During our low budget trip through southeast Asia we decided to make a detour and go to the Maldives. We thought one month there would not destroy our plans, and we really wanted to visit the tropical beaches of this country. With that in mind we organized a month trip to the Maldives. Specifically Maafushi island.
The new coronavirus started to be a thing a few days after we arrived. At the beginning we didn’t take it as such a big deal so we just focused on exploring the island, doing SCUBA diving and different trips. But when our flight out of the country was close in time we were a little scared of the situation, so we decided to extend our visa and give the world a little time to get over the virus. We would stay another month and, to compensate a little for our budget, instead of back to India we would directly fly to the next place, Bangkok, the 23rd of March. During the new month we wanted to focus on updating our blog and to dive more in this amazing water.
Then some friends of us decided to join us in Maldives, and had a flight back home also for the 23rd of March. It was a really exciting moment for us as we hadn’t seen any of our family or friends since November 2019. As the time went by, the situation with the virus got a drastic twist and instead of it getting better it went even worse. It started to spread through the whole world and affected also our home countries (especially Spain). But well, we had Thailand as our next destination. So no problem, right? Yes, the problem came. Thailand let us out by cancelling the visa on arrival for romanian citizens. Not people who were recently in Romania, that was also affected by the virus, but ALL romanian citizens. The only thing we could have done is to go to Thai Embassy in Romania to apply for the visa. They also added a new requirement for both of us: a medical proof that we are not infected with SARS-CoV-2 and thus, that we do not have the COVID-19. But how were we supposed to fly from Maldives to Romania just to get the visa and then fly back to Asia? First, it was too much money. And second, it was a chaotic situation in which nobody could have assured us that we would be allowed to exit Romania within a week. So, we decided to cut Thailand out of the list and continue in Maldives a little more.
The 17th of March, at 15:00, the government released a notice of temporary suspension of tourist check-ins in guesthouses and city hotels. In other words, no hotel or guesthouse could get bookings because check-ins were forbidden. This rule would apply the same day at 18:00. We spent that day at the beach with no internet, then went back to our guesthouse and found out about the notice, but at around 20:00 and because another guest told us.
By then, we already knew it was almost sure we would spend more time in Maafushi. We were anyway already in a guesthouse, which means, if we stay it is not a check-in but an extension. We did not know for sure how many nights we would stay, and we wanted to look for a solution before we confirmed our extension. In reception they told us it was not a problem and we could say it at any moment. As long as we would need a room they would not close. So we could breathe calm.
The islands got in lockdown, which means, tours in islands are cancelled, no trips between local islands for tourists and the government tries to avoid as much as possible the interaction between locals and the tourists that are still here. We have only one move, leaving. But because there are no tourists, and the interaction between locals and tourists is rather avoided, the only way is getting a private transfer to the airport and try to be lucky enough as to find other tourists of the twentysomething left that have a flight the same day as you to share the price (150 USD).
The next day we found out that the flight that would take our friends to Doha, where they had then another flight home, was cancelled. Out of the three flights Male -> Doha operated by Qatar airways only one continued flying, but it was too late for them to get a ticket in that flight, so they also needed to stay. We considered different alternatives both for us and our friends and also only for us in the case that our friends would get a way home. But every alternative we thought of stopped being possible the next day. Flights got cancelled every day, so booking tickets was never a guarantee that you could actually fly. Because of countries closing the borders, or because of changes in visa rules. So we decided to just chill and wait two weeks in our current guesthouse.
But, as we mentioned, every alternative stopped being an alternative when we would decide for it. Our guesthouse had already planned to close on the 26th of March. In other words, without notifying us, they had decided that they close, so we could not stay all the time we would need in the hotel, as they previously told us.
More places were also closing. Dive centers, excursion centers, hotels, restaurants… And the workers were then just left without a job in most of the cases. Meanwhile, we needed a place to stay but we could not find one, as new check-ins were not permitted. Luckily, one worker of another guesthouse (and after almost two months in the island also kind of our friend) helped us with different alternatives. But some possibilities required our guesthouse at that time to do some paperwork. We knew already that getting paperwork from them was a little hard, so we preferred the other alternative, that is talking to the health department in the hospital and trying to find a solution with their help.
They put us in contact with the police, who were really nice to us, listened to our situation, asked us more questions to understand what happened and called to many places or many times. They spoke also with different guesthouses and, after around two hours with us, they told us to go wherever we wanted to stay. If they would not accept us, we could tell them to call the police and they would clarify that we are an exception and could check in. Actually the next day the other hotels and guesthouses knew they could accept new check-ins from people who were already on the island.
This that we tell here is read really fast, but it happened in almost a week. We had a week of stress instead of enjoying 100% this paradisiacal island with our missed friends. So, that day while we were having dinner at the terrace of one of our favourite places, that is also a hotel, the owner heard our story and decided to help us out, and we decided to stay there. We saw the rooms, which are amazing. Balcony with ocean view, the best breakfasts in the island according to many tourists and super nice workers. It is a little expensive, but it is worth it. After the situation that we had we four deserved to chill as much as possible before we would see what came next. Plus, the owner delayed the closing and assured us we would be able to stay the two weeks we estimated that we would need to find a way back.
We spent the entire week doing different activities on the island trying to disconnect from all the stress that we had. We went to the beach, woke up early for the sunrise, took pictures, had fun creating TikTok videos and had really good quality time with our friends. What we didn’t know at the beginning was that at the end of that week our friends would have the flight to go back home. They were notified three days before that their flight was rescheduled. We enjoyed the rest of the week together but the possibility of the flight being cancelled was always there. So we couldn’t believe that they would actually leave. Moreover, we were hoping that they would stay longer and in a few weeks we could all go back together. But the departure day arrived and the flight was still not cancelled. Then it started to feel more real. They were leaving and in a couple of hours we were going to be alone again. They were lucky to find another five people that had the same flight, so they gathered to get the speed boat and share costs between all of them. Saturday 17:00 they left. One of the saddest moments we lived in the last couple of months. We came back to the room unmotivated and with tears in our eyes. We were used to being alone because we already traveled just the two of us the last months. But spending two weeks with them, every day, got us really attached to each other and the separation was hard.
With our friends gone, we needed to see what we could do, and had two days of looking for feasible options. We are currently writing this story sitting on the balcony of the room with the breeze of the sea and listening to the nature of an almost empty island. Disconnecting from the solution research by telling you what happened so far and our current situation. We are debating between two options: trying to get to Europe or staying more in Maldives and see what happens.
Going back to Europe is tricky though and, given the situation, a bit dangerous. The government of our countries are not really working on taking tourists back from the Maldives. Plus, Andrada is not accepted in Spain. Sergio is not accepted in Romania. So even if we would get the help from the government that other countries have, we could not go together. We could just go to Germany, even though we do not have an address together there anymore as we left with all that it implies, because we have family and friends who still live there. They worked hard to find more info and talked to different institutions to see if we could go back. But the final decision lies on the police officer that would take us at the borders, when we land. If the facts that we lived there before, that our families live there now and we have where to stay, plus that we have an insurance that covers us also in Germany would be reason enough to let us in, we could be together and with our family back in Europe. But it is not guaranteed. If they would say no, we would not be allowed to enter, nor to come back to Maldives. We would be between countries and needing to be rescued by our current countries. Furthermore, the tickets are horribly expensive, and the “cheap” versions are with companies that might end up cancelling the tickets. Maafushi is free of COVID-19, and there are nice people on this island, including a group of spanish people who are there for each other and make it easier to accept staying longer here.
On the other hand, nobody can guarantee that the situation will go better in a short time period. Here we need to spend money every day in a guesthouse, not only food. We are separated from our families and friends. And our visa will expire at the end of April. The visa will probably not be a problem, as the immigration office here understands the situation and will probably solve any problem we may experience with it. But we would stay in a country that is not our home country during all this trouble and, if it would get to this island, the situation would be even harder for us. Even if it does not get here, it could be that the food and water sources get affected, because here everything is brought on a boat. The spanish people could eventually leave on a rescue flight that Andrada could not take, so we would stay here almost alone, and the guesthouses might eventually close because they can’t make a living from one booked room.
[UPDATE] While finishing this story, we were informed that the flights out of Maldives that we were considering got cancelled until the end of April. Qatar Airways, the other alternative (more expensive) seems to be also cancelled. So the decision was made for us. This delayed our publishing of this story, but we already got a place where we can stay next, as our current hotel closes the 6th of April. We are going to stay locked on this small island indefinitely, until we can for sure go back to Europe together, or continue our traveling.
If you have read this far, you probably see by now that our situation is not easy and it is a little stressful. We are locked, we can't leave and continue our traveling and we can't go back home to our family, and that is what makes it worse. But do not get it wrong, we are not bad here. We are safe and healthy, which is the most important. Now that it is sure we do not have other option but staying we will live the present and try to make the best out of it. We are sad for everything that is happening in the world, but we try to stay optimistic and send good energies to all of you. We will be telling in future stories how it evolves, what we end up doing. If you have any suggestion or information that might be useful, you can tell us. We will always be thankful for any help.