One Way Ticket

We depart an easy-going inexpensive, wholly Muslim, island culture via a speedboat and an overnight air flight into an energized, multicultural, modern Asian urban situation. Leaving what maybe a very rare or at least hard to find environment, where tourists are scarce and locals are welcoming. Where there are no flatscreen TVs in rental rooms but where you need a smart phone to read a QR code in order to fill out the entry card data just to get into this country. A place where local populations eat tuna with, shall I say every meal, along with coconut. We have created our own lunches, buying crackers, bread, and peanut butter.

Being here during Ramadan, we have witnessed the local population observing the fasting, prayer times and rhythms of the shops closings and openings. After sundown, people eat snacks. We ate snacks with the family who invited us here. We met these people in Morocco in the Sahara riding camels. The snacks we shared were actually a picnic on a low tide sandbank. Our time here in the Maldives has been a learning experience on beautiful islands shared with generous people.

These Maldive experiences came about because one of our traveling objectives is to be open to unexpected encounters. Some people may think it is risky doing this and maybe it is, but being out here in the world it has been our experience that as Louis Armstrong sang in his song, it’s a wonderful world That “people shaking hands, saying how do you do, they’re really saying, I love you.” When we travel from the US, people say to us “be safe.” Our fear is that precautions may keep us from encounters with caring, genuine, loving people. We’ve experienced this from our Kenyan guides, Maldivian islanders and a Moroccan Berber.