Skip to main content

Thoddoo, Our New Found Paradise - The Maldives

By Chelsea

The Maldives is a group of about 1200 small coral islands and sandbanks south of India and Sri Lanka (in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean). The Maldives is 2,142 km away from India.
The Maldives is Asia's smallest country by land area and population. There are ~ 500,000 inhabitants and ~145,000 of them live in the capital city, Male. It's the world's lowest lying country with the average height being only 5 feet above sea level! It is at serious risk with the rising sea levels.



Only about 200 islands are inhabited and there are 97 hotel-owned islands that have resorts for tourists. 10 years ago, not a single foreigner was allowed on any of the local islands. Tourism was prohibited except on the super swanky expensive hotel islands accessed by sea plane. Now, the law has changed and you can find guest houses on the local islands.  This makes travel to the Maldives affordable for backpackers and people like us! The main language spoken in the Maldives is Dhivehi and it is a country strictly under Islamic law.



Our flight from KL to Male was 4 1/2 hours long and it was at 8:30 am. The time change to the Maldives was 3 hours so we ended up having a full day ahead of us when we arrived!  As we were landing, we were about 50  feet above the ground and we still couldn't see any land- just the waves of the Arabian sea!  Finally, right before we landed, there was land and a runway! Phewf!


When we got off the plane and through immigration, we walked less than 50 metres straight to a jetty.  The planes and the boats were less than 500 metres apart.  So neat!  We took a speedboat ~70 km to the remote local island of Thoddoo.  It lasted 1 1/2 hours and was the bumpiest ride I have ever been on!

The speedboats at the airport

Arriving to Thoddoo

We arrived to Thoddoo and we were transported on a golf cart type thing to our Inn. There are no cars on Thoddoo - only scooters, bikes and small trucks!!!

Here's what we found in our room

Our outdoor shower

The distance from our room to our meals!

Our private sitting area with a banana tree

 Thoddoo is 1km by 2km long.  It was pretty clean- except for the plastic water bottles in the water! There are only 1500 inhabitants on Thoddoo with 1 school for all ages and one soccer field. There are maybe 5 restaurants... and 30-40 guest houses (most of which have only 3-4 rooms).  Tourism is growing on Thoddoo as 5 years ago there were only ~5 guesthouses on the island.  90% of the tourists are Russian!


Our home for the week

We loved our inn! The food was good and we got HUGE portions. We had fresh juice with breakfast and dinner. We also had fresh fish that tasted so good. I will never want to even touch the fish at home after eating this stuff! 
Our first dinner- not once did we finish all the food on our plates

Our welcome drink and snack

Everyone was super nice. We didn't know what to expect on Thoddoo and we were only pleasantly surprised! 

Magical Thoddoo


 We went to either the beach or on a boat every day! Our host at the inn was Majeed. He took us on many fun adventures - stay tuned for more stories!

Hopefully this little taste of island life has caught your attention - check back soon for new posts on the Maldives - on land and under water - waaayy under water!  We really loved Thoddoo!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the Family

By Nathan
This is my first post.  My name is Nathan and I am a 9 year-old boy (almost 10) and can't wait for this trip.  My older sister Chelsea is 12 years old and my younger brother Parker is 7 years old.   I am looking forward to sharing pictures and stories with you over the adventurous year ahead! This picture was taken a couple of years ago so we are all a bit bigger now!
6 comments
Read more

Tongariro Crossing - New Zealand North Island

By
Sorry for the brief hiatus folks - limited wifi slowed me down!  We did the Tongariro crossing 15yrs ago and fell in love with it then - we knew our kids had to experience it too. Ummm... can anyone say AMAZING! For those unfamiliar, the Tongariro Crossing is a 20km hike/tramp that takes you into the caldera(s)  of Mt. Ngauruhoe (more famously known as Mt. Doom in Tolkein's Lord Of The Rings trilogy). The mountain lies above Lake Taupo - New Zealand's biggest lake - which makes for a fitting backdrop throughout the 2nd half of the hike. Turangi - not far from Tongariro National Park We holed-up in VRBO/HomeAway a little town called Turangi, close to Tongariro National Park.  Cheryl's wrote a post about Turangi - check it out ! The hike route This hike is, very debatably, the best day hike in the world - certainly the best we've ever done.   If you like the outdoors, you're fit, and you can do only one thing in NZ - hike the Tongariro Crossi...
11 comments
Read more

Lanterns and Rice Paddies- Hoi An, Vietnam

By Cheryl
When we were in the planning phase of this trip, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to Vietnam.  I was nervous about stories I had heard about crime, health and safety, crowded buses, etc. and I wasn't really sure how comfortable I would be taking the kids to this country.  After doing some research, I came across some information about a small town called Hoi An and  decided this might be a great place to spend some stationary time- soaking up the culture, enjoying cheap food and doing some school work.  So that's just what we did.  We spent 10 lovely, low key days in Hoi An, Vietnam. One of many flower displays along the river A calm town in the morning The famous Japanese covered bridge Hoi An is a town of about 120 000 people.  It used to be a major port- for the Champa kingdom from the 2nd to the 10th centuries and then, after the 15th century, it was one of South East Asia's major ports. The Old Town of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritag...
4 comments
Read more