Hi Steemit community!
So during our trip, we decided to visit the neighboring islands and see how local Maldivians lived. The first island we went to a small island called Rhashoo which was about 1km x 1km and about 1000 residents lived on the island. We did see a lot of travelers here as well so I recommend this island as also a place to visit if you are not really into the resort experience but want to see more the oceans and the local area. We were there for about an hour and went into small shops when the sun was too hot and enjoyed the nice cool a/c. (There is another island than you could visit which is further away but pretty much the same look and feel as the Rhashoo island, so you might be wasting your time if are not really into that local experience). Also, the Maldives is a Muslim country and women need to cover if they want to visit the islands inhabited by the local people.
*We are on our way!!
*After we landed, palm trees awaited us with empty coconuts eaten by the wildlife.
*There were a lot of murals and paintings on the walls of the homes and as tourists, we took some photos :)
*I think there was an election that took place about a few months ago, where locals were voting on island council members. The local language was really interesting and our guide said that the local language (Devehi) dates back to the 12th and 13th century.
*This is a bad photo, but it was a map of the surrounding islands and dive rights. You can see Rhashoo island at the bottom middle square shaped island.
*After a quick 1 hour trip, we went from one end of the island to the other end. (It's very small) So we headed back as the temperatures were getting really high.
*And as always, another selfie while we waited for the rest of the people that came with us.
*We actually went to another uninhabited island where we had a bbq lunch and there was literally nothing but the beach, sand and the skies.
*And we ended up eating coconuts as well. :D
*It was really hard to get to this island because the waters were low, so we had to get there by a speedboat.
*Unfortunately, this was the only food photo that we took (because we were too busy eating).
I think that's it for the island hopping around Kuramathi! Next post will be about Sri Lanka which we visited before we came to the Maldives, (or I might do another posting about Maldives and the sealife...)
**Comments, votes are appreciated! Please let me know if you want to know more or anything else! Thank you!