the maldives journal, day 3: MLE to gan

Joost Woertman, Tuesday 14th November, Morning

Travelling from Malé to the Laamu Atoll.

The Maldives are special and you can notice this in many things. For instance, we are travelling in the most densely populated areas but travelling from A to B isn’t always that easy.

While flying over the Maldives we have an almost extra-terrestrial view. An ocean spotted with hundreds of small islands. Some of these islands are inhabited, but most are just a sandbank, sometimes with vegetation. We are flying, easy, but the islands we are passing don’t have landing strips, travelling here you need a boat or a waterplane. This might seem romantic but it also means that many people don’t have good access to primary needs for living.

The flight takes 50 minutes and we arrive at Khaddoo Airport, roughly 250 kilometres from the capital Malé. We are greeted by Ahmed, the host of Amra Palace, our home for the next five days.

In the local schoolbus we head off for new adventures.