After my week in Fulhadhoo I had to stay a night in Malé before my flight home. That was perfect, because how could I come to the Maldives without exploring the capital!
Despite Maldives being a tourist hot spot, there wasn’t actually many places to stay on Malé which was strange. I ended up staying at the LemonRock Comfort Hotel, which seemed to be one of only three or four hotels available at the time.
Thankfully it turned out great. It’s a boutique hotel on the far end of Malé from the airport, very well located and a great place to explore Malé from.
Since it was evening when I landed back in Malé, it was the perfect time for an evening stroll around the city. There’s one main road that runs across the island, Majeedhee Magu Road. However to get there took some wandering through the narrow alleys, constantly dodging scooters and squeezing onto tiny sidewalks. You’ll also find lots of little shops along these alleys, mostly selling snacks and groceries.
Once you get onto the main road things are more hectic, especially at night. It seems most of the action in Malé runs through here and you’ll find businesses of every kind, from big sports and clothing stores to coffee shops to offices and everything else.
Again, Maldives is a Muslim country so many of the women will be wearing hijabs or burkas, and if you’re a female you should also be respectfully dressed.
The demographics here are interesting. I asked my taxi driver what the background of the people is here, he told me it’s majority a mix of Sri Lankan and Arabic people, and the language is Dhivehi, which at least to my ears sounds like a mix between Arabic and Hindi. So you might see people with Indian or Sri Lankan skin tone with Arabic features but curly hair. Quite unique.
You also do not see that many foreigners (white and Asian people) around, at least not in the days I was there.
After walking to the end of the main avenue we arrived at the artificial beach.
It’s very nicely put together, clean, well-maintained, and even late at night (around 10 p.m.) locals were still swimming in the water. Obviously it’s tropical so the weather was still warm at that time.
Even though the island is definitely congested, it’s clear that it’s been thoughtfully laid out, the streets are clean, and everything functions well (or at least appears to). The manager at my hotel was a Slovakian girl, and I asked if the streets were safe to walk at night and she emphatically said YES, she walks alone at night often and feels very safe.
You can also see that while it’s definitely not Tokyo or Dubai, the city is generally well developed and modern.
The thing that disappointed me most about Malé? The food! Sri Lankan and Arabic heritage? Tropical island full of fish and fresh fruits? I was hoping to walk the streets and be overwhelmed by whiffs of fish curries and grilled seafood smothered in spices!
Unfortunately that was not the case; most local food joints were selling basic things like samosas or sandwiches and tea.
In fact, I barely saw any restaurants at all, strangely. There are local eateries scattered around selling food, but somewhat hidden in the alleys and corners, so you need to go hunting for them.
I ended up eating Thai food since it’s what I could find at that time of night. Pretty good, but not the Maldivian feast I had been hoping for.
The next morning before my flight, I ventured out to see Malé during the daylight hours. I was up by 8 a.m. and on my mission to explore the other side of the city.
This time I walked in the opposite direction, towards the west side of the island.
The Maldives sun is no joke and I was dripping in sweat within the first 5-10 minutes. Not a problem, nothing like a good sweaty walk to wake you up in the morning.
Again I was disappointed by the food – I was hoping for some delicious spicy aromas to fill the morning like you have in places like Thailand or Hong Kong, but breakfast doesn’t seem like a big things here. Mostly tea and bread, cakes, things like that.
It didn’t take me long to reach the coast where there was another artificial beach, similar to the one on the opposite coast.
Even that early in the morning there were already people swimming! And not just one or two. Malé is a basic city without too many luxuries but one thing it does have is a clean ocean right there in the city! Just walk off the sidewalk and you’re in the water, which is awesome.
There really aren’t many “tourist attractions” to visit in Malé, but one of the main (or only?) ones is the tsunami monument. It was built in remembrance of the 2004 tsunami that caused 108 deaths in the Maldives and over 200,000 deaths in the region. I used to give only a passing interest to these kinds of things around the world, but now I really enjoy seeing them. It reminds us of our humanity, that our hearts hurt when disasters happen and we need to find ways to get closure and make an effort to ensure those people won’t be forgotten. I think they’re one of the most important aspects of a complete city – symbols that show we care and we remember.
The monument was a pleasant surprise – it’s small and nothing spectacular architecturally, but the area is well maintained and would be quite a nice area to relax and watch the ocean if it wasn’t so insanely hot! But obviously the heat didn’t bother these guys fishing off the wall right beside it. Presumably out there catching their lunch for the day. Nice.
After that I simply wandered the alleys for a while before heading to the airport to catch my flight.
It’s hard to describe Malé in words – every alleyway is the same, but it’s different.
Each block has its own little grocery store, its own little fruit shop, its own little tea house, its own little hole-in-the-wall restaurant selling curries and rice from steaming stainless steel dishes, and that just repeats across the island.
It’s a hundred blocks squeezed into the space of fifty, yet it all works seamlessly somehow.
Scooters breeze down narrow roads with pedestrians on both sides, stone streets look old but are somehow clean and well-maintained.
You might not visit the Maldives to hang out in Malé, but I think you should, for a day.
It’s somewhere different, fun to walk around, lots of nooks to explore.
You might end up quite liking it.
