Suresh Babu: May 2016

It was 21st June 2015, was 1st International Yoga Day, it was a great feat for India that the world agreed to celebrate this day as "International Yoga Day" which means several countries have recognized yoga, even countries like China and several Arab nation voted for this at UN.

The day arrived, I being a yoga enthusiastic person and my wife being a Yoga instructor, were delighted, had organised events in our apartment and other places nearby, there was good number of participants attending the event, thus spreading the benefits of Yoga to all.

Its not just in India, people around the world celebrated this day, was very keen to know how other countries celebrated this day, I switched on prime news channel to see what was happening, but it was so demoralizing, there were news and debates that govt. points raised were

Govt. is forcing people to wake up at 5am to do yoga.
Forcing minorities to do Yoga
Not allowing people to have peaceful sleep on a weekend
Making it mandatory for students to attend the event.

I failed to under stand, why media is so anti yoga, doesn't practicing yoga regularly help improving one's health.

After watching these news channels, I went to bed feeling as if I did a big mistake, have hurt several people by celebrating International Yoga Day.

Is it true, on ground nope that's not the case, its the way the media turn things around and present it to all, many people have actually appreciated it.

So didn't want to go to bed with all those sad / bad / violence news and loose my peace of mind with so much negative in the world, so have stopped watching news on TV.

So bye bye NDTV, CNN-IBN.

Destination: Maafushi Island, Maldives Google Map Location
Date: May 2016
Family Size: Couple with children (total 4 members)

Visa for Indians
Being a member of SAARC, we can get visa on arrival, there is no visa fee also, entire process of visa stamping happens in less than a minute, no questions asked, process is so simple, you don't feel you are travelling outside India. You feel you are welcomed to this country. 5 star rating to the Maldives immigration team at the airport. (in fact I had issue at Bangalore airport with immigration officer, but no issue in Maldives)

Route
Bangalore to Male by AirIndia, journey is 2 hours, Male is 30 minutes behind India time.

Airport Transfer to Hotel
my final destination was Maafushi Island. There are two modes of reaching this island.

Public Transport:
Ferry daily once, starts at 1500hrs, costs Rf 12 / person.
Good thing about this ferry is, you get to see locals and get to travel with them
Downside of this is, it takes 2 long hours and noisy engine.
How to use this:
Step 1, take a ferry from airport to Male city, costs Rf 10 / person
Step 2, from Male city take a taxi and reach Villingili Jetty Terminal, costs Rf 30 / trip
Step 3, From Villingili ferry terminal, take the ferry to Maafushi, only one ferry in a day, it starts at 1500hrs, takes 2 hours, reaches 1700hrs, note no ferry on Friday's.

Speed Boat Transfer:
You need to inform about you requirement of speed boat to your hotel in advance, there is a private operator who operates at regular time, speed boat transfer which can accommodate 20 people, it picks you directly from Airport, takes just 35 minutes, costs US$ 20 / person.

Hotel:
Stayed at Water Breeze Hotel a good budget hotel, with very clean rooms and friendly staff,
they can also arrange your daily activity.

Read me reviews of this hotel in TripAdvisor site click here

Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival (Airport to Hotel transfer used public ferry)
Day 2: Fihalhohi Island Resort - Water Breeze organised it for us, it cost US$ 40 / person for transfer plus US$50 for entrance to the resort, without buffet lunch, if you want lunch add US$ 25.
Day 3: Package of two point snorkeling, dolphin cruise and Sand bank visit, US$ 40 / person
Day 4: Water sports activity by Active Watersports at Maafushi
Day 5: Return to Home (Airport transfer took a speed boat)

Food:
Being a Indian vegetarian, this was a challenge for us, for breakfast hotel chef was kind enough to understand our requirement and prepared some Indian veg food.
Lunch was, what's available at the place we visited
Dinner, we had carried some ready to eat, for which we used hotel kitchen, chef helped us to prepare it.
for some Bakery items, don't forget to make a visit to Fine Bake, its near football ground, walk-able distance from jetty terminal, our evening snacks was from here.

General feedback of Maldives
Very good, being a tourism dependent country, they really take very good care of their tourists, not just govt department, even the general public are tourist friendly, you don't get cheated, rates quoted matches in the market. Despite being an Islamic country, don't find public to be conservative, they let you be the way you are, however there are some restrictions the way you dress in an inhibited island like Maafushi, bikini is allowed only at the Bikini beach and not at the general beach, which is used by local also.

Found lot of Europeans and quite a few honeymoon couples from India.

Lovely place to spend some time in the beautiful lagoons with crystal clear water.

Enjoy your holidays.

If you have any questions do leave them in comments section, will try to answer them.

Some Photos

A warm welcome at the Airport, with very quick immigration process