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Sunday, October 25, 2020

Himmafushi in the Maldives? What? Where? Why?

Maldives flag 

The first good news is that when I came to load up the Maldives flag I found it instantly, thanks to my earlier research. White crescent for a Muslim country, green peace, and blood red. 

Let's do a quick recap of essentials from previous posts.

The Maldives was in the news because it is on the fly allowed list for the UK in October 2020. This could change any time, and be different for other countries, so be sure to check the latest rules and regulations. 

The Maldives is southwest of India and Sri Lanka, and when restrictions allow your needed options (depending on where you are starting from where you are going and when) you can do a two centre holiday, visiting India or Sri Lanka and then the Maldives.

 I was researching the Maldives when I saw that a company visited several islands which were new to me. Time to take a quick look. This is what I found.

Himmafushi

Himma like the German word himmel, for heaven, f for fun and ushi like suchi, savoury often containing fish.

Wiki says:

The island is 16.32 km (10 mi; 9 nmi) northeast of the country's capital, Malé.[2] It is located in North Malé Atoll. Himmafushi is about 18 km (11 mi) from Male Airport. The only way to reach it is by boat.

To sum up, it is a tiny island, population about 1000, public ferry ride about an hour, under five dollars in each direction, good if you are a budget traveller and want to see local life. You can also hire a private speedboat. 

Locals dress conservatively, women in a hijab. Apparently there's a semi-official bikini beach. (Frankly I would stick to a one piece costume, to avoid bikini marks, risks of sun cancer from hot tropical sun, or dengue or malaria from tropical mossies. I live in Singapore. 

No alcohol, no dogs. Bad for some, good for others. A crash course in the Muslim way of life.

In any case, you don't need alcohol when swimming or snorkelling. So a ban suits the sport of snorkelling. You can hire snorkelling stuff locally, but with Covid-19 I would like my own equipment against my body and in my mouth. The place has about three convenience stores and some souvenir shops. 

The main activities are:

1 Snorkelling

2 Visiting the Park

Lots of palm trees. Same as all over the Maldives as well as much of Asia. But in Singapore the palm trees are all straight, same as those avenues of palm trees in the city of Los Angeles. Here the beach and park palm trees are leaning. 

A beach with leaning palms. Everybody's dream picture. I never tire of palm trees. Nor coconuts.

3 Boating

There you have it. Snorkelling, surfing, swimming, sports, a park and palm trees.

Plus of course swimming, sleeping and eating. Eating what? Coconuts and tuna fish.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himmafushi_(Kaafu_Atoll)

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4177384

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Maafushi

Tripadvisor

(Post being written Come back in ten minutes.)

Not much on the internet. If you go there, maybe you would like to add some photos and reviews to public places. And contact me, Angela Lansbury.

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