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Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
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Service:
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Cleanliness:
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Food:
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Amenities:
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Madugali Island 4*
January 2010, departure from Kyiv.
About the tour operator and a bit about the transfer.
It seems that ALL tour operators trading in the Maldives have set a rule for themselves: to divorce a tourist, well, at least $ 500 per person. Last year I was going to have a rest with the help of the Zagorje company. Buying a tour vividly reminded an old Jewish joke about selling glasses (- These glasses cost ten rubles. - Good. - But this is for each glass. - Well, okay. - Yes, I forgot to tell you the price of their frames ... ) Supermanager for the Maldivian direction D Volnov, deigning to listen to my humble request to provide the opportunity to purchase a tour to the island of Velamenda, a few days later, after 2 reminders by phone, charged such a price that the price of Teztur, though with an inconvenient flight through Moscow, turned out to be much lower. But I would especially like to note the divorce with the transfer. The transfer table was found on the website of the same Teztur.
Zagorye charged a transfer: a seaplane is more expensive and said that it was one way. In short, the cost of the transfer turned out to be almost equal to the cost of the flight Kyiv - Male. Well, in the end, for a number of reasons (including this impudent divorce) my vacation in the Maldives in 2009 did not take place.
Armed with the experience of last year's searches, having gone through and-no, I decided to contact the Kyiv branch of "Maldiviana". Three young ladies (the young lady director has never seen, probably, well, a very busy person) work tirelessly in this company. True, as a rule, they do not come to work before the beginning of the eleventh. Young lady Yana took care of me, young lady Sveta, as I understand it, is mainly engaged in flights. This time my choice was on the island of Madugali - smaller and more comfortable than Velamendu. There are no special complaints about the work of the branch.
Yana, having thrown a couple of tens of dollars on the price lists from the website of the Moscow Maldivian, slowly started booking the tour. Tickets booked, hotel confirmed, tour paid. Hooray. Let's fly. But a small cloud (although by nature I am not a greedy person) was the question: why a transfer to Madugali (60km) costs $480, and a transfer to Sun Island (120km) $125. Let me explain the idea: a transfer by seaplane (in Maldivian by air taxi, I would say on an air bus) goes like this: 15 people (five rows of seats 1 + 2) and their luggage are stuffed into a plane of the "Corn" type on water skis and their luggage, then they are transported to route around the islands, the first stop we had was Madugali, the flight was 25 minutes, then the plane flew to 2 more islands. As far as I saw a plane with two passengers never took off, everyone was loaded to capacity.
Bottom line: if time permits, knowledge of the language and the skills to work online BOOK THE FLIGHT AND HOTEL YOURSELF: firstly, it will be cheaper, and secondly, there will be fewer clouds. The Maldives is a VISA FREE COUNTRY.
About flights and airports.
Kyiv - Dubai - Boeing UIA (as in the old Zhiguli)
Dubai - Colombo - Male - Airbus Sri Lankan Airlines (like a Mercedes)
Docking in Dubai is 4 and a half hours. Service is great. According to the arrows - transit - to any registration window, when there are three people in line - sir, please go to the next window. The airport itself (it was the first time) impressed with its size. We arrived at gate 102, and having nothing to do, I made it to gate 320. Well, as for me, excessive gilding and pomposity are everywhere, but the Arabs cannot do without it. The limited number of smoking places strained me: going into the smoking room, in which twenty smoking Chinese have been sitting compactly for an hour, I want to immediately quit smoking forever.
There was only one cafe with smoking visitors in the entire airport, somewhere at the 240th gate. True, they don’t make coffee in it, I had to drink cognac.
Colombo airport is more familiar. In my opinion, a little more than Borispol. A vigilant Sri Lankan customs officer forced me to take off my belt and sneakers (either a man-hater or flirting with a big white sahib, I did not understand).
Male airport. I didn’t really see it: on a separate island, small, one runway (the plane comes in for landing from the ocean, it’s beautiful). A stern Maldivian customs officer lazily commanded the loading of suitcases onto an X-ray tape. But, as soon as she heard Russian speech, she soared like a bird to the TV screen, before that the place at the screen was empty, her colleague at that time was wooling some Sri Lankans with a box of something seemingly alcoholic.
Tucked away in the suitcases, one per suitcase, the flat iron flasks of cognac aroused no suspicion in her, perhaps because of their non-industrial volume.
About the meeting, transfer and islands "not-buns".
At the exit from the airport, several racks of tour operators and a girl, Yulia, a representative of the Maldivians, were found with a sign. She escorted us to the seaplane check-in counter. There we weighed ALL luggage, including hand luggage (per person can be no more than 25 kg. ) and received boarding tickets for the seaplane. Then, after a quick briefing and parting words to us - call if anything, the staff on the island does not understand Russian, Yulia put us in a bus that was going to the air taxi pier and left. We didn't see her again.
Air taxis operate from three companies, respectively, aircraft and buses are painted in the same color. Ours was red. 10 minutes drive along the sea.
Upon exiting the bus into the open waiting room, at the information desk, we found out that our departure was in an hour or so (there are boards everywhere with flight numbers, time and berth number A / B / C). Time passed quickly: normal coffee from a local bar, a couple of dozen photos, and here we are.
We were the last to be let into the seaplane, which is quite reasonable - after all, we were the first to go out. Takeoff. The plane buzzes tolerably, but a couple of Italian madams used ear plugs. Until we gained altitude in the cabin, it was significantly hot (who remembers how to sit in an old railway car on a summer day), add very high humidity, then turn on the air conditioner - you feel better.
A few years ago, some enthusiastic lady launched a review on i-no with "...a wonderful view from the airplane window, these islands-buns ... ". Well, the islands do not look like plushies, for the life of me. The view is of course amazing: the ocean, a green island with a golden rim of sand. It doesn't look like plushies!
Island and staff.
Madugali Island has the shape of an ellipse stretched from east to west. Dimensions about 300 by 100 meters. The Madugali Island Airport is a 5 x 8 meter raft hooked onto a reef in the middle between two islands, about a kilometer from each. Nearby hangs the same raft - for the neighboring island. After splashing down, a boat with four aborigines with gloomy mugs moored at the airport (not otherwise cannibals ...we thought). They got us safely to shore. About the meeting personally with the manager with armfuls of flowers - a lie. One of the natives took us to the reception; on the way, in bad English, he told a learned lesson about the daily routine on the island. Hot towels and cold juice, however, with some delay, took place. There is a no-smoking sign at the reception. This place and the restaurant are two points on the island where smoking is not recommended, but if you want, you can.
The joyful porter told us that “for such dear guests” they prepared No. 3. Armed with knowledge from the Internet, we expressed a desire to get Nos. 30 to 40. By the way, the map of the island was removed from the wall behind the reception desk. As a compromise, we were offered a "very good room" No. 23. The room is good, spacious, everything works, the bed is 2 x 2.5 meters, the toilet is not in the garden. BUT WIND. We went to the Maldives to feel the heat, and not to Hurghada with a cold wind, without windbreak fences. After sitting on the terrace in the evening, smoking a cigarette and listening to the ocean, you freeze a little. From the wind (and a direct view of the ocean), the terrace is closed by a strip of palm trees and bushes about five meters, but from the passages made in it to the beach, it is pretty blowing. The island is designed for different wind times. Numbers from 1 to 31 are terraced to the west - there is no wind in summer, and numbers from 32 to 56 - to the east, there is no wind in winter. Numbers 1 to 15 do not have a sandy beach, stones and a reef are immediately behind the palm trees.
At number 3, a passage was cut through the coral, 50 meters and 2-3 meters wide. In other places, it is very difficult to get to the wall at low tide without getting skinned. From number 20 there is a sandy beach, but at number 30 the sun sets behind the palm trees at three o'clock, add the wind. There is practically no wind from No. 32, the beach is 5-10 meters wide. All this, of course, applies only to the winter season (read the school course about monsoons and trade winds). Yes, near number 42, a pipe with a diameter of 30 centimeters is led into the water, beyond the reef. I think there is a specific smell. Draw your own conclusions. And people swim with children too.
As a result, after several conversations at the reception and assurances that “after the tumors” you will definitely move to the sunny and calm side, we got room 32, which we were completely satisfied with (although the room was shabbier than the previous one and the Italians who lived there before us bred cockroaches in the tables, but that doesn't scare us. ) By the way, the Japanese-like girl-leader, with whom I had a chance to talk about the resettlement, Russian, at least understands, and maybe she knows it perfectly, but obviously, for the purpose of secrecy, she decided not to advertise it (perhaps mishandled). Separately, I want to talk about Ali's "housekipper", as it was presented. The janitor in No. 23 was a humble Bangladeshi who was happy to have a dollar left for him and occasionally, with the words "coco ser", brought a coconut. But in No. 32, the Maldivian Ali began by saying that for the Maldives, 1 dollar is not money.
When asked how much you earn per month, he modestly did not answer. The next day, the beach towels that this bloodsucker brought to our room were at least made of rags (it seemed that Ali had them specially stocked for obstinate foreigners). On a call to the reception, the towels were replaced immediately. Ali did not try to make friends anymore, although he cleaned up regularly. His insidious plan was revealed on the day of departure. This beetle rode up to the pier at five in the morning and brought an additional bill for the minibar so that he would be paid on the spot. There were still about forty minutes before departure, and I was not too lazy to walk as much as 50 meters to the reception in order to bring the villain to clean water. It turns out that this capitalist has been working on the island in the field of cleaning for 15 years (which is why he has on-duty preparations for divorcing tourists), and naive Italians are usually accommodated in rooms from 32 to 40. Well, he hasn’t run into the Slavs yet. Be carefull!
True, I did not observe outright theft on the island, but the administration warns: do not leave very valuable things in prominent places, do not tempt workers who will not earn money for this even in 10 years.
Entertainment
Flat-screen TVs were hung in all rooms (there is no Russian channel), it was clearly better without these talking boxes. Animation disco - every evening in the bar near the main restaurant somewhere until 23 there were some actions and quizzes in Italian, it was noisy. Every evening, after sunset, sharks and rays are fed on the pier - entertaining, but I didn’t get into the water myself. Fishing at sunset (sunrise) - was not (in my opinion, catching fish on a coil of wire is a profanity). Meeting with dolphins - we didn’t go for a reason - whether you meet them or not - is unknown and they are not allowed to swim with them. Offsite snorkeling - and why - moray eels, turtles, sharks and royal mantas met around Madugali (not all in one day, of course).
Uninhabited island - for a day $ 300 (in the reviews they wrote 100), we went for half a day. The island seems to be uninhabited, but there are plenty of fresh footprints on the sand and the boat with the natives who brought us, hanging 50 meters from the shore, did not add romance. And in general - I liked it. Diving: there is an instructor Misha - Russian-speaking, but - without a certificate, the course is very expensive (stock up on experience and a certificate at home).
In general, the vacation flew by unnoticed. Even though I felt like going home, I didn't want to leave. There is no such feeling either in Turkey or in Egypt. But if I want to go to Mkdugali again - frankly I don’t know. Sounded goodbye - we will be glad to see you back! - neither they nor me oblige to anything .. .
January 2010, departure from Kyiv.
About the tour operator and a bit about the transfer.
It seems that ALL tour operators trading in the Maldives have set a rule for themselves: to divorce a tourist, well, at least $ 500 per person. Last year I was going to have a rest with the help of the Zagorje company. Buying a tour vividly reminded an old Jewish joke about selling glasses (- These glasses cost ten rubles. - Good. - But this is for each glass. - Well, okay. - Yes, I forgot to tell you the price of their frames ... ) Supermanager for the Maldivian direction D Volnov, deigning to listen to my humble request to provide the opportunity to purchase a tour to the island of Velamenda, a few days later, after 2 reminders by phone, charged such a price that the price of Teztur, though with an inconvenient flight through Moscow, turned out to be much lower. But I would especially like to note the divorce with the transfer. The transfer table was found on the website of the same Teztur.
Zagorye charged a transfer: a seaplane is more expensive and said that it was one way. In short, the cost of the transfer turned out to be almost equal to the cost of the flight Kyiv - Male. Well, in the end, for a number of reasons (including this impudent divorce) my vacation in the Maldives in 2009 did not take place.
Armed with the experience of last year's searches, having gone through and-no, I decided to contact the Kyiv branch of "Maldiviana". Three young ladies (the young lady director has never seen, probably, well, a very busy person) work tirelessly in this company. True, as a rule, they do not come to work before the beginning of the eleventh. Young lady Yana took care of me, young lady Sveta, as I understand it, is mainly engaged in flights. This time my choice was on the island of Madugali - smaller and more comfortable than Velamendu. There are no special complaints about the work of the branch.
Yana, having thrown a couple of tens of dollars on the price lists from the website of the Moscow Maldivian, slowly started booking the tour. Tickets booked, hotel confirmed, tour paid. Hooray. Let's fly. But a small cloud (although by nature I am not a greedy person) was the question: why a transfer to Madugali (60km) costs $480, and a transfer to Sun Island (120km) $125. Let me explain the idea: a transfer by seaplane (in Maldivian by air taxi, I would say on an air bus) goes like this: 15 people (five rows of seats 1 + 2) and their luggage are stuffed into a plane of the "Corn" type on water skis and their luggage, then they are transported to route around the islands, the first stop we had was Madugali, the flight was 25 minutes, then the plane flew to 2 more islands. As far as I saw a plane with two passengers never took off, everyone was loaded to capacity.
Bottom line: if time permits, knowledge of the language and the skills to work online BOOK THE FLIGHT AND HOTEL YOURSELF: firstly, it will be cheaper, and secondly, there will be fewer clouds. The Maldives is a VISA FREE COUNTRY.
About flights and airports.
Kyiv - Dubai - Boeing UIA (as in the old Zhiguli)
Dubai - Colombo - Male - Airbus Sri Lankan Airlines (like a Mercedes)
Docking in Dubai is 4 and a half hours. Service is great. According to the arrows - transit - to any registration window, when there are three people in line - sir, please go to the next window. The airport itself (it was the first time) impressed with its size. We arrived at gate 102, and having nothing to do, I made it to gate 320. Well, as for me, excessive gilding and pomposity are everywhere, but the Arabs cannot do without it. The limited number of smoking places strained me: going into the smoking room, in which twenty smoking Chinese have been sitting compactly for an hour, I want to immediately quit smoking forever.
There was only one cafe with smoking visitors in the entire airport, somewhere at the 240th gate. True, they don’t make coffee in it, I had to drink cognac.
Colombo airport is more familiar. In my opinion, a little more than Borispol. A vigilant Sri Lankan customs officer forced me to take off my belt and sneakers (either a man-hater or flirting with a big white sahib, I did not understand).
Male airport. I didn’t really see it: on a separate island, small, one runway (the plane comes in for landing from the ocean, it’s beautiful). A stern Maldivian customs officer lazily commanded the loading of suitcases onto an X-ray tape. But, as soon as she heard Russian speech, she soared like a bird to the TV screen, before that the place at the screen was empty, her colleague at that time was wooling some Sri Lankans with a box of something seemingly alcoholic.
Tucked away in the suitcases, one per suitcase, the flat iron flasks of cognac aroused no suspicion in her, perhaps because of their non-industrial volume.
About the meeting, transfer and islands "not-buns".
At the exit from the airport, several racks of tour operators and a girl, Yulia, a representative of the Maldivians, were found with a sign. She escorted us to the seaplane check-in counter. There we weighed ALL luggage, including hand luggage (per person can be no more than 25 kg. ) and received boarding tickets for the seaplane. Then, after a quick briefing and parting words to us - call if anything, the staff on the island does not understand Russian, Yulia put us in a bus that was going to the air taxi pier and left. We didn't see her again.
Air taxis operate from three companies, respectively, aircraft and buses are painted in the same color. Ours was red. 10 minutes drive along the sea.
Upon exiting the bus into the open waiting room, at the information desk, we found out that our departure was in an hour or so (there are boards everywhere with flight numbers, time and berth number A / B / C). Time passed quickly: normal coffee from a local bar, a couple of dozen photos, and here we are.
We were the last to be let into the seaplane, which is quite reasonable - after all, we were the first to go out. Takeoff. The plane buzzes tolerably, but a couple of Italian madams used ear plugs. Until we gained altitude in the cabin, it was significantly hot (who remembers how to sit in an old railway car on a summer day), add very high humidity, then turn on the air conditioner - you feel better.
A few years ago, some enthusiastic lady launched a review on i-no with "...a wonderful view from the airplane window, these islands-buns ... ". Well, the islands do not look like plushies, for the life of me. The view is of course amazing: the ocean, a green island with a golden rim of sand. It doesn't look like plushies!
Island and staff.
Madugali Island has the shape of an ellipse stretched from east to west. Dimensions about 300 by 100 meters. The Madugali Island Airport is a 5 x 8 meter raft hooked onto a reef in the middle between two islands, about a kilometer from each. Nearby hangs the same raft - for the neighboring island. After splashing down, a boat with four aborigines with gloomy mugs moored at the airport (not otherwise cannibals ...we thought). They got us safely to shore. About the meeting personally with the manager with armfuls of flowers - a lie. One of the natives took us to the reception; on the way, in bad English, he told a learned lesson about the daily routine on the island. Hot towels and cold juice, however, with some delay, took place. There is a no-smoking sign at the reception. This place and the restaurant are two points on the island where smoking is not recommended, but if you want, you can.
The joyful porter told us that “for such dear guests” they prepared No. 3. Armed with knowledge from the Internet, we expressed a desire to get Nos. 30 to 40. By the way, the map of the island was removed from the wall behind the reception desk. As a compromise, we were offered a "very good room" No. 23. The room is good, spacious, everything works, the bed is 2 x 2.5 meters, the toilet is not in the garden. BUT WIND. We went to the Maldives to feel the heat, and not to Hurghada with a cold wind, without windbreak fences. After sitting on the terrace in the evening, smoking a cigarette and listening to the ocean, you freeze a little. From the wind (and a direct view of the ocean), the terrace is closed by a strip of palm trees and bushes about five meters, but from the passages made in it to the beach, it is pretty blowing. The island is designed for different wind times. Numbers from 1 to 31 are terraced to the west - there is no wind in summer, and numbers from 32 to 56 - to the east, there is no wind in winter. Numbers 1 to 15 do not have a sandy beach, stones and a reef are immediately behind the palm trees.
At number 3, a passage was cut through the coral, 50 meters and 2-3 meters wide. In other places, it is very difficult to get to the wall at low tide without getting skinned. From number 20 there is a sandy beach, but at number 30 the sun sets behind the palm trees at three o'clock, add the wind. There is practically no wind from No. 32, the beach is 5-10 meters wide. All this, of course, applies only to the winter season (read the school course about monsoons and trade winds). Yes, near number 42, a pipe with a diameter of 30 centimeters is led into the water, beyond the reef. I think there is a specific smell. Draw your own conclusions. And people swim with children too.
As a result, after several conversations at the reception and assurances that “after the tumors” you will definitely move to the sunny and calm side, we got room 32, which we were completely satisfied with (although the room was shabbier than the previous one and the Italians who lived there before us bred cockroaches in the tables, but that doesn't scare us. ) By the way, the Japanese-like girl-leader, with whom I had a chance to talk about the resettlement, Russian, at least understands, and maybe she knows it perfectly, but obviously, for the purpose of secrecy, she decided not to advertise it (perhaps mishandled). Separately, I want to talk about Ali's "housekipper", as it was presented. The janitor in No. 23 was a humble Bangladeshi who was happy to have a dollar left for him and occasionally, with the words "coco ser", brought a coconut. But in No. 32, the Maldivian Ali began by saying that for the Maldives, 1 dollar is not money.
When asked how much you earn per month, he modestly did not answer. The next day, the beach towels that this bloodsucker brought to our room were at least made of rags (it seemed that Ali had them specially stocked for obstinate foreigners). On a call to the reception, the towels were replaced immediately. Ali did not try to make friends anymore, although he cleaned up regularly. His insidious plan was revealed on the day of departure. This beetle rode up to the pier at five in the morning and brought an additional bill for the minibar so that he would be paid on the spot. There were still about forty minutes before departure, and I was not too lazy to walk as much as 50 meters to the reception in order to bring the villain to clean water. It turns out that this capitalist has been working on the island in the field of cleaning for 15 years (which is why he has on-duty preparations for divorcing tourists), and naive Italians are usually accommodated in rooms from 32 to 40. Well, he hasn’t run into the Slavs yet. Be carefull!
True, I did not observe outright theft on the island, but the administration warns: do not leave very valuable things in prominent places, do not tempt workers who will not earn money for this even in 10 years.
Entertainment
Flat-screen TVs were hung in all rooms (there is no Russian channel), it was clearly better without these talking boxes. Animation disco - every evening in the bar near the main restaurant somewhere until 23 there were some actions and quizzes in Italian, it was noisy. Every evening, after sunset, sharks and rays are fed on the pier - entertaining, but I didn’t get into the water myself. Fishing at sunset (sunrise) - was not (in my opinion, catching fish on a coil of wire is a profanity). Meeting with dolphins - we didn’t go for a reason - whether you meet them or not - is unknown and they are not allowed to swim with them. Offsite snorkeling - and why - moray eels, turtles, sharks and royal mantas met around Madugali (not all in one day, of course).
Uninhabited island - for a day $ 300 (in the reviews they wrote 100), we went for half a day. The island seems to be uninhabited, but there are plenty of fresh footprints on the sand and the boat with the natives who brought us, hanging 50 meters from the shore, did not add romance. And in general - I liked it. Diving: there is an instructor Misha - Russian-speaking, but - without a certificate, the course is very expensive (stock up on experience and a certificate at home).
In general, the vacation flew by unnoticed. Even though I felt like going home, I didn't want to leave. There is no such feeling either in Turkey or in Egypt. But if I want to go to Mkdugali again - frankly I don’t know. Sounded goodbye - we will be glad to see you back! - neither they nor me oblige to anything .. .
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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- time well spent
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