It’s official; we have made our first major change to our preliminary route. It was bound to happen at some point and the very meticulous among you may have noticed that we have updated the map on our route page here. This post is to briefly explain the rational behind the decision to skip the Maldives. The Maldives is a small island nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean. While it is a beautiful country with some unique environmental challenges, namely that it is sinking under rising ocean levels, it was going to be a very expensive week to essentially sit on a beach and maybe let me do some diving. After researching the flight and lodging options, including live aboard dive boats which were the most affordable, the total incremental cost for the week would have been in excess of $3,000 vs. going straight to Bangkok. So we will now be going right from Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E. to Bangkok.
While cost was a major driver of the decision it was not the only one. We are willing to pay for unique and meaningful experiences. Examples of this so far include the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, or the great dinner in the Beyaglu in Istanbul. However, after looking at the available options for the Maldives they all seemed to be focused on escape and luxury. There was little chance to interact with anyone other than other tourists, or to see much of the country other than the beaches. In retrospect it should not have been surprising, escape and beaches is what people go to the Maldives for. And while that sounded great in our initial planning, after 2+ weeks in Dahab on the Egyptian Sinai swimming and diving the Red Sea, I think we will be good on beaches for awhile, at least until we get to southern Thailand. While this is the first change I am sure it will not be the last. There is already talk of Mongolia or maybe shooting over to Israel while we are in Jordan. This is the beauty of being flexible.
Where else should we consider including or excluding from the trip? The route map here shows our latest thinking.
Related posts:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hopping to Israel from Jordan would be interesting, esp. given some of their technology dedicated to dealing with limited resources. Does that (or at least getting Israeli stamps in the passports) pose any problems with getting in to the UAE?
What about India?
David – you are correct if you let the Israeli agent stamp your passport we would not be able to get into the U.A.E. You also have to be careful with getting the exit stamp from Jordan at the Israeli border. From our research it appears that what you have to do is get Jordan to stamp their exit stamp on a loose piece of paper and then get Israel to also stamp the loose paper for both entry and exit. Yo then remove that paper from your passport before heading to the U.A.E. What is interesting to me about this is that apparently this is this peculiar wrinkle for traveling in the Middle East is well understood and accepted practice by both Jordan and Israel. So if we go we just have to be sure we follow the tricks.
Regarding India we considered it as part of the preliminary route but felt that we really only had time for a city or two and that we would return to India on a future trip. It was also a toss up between India and China and for this trip China got the nod.