Rangali Island and Malè, Maldives
This morning we were up at 7:15AM in order to eat some breakfast before going on the whale shark excursion. At our initial booking I had requested a late check-out because our flight out of Malè wasn’t until 11PM. The hotel still couldn’t tell us before we went to bed the night before departure whether or not we had been granted a late checkout. I assumed we would get one since the hotel knew we were booked to go out on one of its boats until 12:00PM, the same time as checkout.
When we woke up on the morning of departure we still hadn’t been given an update. At 7:30AM a letter was slid under our door that stated our late checkout could not be accommodated. This meant we now had 45 minutes to pack up, put on snorkeling gear/sunscreen and eat breakfast. We packed as fast as possible and had all of our stuff ready by 8:05AM. As I was hustling across the lobby in hopes of grabbing a little food before boarding the boat, one of the front desk guys stopped me to say that we could now have a 1:30PM checkout. Needless to say I was annoyed. I told him we really didn’t need it anymore. He didn’t seem to get that, so I said, okay, fine thanks and hustled my way onto breakfast. Ben went to the boat, as he didn’t want to be late. As I was walking to my table with my eggs Ben came up to say our boat was late, so he was going to eat too. The morning was more stressful than it needed to be but we ended up accomplishing everything we needed to and still made it to the boat on time.
The speed boat out to where the whale sharks tend to be took 40 minutes or so. I enjoyed chatting with one of our guides. When we were still on the shore I pointed her out to Ben because I was fairly certain she was an American. At this point she was the only other American I had seen during our time at Rangali. Coincidently she was originally from Alaska but attended the UO and graduated in ’05. It’s hilarious to think we could have taken BA 101 together. The world truly is a small place.
After cruising for over an hour looking for the sharks we received a call from another boat that they had found one. Our captain kicked up our two 250hp engines. We were on the shark in 10 minutes or less. Swimming with a fish that is 5x your size is an amazing experience. The research crew was familiar with this particular shark and they said he gave us a very good encounter. Sometimes the sharks get annoyed with people and only hang around for a couple minutes before diving to depths of up to 2000m. Our shark let us swim with him for a solid 40 minutes at a range of 8m-30m. The only downside to the experience is that it was shared with MANY people, some of whom did’t even know how to swim, literally. There were only 9 snorkelers on our boat but there were at least seven boats at the site. “The red turtles” as our guide called them were a bit of a hassle. Red turtles are people who can’t swim and thus wear red life jackets to float out on the water. Somehow they manage to have a knack for being in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time. The best piece of advice I received from Rob over the week was to be the first person in the water with the whale sharks. I was the first person off our boat and thoroughly enjoyed my two minutes of solitude with one of the worlds biggest beasts.
This was taken during my first few seconds with the shark.
I felt sorry for this Maldivian guide dealing with his red turtles.
Once we returned to Rangali we went back to our room, perfected the previously messy packing of our stuff, returned our loaned fins to the dive shop, checked out of our room, took some pictures in what has to be one of the world’s coolest infinity pools and then had lunch. I’m certain at lunch I had the best piña colada of my life. I’m not sure if it actually was the best tasting or if the environment and high of the whale sharks in the morning made it seem that way. Regardless, I could go for another one RIGHT NOW.
After lunch I went paddle boarding again. I had Ben take a few photos for me before he took a nap while I finished my paddle. We then stopped in the dive shop to fill out our night dive log with Rob. While there we were shown the house video from our whale shark adventure in the morning. It was pretty neat so we decided to buy it. If any of you want to see it in the future, I’d be happy to show it to you.
The view heading back on my paddle board.
Being that we had checked out of our room we used the fitness center to take showers and get cleaned up for our flights to Malè and Hong Kong. We arrived at the “airport”, the air-conditioned hut in between the two islands, right on time. Unfortunately our plane was not. Our plane had a mechanical issue, so we ended up being delayed an hour and half. The big annoyance here was that this delay delayed our arrival in Malè where we had planned a tour of the main island of the Maldives. Our flight eventually took off around 6PM. The flight back was as beautiful as the flight in.
One of many beautiful resorts in the Maldives.
A "local" (as opposed to resort) island.
Upon arrival at the Malè airport we were promptly met by a Conrad employee who directed us to Nazer, our tour guide for Malè. It was unfortunate that it was already dark by the time we arrived. We left our bags with a porter, loaded a speed boat ferry that cost $2 a person and took two minutes, to take us across from the airport to the main island of Malè.
Malè is the capital city of the Maldives. Our walking tour encompassed the highlights of the island including Jumhooree Maidhaan (Independence Square), The Friday Mosque, The Islamic Cultural Center and Grand Friday Mosque, Mulee-Agee (the Presidential Palace), the closed fish market and a few other things. We stopped in a few souvenir shops and had dinner at a local restaurant. When we finished dinner it was time to head back to the airport ferry. I would have enjoyed a hoop hunt and seeing the surf break on Malè but I guess I’ll just have to do those next time.
Ferries heading to Malè in the distance.
Even the Presidential Palace has geckos.
Mulee-Agee aka The Presidential Palace.
The Islamic Cultural Center.
Maldives National Defense Force HQ.
Some of the many fishing boats surrounding Malè.
A whole Maldivian pineapple.
An opened Maldivian pineapple.
Dried fish. This market smelled lovely.
My preferred grocery aisle, Maldivian style.
The $1 ferry back to the airport.
Upon arrival back at the airport we were met at the ferry by the same gentleman who watched our bags. We paid him $5 a bag, said goodbye to Nazer and made our way to the Singapore counter. We checked in, passed through customs and made our way to the Singapore lounge in less than 20 minutes. We ate some snacks, did some emailing, worked, changed clothes (we’re leaving summer for winter), shopped and made our way to the gate.
We’re about to board the beauty below. I’m bummed that the Maldives portion of this adventure is behind us but at least we still have Hong Kong to go! It’s time to sleep for 4 hours to Singapore and another 4 hours to Hong Kong.
Until Hong Kong in the morning,
Katy
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