The Google map of Bod (and the paper one) is a little misleading, It shows a couple of restaurants that don’t exist (but that’s about to change as Bari has plans!) and a few souvenir shops that do exist, but only open when there are enough tourists on the island i.e more than 6!!!
One of the things is does have however, is an ATM machine and Ana, Joe and I were all relying on that to get hold of a bit more cash.
A few days earlier, the others had tried it out and it had stubbornly refused to cough up any money. Bari had investigated and found out that it will only work if you have a Maldivian bank account. (He’s planning to do something about that as well, because the Guest House owners want to attract visitors from other parts of the world and that’s going to be tricky if the ATM won’t play nice.)
So at dinner on Thursday night, Bari had appeared to tell Ana and Joe that he’d booked them a place on the 6.15 am ferry to another island, where there was a machine that would work (fingers crossed).
As they were discussing what crazy hour they would have breakfast, Ana turned to me and said “why don’t you come with us”.
Now I was a pretty sure I had enough cash to last me until my return and as none of the shops were open, there was very little danger of me blowing what I had, on something I absolutely didn’t need, but couldn’t bear to leave in the shop. Then there was the very very early start to consider - so I hesitated.
“Let me go and check on my cash situation” I said.
In my room I counted out the cash I had left (all of it, minus the cost of a coffee at the airport) and sat for a moment considering how much I wanted to tip the boys at the Guest House who had looked after me so well.
I probably had enough money - just, but Ana’s offer to join them had been a genuine one and I thought it would be nice to spend some time with them, plus I would get to see another island. After all there may be shops!!!!
So back at the table I said I would love to go and Bari made another phone call to check there was space for me.
We all agreed to meet Bari at 6.00am. I decided to pass on breakfast and just ordered a cup of coffee.
The alarm went off at 5.00 - my days of leaping out of bed and getting ready in 10 minutes flat are long gone. I spent some time trying to work out what I might need to take with me and the answer was - not much. So I opted for a small bag that I could sling across my shoulder that was big enough to hold my purse, a fan, my fags, a non underwater camera complete with fully charged battery and SD card (see previous post for relevance) and most importantly one of those shopping bags from AleHop that fold up into a tiny little holder!
We all met Bari at 6.00 as planned and he walked us to the harbour. He told us that our ferry back was at 11.00 am, but would text Anna to give her the exact time when the boat was on it’s way. They are so organised here!!!
As we waited for the ferry, the sky had clearly taken pity on us poor tourists, having to be up so early so was rewarding us with an exquisite sunrise. Photo op, photo op!
The ferry was identical to the one that had brought me from Male, so I knew we were going to be in for an exhilarating and bumpy ride. The key to this (apparently) is to sit near the back where you get a nice breeze and it is considerably less bumpy, but as it pulled in, the boat looked completely full.
This was a bit of a worry, because on the day I arrived, I was the only person getting off at Bod, so I wasn’t sure where they were going to put us.
As it happens, quite a few people disembarked and luckily they vacated the seats at the back, so we whizzed down the boat and grabbed them quick!
The journey to Rasdhoo took about 45 minutes, even though we were powering through the water at a crazy speed and we made one stop along the way.
Bari had given Joe directions to the ATM and we decided to get that bit out of the way, before exploring.
Joe and Anna were busy working out the exchange rates from Maldivian Rufyaa to Dollars and Pounds, so I went first.
The ATM was in a tiny cubicle with air con so strong, it was like walking into a fridge. Frankly, I could have spent the whole 4 hours in there, because even though it was only 7.00am, the heat was already ferocious (the temperature topped 36 degrees that day).
I fished my trusty Barclays debit card out, put in the machine, waited a bit, but nothing happened. Then I read the instructions on the screen properly - I was supposed to put the card in and take it back out again. I tried again and the ATM whirred into life. “Sorry, this card has not been accepted” - I’m beginning to loathe messages on screens.
I tried again. Nope -the machine clearly didn’t like that particular card, so I tried another.
I should explain that whilst my Barclays one has worked perfectly wherever I’ve travelled, it’s my Spanish La Caixa card that normally gives me a bit of bother. I decided to try it anyway and was quite shocked when it worked perfectly, first time.
Well this was great, but It left me with a little problem. I wasn’t sure how much money was in that account and I certainly wasn’t going to start moving money from the UK to Spain over an unsecured, open, internet connection, so I opted for one of the smaller suggested amounts.
Anna and Joe went in next and between them managed to get what they needed. Joe told me that one of his cards hadn’t worked at first, but after a few tries had finally decided to give him some money. So once they were done, I went back into the blissful coolness and popped my Barclays card back in (and out again - I learn fast).
This time it worked fine and I got what sounded like an enormous sum of money but was in fact about 200 quid!
We then set off to explore. Because this island had a proper bank (and a police force and a hospital) I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it have roads as we know them, or sandy streets like Bod? Would there be nice little cafes to have a coffee and most important of all would there be shops?
Well the answer was sandy streets, no cafes but quite a few shops - all closed.
Ana and I have decided we must be long lost sisters.
We both spend hours, days and sometimes weeks researching holidays and things we want to buy on the internet. (We chose the same resort and the same camera - for the same reasons)
We both absolutely adore snorkelling.
We both like collecting things for decoration and craft type projects.
and…..
We both are drawn to souvenir shops like moths to a flame.
Every time we spotted another little shop full of treasures, we rushed to try the door - closed!
We peered through the window looking longingly at all the lovely things. I could hear them calling, “buy me please - get me out of this heat and into your nice cool home where I can look pretty and remind you of your wonderful holiday”
But no amount of pushing and rattling the door would make it open, so I could rescue these treasures from their fate.
At some point, I think it was Joe, pointed out that it was still only 7.30 in the morning, so it was a bit early for the shops to be open.
Ana and I clutched onto this little ray of hope as did Bea, who had spotted the most beautiful hand crafted photo album, in a window and was desperate to get a closer look.
Daniel promptly crushed our optimism, by reminding us it was Friday - a holy day for Islam, but there was still hope. Maybe the desire to make a sale or two would prompt the shop owners to open anyway.
We decided to go find the beach and come back a bit later.
This took a while as “us girls”, were completely incapable of walking past a closed shop without doing a bit of window shopping.
As we were gazing longingly in the window of a large but still very closed, shop, the owner appeared. “I will open for you” he said as he dashed off to get his keys.
This was excellent news:-
Lot’s of things representing dolphins, turtles and all things underwater for Maz - check
Beautiful hand crafted wooden bowls, masks and sculptures for Ana - check
Stunningly pretty Photo Albums & Notebooks (also hand made) for Bea - check
Champion negotiator Joe ready to put his legendary skills to the test - check.
We were in business - and so was the shop owner. I wonder how often he gets 5 hot tourists (hot as in very warm not the other sort), who are only there to use the ATM, ready and willing to spend some money in his shop, at 7.45 in the morning!
Between all of us, even with Joe driving a much harder bargain than I would have dreamed possible, the shop owner did pretty well and so did we. So everyone was happy.
On reflection, I realised that I should have waited for Joe to negotiate the price for my purchases as well as theirs. I thought I’d done ok until I found out what he’d paid for their items. I learned my lesson well - as will become clear in a future post.
We left there laden down with bags of goodies and made our way to the beach. The first section of beach we found was covered in litter and debris, so clearly wasn’t the main guest beach. Its a shame because the view through the palms was magical - as long as you didn’t look down.
We moved on and found a rather lovely “litter free” stretch of fish poop framing a Turquoise lagoon. (Some of my little attempts at being witty, will only make sense if you’ve read the other posts in this blog so for the avoidance of doubt - beautiful White sand is actually Parrot fish poop.)
My friends had been wise enough to bring their swimming things, I just had my handbag - but that was ok, I sat in the shade, smoked a cigarette or two and watched the family having fun together in the water.
I decided then and there that when I come back - and I will definitely be coming back, I’m bringing my son and daughter + their partners with me, whether they want to come or not!!!
As I sat there, I noticed a shell walking up the beach and then another one - but a totally different kind of shell.
Fascinated, I got up to have a closer look and discovered they were Hermit Crabs. These cheeky little devils set up home in any convenient shell that happens to be lying around and a bit later on we found a whole army of them moving as one, but each with a different house on it’s back.
It’s amazing how time flies when you are having fun, but you can rely on me to start worrying about things, when there is absolutely no need. At just after 10.00 I started to think about the return boat. What if my new friends were the sort of people who liked to leave everything to the last minute? That would be a nightmare for me - Mrs "let's get to the airport 4 hours before check in time" Pergande. I wanted to pop back to the ATM and get a bit more dosh - just to be on the safe side, but had zero confidence I would be able to find it on my own in the little maze of streets.
I started glancing at my watch every 2 minutes (I must stop doing that) and despite my best efforts could hear the “we’re going to miss the boat” mantra starting up in my head.
I needn’t have worried, this family were people after my own heart. At 10.15 Joe announced, we ought to be making our way back, so we packed up our things (mine didn’t take long on account of the small bag) and headed back the way we had come.
We were back at the harbour a good 15 minutes before the boat was scheduled, even with another stop at the ATM, and found a completely shaded children's play-park where we could sit and wait . Ana got a text from Bari to say that the boat was running late and we should be there by 11.15., which meant we had another 30 minutes to kill.
We all agreed we needed to get something to drink - it’s so easy to dehydrate in this intense heat and we’d finished all the water we had brought with us. So we went back the way we had just come to find a little supermarket that Ana had spotted earlier. There was a bit of a discussion about which street it was in, but in fairness all the roads looked identical and in the end, we found it quite easily.
We also noticed that a few more of the souvenir shops were open now, but the intense heat was sapping our energy and none of us felt inclined to do more shopping. (That must be a first for me!!)
Back at the harbour, the allotted time for the boat to arrive, came and went. We made a few jokes about being stranded and there was one awkward moment when a ferry boat with the name of our island painted on the side, as part of it’s regular route, left the harbour empty. I reasoned that as Bari had booked us a place on the ferry and the 5 of us clearly weren’t locals - the boat captain would have surely let us know if we were supposed to be aboard. But you should never take anything for granted when you are in a foreign country, so we were still unsure and waited anxiously, until finally, we saw another speed boat hurtling towards us. Big sighs of relief all round. Our journey back seemed to be shorter than the one going and it felt like we were coming home. The other island was nice and certainly had more shopping opportunities (not always a good thing when I’m around) but I prefer Bod. It’s smaller, friendlier and the guests are way more respectful of the local people. Ana and I both were quite shocked to see tourists on Rasdhoo walking around in very short shorts and skimpy tops. Bari met us at the harbour (such wonderful service) and we asked him about the lack of tourist dress code over there. He explained that as there were only 5 guest houses on Bod, the owners had all got together to agree some standards of operation. One of the things they all agreed on, was to ask their guests to dress appropriately, so as not to offend the local population. Rasdhoo is much bigger, with many more guest houses, so he assumed they were unable to reach a consensus.
Personally, I think it’s totally unacceptable to ignore the local culture and traditions when you go on holiday. If you want to bum around in swimwear and show off vast expanses of body - there are plenty of places in the world where you can do that - but not on a small island, in the Maldives, where the local population are Muslim.
Back in my room, I stripped of my clothes and had a cold shower. Putting 2 different shower heads
in the bathroom - an adjustable normal one and a very cold one - was an inspired idea. I don’t think I’ve used the hot one at all, since I’ve been here - ( I think Bari is a genius).
I had a spot of lunch and was actually very hungry for once (having missed breakfast) and then settled down for a couple of hours in my blissfully cool room.
Later I joined the others at the beach for a late afternoon snorkelling session. I said hello to Nemo, saw a Lion-fish, a White Ray and took yet more photos ( no SD mishaps today).
Watching the sun go down over the horizon, sitting on a lovely beach, and listening to the call to prayer is an incredible experience. Life doesn’t get much better than that!
