On November 8, 2019, when our travelers arrived in the Maldives from China, they were a little groggy. They had experienced another epic day of travel. It started with the checkout and an early morning ride in the hotel's car, to the airport in Pudong. It progressed with the check-in at the airport which was uneventful. Then, there was an 9-hour plane ride on the wide-bodied China Eastern jet which was tedious. The route was more or less a straight line over Central China, Myanmar and India before the plane descended down towards the Male International Airport. The sun was setting as they started their descent.
The first impressions of what was supposed to be an island paradise, was not good. The weather was blustery and wet and the visibility was poor as the plane lurched out of the air and bumped along the runway. Later Gym would learn that the Indian Ocean lapped up against both sides of the runway, making it a narrow target and most likely, a very challenging one, under those overcast skies and in a steady downpour. Notwithstanding the conditions, the big jet somehow landed safely. It was dusk and raining hard when our indefatigable travelers climbed down from the aircraft, to terra firma. Somewhat shaken and soaking wet, they made their way off the tarmac and through Maldivian customs. There were no issues with their entry into the country and all of their luggage arrived safely from Shanghai. As they exited from the secure part of the Male airport, they were greeted by representatives of Four Seasons Hotels and they were ushered into a private area inside the terminal. There they waited for a boat that would take them to their island resort.
After 20 minutes or so, our travelers were guided to the tender in the rain. There they plunked down in the stern and girded up their loins for a bumpy, 30-minute boat-ride. The 17-kilometer jaunt was executed as smoothly as the moderate chop would allow. The destination was the small island of Kuda Huraa, just a few islands north of airport, on the same atoll as Male. The boat crew kept its dazed passengers as dry as was possible under the circumstances and although not the smoothest ride, the landing was completed without any casualties. After a full day of travel by various means, the check-in was a blur and although the boat crew and the front desk staff were very accommodating and extremely professional, Gym was just eager to look up at the ceiling and close his eyes, from the four-poster bed he had seen in the brochure. After a successful check-in, our tired passengers were led down the sandy path to a beachfront accommodation as that homeric day was coming to an end. The harrowing transit to a desert isle was complete. As our travelers slept that night, the storm moved on and the weather was warm and dry for the rest of their stay in the Maldives.
A few hours later, our intrepid couple awoke to silence. It was about 6 AM local time and the storm had abated. Since it was calm, Gym thought it would be a great idea to find a viewpoint from which to record the sunrise. Their beach-side bungalow faced east and one could simply cross the small private yard and stand on the east coast of Kuda Huraa. There was a better place though. Gym had looked down on it from Google Maps for several weeks proceeding the trip. Without really knowing where he was going, he led his dear wife to the end of the island. They walked down the middle of the island to the southern tip. The sandy path had already been freshly raked and all the debris that had come down during the night had been disposed of by the multitude of hard-working Four Seasons gardeners. Tall palms reached up to the clear skies from the neatly trimmed, flowering shrubs that flanked the pathway. It was about 300 meters from their bungalow to the southern tip of the island and there, a walkway extended out past the over-water bungalows to another islet about a kilometer away. On that short hike the travelers discovered a great place to view the sunrise and a daily ritual that was put in place for the duration of the trip. Each day, Gym would stumble down to the end of the walkway in his flip-flops and Mrs. Gym would run there and back multiple times before the morning heat got too bad. After the daily hike/run and a shower, our travelers would go for breakfast.
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The front of the beachfront bungalow taken from the pathway running
down the centre of Kuda Huraa |
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| Our first sunrise in the Maldives from the islet at the end of the walkway |
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| We shared our backyard with these two |
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Facing east from the back door of the bungalow across the private
yard and plunge pool |
On the daily stroll there was an excellent opportunity to view the plentiful marine life living on the "home reef ". The fish inhabiting the shallow waters around Kuda Huraa included many colorful species such as clownfish, parrotfish, needlefish and pufferfish. On a daily basis you might also see smaller sting rays, spotted eagle rays and if you got lucky, there was a small shiver of baby black tip sharks that roamed around the shallows of Kuda Huraa. We saw the sharks almost daily and although they were beautiful, to a prairie-boy that had watched just enough of Shark Week and knew that these fish exceeded the appropriate size for an aquarium, it was best to observe them from the walkway or the shoreline. One night, while enjoying a nice meal al fresco style, in the bayside restaurant, we were able to watch the sharks circle just a few feet below us. It was like watching a nature show in your dining room. Seriously though, these small sharks were not a worry for the natives or swimmers around the resort and they played an important role in the ecosystem of the home reef.
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| Stingray and his ramora buddy |
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| Cowtail Stingrays |
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| Black Tip Sharks of the Home Reef - a five footer |
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| Unicorn fish |
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| Shy baby shark |
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| Needlefish |
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| spotted stingray |
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| Pufferfish |
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| Stingray looking back |
The home reef appeared to be very healthy and Four Seasons helped to keep the ecosystem thriving with a couple of impressive initiatives, as follows:
1. Four Seasons invests in the renewal of the coral reel on the atoll. They grow baby corals in the shallow water adjacent to the resort. It starts with a fist-sized coral affixed to a steel, rebar nest. When the corals begin to grow bigger and are thriving, they are transplanted to deeper water; and
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| Baby Corals attached to Rebar "nests" |
2. Four Seasons has established a sea turtle hospital on Kuda Huraa for unfortunate young turtles that are injured by boats or get caught up in fishing nets.
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| Hospital patient |
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| another in the pediatric ward |
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| feeding time |
Both of these initiatives are manned by marine biologists supported by the hotel company. These professionals are available to the resort guests as resource experts and guides, when required. Each day before dinner, it was possible to join the marine biologists to help feed the turtles that were being cared for in big tanks. Gym wouldn't have found this facility if it wasn't for the fact that is was right next to the Sunset Bar and Gym's favorite bartender in all of Asia, Das.
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| The Sunset Lounge, a great place for a pre-dinner cocktail |
As unlikely as it may seem, the Maldives is a real country. It is the smallest sovereign state in Asia with a total land mass of only 300 square kilometers. It has been staked out in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a bunch of hard lens of sand that are spread out along a submarine ridge, 960 kilometers long. The nation includes about 200 inhabited islands and about 1000 uninhabited ones. These specks of land are mostly less than one square kilometer in size and are located on the fringes of atolls. Ninety-nine percent of these islands are only 1 to 2 meters above sea level. There are no natural high points, only man-made ones. However, it is nice to see that Maldivians have a sense of humor about this:
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This is the highest point in the Maldives. It is man-made. Our travelers did not get to this POI, this is someone else's photo. However, it looks like a summit Gym could easily climb.
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Other than the above, there are no hills to climb when you are in the Maldives. Everyone has the same view, it's a sea-level view and it's pretty darn nice. Mrs. Gym was happy, she had gotten her beach vacation.
Gym was inspired whilst in the Maldives. As a university-trained scientist, an education that was mostly wasted after Gym discovered the ecosystem of the business world, it was decided that it was time that he gave something back. He would undertake a meticulous and rigorous study of a worrisome aspect of the environment vis-a-vis the Maldives.There was a very valid concern and answers were needed! And so, after breakfast each morning, Gym got to work. He staked out a nice sandy spot from which he could make observations. Was the sea level rising, as the ice caps melted? Were these sandy islands disappearing? Data was gathered each day. The very controlled, scientific scrutiny was made by peering out upon the shoreline from a chaise lounge and then triangulating distances from the space between Gym's toes and the delta between the waterlines at high and low tides. Focus was on that point where the sand met that beautiful turquoise blue of water over the reef. Gym sweated during these long hours of crucial, high-priority work. Thankfully, he did not have to interrupt his travails to get a cool drink because the first-rate Four Seasons staff were always close by so that Gym could continue his important work. Just so you know, the findings of Gym's epic study revealed no sea level rise while our intrepid couple was in the Maldives.
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| This is where Gym conducted his experiment |
Not enough can be said about the service at Four Seasons Kuda Huraa. Our veteran travelers were catered to on a very high level by a truly outstanding resort staff. Everything on Kuda Huraa is ably overseen by a cohort of truly great hotel management professionals. And the multi-national staff with many proud members made this week-long beach escape truly memorable. Gym and his lovely sidekick very much appreciated the unique Kuda Huraa family that scooped out generous portions of hospitality so that one need not feel isolated on such a small lens of land in the middle of the ocean.
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At night, this is where fresh meats and the daily catch was smoked
to perfection |
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| The neatly trimmed gardens on the sandy center of Kuda Huraa |
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| Mrs. Gym at the Italian themed outdoor restaurant facing west |
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| a very colorful carpaccio appetizer |
The Four Seasons has exclusive use of Kuda Huraa and it appears this is a common resort model in the Maldives. I believe Four Seasons may have been the first to build such a resort but today when you look at Tripadvisor there are dozens of resorts all around the Maldives where guests can enjoy the very favorable tropical climate of the country on isolated islands, without really experiencing the culture of the country. Maybe on a future trip Gym can tour Male and experience the uniqueness of this sovereign state.
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| a beautiful sunset from the southwest tip of the island |
If the trip from China to the Maldives was notable, the odyssey of returning home from this vacation also needs to be examined. In the man vs. travel chronicles, that return trip was monumental. Suffice it to say, our travelers gained unwanted knowledge of how substandard China Eastern Airlines is compared to other airlines, how large Terminals 1 and 2 of the Shanghai International Airport are, how many security breaches you cross in a single day, and finally, how nice it would have been to have spoken mandarin on this trip. Somehow the tired and cranky Canadian adventurers did finally make the Air Canada connection and made their way east, over the vast Pacific Ocean to their beloved homeland.
It is interesting to note that as the author finishes this posting, the Covid-19 virus is raging across China and there are confirmed cases of the illness in dozens of other countries. The timing of the trip was perfect in that it predated any news of the epidemic by a couple of months. Our travelers were lucky that they were able to witness a seemingly healthy, buoyant and open China when they were there. At this point in early 2020 a trip such as this would not be possible under the circumstances. Gym hopes that China will get back to normal soon.
Next month, our travelers take off again, on a mission of discovery. Their goal will be to see if there is truth in the rumor that there are leprechauns in Savannah, Georgia.
Stay tuned!
