The Maldives: beyond the beaches

It takes just the right combination of bravery and naivety to move to a country you’ve never been to before, and that was how I ended up moving to Male—the capital of the Maldives—back in 2010.

Like a lot of visitors to the Maldives, the first time I saw Male was from an airplane window, I thought it looked like a miniature Lego city, teetering on the edge of a coral reef. I knew Male was a three-square mile mini-metropolis that houses one-third of the Maldivian population. But I truly didn’t know what to expect. When I initially set foot in the city, I quickly realized it was anything but Toy Town. Male is loud, idiosyncratic, and desperately lacking in trees (so be ready for intense heat).

There isn’t a downtown, but most of the attractions are in the northern and eastern neighborhoods (Henveiru and the grittier Galolhu), while the main shopping street, Majeedhee Magu, slices right through the center. If you ever get really lost, just keep going—you’ll hit the ocean at some point. You can walk across Male in about 30 to 40 minutes; I used to jog around the whole area in under an hour. I got to know the city through a combination of Malé meehun (locals) showing me their favorite haunts and by just stumbling around and discovering things. I quickly learned to love it and recommend spending at least a day here no matter where your final destination is in the Maldives.

Maldivians love caffeine. They drink caffeine in huge quantities, all day and night, whether it’s Lavazza or Illy coffee, tea, or Red Bull. Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact alcohol is illegal in all the inhabited islands (we all have to get a buzz from something). As a result, this island is saturated with cafes. You can almost use them to navigate. My go-to is SeaHouse Cafe, a laid back breakfast spot with a sun terrace overlooking the water, just above Hulhumale Ferry Terminal. It’s the first cafe I ever went to in the Maldives and something of an institution with young Maldivians. The best thing about it is that you can stay for hours without feeling like the waiters are getting sick of you.

What to order: The kulhimas (hot fish) with roshi (thin flatbread) for a flavorsome wake-up call. Then finish the meal with some dhufun, a local specialty. When I first tried it, I felt like I was eating a twig sandwich, and wondered if it was some sort of prank. Dhufun is thinly sliced and dried betel nuts mixed with cardamom pods, cinnamon bark, cloves, and slaked lime (yes, really—the material used in plastering). You normally roll it up inside a betel leaf. Personally, I skip the slaked lime, but hardcore dhufun fans love it.

From SeaHouse, walk past the tetrapods (sea defenses) protecting the perimeter of the island (Male is only 6.5 feet above sea level), in the direction of the Sinamale Bridge. Near the bridge is a rocky surf beach called Varunulaa Raalhugandu and a surf point that everyone calls “Towns” or “Raalhugandu.” If you can surf, hire a board from Ocean Sports Maldives before you make the trek to the beach, or just sit on the concrete wall, slip into a meditative state, and watch Male’s surfers riding the waves.

When I lived across the road, I used to spend hours sitting here and chatting with friends or simply admiring the enormous waves rolling in during the southwest monsoon. Grab a grilled fish snack or milkshake from Fini Raalhu food stand if you get hungry. Then wander through the newly created Lonuziyaaraiy Park and enjoy the coolness of the ornamental gardens after the blazing sun at the surf spot.

A tip: While you’re in the Raalhugandu neighborhood, volunteer with the Zoophilist Society of Maldives to feed the street cats roaming around there. This grassroots group is building a clinic to neuter and care for them.

The Olympus Cinema—located on the main shopping street, Majeedhee Magu—looks like a classic American movie theater from the 1950s. Its main focus is on the Maldivian film industry.

These movies don’t have subtitles and are usually horror or melodrama, with some elements of musicals, but even if you can’t understand a word, you’ll have a pretty clear idea of what’s going on in the same way you can still have some fun watching a soap opera in a foreign language. Don’t be surprised if you hear vocal reactions from the audience if something funny—or terrifying—happens on screen. Sometimes there are intermissions, so you can grab more popcorn (yes, in some ways, Maldivian movie theaters are just like ours). Check out the schedule here.

Keep the adrenaline going by crossing the road from the Olympus and heading to the Maldives National Stadium. It’s the home of the Maldives’ men’s and women’s national football (soccer) teams, also known as the Red Snappers and Daughters of the Waves.

Maldivians are incredibly passionate about soccer (unlike their neighbors in India and Sri Lanka, who are way more into cricket), so home matches frequently have an excellent turnout. If you’re lucky, you might catch a local or international game and have a chance to soak up the atmosphere while fans chant for their team. Matches normally happen during the evenings (around 5:30 p.m.) when it starts to cool down.

When bougie Maldivians or foreign expats (like me) are looking for a quiet capsule of peace in the hectic city, one popular spot is Hotel JEN Maldives by Shangri-La. This property has been through a few reincarnations. It originally opened as Holiday Inn (for some reason, Holiday Inn is a really nice five-star brand in Asia but three-star everywhere else). Today it’s still the swankiest hotel in Male.

The best thing about it is the very top floor, where there’s an open-air infinity pool. You get views over the cityscape and I particularly enjoy judging who has the best and worst roof gardens, or which is the most expensive boat in the harbor. But you can also see lots of the other islands in the atoll, stretching for miles.