Maldives: Not as you know it




Of the Maldives' 1,192 islands, just 200 or so are inhabited by local people. These 'local islands' have, until recently, remained off the tourist radar, with isolated community life centred around fishing and Sunni Islam. 

So when I booked an island-hop fortnight around the Alif Alif atoll, I was super excited. I would be far from the honeymoon stilt houses (which I'd actually LOVE to go to one day, just need to win the lottery) and in the thick of Maldivian living. 

However, this hasn't quite been the case. The islands are building sites. It appears that, in just the last year, the government has gone hell-bent on aggressive development - perhaps realising climate change will wipe the islands out anyway, so may as well make a quick buck? So one moment you're snorkelling in a real-life aquarium (the sea is, of course, out of this world) or walking through mangroves, and next you're navigating a war zone of rubble and pile drivers. They're even building a conference/exhibition centre on an island that's about 300 yards long!

And amidst all this, tourists (mainly Russians wanting to do paradise on the cheap) flouncing around in bikinis (or worse) outside the mosque or on the 'locals' beach (all beaches are 'bikini beaches' except one on each island clearly marked as needing conservative dress). 

I'm sure people here must be upset and I'm sure there was 'consultation' But if you're offered a generous payoff to sell your land and leave (to where?), it's pretty hard to resist. It's been really heart-breaking to see tower block resort developments literally going up before my eyes. 

That said, there is of course still eye-watering beauty along the shoreline, while sandy lanes buzz with school kids, scooters and seafood traders - for now. 

Paradise on earth...

   

Flying in



Even the colour of the water at the airport ferry terminal was wild




Showing solidarity with friends in Gaza

Island mosque. 







...Til the bulldozers arrived
Saw this woman trying to peer through the construction site fence



Missed opportunity

I feel privileged to have been able to visit these islands on the brink of change. I recognise it's hypocritical for me to be a tourist here and slate tourism development, just as it is for me to romanticise 'local' life while being one of the world's 1%. But this just feels a BAD move in every sense. There was such an opportunity for these islands to carve a niche as more boutique destinations, with sensitively designed properties built using local materials, hotel gardens selling their own produce etc. Instead, they've gone for the lazy option of more cookie cutter tower blocks, concrete roads (when sand looks better and is a better flood defence) and imported processed food. What a waste. 







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