Maldives - continued

Saeed and his family have been extremely helpful with our aims whilst in Maldives.

We have received our shipment of hammocks for photography. Saeed went to Male and got them. He had another reason for going too, but it was still incredibly helpful for him to do that.

The hammocks came from Male to Ukhulas on a fishing boat called a Dhoni. They charged about $10 for the 2 boxes weighing 35kg each. Saja and her friends helped unload the boat and deliver to our house.

We took some hammocks to the Gundaru Inn. They were letting us use their internet for free. They bought all 6 traveller hammocks at the trade price, and an Iguana.

We went on a day trip with Saeed , Saja, Sajia, Sadjias, Jakob, and their 2 kids Yanarl and Yara.  We used Jakobsen dads boat, and only had to pay for the petrol which cane to about $50.

First we went to a resort island which was closed to tourists because the management hadn't paid the staff.. It was a perfect paradise island, and you can see why people are prepared to pay $300 per night for places like this.  We set up some hammocks in a covered bit of jeti and took some pictures. Winston. Went straight in to the sea to play. After about 30 mins all the staff turned up trying to look macho, but it just looked like a bad Hindi movie.. They had a moan, but they didn't kick us off the island.  We went to the other side of the island and took some more pictures on a perfect beach. Yanarl who is 5 got stung by a bee.  There were large parrot fish just by the shore so the kids could easily see them.

Sadjia had been in the photos and later Saeed asked me to edit any pictures of her because she wasn't wearing a headscarf.

After that island we went to another smaller island that just had one shack on it belonging to a shrimp fisherman
The island was about  200m x 400m. in the middle in the shadiest part there was a kitchen and barbecue area. They cooked chicken over a coconut shell fire and a huge pot of rice.  We drank fanta and coke. I think it was the kids first time to have fanta. The giant ants over an the picnic, so we mainly ate standing up and we set up a hammocks which the kids sat in.

After that we went to a sandbank in the middle of the sea. This was 2 tiny island a about 20m x 5m surrounded by in damaged coral reef.  There were tons of fish. Winston and Henry player with Saja jumping in the water and had a great time. Then Jakob caught an octopus and the kids loved that too. When it tried to escape it squirted a load of ink in the shallow water around Winston's feet. Then Jakob killed the octopus. Winston didn't like that idea..and was asking why we had to kill it. He was then more interested in looking for fish under the water through the snorkel mask.  Once the octopus was dead and skinned, Henry got to hold it and posed for a picture.

We had some struggles getting internet connection and it was too annoying, also we were spending a bit too much time on our windowless room because it was too hot, so we decided to leave the island a day earlier.

Some other Ransome memories of our time in Ukhulas...

The burka clad women in our pink house were about as friendly as hermit crabs.. There was always really loud Allah worship TV on even when no one was around. The 9 year old boy started off friendly, but I got the impression he was not supposed to talk with us.

Henry particularly loved coconuts. He always wanted to take one with him everywhere. I learnt how to open one with a knife by hitting it around the middle then prising it open.  Caroline used the coconut grinding machine to get the meat out of it. 

The Maldivian food of mainly fish, coconuts, curry leaves and chilli was fantastic.. Someone should open a Maldivian restaurant... Bug like most places it was such better at someone's house than in the restaurants.

It seems like the mother in laws have some power and can be mean or nice. The house we lived in had a mum with her 3 sons and her daughter, and the son's 3 wives.. The burka clad ones. I was told that women can choose wether to wear burkha or headscarf or not... But husband's and mother in laws can override them.

Saja had been married, but got divorced after 4 months because the mother in law was over demanding.

Saeed was about 20 when he married his wife who was 12... They had there first child when she was 15.

To get divorced, the husband just has to say 'I divorce you' twice in front of some witnesses. Women can't get divorced unless the man agrees.