Ferry to Huraa and the Deep Blue Sea
The average Maldivian is a mix of many bloods and races as the official guide book tells you. When you first look at a Maldivian what comes to mind is African Arab lineage. But you see a lot of other Maldivians with a blend of Chinese or Sinhalese features, others you would definitely identify as ethnocentric Tamil and about a few others you just cannot decide. This is not helped by the fact that affluent Maldivians are increasingly marrying Thai, European and other foreign nationals who come to settle for good, finding work and a good life in this tropical paradise. Nevertheless Maldives is 100% Muslim and they follow the Sharia law, though this is increasingly getting diluted by Western values. The language too is nothing similar to any other known language. Some Maldivian words are present in Hindi too - 'Majaa' for 'fun', for instance and many imported from Arabic. There are Arab, Sinhalese and Indian influences on the language as well. The script too, doesn't follow any normal phonetic rules but is a set of mysterious cryptic letters written right to left. Most Maldivians have a typical tanned dark brown Asian complexion, with a short swarthy build, while I have also noticed pale looking Maldivians too, amongst Maldivians in the airline, hotel and tourist businesses.
This very much proves that after all these years, Maldives is very much a mixing pot of cultures, brought to it long back by seafarers travelling on one of the most widely travelled sea routes of the ancient world. Maldives is still a maritime power and the people a sturdy, sea faring people, though increasingly all of them are getting sucked into tourism related activities.
The ferry ride from Male island to Huraa island was uneventful except that it took more than an hour through placid crystal clear brilliant sapphire waters. I was gently tossed to and fro on my wooden seat as the powerful engine pulled the boat along. I could see that most of the passengers were Maldivians, except for a few Westerners who perhaps preferred this adventurous route rather than the speed boat/ sea plane option and saved on money as well!
I was pleasantly surprised when I heard a couple of men behind me speaking in my native Malayalam. They were from my home state in India and were obviously working at one or the other of the resorts dotting all of Maldives.
I exchanged a few pleasantries with them. Two islands on the way had very similar names to the one where I was going and for a moment I was confused. One of the Malayalees obliged me with his cheap Chinese phone using which I located the route we were traversing on google maps, and I cleared my doubts, since they themselves had not much to advise. I noticed that mobile signals were very strong all along even when we were far away from any sea coast. I also noticed that a good many Maldivians had expensive Apple iPhones and many of them were conversant with Internet usage, browsing websites in the native Divehi script, including Divehi Facebook!
I noticed a couple of Maldivian youngsters in shorts and T shirts loitering along the aisle smoking what looked like cigarettes and talking loudly to each other over the loud sound of the ferry engine. The had hair grown long and all of them had modelled themselves after Jack Sparrow from the movie 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' complete with caps. I had read that Maldivian teenagers are increasingly becoming drug and alcohol addicts though they avoid indulging publicly as drinking is 'haraam'. However these young men looked mostly harmless as they shouted at each other, smoked whatever they were smoking and listening to music on their iPhones, I noticed that a few of the European travellers were getting alarmed, but these modern pirates had no other intention other than wanting to get noticed - cheap Western imitations. Perhaps they were just co-passenger Maldivians who preferred to stand out. The boat crew and the other Maldivian passengers paid no heed to them.
I noticed one elderly wizened toothless Maldivian woman clad in all black turning over her seat and staring intently at a young Western couple who were starting to get cosy with each other. I thought that as being rather rude, but then I remembered the line in the guide book - "Locals might sometimes stare at you, but do not take offence, they are just curious about outsiders and outside culture". Neat explanation!
When the boat captain clarified that we were at Huraa island, I got off with my baggage onto a crude jetty that was just a wooden platform jutting over the rocks. I noticed that I was the only passenger to leave at this stop.
I found myself on powdery white sand that stretched left, right and middle and covered the lanes that ran between the simple concrete houses packed closely next to each other. No tar, no concrete, just pure white powdery sand!
I asked a very brown young man with a handcart where I would find my home stay. "I.. take.. you there..", he said in broken English. TO my surprise he knew Hindi as well and found that he was Bangladeshi and actually worked at the home stay where I would be staying. He hauled my luggage on his handcart all the way to the home stay, chatting to me in broken Hindi - and English where we were greeted by a European lady - manager of the home stay. She was Slovak and worked for Adam, the Maldivian owner, she told me in pretty good English, grinning through stained yellowing teeth. "Are you OK?" was the first thing she asked me, reminding me of this frequent question on my visit to the German outback a decade back.
I would be staying at this very densely populated island before taking a ferry back to Male four days later and then catching a Maldivian airlines flight to Gan which is a larger island but sparsely populated- in stark contrast to Huraa! I will leave that for another post.
From the net:
If you have not gone to Maldives- GO NOW! The Maldives is sinking.
"Like several other South Asian and Oceanic archipelagos, the Maldives's topography suffers from a lethal combination of high surface erosion and rising sea levels. The former stems from the islands' soft soils, but most scientists agree that the latter is a direct consequence of global warming."
"In 2004, a tsunami swallowed two-thirds of the country. As a result, over 20 islands were permanently erased from the map."
"If the trend continues, the Maldives will be completely submerged in 30 years."
"The average height of this country of coral beaches is around 4 feet above sea level, and the highest point in the entire nation is just under 8 feet (about 2.4 meters). "
This very much proves that after all these years, Maldives is very much a mixing pot of cultures, brought to it long back by seafarers travelling on one of the most widely travelled sea routes of the ancient world. Maldives is still a maritime power and the people a sturdy, sea faring people, though increasingly all of them are getting sucked into tourism related activities.
The ferry ride from Male island to Huraa island was uneventful except that it took more than an hour through placid crystal clear brilliant sapphire waters. I was gently tossed to and fro on my wooden seat as the powerful engine pulled the boat along. I could see that most of the passengers were Maldivians, except for a few Westerners who perhaps preferred this adventurous route rather than the speed boat/ sea plane option and saved on money as well!
I was pleasantly surprised when I heard a couple of men behind me speaking in my native Malayalam. They were from my home state in India and were obviously working at one or the other of the resorts dotting all of Maldives.
I exchanged a few pleasantries with them. Two islands on the way had very similar names to the one where I was going and for a moment I was confused. One of the Malayalees obliged me with his cheap Chinese phone using which I located the route we were traversing on google maps, and I cleared my doubts, since they themselves had not much to advise. I noticed that mobile signals were very strong all along even when we were far away from any sea coast. I also noticed that a good many Maldivians had expensive Apple iPhones and many of them were conversant with Internet usage, browsing websites in the native Divehi script, including Divehi Facebook!
I noticed a couple of Maldivian youngsters in shorts and T shirts loitering along the aisle smoking what looked like cigarettes and talking loudly to each other over the loud sound of the ferry engine. The had hair grown long and all of them had modelled themselves after Jack Sparrow from the movie 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' complete with caps. I had read that Maldivian teenagers are increasingly becoming drug and alcohol addicts though they avoid indulging publicly as drinking is 'haraam'. However these young men looked mostly harmless as they shouted at each other, smoked whatever they were smoking and listening to music on their iPhones, I noticed that a few of the European travellers were getting alarmed, but these modern pirates had no other intention other than wanting to get noticed - cheap Western imitations. Perhaps they were just co-passenger Maldivians who preferred to stand out. The boat crew and the other Maldivian passengers paid no heed to them.
I noticed one elderly wizened toothless Maldivian woman clad in all black turning over her seat and staring intently at a young Western couple who were starting to get cosy with each other. I thought that as being rather rude, but then I remembered the line in the guide book - "Locals might sometimes stare at you, but do not take offence, they are just curious about outsiders and outside culture". Neat explanation!
When the boat captain clarified that we were at Huraa island, I got off with my baggage onto a crude jetty that was just a wooden platform jutting over the rocks. I noticed that I was the only passenger to leave at this stop.
I found myself on powdery white sand that stretched left, right and middle and covered the lanes that ran between the simple concrete houses packed closely next to each other. No tar, no concrete, just pure white powdery sand!
I asked a very brown young man with a handcart where I would find my home stay. "I.. take.. you there..", he said in broken English. TO my surprise he knew Hindi as well and found that he was Bangladeshi and actually worked at the home stay where I would be staying. He hauled my luggage on his handcart all the way to the home stay, chatting to me in broken Hindi - and English where we were greeted by a European lady - manager of the home stay. She was Slovak and worked for Adam, the Maldivian owner, she told me in pretty good English, grinning through stained yellowing teeth. "Are you OK?" was the first thing she asked me, reminding me of this frequent question on my visit to the German outback a decade back.
I would be staying at this very densely populated island before taking a ferry back to Male four days later and then catching a Maldivian airlines flight to Gan which is a larger island but sparsely populated- in stark contrast to Huraa! I will leave that for another post.
From the net:
If you have not gone to Maldives- GO NOW! The Maldives is sinking.
"Like several other South Asian and Oceanic archipelagos, the Maldives's topography suffers from a lethal combination of high surface erosion and rising sea levels. The former stems from the islands' soft soils, but most scientists agree that the latter is a direct consequence of global warming."
"In 2004, a tsunami swallowed two-thirds of the country. As a result, over 20 islands were permanently erased from the map."
"If the trend continues, the Maldives will be completely submerged in 30 years."
"The average height of this country of coral beaches is around 4 feet above sea level, and the highest point in the entire nation is just under 8 feet (about 2.4 meters). "
Beautiful post. Gives a great insight into island life.
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