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Miduparu Island, RAA Atoll, hotel of the same name - Miduparu.
So let's start from the beginning. As usual, in our case, we considered a variety of destinations and hotels, due to the fact that we are flying four, two adults, two children (6.5 and 3.5 years old), our requirements are somewhat different from the standard ones, and the search for an acceptable option sometimes happens very non-trivial. Yes, and this time the time frame did not favor an imposing approach to the issue, This time the main problem was with the flight - there were options with the Caribbean, and with Indonesia, and with Vietnam, And the hotels were confirmed, and there was agreement to accommodate two adults and two children in one room, but there were no tickets for the dates, or the name of the air carrier did not please. By the way, we were very disappointed in the Turkish discount service.
ru - the information published in their search engines does not correspond to reality, managers who manage to break through are often not interested in any actions and are incompetent, and if you still manage to get to the specifics, then a completely inadequate package calculation system comes into play and at the exit, the prices are HIGHER than those of the operator whose offer they are calculating (discounts !! ) before that, we went to various countries using tourist discounts, there was no such disgrace back in November, we decided to refuse their services for ourselves. Well, yes it is, the lyrics. In the case of Meduparu, having dealt with "tourist discounts" for several days, we began to communicate directly with the tour operator - "Transaero Tour" and did not fail, the cost of the package for 4 people turned out to be somewhat lower and it became much easier and more pleasant to communicate with people.
The flight there by Transaero on a Boeing 747-400 left the most positive impressions, many thanks to the crew (flight 509), the guys did their best and did everything to facilitate a long night flight. The children had the opportunity to sleep well and endured the flight easily, largely thanks to the crew. The airport in Male is located on a separate island, one runway and around the ocean). The capital itself is on a neighboring island, you have to swim, got off the plane and walked along the airfield to the airport building, passport control and baggage claim did not take much time, the airport is not air-conditioned, it’s just made on the principle of a hut, everything is blown around. The hosts are working smartly and quickly sorting out a little of the citizens who have gone crazy from the flight. In our case, we were waiting for another air taxi flight to the island.
First, check-in for a new flight, baggage check-in, all sorts of paperwork, then they are taken by bus to the other side of the island where there is an airfield on the water, something like our bus station, not buses and asphalt, but pontoons and small turboprop hydroplanes, mainly DHC- 6-300. The salon is smaller than the streetcar, within 30 passengers, however Stuart is present. He reads out to the passengers their rights in English; and distributes earplugs. Aircraft pilots - like characters from films - Europeans in shorts, middle-aged, with burnt hair and a completely non-European tan - very colorful personalities.
Some of the inconveniences of flying on a buzzing dragonfly-like car are more than compensated by the beauties that open from a bird's eye view, this is something indescribable, small islands uninhabited and inhabited, with tiny hotels, houses on the water, coral banks as if with lakes inside, transparent water of amazing shades translucent by the sun, with splashing fish, gulls and albatrosses proudly soaring almost on the same level with the airplane, all this keeps the mood high and just captures and disconnects from the worldly bustle, you completely forget about the previous long flight. Be sure to take videos and photos with you, through the porthole you get quite tolerable photos.
After about 40 minutes of flight, the plane begins to descend and, in spray and foam, sits right in the middle of the ocean near a small island. Here they arrived.
At the pier, the hotel staff meets, the luggage is taken to the reception and the process of resettlement begins. With Russians, basically, they act according to the standard scheme. Settlement in distant rooms - above 170, on the scale of a tiny island, this, by and large, does not matter at all - the ocean is from all sides, well, go 100 meters further to the restaurant. From about 160 rooms from north to south and up to 200X rooms along the coast, a dam was built from bags of cement, which somewhat complicates the use of the ocean for its intended purpose directly next to its booth and makes it impossible for children to enter the water. But a lot of crabs live on the dam, of all varieties and systems, it is very interesting for children to watch them and play with them with a string. In the area of .200 rooms there is a similarity of Gogol, Stargorod, non-drying, puddles with ocean water, crabs, fish and other living creatures.
The sand in this water area is rough and it is uncomfortable to walk on it barefoot (under-perforated corals). There is a kind of raw, gooey spirit that does not match well with the concepts of a fresh ocean breeze. However, if you didn’t like the location of the booth, where you were taken with a sweet smile in an electric car, then you can fill out an application form for resettlement at the reception and you will be called in the morning at most two in the room and offered to see housing under a different number. Yes! Upon arrival, Russian-speaking vacationers are met by a pretty girl Maya, apparently with Samostiyna, she gives the first information, answers questions and, smiling sweetly at the damned Muscovites, delicately sends them with their awkward wishes about initially good resettlement, they say they knew where they were going? Have you read about the dam? What else do you need? Write an application at the reception, the Maldives comrades will consider the issue in working order and make a decision.
Take away your dollars, here you are not Turkey. (Where does this lady get information about people arriving on the necklace islands, and what makes her think about the habitues of the resorts of Alanya and Side is not entirely clear; ). But in general, a very courteous and smiling compatriot from the post-Soviet space, ready to convey any information to you in the most intelligible form. So, further, in essence. The rooms are completely without frills, standard hotel furnishings, rather shabby, a bathroom with a shower cubicle and combined with a toilet, from which there is an exit under the open sky, into a fenced room with a semblance of a shower, a wooden visor is attached to the wall, taller than the average person, on which you can give water. Like such a shower-waterfall - very exotic and quite convenient - there is a place to dry and store flippers and all beach utensils.
On the other hand, there is an exit through the balcony door to a kind of terrace, under a canopy, there are two armchairs, a small table, and a rather capacious dryer hanger. Each room has 2 sunbeds, which can be taken out to the ocean if desired, the maximum distance from the water is 100 meters, there are rooms 20 meters from the surf. There is a mini fridge in the room with paid drinks not included in the all inclusive package. A bottle of 1.5 liters of water per person per day is put on the table.
Drink lots of water! Moisture loss there is simply catastrophic, on the one hand, the air temperature and a very active sun, on the other hand, the water temperature is still below body temperature, the body cools down and, as a result, begins to get rid of excess liquid in its opinion. Two liters of liquid drunk per day is simply nothing for those places, the dose must be at least doubled, and kept at this level.
So, further, there is a fan in the room under the ceiling, an air conditioner on the wall. The situation turns out to be stupid - you turn on the air conditioner - it blows directly on the bed and by morning there is every chance of getting bilateral pneumonia, turn it off and after 10 minutes you begin to longingly remember the night coolness of the middle lane, once great and powerful. Option two - you turn on the fan, it again blows right on the bed, it blows quite strongly, and in the morning you wake up with a stuffy nose, swollen throat and incomprehensible sensations throughout the body. About like after two hours of continuous diving from the pier with a fish into the ocean. But pneumonia in this case does not threaten! Some complications with rhinitis-sinusitis do not count.
The way out is simple, like everything ingenious, it is enough not to close the balcony door, adjust the gap with curtains, and leave a gap in the bathroom, the room begins to stretch with fresh ocean air, the draft does not blow through and does not interfere with sleep. Fortunately, there are no creeping-flying reptiles on the island that are dangerous to health. There are mosquitoes, but somehow they didn’t bother us very much, it’s quite tolerable. Remembering mosquitoes on the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia, the Maldives can be ignored. There are many coconut palms on the island, and coconuts are lying around everywhere, of varying degrees of maturity, if you have the desire and a good, strong knife, you can open them, drink some water through a straw, and the kids (and not only) ate the pulp with pleasure So on, food in restaurant.
The All Inclusive package includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks at the bar according to the schedule. Strong spirits of certain varieties and beer.
Despite the availability of booze, drunks have never been seen, just as the class is absent citizens with bulletproof crosses on chains as thick as their hands, speaking out loud exclusively in obscenities and proudly giving valuable instructions on a mobile phone, while simultaneously pouring liters of beer into themselves, with which they the "fashionable" resorts of Turkey and Egypt are famous (yes, Tai is already familiar with them firsthand) Five types of alcoholic cocktails, completely incomprehensible. (I wanted to ask: Children of about what age are given such doses of alcohol with juices? ). There are five more types of non-alcoholic cocktails - quite tasty, at least the kids drank with pleasure.
Breakfasts - the most standard, scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs, potatoes, beans, some kind of meat-chicken, sausages-bacon, sweets, Tea-coffee without restrictions.
By the way, the coffee is very good, not crappy, soluble Nescafe and others like it, but good grains ripened at the equator, very much resembled coffee consumed at one time in central Africa. They brew it really in a simple way, with boiling water. That's what is incomprehensible and insulting - there are very few fruits, they are even often dosed. Very tasty papaya, pineapples are often so-so, watermelons not so much. Melons are not bad. Sometimes pomegranates. Apples. Canned fruits. Yoghurts. Flakes of two or three types, milk.
Lunches - pureed soups, quite tasty, sometimes from seafood, two types of rice, white and with different fillers. Meat-chicken, vegetables or fried or stewed, something like diet, boiled. Fish. The food often contains spices, pepper. Yes, there are seasonings for lunch and dinner on a separate table - something like jam in Chile ...for example, mango jam from Chile, pineapple from Chile, papaya ...something else is incomprehensible, but very unusual and tasty.
However, if you have a sensitive stomach, then I do not advise you to take dishes with curry. Some peculiar spices are used that are very capable of causing heartburn. (In Thailand, I ate on the street and in various establishments for the locals, I never said the magic phrase “But spicy, please”, sometimes there was a feeling that a fire would start from the breath, but I never experienced any consequences, the stomach worked like new, here but no, no, but I had to swallow some kind of sorbent and remember about soda). Well, yes, this is a personal matter for everyone what and how much to eat.
Dinners, in general, differ little from lunch, there is a certain dish of the day, which is either grilled or dispensed in doses. As a rule, it is fish, Lemb, Mouton, beef, chicken, less often pork. In general, the food is good, but if you are used to gourmet food and have a tendency to gourmet, you will obviously be disappointed by the local feeder.
Yes, there is ice cream - very tasty, sometimes with fresh fruit, somewhat reminiscent of Baskin-Robbins. At home, we do not often indulge children with ice cream, where they came off to the fullest and without any consequences.
The concept of "all inclusive" in the Maldives has nothing to do with the Turkish or Egyptian similar service, it is recommended that you first find out on the spot what is meant by this, so that there are no misunderstandings.
If you are traveling alone, without children, then half board will be more than enough, in extreme cases, an additional payment on the spot per person is 30 bucks per day for all inclusive.
By resettlement, a specific table with a specific waiter is assigned to you.
A beach with fine, white and clean sand, water temperature around 30 degrees, the water is very clean, the strip from the edge of the surf is 10 meters sand, convenient for children, and splashing in the water, then the coral reef begins with all kinds of living creatures. Not to swim over the reef and not to watch all this beauty is simply a crime against nature, if you didn’t bring masks and fins with you, then you can rent everything at water sports - $ 8 per day set. You can, however, buy at a local shop. There are quite good masks, and prices, in principle, are Moscow.
(a simple mask with a snorkel will cost 40 bucks, masks for diving up to 100 dollars) After 10-30 meters, the reef goes into the depths, such as such an underwater slide, it drops by 20-25 meters, that's where all the fun happens on the border , live lionfish, moray eels, giant, gray, spotted, saw a devil fish, a crocodile fish, lobster mustaches stick out, large fish (something like tuna) are approaching from the depths, if you swim further away, you begin to feel all the power and tranquility of the ocean, this something indescribable. But you will not see such underwater beauty as it was in the Red Sea, especially in the coral reserves of Ras Mohammed and Ras um Sid, in Sharm, at the end of the last - beginning of this century, those multi-storey coral gardens of all colors and shades, with an abundance of small coral fish and other small living creatures, I'm afraid I'll have to look in Egypt, except perhaps in the open sea on coral banks.
But still very impressive, especially for a city dweller. The hotel has entertainment for vacationers - at 21.30 they arrange feeding of fish from the pier, turn on the backlight into the water and throw out pieces of fish, rays, turtles, moray eels, impressive sized tuna and other marine predators swim up. Photographing all this is not very successful - the water is very glare, but it is very interesting to watch. The ocean is already boiling, predators under water tear their prey to pieces. A lot of people gather, the main thing is not to dive into this fish catering. We regularly arranged similar entertainment for ourselves, took boiled eggs from the canteen (of course, peeled ones) and fed the fish at the pier, the fuss of the fish was very uplifting, it was especially interesting to watch under water. Children enjoyed taking part and swimming among the marine life.
Right next to the pier, there is a swimming pool with ocean water, a built-in bar, and a paddling pool area for children, next to two types of jacuzzis.
And, yes, here's another thing - the deck boards around the pool, and the pier are painted black. Whose hangover head came up with the idea to use dark dyes in the subequatorial zone is a mystery to connoisseurs. Under the direct rays of the sun, all this heats up to a completely unbearable temperature, walking barefoot from the beach, let's say to the toilet, through the pool area, frankly, is a non-trivial task.
A little away from the pier, in a fenced area, there are so-called "Bungal on the water. " The booths are on stilts, right above the reef, the contents are a class higher, the glass floor, their own a la carte restaurant with lobsters, shrimp and other exotics, the price includes one dive, massage and personal combat, resorting to trot on call. Theoretically, there is no way for poor citizens who do not want to pay extra 400 bucks per night to this territory. However, you can (and should) go there.
A very beautiful, well-groomed territory, a kind of exotic garden, a clean, soft beach, a more lively, vibrant coral reef. We did not dare to try all this bourgeoisie more because of the fear of independent, unpredictable diving into the ocean of the younger generation.
Further clockwise are the houses belonging to the exotic village, there is a more well-groomed, lively area, all sorts of fountains, flowers, etc. but the beach itself and the ocean are not as good as those of the beach villas, accommodation there includes a Spa package and costs a little more than beach villas. There is also water sports, there is a rental of various marine entertainments, scooters, surfs, it seems like they can ride a parachute, there is also a diving center where the Russian-speaking diver Yura works, a rather contact and pleasant middle-aged person, in principle, he can advise and somehow contribute with various boat trips and excursions.
You can order a dive from him, issue a Padi certificate. Temporary, until confirmation within a year, a little more than a hundred dollars, and permanent, after 4 classes and dives, about $ 650. Once again, we were convinced that our compatriots, by the will of fate, who found themselves in a foreign land, always react very joyfully to some products that are characteristic of their homeland, but completely absent in their current habitats: banal Borodino bread, lard, dry sausage, herring turn into a delicacy for them and are able to make many barriers imperceptible at least for a while.
Money doesn't work like that. At least not the amounts that fit into the concept of "tip", especially since they emphasize and exacerbate the different situation in society.
Further, the hotel organizes various excursions and entertainment for its guests. Of course, all this is somehow connected with the ocean and neighboring islands.
Excursions are not cheap, for example, a boat trip within an hour of sailing to a place where manti hang out, an hourly organized sailing with them costs 40 bucks per person (+13.5% taxes). The boat takes up to 30 passengers. You can go fishing, morning and evening 50 dollars from the bow (fry then catch for you 15 dollars). There are excursions to neighboring islands, inhabited and not. You can go on an excursion to a non-resort island, such as visiting the locals, to see how they live. In general, entertainment for every taste. There are not very many dangers in the ocean near the shore, the probability of running into a lionfish is extremely small, moray eels don’t need vacationers, so you need to dive into the moray eel’s face with a “finger” to its parking 5 meters. I didn’t notice jellyfish in the water. I didn't experience any burning sensations or pricks, as sometimes in the Red Sea. There are very few sea urchins and they hide in such a way that it’s not easy to see, let alone step on. This is not the Adriatic for you!
Sharks, as they say, in this part of the northern atoll are quite rare, for some reason they practically do not swim. (I immediately remembered Sharm, where sharks were also never seen near the shore, but this did not stop them from chewing on various bourgeois grandmothers) Yes! The most dangerous creatures in those waters are the Japanese, it's something with something. Imagine a picture - the sun is at its zenith, the warmest, calm ocean, the very complacency weighs in the air, and then a creature appears dressed in a full wetsuit, gloves on his hands, a rubber hat on his head in addition to a mask, woolen legs !! ! socks and sort of nasty, shortened fins, hard as pieces of iron. And this something strives to literally flop into the ocean from the pier, preferably on someone’s head, once in the water it starts to randomly flutter its legs and arms, completely unaware that there may be people nearby, and their stupid flippers can easily be great hurt.
We pushed these grief-stricken ichthyants away from us almost with swear words, they stubbornly strove to swim closer to the children, making convulsive movements with their arms and legs, moreover, they constantly get out onto the pier, correct and tighten something for themselves, after which they try to get down the ladder back into the water, on the half way they freeze, they begin to figure something out, they can pray, and finally, once in the water, they resemble an intermittently working outboard motor. After 5 minutes, the cycle repeats. Moreover, these primates have complete confidence that they are at least alone on the pier, and even on the island as a whole. The surrounding people are completely ignored. When I first saw this proud miracle from the Land of the Rising Sun preparing to dive into the water, I looked with respect - I think, desperate guys gathered on the neighboring island on their own! However, the reality appeared in a completely different tragic-comic aspect.
Well, when they, in all their ammunition, importantly went to the shore with an umbrella over their heads, then you can die at all under the weight of realizing the worthlessness of your own existence in the world next to such higher organisms. So beware of the Japanese preparing to snorkel. Yes, propos, there is no doctor on the island, no one will give you any medicines without his prescription (you have to sail to the neighboring island), so do not forget to take a small first-aid kit with you according to your own understanding. There will be no extra plaster and brilliant green.
Shoes on the island are not needed in principle, we and the children walked barefoot all day, even to a restaurant, no one cares about this. However, there is a chance to catch a thorn with your foot, or not to notice the root of the plant ...you can get hurt on the corals. Quite noticeable are the tidal drops in the water level, over those places where they swam before lunch, in the late afternoon it’s already possible not to swim, you’ll rub yourself against the corals.
Ravens live on the island - but not like our gray crows, important and respectable, but some kind of small, stunted and fussy caricatures, but thievish to the point of no way. Do not remove or leave in any case gold pieces, jewelry, glasses and similar trifles, they will disappear literally before our eyes. In the canteen, they may well pull off the bread and a piece from the plate if you move away. Well, yes, crows are famous for this as a class. Flying chanterelles hover over the island, so cute, red-haired ones. They often hang upside down on palm trees with a completely absent look, lizards rush about, some kind of land birds with long beaks, a flock of little chickens walk around. A heron sits on a palm tree, in the morning it can be observed in the ocean, it will settle on top of the coral, apparently catching fish. I suspect that the gouged crabs near the dam are her work. Cats and dogs were not seen. The island is very green, new palm trees are constantly being planted.
They are simply not able to let their environment in, let go of their grip on the world and let go of the consciousness of their own coolness and exclusivity, god bless them.
Don't listen to those. The Maldives is great, the equatorial energy is incomparable, the boost of energy and positive feelings will be with you for a long time to come. We will definitely come again and bring the children (or maybe they will bring us) to the necklace, even though the world is so big and there is still so much to see. It is a pity that such beauty will disappear from the face of the planet in the near future.
So let's start from the beginning. As usual, in our case, we considered a variety of destinations and hotels, due to the fact that we are flying four, two adults, two children (6.5 and 3.5 years old), our requirements are somewhat different from the standard ones, and the search for an acceptable option sometimes happens very non-trivial. Yes, and this time the time frame did not favor an imposing approach to the issue, This time the main problem was with the flight - there were options with the Caribbean, and with Indonesia, and with Vietnam, And the hotels were confirmed, and there was agreement to accommodate two adults and two children in one room, but there were no tickets for the dates, or the name of the air carrier did not please. By the way, we were very disappointed in the Turkish discount service.
ru - the information published in their search engines does not correspond to reality, managers who manage to break through are often not interested in any actions and are incompetent, and if you still manage to get to the specifics, then a completely inadequate package calculation system comes into play and at the exit, the prices are HIGHER than those of the operator whose offer they are calculating (discounts !! ) before that, we went to various countries using tourist discounts, there was no such disgrace back in November, we decided to refuse their services for ourselves. Well, yes it is, the lyrics. In the case of Meduparu, having dealt with "tourist discounts" for several days, we began to communicate directly with the tour operator - "Transaero Tour" and did not fail, the cost of the package for 4 people turned out to be somewhat lower and it became much easier and more pleasant to communicate with people.
The flight there by Transaero on a Boeing 747-400 left the most positive impressions, many thanks to the crew (flight 509), the guys did their best and did everything to facilitate a long night flight. The children had the opportunity to sleep well and endured the flight easily, largely thanks to the crew. The airport in Male is located on a separate island, one runway and around the ocean). The capital itself is on a neighboring island, you have to swim, got off the plane and walked along the airfield to the airport building, passport control and baggage claim did not take much time, the airport is not air-conditioned, it’s just made on the principle of a hut, everything is blown around. The hosts are working smartly and quickly sorting out a little of the citizens who have gone crazy from the flight. In our case, we were waiting for another air taxi flight to the island.
First, check-in for a new flight, baggage check-in, all sorts of paperwork, then they are taken by bus to the other side of the island where there is an airfield on the water, something like our bus station, not buses and asphalt, but pontoons and small turboprop hydroplanes, mainly DHC- 6-300. The salon is smaller than the streetcar, within 30 passengers, however Stuart is present. He reads out to the passengers their rights in English; and distributes earplugs. Aircraft pilots - like characters from films - Europeans in shorts, middle-aged, with burnt hair and a completely non-European tan - very colorful personalities.
Some of the inconveniences of flying on a buzzing dragonfly-like car are more than compensated by the beauties that open from a bird's eye view, this is something indescribable, small islands uninhabited and inhabited, with tiny hotels, houses on the water, coral banks as if with lakes inside, transparent water of amazing shades translucent by the sun, with splashing fish, gulls and albatrosses proudly soaring almost on the same level with the airplane, all this keeps the mood high and just captures and disconnects from the worldly bustle, you completely forget about the previous long flight. Be sure to take videos and photos with you, through the porthole you get quite tolerable photos.
After about 40 minutes of flight, the plane begins to descend and, in spray and foam, sits right in the middle of the ocean near a small island. Here they arrived.
At the pier, the hotel staff meets, the luggage is taken to the reception and the process of resettlement begins. With Russians, basically, they act according to the standard scheme. Settlement in distant rooms - above 170, on the scale of a tiny island, this, by and large, does not matter at all - the ocean is from all sides, well, go 100 meters further to the restaurant. From about 160 rooms from north to south and up to 200X rooms along the coast, a dam was built from bags of cement, which somewhat complicates the use of the ocean for its intended purpose directly next to its booth and makes it impossible for children to enter the water. But a lot of crabs live on the dam, of all varieties and systems, it is very interesting for children to watch them and play with them with a string. In the area of .200 rooms there is a similarity of Gogol, Stargorod, non-drying, puddles with ocean water, crabs, fish and other living creatures.
The sand in this water area is rough and it is uncomfortable to walk on it barefoot (under-perforated corals). There is a kind of raw, gooey spirit that does not match well with the concepts of a fresh ocean breeze. However, if you didn’t like the location of the booth, where you were taken with a sweet smile in an electric car, then you can fill out an application form for resettlement at the reception and you will be called in the morning at most two in the room and offered to see housing under a different number. Yes! Upon arrival, Russian-speaking vacationers are met by a pretty girl Maya, apparently with Samostiyna, she gives the first information, answers questions and, smiling sweetly at the damned Muscovites, delicately sends them with their awkward wishes about initially good resettlement, they say they knew where they were going? Have you read about the dam? What else do you need? Write an application at the reception, the Maldives comrades will consider the issue in working order and make a decision.
Take away your dollars, here you are not Turkey. (Where does this lady get information about people arriving on the necklace islands, and what makes her think about the habitues of the resorts of Alanya and Side is not entirely clear; ). But in general, a very courteous and smiling compatriot from the post-Soviet space, ready to convey any information to you in the most intelligible form. So, further, in essence. The rooms are completely without frills, standard hotel furnishings, rather shabby, a bathroom with a shower cubicle and combined with a toilet, from which there is an exit under the open sky, into a fenced room with a semblance of a shower, a wooden visor is attached to the wall, taller than the average person, on which you can give water. Like such a shower-waterfall - very exotic and quite convenient - there is a place to dry and store flippers and all beach utensils.
On the other hand, there is an exit through the balcony door to a kind of terrace, under a canopy, there are two armchairs, a small table, and a rather capacious dryer hanger. Each room has 2 sunbeds, which can be taken out to the ocean if desired, the maximum distance from the water is 100 meters, there are rooms 20 meters from the surf. There is a mini fridge in the room with paid drinks not included in the all inclusive package. A bottle of 1.5 liters of water per person per day is put on the table.
Drink lots of water! Moisture loss there is simply catastrophic, on the one hand, the air temperature and a very active sun, on the other hand, the water temperature is still below body temperature, the body cools down and, as a result, begins to get rid of excess liquid in its opinion. Two liters of liquid drunk per day is simply nothing for those places, the dose must be at least doubled, and kept at this level.
So, further, there is a fan in the room under the ceiling, an air conditioner on the wall. The situation turns out to be stupid - you turn on the air conditioner - it blows directly on the bed and by morning there is every chance of getting bilateral pneumonia, turn it off and after 10 minutes you begin to longingly remember the night coolness of the middle lane, once great and powerful. Option two - you turn on the fan, it again blows right on the bed, it blows quite strongly, and in the morning you wake up with a stuffy nose, swollen throat and incomprehensible sensations throughout the body. About like after two hours of continuous diving from the pier with a fish into the ocean. But pneumonia in this case does not threaten! Some complications with rhinitis-sinusitis do not count.
The way out is simple, like everything ingenious, it is enough not to close the balcony door, adjust the gap with curtains, and leave a gap in the bathroom, the room begins to stretch with fresh ocean air, the draft does not blow through and does not interfere with sleep. Fortunately, there are no creeping-flying reptiles on the island that are dangerous to health. There are mosquitoes, but somehow they didn’t bother us very much, it’s quite tolerable. Remembering mosquitoes on the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia, the Maldives can be ignored. There are many coconut palms on the island, and coconuts are lying around everywhere, of varying degrees of maturity, if you have the desire and a good, strong knife, you can open them, drink some water through a straw, and the kids (and not only) ate the pulp with pleasure So on, food in restaurant.
The All Inclusive package includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks at the bar according to the schedule. Strong spirits of certain varieties and beer.
Despite the availability of booze, drunks have never been seen, just as the class is absent citizens with bulletproof crosses on chains as thick as their hands, speaking out loud exclusively in obscenities and proudly giving valuable instructions on a mobile phone, while simultaneously pouring liters of beer into themselves, with which they the "fashionable" resorts of Turkey and Egypt are famous (yes, Tai is already familiar with them firsthand) Five types of alcoholic cocktails, completely incomprehensible. (I wanted to ask: Children of about what age are given such doses of alcohol with juices? ). There are five more types of non-alcoholic cocktails - quite tasty, at least the kids drank with pleasure.
Breakfasts - the most standard, scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs, potatoes, beans, some kind of meat-chicken, sausages-bacon, sweets, Tea-coffee without restrictions.
By the way, the coffee is very good, not crappy, soluble Nescafe and others like it, but good grains ripened at the equator, very much resembled coffee consumed at one time in central Africa. They brew it really in a simple way, with boiling water. That's what is incomprehensible and insulting - there are very few fruits, they are even often dosed. Very tasty papaya, pineapples are often so-so, watermelons not so much. Melons are not bad. Sometimes pomegranates. Apples. Canned fruits. Yoghurts. Flakes of two or three types, milk.
Lunches - pureed soups, quite tasty, sometimes from seafood, two types of rice, white and with different fillers. Meat-chicken, vegetables or fried or stewed, something like diet, boiled. Fish. The food often contains spices, pepper. Yes, there are seasonings for lunch and dinner on a separate table - something like jam in Chile ...for example, mango jam from Chile, pineapple from Chile, papaya ...something else is incomprehensible, but very unusual and tasty.
However, if you have a sensitive stomach, then I do not advise you to take dishes with curry. Some peculiar spices are used that are very capable of causing heartburn. (In Thailand, I ate on the street and in various establishments for the locals, I never said the magic phrase “But spicy, please”, sometimes there was a feeling that a fire would start from the breath, but I never experienced any consequences, the stomach worked like new, here but no, no, but I had to swallow some kind of sorbent and remember about soda). Well, yes, this is a personal matter for everyone what and how much to eat.
Dinners, in general, differ little from lunch, there is a certain dish of the day, which is either grilled or dispensed in doses. As a rule, it is fish, Lemb, Mouton, beef, chicken, less often pork. In general, the food is good, but if you are used to gourmet food and have a tendency to gourmet, you will obviously be disappointed by the local feeder.
Yes, there is ice cream - very tasty, sometimes with fresh fruit, somewhat reminiscent of Baskin-Robbins. At home, we do not often indulge children with ice cream, where they came off to the fullest and without any consequences.
The concept of "all inclusive" in the Maldives has nothing to do with the Turkish or Egyptian similar service, it is recommended that you first find out on the spot what is meant by this, so that there are no misunderstandings.
If you are traveling alone, without children, then half board will be more than enough, in extreme cases, an additional payment on the spot per person is 30 bucks per day for all inclusive.
By resettlement, a specific table with a specific waiter is assigned to you.
A beach with fine, white and clean sand, water temperature around 30 degrees, the water is very clean, the strip from the edge of the surf is 10 meters sand, convenient for children, and splashing in the water, then the coral reef begins with all kinds of living creatures. Not to swim over the reef and not to watch all this beauty is simply a crime against nature, if you didn’t bring masks and fins with you, then you can rent everything at water sports - $ 8 per day set. You can, however, buy at a local shop. There are quite good masks, and prices, in principle, are Moscow.
(a simple mask with a snorkel will cost 40 bucks, masks for diving up to 100 dollars) After 10-30 meters, the reef goes into the depths, such as such an underwater slide, it drops by 20-25 meters, that's where all the fun happens on the border , live lionfish, moray eels, giant, gray, spotted, saw a devil fish, a crocodile fish, lobster mustaches stick out, large fish (something like tuna) are approaching from the depths, if you swim further away, you begin to feel all the power and tranquility of the ocean, this something indescribable. But you will not see such underwater beauty as it was in the Red Sea, especially in the coral reserves of Ras Mohammed and Ras um Sid, in Sharm, at the end of the last - beginning of this century, those multi-storey coral gardens of all colors and shades, with an abundance of small coral fish and other small living creatures, I'm afraid I'll have to look in Egypt, except perhaps in the open sea on coral banks.
But still very impressive, especially for a city dweller. The hotel has entertainment for vacationers - at 21.30 they arrange feeding of fish from the pier, turn on the backlight into the water and throw out pieces of fish, rays, turtles, moray eels, impressive sized tuna and other marine predators swim up. Photographing all this is not very successful - the water is very glare, but it is very interesting to watch. The ocean is already boiling, predators under water tear their prey to pieces. A lot of people gather, the main thing is not to dive into this fish catering. We regularly arranged similar entertainment for ourselves, took boiled eggs from the canteen (of course, peeled ones) and fed the fish at the pier, the fuss of the fish was very uplifting, it was especially interesting to watch under water. Children enjoyed taking part and swimming among the marine life.
Right next to the pier, there is a swimming pool with ocean water, a built-in bar, and a paddling pool area for children, next to two types of jacuzzis.
And, yes, here's another thing - the deck boards around the pool, and the pier are painted black. Whose hangover head came up with the idea to use dark dyes in the subequatorial zone is a mystery to connoisseurs. Under the direct rays of the sun, all this heats up to a completely unbearable temperature, walking barefoot from the beach, let's say to the toilet, through the pool area, frankly, is a non-trivial task.
A little away from the pier, in a fenced area, there are so-called "Bungal on the water. " The booths are on stilts, right above the reef, the contents are a class higher, the glass floor, their own a la carte restaurant with lobsters, shrimp and other exotics, the price includes one dive, massage and personal combat, resorting to trot on call. Theoretically, there is no way for poor citizens who do not want to pay extra 400 bucks per night to this territory. However, you can (and should) go there.
A very beautiful, well-groomed territory, a kind of exotic garden, a clean, soft beach, a more lively, vibrant coral reef. We did not dare to try all this bourgeoisie more because of the fear of independent, unpredictable diving into the ocean of the younger generation.
Further clockwise are the houses belonging to the exotic village, there is a more well-groomed, lively area, all sorts of fountains, flowers, etc. but the beach itself and the ocean are not as good as those of the beach villas, accommodation there includes a Spa package and costs a little more than beach villas. There is also water sports, there is a rental of various marine entertainments, scooters, surfs, it seems like they can ride a parachute, there is also a diving center where the Russian-speaking diver Yura works, a rather contact and pleasant middle-aged person, in principle, he can advise and somehow contribute with various boat trips and excursions.
You can order a dive from him, issue a Padi certificate. Temporary, until confirmation within a year, a little more than a hundred dollars, and permanent, after 4 classes and dives, about $ 650. Once again, we were convinced that our compatriots, by the will of fate, who found themselves in a foreign land, always react very joyfully to some products that are characteristic of their homeland, but completely absent in their current habitats: banal Borodino bread, lard, dry sausage, herring turn into a delicacy for them and are able to make many barriers imperceptible at least for a while.
Money doesn't work like that. At least not the amounts that fit into the concept of "tip", especially since they emphasize and exacerbate the different situation in society.
Further, the hotel organizes various excursions and entertainment for its guests. Of course, all this is somehow connected with the ocean and neighboring islands.
Excursions are not cheap, for example, a boat trip within an hour of sailing to a place where manti hang out, an hourly organized sailing with them costs 40 bucks per person (+13.5% taxes). The boat takes up to 30 passengers. You can go fishing, morning and evening 50 dollars from the bow (fry then catch for you 15 dollars). There are excursions to neighboring islands, inhabited and not. You can go on an excursion to a non-resort island, such as visiting the locals, to see how they live. In general, entertainment for every taste. There are not very many dangers in the ocean near the shore, the probability of running into a lionfish is extremely small, moray eels don’t need vacationers, so you need to dive into the moray eel’s face with a “finger” to its parking 5 meters. I didn’t notice jellyfish in the water. I didn't experience any burning sensations or pricks, as sometimes in the Red Sea. There are very few sea urchins and they hide in such a way that it’s not easy to see, let alone step on. This is not the Adriatic for you!
Sharks, as they say, in this part of the northern atoll are quite rare, for some reason they practically do not swim. (I immediately remembered Sharm, where sharks were also never seen near the shore, but this did not stop them from chewing on various bourgeois grandmothers) Yes! The most dangerous creatures in those waters are the Japanese, it's something with something. Imagine a picture - the sun is at its zenith, the warmest, calm ocean, the very complacency weighs in the air, and then a creature appears dressed in a full wetsuit, gloves on his hands, a rubber hat on his head in addition to a mask, woolen legs !! ! socks and sort of nasty, shortened fins, hard as pieces of iron. And this something strives to literally flop into the ocean from the pier, preferably on someone’s head, once in the water it starts to randomly flutter its legs and arms, completely unaware that there may be people nearby, and their stupid flippers can easily be great hurt.
We pushed these grief-stricken ichthyants away from us almost with swear words, they stubbornly strove to swim closer to the children, making convulsive movements with their arms and legs, moreover, they constantly get out onto the pier, correct and tighten something for themselves, after which they try to get down the ladder back into the water, on the half way they freeze, they begin to figure something out, they can pray, and finally, once in the water, they resemble an intermittently working outboard motor. After 5 minutes, the cycle repeats. Moreover, these primates have complete confidence that they are at least alone on the pier, and even on the island as a whole. The surrounding people are completely ignored. When I first saw this proud miracle from the Land of the Rising Sun preparing to dive into the water, I looked with respect - I think, desperate guys gathered on the neighboring island on their own! However, the reality appeared in a completely different tragic-comic aspect.
Well, when they, in all their ammunition, importantly went to the shore with an umbrella over their heads, then you can die at all under the weight of realizing the worthlessness of your own existence in the world next to such higher organisms. So beware of the Japanese preparing to snorkel. Yes, propos, there is no doctor on the island, no one will give you any medicines without his prescription (you have to sail to the neighboring island), so do not forget to take a small first-aid kit with you according to your own understanding. There will be no extra plaster and brilliant green.
Shoes on the island are not needed in principle, we and the children walked barefoot all day, even to a restaurant, no one cares about this. However, there is a chance to catch a thorn with your foot, or not to notice the root of the plant ...you can get hurt on the corals. Quite noticeable are the tidal drops in the water level, over those places where they swam before lunch, in the late afternoon it’s already possible not to swim, you’ll rub yourself against the corals.
Ravens live on the island - but not like our gray crows, important and respectable, but some kind of small, stunted and fussy caricatures, but thievish to the point of no way. Do not remove or leave in any case gold pieces, jewelry, glasses and similar trifles, they will disappear literally before our eyes. In the canteen, they may well pull off the bread and a piece from the plate if you move away. Well, yes, crows are famous for this as a class. Flying chanterelles hover over the island, so cute, red-haired ones. They often hang upside down on palm trees with a completely absent look, lizards rush about, some kind of land birds with long beaks, a flock of little chickens walk around. A heron sits on a palm tree, in the morning it can be observed in the ocean, it will settle on top of the coral, apparently catching fish. I suspect that the gouged crabs near the dam are her work. Cats and dogs were not seen. The island is very green, new palm trees are constantly being planted.
They are simply not able to let their environment in, let go of their grip on the world and let go of the consciousness of their own coolness and exclusivity, god bless them.
Don't listen to those. The Maldives is great, the equatorial energy is incomparable, the boost of energy and positive feelings will be with you for a long time to come. We will definitely come again and bring the children (or maybe they will bring us) to the necklace, even though the world is so big and there is still so much to see. It is a pity that such beauty will disappear from the face of the planet in the near future.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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