I was awaken by a sudden jerk from my mother. She asked me to look through the window. I was little drowsy because of early morning flight. Felt asleep on the window seat.
When I look through the window, the window glass was fully painted blue. I could not differentiate between the sea and the sky. There was no Horizon line to differentiate them. If the gyroscope in your body fails and you have to believe your eyes. Then your brain can recognise the sky with the clouds like cotton and the sea with the small Islands floating like jellyfish.
As our flight started declining to its height, the colour of the sea started changing from blue to turquoise. Blue is the colour of the deep sea and turquoise for the less deeper.
I have taken many domestic and international flights but have never experienced this type of serene beauty through the flight windows.
Our flight landed at the Male International Airport in a short time. The island on which the airport is situated, is called Hulhumale. It is a man made Island. This Island is attached with the main Island Male, the capital of the country Maldives by a Bridge over the sea. The airport itself is a a junction point of air transport, road transport and ferry transport. From this point people can scatter to different Islands by ferry, sea plane, speed boats and by road to Male and Hulhumale.
There are more than 1000 islands in Maldives divided in 26 atolls. But not all islands are inhabited. Many islands have been taken over by famous group of hotels for developing their luxury resorts. Maldives is the the lowest country in the world having its average height of 4 feets from the sea level.
We have already booked a resort named Gunbaru Inn in Ukulhas Island. It’s a seventy minutes speed boat ride from Hulhumale. We chose this resort not because it is cheap and best, but staying among the local citizens can help you explore a country in a better way. Ukulhas is an island inhabited by local people of Maldives.
We took a speed boat to Ukulhas from the airport jetty. The boat made it’s way tearing the heart of the sea, leaving behind white foams like the icing on the cake. The more the boat went forward the more the water became blue again. Leaving various islands and various resorts our boat floated through.
After seventy thrilling minutes we reached Ukulhas Island. The island is one kilometre by one and half kilometre in total area. May be resided by maximum 200 people surrounded by crystal clear water. It has its own ferry jetty, hospital, mosque, school police station and judiciary, and last but not the least a water desalination plant, to convert saline sea water into drinking water. The roads are made of sand. It also has some shops catering to the needs of the local people they had from vegetables to multi-national cosmetics to Scuba diving equipments. Everything comes from the main island on boat.
The island was beautifully decorated and significantly very very clean. There were lush greenery of coconut trees and other trees.
The resort was very beautiful with a garden inside it. The rooms where super tidy. The food served was also stumptous. It had all modern facilities in each perspective, from toilets to Wi-Fi. The staff were also very cooperative.
The island had a beautiful white sand beach on the north and eastern side of the island. South west side had no beaches. The jetty and a fishing harbour were on the south side. A tidal wall on the west side.The beach was very picturesque with transparent water slowly developing to turquoise. Lots of sea shells were there. Tourists can enjoy scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, sun bathing on the beach. School of fishes in the sea were visible from the beach.
I enjoyed snorkeling with the kit provided by the hotel. It was a lifetime experience. There were corals and fishes all around welcoming us into the crystal clear underwater marine world. There were multiple variety of fishes with multiple colours, shapes and sizes. Live coral of different species were there. Various sea plants were more to add to the list.
We enjoyed three days and two nights in the island. Enjoyed the time spending on the beach. Also talk to local people to know their living and culture. In the second day evening tried fishing with a fishing rod. The law of the country restrict people from fishing with fishing net but allows fishing with fishing rods for own consumption.
The sunset on that dusk from the harbour point were truly breathtaking.Manta rays, little sharks and other fishes can be easily spotted in the calm and clear water of the harbour.
In these two days we had fell in love with the islands so much that leaving the island on the the last day was very difficult for all of us. We had to bid adieu to the island and it’s people. Our next destination was Male City so we took the speed boat from the harbour point to Male City. As the boat moved forward, the island became small to smaller in the backdrop. At a point in vanished from our sight but the memory will be reminiscing life long.
