HULHUMALE
Beware of cheap "paradise" in the Maldives
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Almost all the reports on this blog were written with the aim of sharing their impressions of a trip to a particular place, in order to encourage readers to go on a journey and see the beauty of our land for themselves. But in this story, everything will be different. To sit down to write a report on a visit to the island-city of Hulhumale (where fate brought us for one day) was prompted by a desire to warn our readers that they NEVER (from a word at all) come to Hulhumale. The tourist market now has an active advertisement for super-cheap tours to the Maldives, namely Hulhumale. Beautiful views in the photos, enticing words: "I fly to the Maldives" and an incredible price, comparable to the cost of a trip to Egypt. What else do you need to be happy? And at the same time, the name of the island where you will fly: HULHUMALE sounds so musical ... You can already imagine drinking a cup of coffee on the beach ...
You pay for the ticket and, anticipating a romantic trip, admire in advertising brochures the future view from your window, where the ocean distance is, through the swaying crowns of palm trees ...
At night you were brought to the hotel, you prepared your bathing suits for the morning and went to bed. The dawn rays of the sun woke you up, you admire them - everything is like in an advertising brochure: the ocean, the beach and the palm trees, but something confuses you. It turned out that the advertising photographer did not bother with the image of a heap of garbage under these palm trees ... For comparison, a couple of photographs taken by us from the same point, but from different angles. A slight turn of the camera to the left and the Maldives paradise easily turns into a garbage dump.
After many hours of flight and the hope for a heavenly vacation, your optimism does not fade and you head to the beach. Can you imagine how in a minute or two you will throw off your clothes and the warm playful ocean waves will gently accept your body ... But, alas, tourists are not allowed to swim here, because with their naked bodies they will probably bring moral suffering to the inhabitants of the island city. And swimming in clothes, as local rules dictate, may not seem very comfortable to you, and, perhaps, not very familiar ...
Grimacing at this unexpected discovery, you decide to explore Hulhumale for "local flavor", and it is here in the form of rope benches, located in different places.
It's time to walk along the streets of this tourist town. You will be surprised how many unexpected landscape garbage heaps you can capture in Hulhumale. These garbage heaps, lavishly done by the locals, lie in huge piles on virtually every street.
Going out to the embankment, you meet the sign "I love the Maldives" and take pictures next to it. You can even imagine with what interest your friends will look at this photo when you hang it in INSTAGRAM .
In order to post a photo as soon as possible, you are looking for a place to sit down.
And there is one nearby, it even overlooks the ocean ...
After admiring the ocean, be sure to go to the central square of the city, it is the decoration of Hulhumale. Lots of palm trees and much less rubbish than in other parts of the city.
In the center of the square there is a large advertising board with a screen, where all kinds of videos are played. According to the local custom, one has to squat next to him ;-) On the second advertising medium, the picture does not change, since it depicts some kind of bicycle repair guru.
There is also a bus stop to the capital of the country, Male. Most of the locals go there to work, and they are accompanied by thrifty tourists from China who, like you, have purchased an inexpensive tour to the paradise island of Hulhumale.
Every 5-7 minutes air taxis fly over your head, delivering less budget-conscious tourists to the resort islands. The resort islands are the real Maldives. When the hotel occupies the entire island, it is very clean, you can swim freely and even drink alcohol! By the way, yes, if you don't know, there is no alcohol in Hulhumale and it is forbidden to drink it here. This is another tick on the tourist attraction list of the "resort" ...
In fairness, I must say that we found a place where tourists can swim and even three daredevils were in the water at that time.
This place is fenced off from the rest of the beach with wooden shields, and a policeman sits at the entrance in a white booth, who controls that no local resident goes behind the protective shields. On the other hand, this beach is bordered by a three-story pile of garbage, which the excavator and trucks are actively pushing away to the side. If a gust of wind comes from the side where the pile is, then the smell on the "paradise" beach becomes corresponding ...
We could not persuade ourselves to swim in this gap between a pile of rubbish and wooden boards, so we sadly walked back to the center to visit a local attraction - "Central Market". Dozens of bikes were parked near it, and the market itself is one gallery 50 meters long. Such an attraction.
But what seemed interesting was a photo session near one of the hotels, where, apparently, for the next advertising booklet about the "paradise island", a photographer worked with three photo models.
The fauna of Hulhumale was mainly represented by such nimble dragons, which often got confused underfoot, and, frightened, climbed up the nearest trees. And, for example, you will hardly be able to meet a cat or a dog here. Pets are not welcomed by locals at all.
"So didn't you see anything beautiful in Hulhumale?" - you ask, finishing reading the report. And we will answer: "Met !!!"
Towards evening, after a little rain, a very bright rainbow lit up the sky over the ocean, which we were sincerely happy with ... Although why lie, we were glad that at seven in the evening we would leave this terrible island and the car would take us to the airport of Male, from where we let's fly home.
Also, I would like to draw your attention to the attitude of the residents of Hulhumale towards tourists - it is wary, to say the least. These are not sociable "cuties" from resort hotels at all, but rather people crushed by their hard life. And if in the daytime we still bravely wandered the streets, then with the onset of dusk we were uncomfortable with the glances from under our brows when we passed groups of local youth.
Concluding this story, I want to repeat what it was written for: "Cheap paradise Maldives does not exist !!!" and if you are going to come here, then go only to the resort islands, because in Hulhumale, you will find only such a peculiar local "flavor" ...
