The libaas story is more or less obligatory for any website covering Maldivian culture, so here’s our offering (finally). Now we just need to do the lacquerwork story and maybe something about rihaakuru and we’ll be just about done here. (Not really…there’s […]
This story was one we wanted to write after hearing a number of tales during our trip around the south, and struggling to work out what was real and what was made up. People aren’t the best with dates and […]
Another story left over from our time in Gaafu Alif atoll. Meeting Thutthu Beyya in Gemanafushi was a real pleasure…especially when he sang for us (it seems Dan reminded him of a distant relative!). Great to hear the stories of […]
Our island skills still need a lot of work, particularly after having seen the talented people of Huvadhu plying their trades: In Huvadhu alone we met people making clothes, rope, knives, boats, hooks, mats, brooms, and – most importantly – […]
We’re back in Addu and this week’s exclusive Mihaaru column Dan tried (with great difficulty) to assess the way the islands look after the first leg of our trip: One of my main goals during this project is to fill […]
This week saw us complete our tour of Huvadhu, and it felt like a good time for Dan to look back on some of the practical aspects of our trip in this weekend’s Mihaaru column: After five years of working […]
We left behind the quiet island of Dhevvadhoo on Saturday, and with it the last we’ll see of the Gaafu Alif group for a while…unless we left a charger or something (always the way, isn’t it?). Only just found time […]
Six weeks after we left Addu, we’ve been to ten inhabited islands and maybe the same number of uninhabited. The longest time spent was on Fuvahmulah – two weeks – while the shortest was on Gaafu Alif Kondey, were we […]
We heard the news this week that President Trump had decided to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change while we were in Gaafu Alif Dhevvadhoo: The idea that the great-grandchildren of the kids we meet on […]
Gaaf Alif’s Maafushi island is another one of those, like Villingili, whose name is more often associated with somewhere closer to the capital. But Huvadhu’s edition struck out on its own long before it’s cousin in Kaafu became famous as […]
After the usual will-we-won’t-we on Kolamaafushi harbour early this morning, the ferry captain decided that yesterday’s wild winds had calmed and we would head to Dhevvadhoo. (…via Villingili, Koodoo, and Maamendhoo, but we’ve taken mercy on our little map…and if […]
Maldivians have a phrase that covers any activity designed to stave off the boredom and hunger that comes during daylight fasting – roadha kuru kurun (shorten the fast). Today, our friends in Kolamaafushi invited us to shorten the fast by […]
Having started the year in Villimale’ and visited Shangri La resort before now (well, one of us has), this was our third Villingili. There’s two more in the neighbourhood, both still awaiting inhabitation in Alif Dhaal and Lakshwadeep. This one […]
Our three days in the atoll capital, Villingili, ended this afternoon as we grabbed the ferry across the lagoon to Kolamaafushi. The three-hour round trip via Koodoo and Devvadhoo soon became two as only one person wanted to go to […]
This week’s final preparations for ramadan gave the chance to think about the generosity of our hosts over the past month. Ramadan is the right time of year to build good habits and to reconsider bad ones. (How much coffee […]
Today we were able to go over to the Koodoo fish processing plant, lying between Villingili and Maamendhoo on the north-east shoulder of Huvadhu. We’d heard a lot about the place from fishermen up and down Gaafu Alif, who make […]
Travelling around the islands was always going to be filled with interesting challenges. Finding stories and travelling between isolated islands can be tricky, but not, it turns out, as tricky as finding a cool and quiet place to compile our […]
Here’s the short video to go with our ‘Prayer O’Clock‘ story from Gaafi Alif Nilandhoo. There are other sundials on other islands, but we’ve not seen one like this anywhere else yet.
After spending a long weekend back in Gaafu Alif Nilandhoo, we managed to get back on course today, catching a private launch north with the atoll ferry service (expected yesterday) out of action til at least Thursday. A mixture of […]
Woken by torrential rain before our alarms had the chance to get snoozed, it seemed unlikely our ferry to Maamendhoo would have left from its southern start point. But, with the public ferry system, it’s very difficult to find out […]
