I arrived in Malé just after 12:30pm and once I got through customs, I exchanged my money. I had read that it’s very important to keep your receipts from the ATM and from money exchange because the only place you can exchange Maldives currency back into USD is IN the Maldives, and they’ll only do so if you have the original receipt. There are people next to the currency exchange who try to exchange money with you, but you obviously won’t get a receipt from that, so it’s important to be careful. After exchanging my money, I had to take a ferry to the city of Malé (as the airport was on an adjoining island). It was only a ten minute ride, and then I had to find a taxi to take me to another port. This was the first time I got into a taxi without using an app since I didn’t get wifi during my time in the Maldives, but his price seemed fair. He drove me to the port and pointed me to where the boat was. I went to the boat and they said it wouldn’t leave until 3pm, so I asked if I could leave my bag there so I could find something to eat. They let me put my bag on the boat and then told me there was a food court down the road. When I heard food court, I pictured a nice, air-conditioned mall, but when I got there, it was an open space with a bunch of food counters. I wasn’t sure where to eat, as most places seemed to only have burgers and pizza (which was weird to me since I haven’t seen that in awhile). I finally sat at a place, but then I realised that it was mostly gluten. I asked for a salad on the menu, which they didn’t have. So I just settled for the Caesar salad. It wasn’t the best Caesar salad I’ve had – it MIGHT have been one of the worst though haha. Side note: The food in the Maldives was VERY subpar, especially when coming from Sri Lanka. Most meat and seafood was overcooked and dry, and the flavours just weren’t that great. After eating and using the washroom, I went back to the boat to get there right before 3pm. The boat was almost full of cargo and it was so hot. There were probably only 10 passengers (most people get the speedboat, which is more expensive but only 30 minutes – this one would take an hour and a half, but it was cheaper – even though I think they ripped me off). We finally left and started the slow trip to the island of Maafushi.

One thing that people don’t realise when wanting to go to the Maldives is that it’s still a Muslim country, so on most beaches, it’s illegal for women to wear swimsuits. Luckily, the town of Maafushi has reserved one beach specifically for tourists, called Bikini Beach. It’s also illegal to have alcohol on the islands, so they have bars offshore, that tourists can take a boat to. I finally got to Maafushi around 4:30 and I walked ten minutes to my hotel. I had booked a hotel for one night since my flight had been changed, and then I’d be staying at a different hotel for the last three nights. That night, I was staying at Faza View Inn. I stepped inside but there wasn’t anyone at reception. I didn’t have anyway to contact anyone since I didn’t have cell service or wifi. After about ten minutes, the hotel owner came and said that he had been waiting for me at the ferry port. He was confused as to why I hadn’t contacted him, but I said that I didn’t have phone service. The room was very dark on the first floor (even though I’m pretty sure I booked a balcony with ocean view), but whatever – it was only one night. I enjoyed the air conditioning for a bit and then decided to find somewhere to go for dinner. I went to a place called Navio Restaurant, and ordered a chicken curry. The sauce was really good, but the chicken was pretty overcooked. After dinner, I walked around town and contemplated booking a tour, but I figured that since I’d have to check out and move into my new accommodation, it would be better to just have a beach day.

I woke up and decided to find breakfast before checking out. However, most places were closed and didn’t seem to open until lunch. I found one place to get a coffee (The Coffee Hutt), and then I continued my search for breakfast. I finally found a place that had an omelette on the menu. I walked in and ordered, but they said that they didn’t have anything for breakfast – they only had burgers and pizza. It was 9 in the morning! I decided to just go back to the restaurant that I was at the previous night, since it seemed to be the only place that was open. I asked for one of the Maldivian breakfasts and they said that they didn’t have it. So I had to get an English breakfast and ask for no bread. After breakfast, I checked out of my room and walked ten minutes towards my new accommodation, called SunShine View. This was a family-run accommodation, which was run by a couple and their two sons who also helped out at the hotel when they weren’t working their other jobs. This was another hotel where I felt really taken care of, and everyone was really friendly! They even made me breakfasts that were gluten-free. They told me about all of the tours and I decided to book the Nurse Shark tour for the next day with Triton Hotels & Tours. The other couple at my hotel (from Spain) was also going. I spent the afternoon at the beach, which was my first beach day in a month! The sun was extremely hot, so I didn’t stay much longer than two hours. I had heard that if you use one of the lounge chairs at bikini beach, they’ll make you pay $5 unless you order food/drinks from one of the surrounding restaurants. I waited for someone to ask me for money, but I had walked up to the beach with a can of Fanta so maybe they thought that I had bought that from a restaurant. Lucky me! When I went for a swim, the water was so warm! It was hard to feel refreshed from sweating on the beach when you were still swimming in hot water! I was floating in the water and suddenly put my feet down to stand up, and something REALLY hard jabbed at my foot. I yelled, it hurt so bad! I wasn’t sure what it was and started freaking out, so I floated back to shore without letting my feet touch the bottom. Luckily, there wasn’t any blood but there was definitely a mark, and it throbbed for quite awhile afterwards. I headed back to my hotel to shower and then walked back to the beach to watch the sunset. I went for dinner to a place called Mr. Octopus, which had really high reviews, and I ordered the shrimp salad. It came with one big shrimp and a bunch of tiny little shrimp, and again it was sub-par. After dinner, I headed back to my room to get ready for the next day.

I woke up early the next morning to have breakfast at the hotel (thank goodness my hotel had breakfast included!), and then the hotel owner walked me and the couple from Spain to the tour. We got on the boat, and then a whole bunch of people came right after us. On the way to our first destination, we saw SO many dolphins (probably at least 30-40), so they stopped the boat and we watched for quite awhile. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to go in and swim with them because they were moving too fast, which meant that they were probably hunting. They also said that there were tiger sharks in the area, so we likely wouldn’t want to be in the water with those! I was really glad that I decided to wear a t-shirt and shorts over my swimsuit because the first stop was at a beach where the women weren’t allowed to wear swimsuits and needed to have their shoulders covered. The water was so clear, and when we walked on the dock to the beach, I saw tons of stringrays! Every tour group seemed to come at a certain time so that the wait wouldn’t be too long. While we were waiting for another tour group to get their pictures taken, we were able to explore the beach and take a look at the sardines, as well as any other stingrays going up and down the beach. I was sad because they told us to leave everything on the boat so I wasn’t able to take any underwater pictures with my GoPro. When it was finally our turn, we got in line to get pictures with the stingrays but as I got closer and closer, I kept feeling more and more nervous! I had never felt nervous with any other parts of this tour or any other tour, but I think I was just scared of accidentally touching the tail since they told us not to. The stingrays were actually so soft, and it was really cool to be so close to them once I got in there! I then had to wait for everyone else to get their pictures taken and then we went back on the boat.

This time we went to a spot in the middle of the ocean and were told to put on our snorkelling gear, so that we could go swimming with nurse sharks. They said that it was extremely important to keep our flippers on because if you accidentally kicked a shark and they turned around to bite you, you’d at least have some protection. They started with the strong swimmers first, so I was one of the first ones to go in. They said not to touch the sharks, but they kept swimming right around me so it was almost impossible to avoid touching them. But it was so cool to see them! I went back in the boat, not realising that we could stay in the water and snorkel around. So after sitting in the boat for a bit, I went back in and enjoyed some more time with the fish and the sharks.

After all of the awesome swimming, we were taken to a beach for lunch. I felt bad because I think that my accommodation told the tour group that I was vegetarian instead of gluten free, so they only had a vegetarian meal available, which no one claimed. When I saw that the meal was spaghetti, I asked if they happened to have anything with rice, so one of the tour guides gave me his meal (thank goodness!). After eating, we were able to walk around the beach (it was a tiny island, so you could even walk around the entire thing). Then, we headed back to Maafushi. It was an amazing day, and it was my favourite tour out of the three I went on! I had talked to the Spanish couple and they were wanting to do a whale shark tour but since you have to drive two hours to get to where the whale sharks are, they need a minimum of 12 people to go. We were hoping that it would go the next day, but it didn’t. I decided to do the half day tour instead, so I signed up for that the following day. I went back to my hotel, showered and headed back to the beach to watch the sunset. We had to collect our pictures from the tour at 7pm so after sunset, I went back to the hotel and then the hotel owner took me and the Spanish couple to the tour operator to get our pictures. The couple was planning to go to the same restaurant that I was going to for dinner, so we all sat together. It was called Hiyala Mariyaad Cafe, and I got a fish meal. Again, it wasn’t anything special, but oh well. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and I got ready for bed since I’d have another early morning the next day.

The next day, I got up and had breakfast at the hotel, and then the hotel owner took me on his motorbike to go to the tour. This time, I sat next to a couple where the girl was from Bulgaria and the guy was from Belgium. Our first stop was to go to a snorkel spot. They split us up into strong swimmers, and not-so-strong swimmers, and the strong swimmers went around the reef while the not-so-strong swimmers must have stayed by the boat. I was happy to be in the strong swimmer group because we were lucky enough to see a turtle! We also had the best photographer, he took so many amazing pictures and videos! After our time snorkelling, they drove us to another snorkel spot. We took some pictures with Nemo, and then the strong swimmers went searching for green turtles. I consider myself a strong swimmer, but I wasn’t expecting to go for such a long distance! And we didn’t even see any turtles, unfortunately. The tour guide said, “No turtles, let’s go back,” and the muscles in my legs were already burning. I could also feel the backs of my ankles blistering from the flipper rubbing up against it. However, we eventually made it back to the boat! We then headed to the beach, where we were given lunch and luckily this time, it was rice instead of noodles. For the rest of our time on the beach, we were able to explore, and one of the tour guides basically gave everyone their own photoshoot on the beach. Then, we headed back to Maafushi. Since it was still early in the day, I decided to spend some time on Bikini Beach. I knew I had already gotten too much sun on the tour, so I found a spot under a beach hut so I could stay in the shade. My whole backside ended up being burnt, which made it quite difficult to sit down for the next couple of days! This time, I had to buy a drink from the nearby food stands in order to avoid paying 5 dollars for a chair. After spending a couple hours on the beach, I went back to the hotel to shower and then I watched the sunset. I came back to the hotel at 7pm so that I could collect my pictures from the tour. Then, I decided to sign onto the whale shark tour for the next day. I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to because A) It cost $100 USD and they couldn’t guarantee that you’d even see a whale shark and B) My flight would be that night, so I had to catch the ferry at 4pm. On a normal day, we would finish by 2:30, so that would give me enough time. They had whale shark tours in Western Australia (which were $500 AUD), and they also had some in the Philippines, but I heard that it was quite unethical there because they baited the whale sharks and everyone would crowd around them. So I knew that this would be my last chance. After getting my pictures, I went to a Nepalese restaurant called Sapphire Cafe, where I got the special rice dish. This meal was the best one that I had in Maafushi – still wasn’t amazing, but nice to have some cuisine that was enjoyable. After dinner, I headed back to my hotel to get ready for bed.

The next day was whale shark day! The Spanish couple came as well, so after breakfast, the three of us headed to our tour. This time, there were only 9 people on the tour. We started with a two-hour boat ride to where we needed to go. By the time we got there, I had to go to the bathroom so bad (along with a few other people), so we were looking forward to being able to jump in the water. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen anytime soon. There were probably about 10-15 other boats in the area and when we got there, one of the boats had everyone in the water because they had seen a whale shark. Unfortunately, the whale shark only came up to the surface and dove back down. All of the boats kept doing laps back and forth – everyone was looking for whale sharks. They told us to be ready to jump in, so I was sitting at the front of the boat with my flippers and snorkel on. But then we waited and waited and waited. The boats all had a Whatsapp group so when one boat saw a whale shark, they’d tell all of the other boats and we’d speed over. But by the time we got there, the whale shark had already went back down again. This happened about 4 or 5 times, and we had been searching for about two hours. Finally, the tour guide just said, “Do you guys want to just jump in and snorkel, and maybe a whale shark will just swim by?” We were all desperate to get in the water, so we all agreed. However, being in the middle of the ocean with such a strong current, we were getting tossed and turned around. The tour guide was trying to get videos of us diving under the water (which I seem to struggle with, as my butt always wants to stay on top the water) so I was quickly running out of breath and tiring out. I started to feel sick, which was new for me. When I saw another girl heading to the boat, I decided to go as well. Slowly, everyone started getting on the boat. The tour guide said that normally, we’d head to the beach for lunch but he asked if everyone would be okay if we just ate lunch on the boat, and that way we could spend some more time searching for whale sharks. He asked each of us individually if it was okay and even though I felt sick, I didn’t want to be the person to say no so I agreed. He brought out the food, set it next to me and instantly, I had to get up and move. I knew that I wouldn’t be eating. I sat next to the Spanish woman and she said that her husband was feeling extremely sick, and she was feeling a little sick. So the three of us didn’t eat. Luckily, the Spanish couple gave me one of their seasickness tablets, and we each had a juicebox. We watched the other people get their food, but none of them were eating much and we ended up throwing out almost all of the food. We realised that everyone had been feeling sick, but no one wanted to be the person to let down the rest of the group. After realising that we were all in the same boat (pun intended), we decided to ask the tour guide if we could just sit on a beach because we were all feeling miserable. The tour guide said no – he was determined to find us a whale shark. At that point, I honestly didn’t care if I saw one or not. I was sad that I had wasted $100 and from it, I only got a day of feeling sick. After another hour of searching, the tour guide said that we were going to have to head back and that it would take two hours. I decided to at least try to eat some rice. The tour guide had set aside his food for me and the Spanish girl, just in case we changed our minds. As soon as I took two bites, I heard, “WHALE SHARK!!!!!” I had to put the lid back on my food, grab my flippers and snorkel, and run to the front of the boat. Once I jumped in, I saw the whale shark far up ahead, but the water was quite murky and I wasn’t able to get a clear view of it. It was all finished in less than 15 seconds. We headed back to the boat and while some people were excited, I felt kind of sad because I didn’t get to really see it. I sat back down to start eating again. This time, after 5 bites, I hear, “Whale shark!!” Again, I grab my stuff and pretty much jump right off the boat. This time, I was able to keep up with the whale shark for awhile, and I got a beautiful view of it. It was actually so spectacular swimming side by side with the biggest shark in the world! I was able to ignore the pain of the open wounds on the backs of my ankles, and I kicked as hard as I could to keep up, but it slowly started getting further and further away until the whale shark disappeared. But it was absolutely amazing, and this time, I felt so happy about being able to see it – it made the whole day worth it!

I was finally able to eat my meal, and I no longer felt sick anymore. We got back to Maafushi at about 3:20 and luckily, my hotel owner was there with his motorbike to drive me directly to the hotel. The hotel was so amazing because they allowed me to use my room to shower and change, even though it was well past check-out time. He told me I’d have 15 minutes so I showered , changed, and packed as fast as I could. The hotel owner said that he would go to the tour company at 7pm to get my pictures and he would send them to me through Whatsapp. He and his wife walked me to the speedboat, which would take me back to Malé. They stood and waited on the dock to wave bye and I honestly felt so emotional saying goodbye to them – they were the sweetest family! I got to the airport and went to go to the check-in counter, but they wouldn’t let you check-in until 3 hours before your flight and I had gotten there earlier. I asked if there would be food on the other side of security and I was told yes, but I decided to eat before security since I had time to spare (and I’m glad I did because there were little to no gluten-free options on the other side of security). I tried to exchange my money and gave the guy my receipt from the ATM. “I can’t exchange money from an ATM,” he said. “But the lady here said that you could as long as I had the receipt.” “No, I can only exchange money with receipts from here.” “Well, I have that too..” I searched through my bags and finally found the receipt, but he said that there would be a money exchange on the other side of security and they would exchange it (not sure why he was so against exchanging my money!). I went to the food court and ordered a curry at the Thai restaurant and by the time I finished eating, I was able to go to the check-in counter. The line-up was so long because you had to go through security first, but eventually I was able to go through. Once I finally got through customs, check in, and security, I went to exchange my money (this time, I ONLY gave the airport receipt), and then I got myself a sundae from Dairy Queen because it was hot, and why not? The flight left at 9:20pm and would be a 6-hour flight to Abu Dhabi. Then, I’d have a layover of just under 3 hours, and then my flight to Georgia would be 4 hours (originally my layover was supposed to be about 13 hours but luckily, they changed my flight). They wouldn’t print out both of my boarding passes for me (even though it was the same airline), meaning I’d have to check in again in Abu Dhabi. On the flight from Maldives to Abu Dhabi, I ended up getting mad at strangers for the first time in my life. Normally, I hate confrontation and I was even surprised at myself, but I was probably overtired and annoyed. In front of me, there were four young and old twenty-somethings and further up the plane, there were another three. The first thing I noticed was that they started passing a cup of coffee back and forth. I thought it was kind of weird to be sharing coffee, but whatever. Then I saw one of them look around EXACTLY like my students do when they’re about to do something they’re not supposed to. I smelled alcohol and I knew that was what was in the cup. Then I saw one of their friends from the front of the plane come to where they were with a litre of vodka. Time went on and they got more and more loud and obnoxious. People were trying to sleep (including myself), and everyone was constantly woken up. One of the guys was pretty much yelling every time he spoke. The girls at the front of the plane kept coming to the back to tell them they were being too loud, but it didn’t help. I could tell that the people around me were annoyed, and I’d always make eye contact with the girl next to me when we were both woken up and she’d shake her head at me. After about three hours of this (when it was past midnight), I noticed that the flight attendant was standing right behind me. I turned around and said, “They’re drinking.” “What?” “They’ve been drinking alcohol since the beginning of the flight.” She walked over and asked if they were pouring alcohol into the cup and then asked for the bottle and said that they’d get it back at the end of the flight. They said something to her and she turned around and walked away. I thought she was getting assistance, but no one else ever came. As it got louder and louder, I got more and more annoyed and people continuously turned around to look at them. One of the guys started SINGING very loudly, which caused more people to turn around. And then the guy started slamming his tray table up and down. The guy in front of him turned around, obviously annoyed. And when the guy said, “Oh, sorry,” I jumped in, used my teacher voice, and said, “No, you guys need to stop! There are other people around you and you’re being so disrespectful!” Everyone turned around to look, and I got multiple sorries from the group. Even the girls at the front of the plane came over to apologise on their behalf. “No, it’s been four hours of this, guys. It’s almost 2 in the morning – That’s enough!” And guess what… it was dead silent for the last two hours of the flight. Thank goodness! Maybe I should have spoke up earlier. Once I got to Abu Dhabi, I had to walk to another terminal and then wait for the check-in counter to open so that I could get my new boarding pass. Then, I headed back through security, got a coffee and fries from McDonald’s (which was so expensive!), and waited for my flight. Then, I had a 4 hour flight to Georgia and arrived just before 9 in the morning. But I’ll save that for the next post. Love always