Some people have strange ideas about what they want from a holiday. Not many would say they'd like a hotel that is just a five-minute walk from an airport terminal.

They probably wouldn't like that walk to pass a decrepit and closed cinema, a random squash court and a couple of dodgy souvenir shops.

They might not even like the war memorial that could do with a lick of paint. Which is all just as well – because it means that those who manage to discover the Maldivian island of Gan tend to get it all to themselves.

You see, Gan is quite unlike the picture postcard images you see of the Indian Ocean isles. For the time being, there's no stilted villa accommodation, no infinity pools and hardly any honeymooning couples.

But what there is more than makes up for that. For Gan is the real Maldives – and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get here.

Equator Village, the island's only hotel, is actually a former RAF base and there are still reminders of when it was in use from 1957 to 1976.

The cinema and squash court were part of the base, there's an old handpainted map depicting the islands of Addu Atoll on the wall, a couple of antique chandeliers, a huge snooker table with old-style slider scoreboard and, joy of joys for divers, the British Loyalty – a Navy tanker that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in World War II – lies just off the coast.

Unspoilt beauty
Guests dine in what was the officers' mess and stay in what were the officers' quarters – single-storey chalet-style rooms that are as basic as you need.

There's no TV, no sauna and no room service but, then again, as a fellow guest says when we discuss the minimal decor, who wants to travel to a country this beautiful and just stay in their rooms? She is right, of course.

There's amazing diving here (two scuba enthusiasts with more than 500 dives each tell me it's world class) and even if you're a Padi-free zone, the hotel's own reef is only 25m from the beach.

Thanks to the small numbers of tourists, it's largely unspoilt and teeming with more aquatic life than a director's cut of Finding Nemo (we're talking baby reef sharks, octopuses, turtles and puffer fish for a start).

The other great thing about Gan is that it's connected to some of the atoll's other islands via a series of causeways. Now, the Maldivian government may be more than happy to bank the tourist dollar but it ideally likes to keep our wicked Western ways at arm's length from the strictly Muslim populace.

That is why almost all the country's resorts are built on their own islands that you can walk around in 15 minutes.

As such, aside from hanging around the international airport in the capital Male waiting for a resort connection, Addu Atoll is the only part of the country where you can come into direct and sustained contact with the locals.

Secret island
It's a point proven as we lazily idle along on a hired moped for 18km or so over the islands of Fedu, Maradu and Hankeda until we reach the biggest in the chain, Hitadu.

In the villages here, we see men sipping coffee and hiding from the midday sun in tree-shaded cafés, smilingly shy women in bright purple hijab and curious children who cannot get enough of the pictures on our cameras.

At the top of Hitadu, there's also an inland lagoon, its peaceful stillness complemented by a twitcher's delight of seabirds.

The rest of our week is filled with such visits, going on night fishing, island hopping or snorkelling trips from the hotel or lazing by the pool being served by the delightful barman, Francis.

It's a perfect mixture of just enough to do without being rushed off your feet but not enough that you don't get a decent spell of relaxing.

Unfortunately, Gan and the rest of Addu Atoll may not be this remote for long. In December, Heratera Island Resort will open on one of the other islands (thankfully, not causeway connected) while late next year, the super-luxury Shangri La will set up shop.

At one of our pool bar sessions, we meet a couple of British engineers working on the latter project.

They tell us of an opulent complex where pools and rooms will hang 3m up trees.

More disturbingly, they are dredging sand from the bottom of the lagoon to make wider beaches. 'We're not building the Maldives,' one says. 'We're building what people's idea of the Maldives is.' As I said, some people have strange ideas of what they want from a holiday.

Courtesy: Metro 

Published in : The News, Reports & Analysis

Keywords : News, Reports & Analysis, Paradise without the gloss, Maldives, Resorts

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