Maldives OR THE KINGDOM OF THOUSAND ISLANDS

The official name is Republic of the Maldives Islands. Malodheep is the Sanskrit term derived from the name of Maldives which means garland. Nowadays the official religion is Muslim. Besides tourism, one of the main economic activities is copra exports (dry pulp coconut used for making oil, soap and food), as well as exports of coconut shell fiver and dry fish. They also have a significant ship industry. It is worth noticing their textile and craftwork rag trade.

The Republic of the Maldives Islands is situated 300 miles to the South-West of India, and it has around 1.190 coral islands, 200 of which are inhabited. Vegetation is tropical. There are some coconut palm-trees, banana-trees and mangroves. You can see from the air plenty of small coral islands – reefs – with coral sand that have small lagoons surrounded by the Indian Ocean.


It is rather curious that the Maldives Islands are the flattest country in the world: it doesn’t even reach 3m high in a placed known as Viligili. They are very sensitive towards tides as they drown little by little, imagine their future if we don’t stop the Climate Change ... They will drown!

It is such a small place, that there are no trains and no buses since there are scarcely any roads. They move around sailing, though. Their typical boat is called Dhoni. In the old times it used to be a fishing boat, but nowadays it is made for transport and short tourist cruises.

The climate is tropical and their rain season – monsoon – goes from May to July. Bear it in mind if you want to go and spend a few days there. And if the One-thousand islands Kingdom is so nice, you can not imagine its under the sea paradise. Don’t miss it! You can play nautical sports, but the best is diving or snorkelling.

You won’t starve there. It is common that people in islands eat plenty of food, especially tuna, octopus and swordfish. They tend to season meats like chicken and beef with curry, a very common seasoning in Asia. They also have some excellent vegetarian dishes like snacks baked with rice, tuna, coconut, lentils and spices.

The official language is Divehi (a dialect of Sinhala, derived from the Arabian), but English is a second language. An advise: when you get to the airport of the Maldives Islands, their will welcome you with a Maruhabaa. You can answer back Sukuria which means thank you!