And Thank You For All The Fish.....

After an uneventful one and half hour flight from Trivandrum International Airport, I was finally in Malé, the capital of Maldives. Not actually Malé, but Hulhulmalé which hosts the international airport, an artificial island near Malé, to accommodate the ever-expanding population of Maldivians in a country where the water to land ratio is increasingly becoming skewed as more of this archipelago of atolls sinks every year. Standing in the queue at Maldivian immigration at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Malé, I noticed a couple from my home state behind me, obviously here on a work permit, considering that so few Indians prefer Maldives as a holiday destination. I took the opportunity to ask the man some questions in our native language and he was all too happy answer, though he was clueless about the island resort or Huraa Island where I was supposed to go in the next couple of hours. Still he did tell me that I most probably would have to take a boat to Malé island, maybe cros...

The holiday I was planning was long overdue. My choice of Maldives was for rather subtle reasons. Maldives is known to be a expensive place to go on a vacation. The country is multi-currency, so the dollar is as good as the local currency, with a slight depreciation. It is chiefly known for water sports and everything related to the deep blue sea, and I am not particularly attracted to anything that has to do with water. Even the water sports in Maldives are much pricier that those available in other South East Asian nations such as Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. The whole idea of a vacation for those who came to Maldives was to go diving, snorkel, surfing, boating,  hot air ballooning or simply lie on the beach twiddling their toes. I was averse to sun bathing and I didn't know how to swim, so all of the above was not so appealing. Kerala and South India in general have a deep link with Maldives, of which even the Maldivians are sometimes unaware. The cooking is similar to Ker...