Dhigurah island – Maldives

After three nights on Dhangethi we hopped over to Dhigurah island that appeared more orientated towards tourists including a little more lapse on the no bikini role for whatever reason that may have been. The weather remained changeable with black skies omnipresent throughout the week, always threatening rain and regularly acting upon such threats. We took to the sea on kayaks, a well-advertised activity that Rut and I excel at, and after most of the group were ready to pull up on a beach after 30 minutes, we continued on and made a morning of it, paying for the mutiny with an impressive dose of sunburn from the grey overhead skies. An afternoon island walk proved emotional for the flooded sand tracks through mosquito infested tropical forest. It was almost impossible to sit on the many palm fringed beaches because of the sheer number of mosquitos intent on bleeding dry anyone daring to show the slightest bit of skin. Maybe this is why the locals didn’t need to worry about promiscuous tourists? One way or another, dissidents would pay for their sins.

Most tours feature a ‘highlight’ to entice ill-informed potential customers like me to sign up. For this tour it would be the chance to swim alongside whale sharks. Like a weird sexual encounter the whole experience began a little strange, improved slightly, but ended in disappointment for at least one. It began the night before as we prepared to watch a presentation by one of the NGOs working with whale sharks. Rut, as usual, started chatting to a random person behind us who on this occasion was apparently recognisable. After trying my hardest to ignore the conversation as the two travelled the world together trying to figure out how they knew each other I gave in, turned around, and immediately identified the chap as the best man at a wedding we had been to in the UK a few months before. He was now in the Maldives photographing whale sharks. Mystery over, we settled in for an extremely interesting presentation covering a lot of what is currently known about whale sharks, including the fact they hadn’t been seen for over a week. The following morning, we headed off to get our snorkelling gear and jump on the boat confident in the knowledge that I would be back for a mid-afternoon job interview. Nope, the boat wouldn’t start. Three hours later the rest of the group went out on the boat while I stayed at the hotel acknowledging the fact that at some point I must go back to work. In the end my interview went well, while the group saw zero whale sharks and spent most of the time fighting off sea sickness on a hostile sea.

There was the opportunity to go whale shark hunting the following day, but no one appeared keen and opted for manta ray exploration instead. This was a wise decision, almost literally bumping into them not long after leaving the harbour. We parked up the boat and hopped in to take a swim alongside the huge yet elegant rays. Their speed is impressive, effortlessly cruising against the current as though they know the annoying humans behind them will soon run out of puff. From time to time its mouth would open wide to take in anything unfortunate enough to be in its way, including an endless procession of tiny plastic particles easily revealed by wee reflections of light. Mesmerised, but with my goggles rapidly filling with water, I made for the surface to find myself surrounded by five more tourist boats and their accompanying excitable cargo all launching themselves off the boat in a rush to get to the several manta rays in the area. Luckily one ray acted as a decoy allowing me and a few others to enjoy another ray largely unmolested before it eventually lit the afterburners and disappeared into the distance. Happy enough, we turned for the boat and were immediately swamped by a burst of colour as a flock of fish of the tropical variety took over the show which even got me momentarily excited. Nearing the boat, head still submerged with snorkel on, a bloody huge grey shark darted along the sea floor directly below us. As far as pointy, menacing looking sharks go, that was the largest I had seen without being in a cage. I boarded the boat rather chuffed by everything I had seen and experienced. My love-hate relationship with snorkelling has nulled any desire to try scuba diving despite how good everyone (but one other to date) tells me it is. Rut however, despite swimming like a kitten dropped in the middle of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, was determined to do a beginner’s course in controlled sinking. So, from the whale sharks we took off to a reef where Rut, fresh from her morning training, tanked up and hit the water with her dive instructor while the rest of us explored the tips of the reefs snorkelling in wonder at how they just drop off abruptly into oblivion; very much a love moment in my snorkelling career. Returning to the boat, Rut was all smiles and boasting she had gone down to 15 metres. I’m no expert but I didn’t think that was allowed until after quite a few more dives than one, and I refused to believe her until she asked her dive instructor to support her claim who abruptly shot her a look screaming ‘you’re gonna get me fired’. It would seem Rut is more likely to get her PADI license before a far more useful driving license.

Our final day saw us return to Male and head over to a nearby island that has been given protected status and where an NGO is working on reef restoration. They do well with electric only buses and mopeds with no traditional motor transport on the island, although with not a single solar panel or wind turbine apparently in sight it would appear most of the electric comes from fossil fuel. Close, but no cigar. It also seemed to me a little pointless trying to protect the coral on a little island sandwiched between an island dedicated and practically made of garbage, and an island colonised by construction workers fabricating huge new sections of concrete bridge. Meanwhile an armada of shipping sat off the coast of the islands supplying everything needed to sustain the country, which is well, everything. The Maldives is huge and so there must be islands left alone from tourists and over-population. At least I hope so as we failed to see any reef flourishing, and our final reef, a conservation project looked a sorry sight, no doubt made worse by us paddling around attempting to do a fish survey which underlined my disinterest in fish. What was interesting was finding out that a normal pencil works very well under water, not with paper mind, but on plastic if I remember rightly. After our failed attempt at being useful to the world of fish we headed to lunch which took two hours to deploy. For me this is not a problem in such countries however, being the last day of the tour there were others ready for home and lacking a little patience and understanding. Why people get so wound up when they have nowhere else to be, are on holiday, and I assume knowingly in a lesser developed country than their own, I have no idea.

The Maldivians are lovely people, their country is quite stunning yet there is a huge imbalance. Distant islands lack basic services while Bangladeshis appear to run the country, not from the top obviously, but from the bottom. They work the supply boats, clean the hotels, drive the taxis and serve the food. If the reading is to be believed they are paid next to nothing, passports are withheld, and many have been unable to return home for years on end despite living only up the road (maybe an exaggeration, same ocean though). Leaving our hotel on the morning to catch our flight, we got into the taxi and began to drive off when we were quickly stopped by the Bangladeshi hotel cleaner running down the street with cash in his hand. It was the tip we had left for him in the room, no great amount, only a bit of excess local currency, yet he threw himself down from the third floor assuming we had forgotten to take it with us. His face lit up once the misunderstanding had been resolved. There are stories of select workers getting huge tips on the expensive resort islands, apparently that doesn’t happen back in the real world. The Maldives was wonderful, but maybe visit Bangladesh on the way home for some truly authentic travel.

Check out the tour here.