Holiday Paradise Maldives
Introduction
This year we planned to go to the Maldives Republic for holiday. We told ourselves that we should finally go on a far-away holiday, and no sooner said than done, our journey started on a Monday. The three of us: my husband, my daughter and me had packed our bags and went to the airport. Curious and exited about what lay ahead of us, we sat in the departure hall of the airport in April 2001.Geographical Details on the Maldives
The Maldives are located in the south west of the southern tip of India in the Indian Ocean. Prior to our journey into the unknown, we had read a little on the geography and the Maldives in general and had found out that the Maldives consist of 1,190 islands, only 87 of which serve for tourism. Only 1% of the entire archipelagic state consists of land. The individual islands that belong to the Maldives stretch over a length of 823 km. 26 atolls with coral reefs are the outstanding highlight of this charming region.Course of our Journey
After having been pampered on the flight, we had a fantastic landing and have now arrived on our holiday island. We have chosen Malé as our destination, an island which is also the capital of the Maldives having 104,403 inhabitants. We needed some time to get used to the tropical climate. It was very hot although we landed during evening hours. But we arrived on the well-known airport island Hulhumalé like presumably every tourist flying to the Maldives. The approach was already a great experience as it was uniquely beautiful to see the islands gliding below us from the air and it was a fascinating beginning of our dream holiday. Our daughter was glued to the window not wanting to miss a single glance.Arrival at Malé and Check-in at the Hotel
It had been a long day that was now coming to an end. The friendly hotel staff showed us to our rooms after a short welcome drink and a little snack because we were so tired that we just needed to sleep and wanted to take care of everything else the next day.The First "Real" Day of our Holiday
After we had spent a quiet night in our fully air-conditioned rooms, our holiday was now going to start for good. We were refreshed and wide awake and looked forward to the first day, which we planned to spend at the resort. After a rich breakfast buffet with delicious tropical fruits, juices and hot coffee par excellence and other wonderful delights, we felt strong enough to make a tour of the hotel, the resort and the neighbourhood. As a first cultural highlight, we visited the Friday Mosque which we found very impressive. For us, it is important not to stay at the resort only but to get to know the country and the people better. Therefore at the hotel, we got information about trips that could be booked during our stay. A variety of interesting trips were on offer, more details are contained in my holiday diary. After that we decided to spend some leisurely hours near the swimming pool and this was how our first relaxing day ended. We finished it having dinner and enjoying a glass wine.
