathtaking and the gushing river made a great sound that echoed through the hills that rose on the other side. We three sat on different boulders, smiling like Cheshire cats, acknowledging our good fortune to partake in this first hand. I also felt sad thinking about how long this would last, as neither the people or the government seemed much interested in protecting this wilderness. “A developing country cannot afford to fiercely protect what’s left of its natural forests” being the populist Mantra.

 We clicked some more pics and videos.

Meanwhile, Oscar who had run up ahead trotted back to see what took us so long. On seeing us resting by the river, he ran up to the water for a second drink and dip. He was very confident of his footing and knew how to avoid the strong current while we dared not venture beyond the edge. My daughter called out to him and he gently walked towards her and then towards me. Allowing us to pet him and stroke him, which we did warily at first but more confidently when we saw him enjoying it. He smacked his lips in approval and then as my husband got up and walked upriver  along the bank, he gently extracted himself and followed my husband. Suddenly, he shot off into the greenery beside the river bank. There was herd of young buffaloes there. He seemed to play with them or herd them by his barking. It wasn’t clear to us as we had never seen such a encounter before. One of the buffaloes rose up to his challenge and stepped ahead of the rest of them. Although it was a fun watch, we were also a bit panicked that they may charge at us. However, we managed to keep our cool and just called Oscar off. Thankfully, he too responded as he realised that a herd was more than he could chew. The stand off ended there and we retreated up ahead and there was no more action from the buffaloes. We also spotted spotted deer far up ahead. We could see them clearly through the binoculars, a very valuable addition to our Dehradun trip.

Two young Gujjars, a girl and a boy were walking down. They were the nomadic tribe who had camped behind our colony in a tiny settlement of thatched huts. There was an ongoing dispute between them and my father in law and other colony people about them stealing electricity, from the government supply, with periodic flares and police interventions. Mostly resulting in greased palms and status quo. Gujjars complained that the colony people harassed them by cutting off the wires they used, despite them( the Gujjars) never bothering directly the people from the colony. The residents of the colony didn’t care too much for the fact that they were stealing electricity off the lines for which deposit were paid by them. It also don’t help that the Gujjars were Muslim nomads in a pro-Hindutva state which had renamed itself as ‘ Dev Bhumi’ in all official communication. My father in law seemed to be in the thick of this dispute having lead the representation from the colony.

They probably knew who we were, given that we were mostly hanging about on the terrace of our in-law’s house, at the edge of the  developing colony directly opposite their settlement, with a pair of binoculars trying to spot a new bird or animal. Despite this the young girl gave us a shy smile and asked in a dialect of Hindi I could barely understand whether we were exploring the river banks. I returned her smile and nodded yes.

We walked a bit more through the bank made up of smooth rounded stones interspersed with squelchy mud and generously littered with droppings of different species. As we walked back my husband spotted the small boy adding his own to the collection far away.

On our way back, Oscar dutifully trotted alongside or ahead of us till we reached the clearing from where the pathway began and then he suddenly disappeared. We decided to buy him some biscuits from the little shop in the colony so that we could treat him the next time we saw him. Village shops are in a league of their own. Our young neighbour came up on his cycle just as we reached the shop. The shopkeeper was missing and the boy, who had played with my daughter last winter, stood shyly extremely conscious of us, clutching his money and avoiding eye contact with any of us. When the shopkeeper came, he could barely whisper what he wanted. The shopkeeper kept asking “what? what?” The boy replied in an even softer tone all the while cringing in embarrassment. It was amusing as well as painful to watch the young boy’s discomfiture on our accord. The shopkeeper was also smiling by now, clued in to the boy’s predicament. The whole interaction must have lasted five of the longest minutes of his life:) We then waited patiently as the shopkeeper leisurely stuffed his purchases into a bag before turning to us. Thus, we bought a packet of biscuits in the time it takes us to do our weekly grocery shopping back home. However, the experience of it was much more enjoyable. 

As we headed home, there was still ‘Oscar’ again. Seeing the packet of biscuits in our hand ‘he’ bounded enthusiastically towards us. but we saw the dog which had been lying under our neighbours car.

With many happy wags of its tail he happily wolfed down ‘his reward’ and smacked his lips in delight. 

All in all our trip to the river was a big success, much more so because of Oscar our friendly and sweet companion!

A very sweet story right? Nevertheless, there is a twist. A neighbour saw us feeding ‘Oscar’ and said. “ Why are you feeding this dog? It bites everyone here! ” We were quite indignant at her calling our sweet ‘Oscar’ unfriendly.

Fortunately, we kept our indignation to ourselves for we later, when looking at pictures that we realised that we had fed the impostor, whom we had first found sleeping under the neighbours’ car and not Oscar! We felt quite sheepish for not even being able to recognise our loyal companion

And finally 'The Great Wall'!

The Great Wall at MuTianYu

Determined to catch the 'Mubus service at 8 am in the morning, we were up bright and early.  We rushed through breakfast and raced towards the Mubus starting point, which was around a km away from our hotel. We reached the boarding point in front of Swissotel, Beijing with 10 minutes to spare. As we approached the buses, we met an English speaking guide who informed us that payment could only be made by cash. We were unprepared for this and my husband raced to get cash from an ATM which was around 50 meters away. As my daughter and I waited, few more tourists boarded the bus and the bus left promptly at 8:00 am without us.
I was nearly in tears when our guide assured us that another bus was due to leave at 8:30. Fortunately for us, the bus at 8:00 am had mostly Chinese speaking tourists and so the guide speaking in Chinese accompanied it. The bus at 8:30 had mostly Western tourists so the English speaking guide would be joining that bus. Talk of small mercies!

Some fun while waiting at the entrance for everyone's turn at the restrooms!

Our ride to MuTianYu was nearly 2 hours. Tony was the guide on our bus and the scenic drive was more enjoyable for his witty banter and informative tips. I would highly recommend him as a guide for the trip to the ‘Great Wall’. According to Tony’s instructions the bus would drop us off at the entrance to MuTianYu section of the Great Wall. It was a hike up to reach the Great Wall from the entrance. Alternatively, there was a cable car service which would also take tourists up to the wall. The MuTianYu section of the wall composed of 10 towers with the way between them. It started from tower 10 up to tower 20 which was the steepest climb in that section. It was around 10:30 am when we reached and we had 4 hours to explore the Great Wall and have lunch before our ride back to the city at 2:30 pm sharp. Tony warned us that it would be near impossible to hike to tower 20 and back in the given time. To more sensible people it should have sounded like a warning; for us it sounded like he was throwing us a gauntlet!

A snack before the climb

Husband and me made up our minds to take the stairs to the Great Wall and to hike to tower 20 and back . My poor daughter had no choice to follow her suddenly hyper-active and determined parents. As always our sense of urgency was in direct contrast to my daughter’s and she decided she was very hungry just then. So we spent the first 20 minutes of our visit to ‘The Great Wall’ queuing up for chicken wings at a KFC outlet tantalizingly situated just opposite to the entrance to the steps that lead to tower 10.We finally started after her snack.

Steps leading to tower10

Weird tradition of embedding coins in a tree!

The climb to tower 10 was surprisingly steep in itself and it took us around half an hour. The view on the top was breathtaking and I felt so emotional just reaching the Great Wall. The experience is one that  will cherish forever. To be surrounded by the majestic mountains, painted in the colours of autumn and to be standing on one of the most impressive piece of history made my human hands created a churning of emotions in me. An accomplishment which had the tears, sweat and blood of hundreds of thousands of Chinese. This wall had also a dark legacy of being China’s biggest graveyard, according to local guides, as many of the workers who were forced to build it by the emperor had succumbed to their hard life and were buried under it.  The enormity of the structure, history and natural beauty surrounding it just overwhelmed me.

View from entrance to Tower10

Stepping inside The Great Wall

The beautiful view from the wall

Tower 11 was a standalone tower, a small detour on the way to tower 20. The wall wasn’t very crowded and we joined the  tourists past tower 12 and 13. At tower 14, it became more crowded as those who had opted for cable car service to the Great Wall were dropped off there. The ‘Towers’ were more like watch towers where soldiers in ancient China used to keep a lookout towards invaders. They were confined spaces with narrow entrances led to by steep steps and were mostly bottlenecks in the flow of tourists on the wall. The paths between the steps were cut up into steps which were nice and wide at some points and very narrow at others. Some of the towers were empty and some elicited more interest making them very stuffy . There were safety personnel deployed on the wall to manage the flow of tourists between towers and to make sure no foolhardy tourist decided to do stunts in the hope of that viral selfie!

Trekking towards tower 20

Standalone Tower 11

One of a million snap-worthy moments!

In front of tower 13

A light stream of tourists on the wall

Inside one of the towers

The Great Wall is a marvel of construction on top of mountainous terrain and follows the ups and downs of the peaks. As warned by Tony, the climb from tower 19 to tower 20 was the steepest part of the section. The steps were very narrow and high, so much so, that we could see some tourists descending bum-first as we approached the climb. Although we doubted if my daughter could climb the steep steps, she surprised us with her agility! We reached tower 20 by around 12:40 pm after nearly an hour and 40 minutes of trekking. It was the most crowded tower and the safety ambassador there had to regulate the crowd most actively.  Entry to the next section of the Great Wall was restricted by a high wall and this was the end of the MuTianYu section. However, some people climbed over the restricting wall to jump into the section of Great Wall in the next province. We would have considered it were we not really short of time and exhausted. We spent around 10 minutes in tower 20 soaking in the view and the experience before heading back. We saw the crowd of tourists come in for the afternoon slot and were pleased with ourselves for choosing the morning slot. Descending was very hard on our knees and calves and we barely made it back to the boarding point with no time to spare for lunch.

Steps cut up

Hungry but exhilarated, we boarded the bus back to the city. ‘The Great Wall’ had been all that we had imagined and more! An absolute treat and cherry on the topping of our visit China! Our drive back to the city took longer thanks to the infamous Beijing traffic. We weren’t complaining though as the scenery that greeted us was lovely. We reached our destination around 6pm, famished but supremely happy!

Although it was late when we returned from the Summer palace, we were still feeling very adventurous and so we thought of treating our palates to spicy Sichuan cuisine. We chose a hot pot restuarant called 'Papa Frying' located close to our hotel. All the tables had a wide opening in the centre, below which was the stove. We ordered whatever the waitress recommended. It came in a huge wok partitioned in the middle. To one side was the extremely spicy soup with mala chillies in it and the other was a milder tomato based soup. We had ordered a full platter of all meats, thinly sliced and a basket of green leafy vegetables.  In a bowl was a mound of grated garlic and finely chopped coriander. There were also soy sauce, vinegar and other condiments placed on the table. Looking around I saw other patrons mixing the garlic, coriander, soy sauce and vinegar to form a kind of paste.  I started doing the same much to the amusement of father and daughter who were teasing me.
The mixture tasted nice, and I was vindicated when our waitress made the same paste for my husband and daughter. It was our first experience with hot pot and we managed to garner that we needed to dip the meats for 2-3 minutes in the boiling sauce for it to be cooked before consuming. Simple enough!

My first taste of biting into a Sichuan peppercorn or mala chilli as it is widely called is unforgettable!
It was spicy and horrible. I felt like I had bitten into Camphor. In fact I was sure I had bitten into something inedible by misake. Tears streamed out of my eyes and nose and steam out of my ears. My husband took one look at me and asked me to have the paste I had prepared. That really helped! The mixture I discoved was like an antidote to that Chilli. So much so, that I was emboldened to try the sauce again. Believe it or not, we all enjoyed the platter and our adventure at 'papa frying' a lot. It was an expensive and bold chance but we enjoyed choosing to have our dinner there.

This concluded our China trip and also was the last travel before the great pandemic stalled our travel for a good two years. It was a changed world when we travelled again both personally and otherwise.