Life at the Equator

It’s hard to coherently describe all the observations that I’ve made about the Maldivian life while I’ve been here, but hopefully these tidbits will give you a taste.

-None of us have noticed any beggers or homeless people around the island.  It seems like there isn’t really a large economic gap between the rich and poor native Maldivians, although you can definitely pick out the rich tourists.

-The houses are mostly made of concrete walls, making them look like foretresses, then there is a little inner garden area.  There are quite a few brightly colored buildings, as well as empty concrete “shells”.

-There are people milling around at all times of the day.  Many times they will be sweeping, which seems to be a neverending task on an island with fine white sand…

-Motorbikes are the preferred method of transportation.  Quite often we will see men riding in the front with the women in headscarves on the back. Sometimes the women are riding “side saddle” with their legs off to one side.  But women can be seen driving themselves around and with their children.  They recently paved the main road running along the atoll, and I guess they had quite a few accidents so there are speed bumps about every 1 km.  People just walk down the middle of the road and don’t seem to realize or make an effort to get out of the way.  The motorcycles also just merge without looking or don’t seem to care at all if you come up behind them and want to pass.  This is especially bad around dusk when many families can be seen out wandering around, fishing, taking in the sunset, and enjoying the evening.

-Regarding headscarves, most women wear at least a headscarf while some wear the full tunics.  One of the NCAR ladies asked a lady a the Dhiraguu (cell phone) shop who wears the scarves and who doesn’t, and the lady adamantly replied “everyone should wear headscarves!” It has been my observation, though, that the younger generation are moving away from that trend and are seen more frequently without headscarves than the older women.

-Everyone speaks English for the most part.  Maldivian is impossible to read (looks like a bunch of lines and open circles to me arranged in 3 lines), but we are learning a few words here and there from the local Maldivian waiters at the Equator Village.

-They frequently keep the lights off during the day, or just eat in the dark at night.  There have been several instances where we thought a place was closed because it looked dark inside, but really the lights were just off.  We went to a little café down the road the other night, and we sat outside where they had very dim lighting (the NCAR folks who go there frequently brought flashlights so they could read the menu), and when I looked inside the restaurant there were two tables sitting and eating in the dark! We also ate at a Thai restaurant and they brought us flashlights to read the menu. They also seem to eat late and generally stay out late (I would say dinner time is 9pm...?)

-They are definitely on "island time". Things move at a slower pace; they will get done eventually. 

-The atoll that I’m on has about 13,000 people, and is made up of several different islands. For those of you who don’t want to google it and zoom in as far as possible to even see the land, I’ve included an image. We are staying on the southern island with the airport a the Equator Village.  The S-pol Site is labeled  to the north west of Gan. We can go out and snorkel on the beach in front of the hotel.

-Despite water being basically everywhere, water treatment is difficult. They mostly collect rainwater and drink bottled water.  We were advised to only drink bottled water even in the hotel. The last few years have been pretty dry for them, so they have had water shortages at times. This generates a lot of empty plastic bottles that either end up in the ocean or get burned.

-In the little booklet in the hotel, they suggest that you pack your trash, and particularly the recycleables, with you back to your home country.  They do not have very sophisticated processing plants and end up burning most of the trash. 

-They are a surprisingly connected country (well, maybe not so surprisingly since it would be difficult to run land lines between all the islands).  In fact, Dhiraguu (the main mobile provider) seems to have the nicest stores of anything.  The hotel internet is $17 / hour, so most of us just went and bought 3G modems for our computers from Dhiraguu and it mostly works out except when everyone gets on in the mornings to check all the email that has come in from the US over our night.

-Grocery stores are pretty small and have very limited fresh food selection, as least the ones I’ve been too.  They mostly remind me of 7-11’s or convenience stores, both in appearance and in stock.  Most of the fresh fruit is bananas, coconuts, oranges, or occasionally papayas.  They can mostly be purchased at little roadside stands.

-Their weekend is on Friday and Saturday.  It is nearly impossible to get deliveries (for radar fuel, for example), on Fridays.  However, some of the grocery stores and such are still open.

-I have heard the call to prayer almost every morning I've been here.  It's somewhat jarring to us, and sounds a bit like you are getting pulled over by the police due to the loudspeaker they use.  However, we speculate that they find it as comforting as we do church bells.

-There are cats everywhere but no dogs.  Dogs cannot be brought into the country.

-I think this is the first country I've ever visited that doesn't have a McDonalds.  While that sounds stupid, I think it's very telling.  I'm not sure a McDonalds would fit in here (although that can probably be said for many places that have them now!)

1/2 Way Around the World in 3 Days

I figured I should start writing about my experiences here in the Maldives, as it is really nothing like I've ever experienced before.  I have traveled mostly to Europe and Australia / New Zealand, but I've never before been what I would call "outside the western world".  So I thought I would share some interesting observations and / or stories of my adventure from now and then.

My trip here was much smoother than I had imagined.  It involved 3 days, 3 airlines, 4 stops and 3 countries, so I was expecting something major to go wrong.  Most particularly I was worried about arriving in the Maldives where the instructions for getting a business visa included being pulled aside into a back room and forking over $59 American (or the equivalent Maldivian) money.  We were also supposed to be met by members of the Maldivian Meteorological Service (MMS), and they supposedly also had copies of our passports to identify us.

This time through Dubai (I return through there as well) I figured I would just stick to the hotel and airport and see how comfortable I felt in order to judge what I should do on my return trip. One thing I was hoping to see, however, was the world's largest building.  I guess I thought it would just be obvious as we were flying in or driving around in the taxi, but it was so hazy I could hardly make it out (though I did spot it).

Finding the world’s tallest building is a bit like spotting Waldo.  It is in there somewhere…

I was also hoping to get a flavor of the cuisine at breakfast, but seeing as I was in a Sheradon, I'm guessing it was intentionally geared toward more western travelers.  However, I did note the bacon and sausage were both beef rather than pork. I also had a savory donut that seemed vaguely Indian, which I enjoyed.  It was 94º when we landed at 9 pm--blech.  Thankfully I spent most time in air conditioned buildings or the cab.

On my flight from Dubai to Male, I had specifically engineered a window seat so I could look out and take pictures as we flew over the Arabian peninsula, sea, and into the Maldives.  It was breathtaking! Emirates Airlines was really nice, with the personal entertainment systems in the seat backs and a "menu" for the meal (though it was typical airline quality food and I was forced to make the dreaded choice between mushrooms or random fish…if you know me you would probably be surprised to find I went with the mushrooms.  I could easily scrape them off the beef, whereas the random fish dinner didn’t look appetizing in the least). I really liked the headware that the female flight attendants wore when we took off and landed.

Yes, they do wear the goofy head things on takeoff and landing.

We landed in Male with a thud, then slammed on the brakes in order to stop by the end of the runway (it was in a 777)—the forward facing camera they display showed we came really close to the end of the runway—then turned around and taxied back on the runway.  The “customs” counter was right there, but there was a long line. I stood there nervously wondering what was going to happen when I noted one of the customs agents wandering around with what looked like my passport photo.  It was clear he didn’t connect my picture with me, so I flagged him down and he helpfully ushered me through customs, through getting my bag, through changing money, and into a little back room where an officer stamped my passport and took my 750 rufiyaa ($48).  Then I was met by a very nice guy from the MMS, who took me over to get a SIM card for my (unlocked) iPhone, and then over to get checked in to my next flight. It was then that I ran into a bunch of NCAR folks whom I had briefly met before, and boy was it nice to see a friendly face! It actually turns out one of the ladies stopped over in Dubai as well, and was even on my flight!  I wish I had known that beforehand….:-/

It started raining right about as we were getting ready to board the plane from Male to Gan, and so a bus pulled up at the terminal, we all loaded on, and it proceeded to take us 200 ft to the bottom of the airstairs.  Literally.  I ended up in one of two backwards facing (think flight attendant) seats on the Dash-8, which made it very awkward as I was just staring at the rows and rows of other passengers on the plane (including row #2 right in front of me).  My most interesting experience to date was when they came around with a tray full of what looked like candy, so I grabbed what I thought was a dark /white chocolate swirl number, but instead found it to be a baggie with slices of nutmeg, a clove, and a small cinnamon stick.  I’m still wondering what I was supposed to do with it…. (I tried one of the nutmeg slices but it didn’t have a lot of flavor nor was I really able to chew or suck on it….)

When we checked in, we were given a nice glass of papaya juice with a straw and sat down to fill out all of our paperwork.  Actually one thing I have noticed is that they don’t really seem to like people standing and waiting around.  There seem to always be chairs available and they encourage you to sit down (for example we went into a wireless store and they had several rows of chairs for people waiting, unlike in the US where you just have to mill around until they call your name). We arrived right in time for dinner.  My board includes both breakfast and dinner, which are both served from 7:30 to 9.  They are very particular about where you sit, but over the past week that strictness has eroded as hoards of us with the project have come and gone and basically sat wherever we wanted (within a few allotted tables).  Dinner that night was Chinese themed, and I tried a little bit of fish (wahoo) that I actually liked.

So all in all, it was a long trip but relatively smooth!