JULY 2003

First of all we had a great time, thanks to Hayes & Jarvis and the island management, also our room boy Ahmed and waiter Mustafa.

Island is full of British and French, some Spanish, Russians and German, I was the only Turk there.

We flew with Monarch Airlines, stopping over in Bahrain. Although we heard a lot of complaints about Monarch flights, our flight was on time and ok, spending 11 hours in the same seat is a bit of pain. Try to check in earlier and get one of the seats by the aisle.

The real name of the island is Meerufenfushi but people call it Meeru. It is a small tourist resort island. There are about 200 workers on the resort and another 200 tourists staying in villas, so one worker for each tourist. There are four different types of villas on the island; standard villas, land villas, water villas by the sea and two honeymoon villas on the sea. Each villa has air condition, little fridge, a safe, balcony, private toilet and open air bathroom, and they are a few meters away from the sea.

All meals that are included in the price of your holiday are served in the Main Restaurant. On Meeru this was a round, thatched building with an open, conical centre. All meals were 'buffet style', with everything arranged around the central area and all dishes repeated 3 times around this serving area, so there was never really any bad queuing. The style of the building is an open roof conical restaurant and vegetation growing in the centre.

A variety of Thai and Indian style rice, a whole host of vegetarian curries, some with vegetables, some with fruits, delicious varieties of seafood and really nice salads. Once a week an 'Italian Buffet' where all dishes have an Italian theme, with pasta, gnocchi, tiramisu and so on. 'Maldivian Buffet', where all dishes are Maldivian style, so largely curries, with the option of 'Chicken & Chips' for the unadventurous. On the other hand, they make really nice pizzas in Kakuni Bar and delicious seafood in Asian Wok.

Other than the beach, ocean etc. we really loved the jungle. It is not like being in a jungle in Africa or South America. We did meet a lot of creatures in there, giant bats flying during the day, flamingos, snakes, lizards, brown rats, crabs (those crabs get everywhere), but they're all harmless.

If you like you can just lounge by the pool all day long, it is right by the beach, the ocean and THE BAR! We only went into the pool once, though we did sit by the pool sometimes, in the shade of some palms. For swimming, it's definitely hard to beat the ocean.

Evenings are usually spent on the beach terrace of the Dhoni Bar, sipping 'Sunset Cocktails' and watching the sunset (naturally). Doesn’t it look great?

The most dangerous thing on the island is sunburn. You’ve got to be careful, you’ll likely to be out in the sun all day, so do not get burned! Other than that the main danger is that you’ll never want to leave the place!
 
Excursions:

Night fishing: Best ever. They take you to somewhere in the ocean at night, they prepare everything including the lines, hooks and fish and you have about two hours to enjoy fishing. I caught a snapper about 60 cm and some other fish and they cooked it for our table for only $5 extra. Some people caught little sharks, eels, even lobsters. Great fun, don’t miss it. It costs only $10 per person.

Snorkelling: To be honest, north side of the island (where the water villas are) has more sting rays, colourful fish and sharks than the reefs. It is only $4, not very expensive. I took some underwater pictures with rays and sharks.

Island hopping: There are two different trip, we went on Friday to Kagi, a local island, really nice, we had a barbecue, did some shopping from the local island. Little boys are selling fresh coconuts for $1, try it! There are also local souvenir shops selling lots of hand made stuff and sea shells. Do not buy any shells from the locals, it is illegal take them out of the islands.

Diffushi trip: You simply must see life outside of the resort island, either by visiting a local inhabited island or the capital, Male. At Meeru there is a neighbouring inhabited island Dhiffushi only 200m away off the southern tip. Diffushi is a local island near Meeru, and it relies on servicing the tourist resorts, traditional fishing and boat building. There are about 700 people living in the island.

A Dhoni boat will take you there (the 4 boys at the front of the boat are 'navigating' it through the narrow coral channels, giving signals to the driver at the rear of the boat! Diffushi has more souvenier shops, and the best thing with Diffushi is, they have a little pool by the harbor, they are keeping some turtles, sharks (2-3m.) and sting rays there. Amazing!

These are some local children on Dhiffushi.

Sea plane: $65 but you can see lots of islands from the air. This is one of those little planes that take only 8 people including the two crazy pilots. The journey on the beautiful islands of Maldives takes about an hour and you will definitely need a good camera to take amazing pictures like these!

Crab race: I think this is a tradition in Maldives. Everybody chooses a crab and bets some beer on it and the owner of the first three crabs share the total beers. My crab came last, I lost seven beers but great fun, but the winners shared their beers with us! It is fun!

Spa: Try jetlag massage with tropical oil. After 11 hours of flying it is really relaxing, it costs about $30. They also recommend coconut massage for sunburns.

The sand, the sea, the sun and the jungle, it all adds up to a perfect destination for a relaxing holiday.

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