Days 59-66: Thaa Atoll, Maldives
The Skinny - if you're just here for the highlights: We skipped the overwater bungalows and spent the week on a tiny local island surfing an empty crystal-clear reef break, snorkeling with turtles, Eagle rays, and more tropical fish than I knew existed, and only getting minorly sunburnt.
Scroll down for pictures.
Landing on Maldives
We had heard that with the war in Iran, as shitty as it is, tourism in the Maldives was down and accommodations were therefore more affordable than usual, so we quickly began searching for the right surf stay. This was slightly challenging because the surf in the Maldives is generally pretty fast, hollow, hard-crashing waves that break over shallow, sharp coral. In other words, far beyond my limited skill level and even pushing Sean’s limits. But eventually we found a surf stay on a local southern atoll whose wave was described as fat, more gentle, and completely uncrowded.
When we arrived at Male airport we had to make a very quick dash to our nicer-than-expected regional flight. The views from the window seat were our first taste of just how spectacular the Maldives really are. We were blown away by the birds-eye view of these circular groupings of tiny little white islands that all bleed the most vibrant turquoise into such blue surrounding ocean. We waved ‘see you another time’ to loads of high end resorts adorned with classic over-water bungalows as we flew south to Thimarafushi island in the very remote Thaa Atoll.
It was wild to see Malé itself from above– this sprawling metropolis on a floating pile of coral in the middle of the Indian Ocean was unreal to see. Nearly the entire island is packed edge to edge with apartment buildings, and despite occupying barely three square miles, it's home to well over a third of the country's population. Surrounded on all sides by gorgeous blue water, it was the most surreal cityscape we've ever seen.
Up until relatively recently, the Maldives only permitted tourism on resort-owned islands (of which there are close to 170!), so the almost 200 local inhabited islands throughout the Maldives were off limits to tourists. This resulted in a high concentration of resort Islands in the northern atolls, leaving the southern atolls a bit more uncharted by visitors.
One of the coolest things about the Maldives is that the islands themselves are practically alive. The Maldives are made up of a chain of atolls, which are circular groupings of tiny islands. These atolls formed by exposed crowns of an ancient chain of volcanic mountains that long ago sank beneath the Indian Ocean. As each volcano slowly subsided, coral reefs kept growing upward toward the sunlight, eventually forming giant ring-shaped atolls around the now-submerged peaks. Over thousands of years, waves broke the coral into brilliant white sand and rubble, building the tiny islands themselves. So for example, the roads on Thimarafushi were all just compacted bright white coral. In some spots you could see smaller whole pieces too. It was super neat to be walking on the reef that built the country.
Stay Mikado-- Thimarafushi, Thaa Atoll
Thimarafushi was comically small. It took all of 3 minutes in a golf-cart to get from the “airport” to our Stay Mikado hotel. From there, it was a 2 minute walk to the “surf shop” and the boat that would take us surfing. On the island, there were two general stores, two or three cafes and restaurants. In fact, the most robust and popular restaurant seemed to be the Stay Mikado pavilion where our meals were cooked and when it cooled down enough at night, we ate dinner.
Upon our arrival, a man called Ahmed introduced himself as the “manager” and informed us that he is a busy guy as he is also the manager of the “hospital.” Also to greet us were the guest liaison, Sheetal– a very sweet yoga instructor from India, as well as a team of probably 15 others. The crew here far outnumbered the mere six of us guests. We were accompanied by a Dutch man who is a repeat visitor to Stay Mikado, as well as a Californian guy whose tips helped shape the remainder of our travel schedule, and a German gal living in Dubai who left upon the arrival of an Australian gal who grew up in the Philippines. The Dutch guy was a bit old fashioned and his constant return to the topics of politics eventually exhausted us, but for the most part it was an interesting group of different backgrounds.
One such political topic touched on a fact we had known coming into the trip– the Maldives are not on good terms with Israel and had banned Israeli passports from entering, but we didn’t realize how strong and universal the sentiment was until we got to Thimarafushi and noticed ‘free Palestine’ ‘we failed Gaza’ ‘genocide’ signs and graffiti, interestingly in English, all around town.
The Maldives were my first experience visiting a country that is not only predominantly Muslim, but governed under Sharia law. It was very mild here though, especially in this super small town that after five years has become pretty accustomed to the visitors of one of the few local businesses. On the island somehow also operated a shipyard that built very nice, sophisticated boats. One of the few activities on the island, besides gathering outside to drink coffee, was soccer, played on the tiny but nice synthetic pitch. Even the women played, and in fact they had jersey dresses so as to still comply with the modest code of dress. We woke up to prayer singing through a loudspeaker every morning before heading out to surf, and it played throughout the day as the five calls to prayer. They asked that the women wear something over their bathing suits at all times on our local island, which really wasn’t a big deal since we were only swimming out at the remote surf break. There was also no alcohol allowed on the island. In the Maldives, alcohol is only permitted on the resort owned islands, and liveaboards. So it was another dry week for us.
The hotel was a small four story building with a lovely rooftop space equipped for yoga and sunset gazing (and sunset yoga!). The rooms were very comfortable with strong AC, an absolute necessity this close to the equator. Our stay came with three family style meals a day. As the island is small and remote, there aren’t a ton of fresh ingredients, except for tuna. They eat a lot of tuna… often all three meals of the day… on the days when they didn't serve eggs at breakfast I was saved by Nutella toast, thank god for Nutella. The food was mid at best, but we didn't have super high expectations and with all the surfing we did, we were usually so hungry we hardly cared.
Surf Camp Lifestyle
Our appetites were a result of the fact that our stay also came with two daily two to three hour surf sessions. Similar to our experience hiking so much elevation gain in Nepal, we realized in the Maldives that our bodies are capable of far more surfing than we knew. Previously on our trips, we would surf once a day for one to two hours. Being thrown into the intensive surf-camp lifestyle abruptly made us realize we can handle much more. We traveled by boat to a small deserted island twenty minutes away each morning and afternoon with a captain and ‘surf coach’-- Coach was a sweetheart but I would bet my life he has never once so much as caught a wave. Captain would drop anchor and we were free to swim to the island, snorkel, and of course, paddle out to Inside Farms, a magical right hand reef break that we usually had more or less to ourselves. Throughout our week, a couple of other boats showed up, one liveaboard docked there for several nights, but it was mostly empty.
The first few days the waves were just okay. There was a good deal of wind rippling the water and only just enough swell. But I was just thrilled to have an empty wave to practice on, not to mention it was so beautiful, I would have been happy sitting on my surfboard for two hours with no waves. The water was so blue, I could see when Sean was taking a mid-surf pee break… no but really, while sitting on the board waiting for waves, all you had to do was take a look down at your feet, and chances were you would see a school of fish. The Parrotfish particularly loved to hang out and surf with us (Parrotfish, incidentally, are part of the reason the Maldives exist at all—they grind coral into the fine white sand that builds the islands). Several times we also spotted dolphins dancing in and out of the water behind the wave.
Once we even had the staff pack a picnic lunch and instead of going out twice, spent the whole day out on the water with a picnic on the deserted island (it was a little less picturesque than it sounds as the interior of the island was like a floating trash barge, but as long as you looked at the ocean it did feel like the set of a corona commercial).
We would usually surf for about two to three hours each session and snorkel for another thirty minutes to an hour. Nearly every time we put on our mask, we were able to spot at least a turtle or a spotted eagle ray, and often both and several. Beyond these beauties, it truly felt like we were inside a fish tank. You could see fish of every color of the rainbow, and even some unbleached vibrant red, pink, turquoise and cobalt blue coral. Despite constantly looking over our shoulders for reef sharks, we never saw one. We had really hoped to go scuba diving while we were there. Unfortunately due to the absence of the main guy in charge who was also the dive master, we couldn’t make it work. But the snorkeling was so phenomenal we didn’t mind too much.
But by the end of our time in the Thaa Atoll, we were both properly ruined for surfing anywhere else ever again. The swell picked up, the wind died, and we were in our absolute glory. In Barbarian Days, William Finnegan describes a session where the water became so impossibly clear that the waves disappeared beneath him and it felt like he was "surfing on air." This was exactly that. The first wave each of us caught after the wind died was actually super trippy. You couldn't see the wave so you were almost not sure you were on it, plus being distracted by the schools of tropical fish and beautiful coral underneath you, it was hard not to fall right off your board.
Final Thoughts
Before coming to the Maldives, I had a misconception that all of the praise and hype I have always heard about this place was really hinged on how great the over-the-top resorts are, to which I thought, there are a lot of really nice beach resorts a hell of a lot closer to the US. But having been there, I now understand the accommodations and amenities are really just the accessories. The main event is the undeniably breathtaking natural beauty of these bizarre, sadly sinking, volcanic reef island formations in the middle of the Indian ocean. Of all of the places we have been, the Maldives is the spot I would most eagerly return to… Mom, I am already planning your birthday trip ;)
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