On day two of our boat trip started with a two and a half hour drive from Bodu Veli (Veli meaning sand) to Kudi Boli (Boli meaning shell). This was the first time I got to join the crew for spear fishing. Together we caught lots of fish, all making fine dinners for us in the evenings. We also caught a big octopus that was used in a delicious curry dish prepared for us at Bongo Beli, where we spent the night by the sand bank.
The crew had prepared a surprise for us at the next stop at Bodumohoraa just an hours drive away. While we had been relaxing on the boat, the crew had dug out a seating section in the sand, laid a table cloth woven out of palm leaves in the middle and put up lots of lanterns made out of coconuts around. With some romantic music in the background and a good meal on our sand table it was quite a good athmostphere.
The next morning we had just another drive to Hulidhoo reef, right next to the atoll capital, Felidhoo Island. Spending the night there was quite a different experience than the night before. The plan was to see what the local life was like on the island with 615 inhabitants. At first we were shown the school, mosque, police station and hospital by our guide Nanuu. People passing by greeted us friendly and one old random guy also invited us in for coffee and crackers in his home. He explained that since he had worked all his life as a teacher, the government provided him with 5000 Rufiyah, roughly 350USD a month. Even though The Maldives was a bit expensive for us as tourists, he seemed to get along fine with that money. After all, there was not much for the locals to do on the islands.
One thing the locals do to pass time in the evening was to put up a traditional party called “Boduberu” (meaning big drum) where there were five people were playing drums and around ten people standing behind and singing. The rest of the people were dancing some of the weirdest dances I have ever seen; some people did Gollum-like dancemoves, where others were doing monkey moves and when we joined in with Macarena moves and disco moves it was all quite suitable as everyone were dancing differently to the drum beats. It was all quite interesting to be part of.
On the way back towards Malé we also passed by some resort offering activities for those interested in that. Alimatha Resort had a daily launch for diving, but I found the price of 120USD for a single dive way too expensive. I had been more looking forward to going surfing, but when we header over to Kommando the waves were much too small to do so.
