When you turn the globe of the earth, you put your finger in such a place that it's just where you want to go. That finger coincided with the chain of islands in the Indian Ocean spread across the equator. It's the Maldives, made up of more than 1000 islands and more than 20 coral reef archipelagos. The blue turquoise sea, white beaches and green islands were so fascinating that it would not be bad to start our Far East tour from the Maldives archipelago. We start our preparations one year in advance, if our destination contains unknowns. It was a priority for us to arrange transportation, accommodation and the necessary documents, to create the budget and the visit plan, but we also noted a lot of details such as the culture, geography, places to visit and season of the Maldives. First of all, around 2017, we took advantage of a good campaign by Qatar airlines and bought our tickets. A friend we met from Coachsurfing would guide us on the first day. In our opinion, we chose the cold winter season, the summer season for them, as the visit time.
A special aspect of this trip was that it was our first long journey with our tiny Atlas baby. That's why we chose the night flight. When we arrived from Istanbul to Doha and on a larger plane to Velana International Airport in Male, our Coachesurfing friend welcomed us. You can go to the island you want from the airport by speedboats, seaplanes and ferries. We got on the ferry to go to Male, around 15 Mrv or 1 USD (2017) per person under the guidance of our friend. Male, as we know, is a city with traffic and crowds, but we had 4.5 hours to explore. For example, we tasted the snack plate, a local food that we wrote in detail in the section on what to discover. We stopped by the Fish Market, where we can find most of the dried tuna fish. From there we went to the local market and ate delicious coconuts and bananas. If you are tired in the humid heat of Maldives around 30 degrees, it would be good to sit in Tea house. Although a little more modern but expensive, it was good for a break. We planned to visit the Friday mosque as its leading and oldest building and the Islamic center, which is a modern building. However, I do not recommend Artificial Beach in Male for the real Maldivian sea. Behind the small beach, the noise of the city and the crowds was not like our dream place.
In order to get on the island of Huraa, which was our main destination from Male, we set out on the ferry around 02:30 in the afternoon. The island of Huraa was just as we imagined. Behind the places where the turquoise blue blended harmoniously with the white beaches, there were villages with adjoining single-storey local people among green tropical trees. We settled in Finihiyaa Inn hostel, which we searched and arranged on Google. We were very pleased with a warm welcome. They first picked us up from the pier where we got off by ferry and carried our suitcases to our hostel. Our excitement increased our excitement when Huseyin, the hostel owner, had us tour the island with a golf cart shortly after settling in the room. We learned that the beach used by locals and the beach used by tourists are different. In short, the white sand and turquoise blue sea we dream of as a tourist, the white sand and the turquoise blue sea, palm trees, sparked our passion for sunbathing. We made sure to use sunscreens especially for Atlas to protect themselves from the burning and hot sun. The Maldives, the reef, are like an underwater paradise and Onur has been exploring many times with snorkels and glasses for this purpose. At an unexpected moment, we fell in a tight rain with our holiday clothes and remembered that this was a tropical monsoons region.
It was also good for Atlas to communicate with children of different cultures, colors and languages, because the place we were staying was close to where the local people live. The fact that our baby Atlas was white enabled them to be mutually friendly and sincere friends with the island people from 7 to 77 years old, as well as attracting the attention of the island children, who were a little dark but very warm. As if Atlas became the mascot of the island. Since the island was a colonial country before, English became the second native language. All of the children speak English very well.
We decided to leave Huraa Island 1 day before to avoid any trouble on our return flight. Our plan was to stay with our Coacsurfing friend and explore the city of Male a little more, but we were left out because our friend could not return from his business trip. Luckily when we arrived by ferry, a Turkish family that we came across by chance on the other side of the world. Thanks to a drenched rain, they recommended a cheap and quality hotel for 1 night. Fortunately, we left Maldiv behind with good memories without experiencing any more adrenaline rush. That's all for now.