Maldives is one of the most luxurious destinations to attend on the tourist markets in the 21st century.
It is an archipelago located not far from the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, among the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
What makes the Maldives to be so admired and loved?
The answer is EVERYTHING!
It is the smallest country in Asia, but in return for it the population density is very high.
It occupies an area of only 300 square kilometers and the population reaches about 390,000 people.
Weather
Nature seems to be conspired and decided to make up the Maldives because of its small area and donated the islands with a blessed climate and magical natural beauty.
Temperatures throughout the year vary between 25 and 30°C.
The climate is equatorial and generally quite humid.
Rains fall throughout the year, but from April to October when lasts the monsoon season the weather is comparatively more humid.
The weather is better for tourism from November to late March.
This period is dryer and the sunny hours are more.
Otherwise, the sun is here everyday.
Even in the darkest rainy days it does not admit to appear.
And every day rises and sets in almost the same time.
One of the great advantages of the Maldives is that there is no hurricane season.
Things to Do in Maldives
Here you’ll see incredible scenery.
Beaches are incredibly beautiful with an extremely bright and fine coral sand.
They are home to a surprisingly wide variety of fishes and marvelous sea creatures.
Between white beaches and coral reefs there is a lagoon, whose waters are so clean and transparent that underwater visibility reaching up to 50 or even 100 meters!
Maldives is a paradise for lovers of water sports, but especially the fans of diving and underwater shooting.
You could also windsurf, fish and everything you have in mind.
Most tourists who come here do not miss the opportunity to immerse themselves in the realm of Neptune and swim with dolphins or sea turtles.
Moreover, you do not have to recede very much from the coast.
The feeling to be on the Maldives is magical.
Warm and clean air, which brings flavor of tropical plants, lightest breath of wind, warm sun, bright blue skies, gentle sand and warm ocean water that caresses your skin – these are feelings that can not be compared with nothing else.
Coming here as a tourists, you will feel for a moment what is to have your own private island.
Among the plants are huddled magnificent luxury villas, perfectly equipped bungalows and low and not very big hotels.
A Tahitian-style bungalows are arranged right through the blue waters of the lagoon.
The contact with nature and sea is amazing and is perfectly combined with the very high level of service and personal attention to the guests.
Interestingly, these small houses seem to be traditional, but are actually very modern.
Here you can try a huge variety of seafood, which present in the cuisine of the island country.
The most popular mode of transport in the Maldives is the air taxi.
These small aircraft are an indispensable part of life in the archipelago, because the country is very scattered and is very difficult to get from one point to another.
Because the strongly limited area of the islands, these small planes are very suitable, because they are adapted for landing in water but not on the ground.
Well, of course, international flights are met by the modern international airport which is located next to the capital Male.
The international airport is located at a neighbouring island, but the distance is nonetheless insignificant.
Local Culture
Culture of the Maldives is a typical Asian.
Most closely resembles that of Sri Lanka and India.
The Islam is official religion for the biggest part of population of Maldives.
There are many mosques, you might see.
The most beautiful is the building of the Islamic Centre that is located in the north part of Male.
Its facade is decorated with a golden dome and golden minaret.
People here are very nice and smiling, perhaps because the life in this part of the world life is still relatively calm.
Local residents are modern people and this is not a surprise.
However, the number of tourists exceeds many times the number of local residents.
The communication with people from all over the world has made many people of Maldives skilled in communication and open to innovations.
Nature
Maldives is covered with dense equatorial vegetation.
You can see mostly coconut palms and pandanus (a kind of beautiful tropical plant with pretty elongated leaves).
The islands lie in a narrow range from north to south.
They represent the last phase in which a volcano goes after death.
Now of the volcanic islands have remained only so-called atolls.
These coral rings that remain above the ocean surface are nothing else but relics of the sunk volcanoes.
Arriving by plane to the Maldives you will be amazed how small in fact are the biggest part of the islands – so small that they can not even be seen on the map.
Small enough to be surrounded in a breath without to effort.
Many of these islands are privately owned.
Male
The capital Male is a small in size but is quite crowded.
Here live around 110,000 inhabitants, but their number continues to grow rapidly.
And on condition that the island is less than 2 km in its longest part.
Here there are no undeveloped areas.
Much of the streets are very narrow and therefore perhaps the most popular mean of transport is the motor.
It is easy to park and can pass even through the narrow streets of Male.
Moreover, the weather is nice all year around so you do not need your vehicles to be closed.
Much of the coast of the island is enclosed and turned into a port for yachts and other small vessels.
This island is considered to be the main in the archipelago, not only because this is the capital of Maldives, but also because here is the royal palace of the ruling dynasty.
Male visitors will be little surprise, because there will not find any beaches except the Artificial Beach, located in the eastern part of the island.
Actually Male is like every other city – people run to work, shops are full of customers waiting in line, everyone is busy with something…. In general the atmosphere in Male is not very vacational.
But the real Maldives, those who know from the magazines and television is outside the capital.
Archipelago is full of little green islands with beautiful beaches.
This is not a destination for mass tourism.
Not everyone can afford to rest here, however, hundreds of thousands of visitors flood the island every year.
Maldives offers a luxury product with high quality service.
The Catastrophic Disaster
And their insignificant altitude that is visible with the naked eye was not a problem before the catastrophic disaster that happened in 2004.
In the morning of December 26, tsunami with a height of about 5 meters rushed the snow-white beaches of this paradise archipelago.
The waves took more than 80 victims and caused huge financial losses.
Because of the small altitude of the archipelago, most of the islands was strongly affected.
Altitude of the islands rarely exceed more than two meters and unlike other countries there are no high places where the people can go in a case of danger of tidal waves.
Originally the islands suffered huge damage to its tourism industry, but a few years later local economy, which relies heavily on international tourism began to recover gradually.
The number of foreign tourists who return here now is growing slowly and local beaches are alive again.
In the end, beauty and time helped to overcome the fear and horror that left in the people around the world who have watched or suffered this terrible disaster.
In the end is hardly to find a place on our planet that is insured against the fury of the Mother Nature.
Is Maldives really sinking?
As sad as it sounds, however, and heaven has also its problems.
Maldives slowly sink.
The islands are highly threatened by rising ocean levels.
Government of that country is now prepared for times when the islands will disappear completely.
The Maldives buy a land in countries such as Australia, India and Sri Lanka.
The idea is to have a place to live for the locals when their homes will be already engulfed in the Indian Ocean.
But this may not happen.
Nobody could say for sure.
Moreover, these are estimates of the middle or end of the 21st century.