ANOTHER YEAR ON 

BANDOS FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

Our First Christmas on a Different Island

Its was eight months since Lohi closed, We had heard from many staff telling us they had taken jobs on other islands but we hadn't yet heard back from reservations for Hudhuran Fushi. So because of this we were not speeding over the water to Lohifushi, we were speeding over to Bandos.

We couldn’t imagine spending Christmas anywhere but in the Maldives, so when we contacted reservations at Hudhuran Fushi we were expecting to hear back from them and then we could book to go to our favorite island for Christmas. Unfortunately this was not to be the case. Two months later they still had not replied so we picked up the holiday brochures and looked for a package deal somewhere in the Maldives. We chose Bandos because of its locality; it is close to Lohi and to Male. If we couldn't stay on Lohi then at least we would see if we could get a trip over there and see my many friends, it just wouldn't have seemed right to visit the Maldives and not see them. I could also then see what changes had been made to the island.

So we arrived in Bandos, the weather was not up to its usual standards, in fact it was cloudy and had been for the past week, but there on the jetty was Ibrahim, from reservations, waiting to greet us to his Island. Our reception was very similar to Lohi, cold flannels to freshen up with and orange cocktails cold and very welcome, but there were no familiar faces, where were our friends?

Our accommodation was a beach villa, wow it’s was superb, we had a jacuzzi in our outside bathroom and the bed was upstairs, a lovely view of the sea and a beautiful bowl of fruit and bottle of wine to welcome us compliments of Ibra. What more could we want; Bandos was feeling as if it was going to be a lovely alternative to Lohi.

It only took a couple of days to find our way round and to get the know some of the staff and to find the bar which we knew was going to become our favorite, the Sundowners bar.

Here we met Haneef, Aaamir, Munchy, Didi and Hassan, it had a terrace out over the sea and the food was fantastic. Reminded me very much of the Sunset Bar on Lohifushi. 

In the Sand bar we got to meet more staff and they were so friendly, in fact the first night we were sat down having a drink, Shifaau came up to us and said that he knew us from Lohi, he used to be room boy on Lohi but now he was working on Bandos as waiter. It really was great to see him. This started us thinking of Lohi, so we went to reception and asked if we could hire a boat to take us to Lohifushi for 1 day, no problem came the reply, so we arranged a trip to Lohi for the 23rd.December 2006.

The staff that had returned to Lohifushi had already been in touch with me since arriving and they were asking when we were going to come over so I rang them back and told them we are coming on the 23rd. and we couldn't wait.

Meanwhile Bandos was starting to feel good, the weather had still not improved but at least it was warm. And the Jacuzzi was a lovely place to be when it was raining.

Saturday came and for the first time the sun came out, a good omen for our visit to Lohifushi, off we set in the speedboat and thirty minutes later we were on Lohifushi.
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Our Trip to Lohifushi - The End of an Era

Well I think it was Lohifushi, it didn't look like Lohi (I know I am supposed to call it Hudhuran Fushi - but to me it will never be that - the island is still Lohifushi it is only the hotel that is Hudhuran Fushi) Boy had it changed, 

The first sight we had of the island from the speed boat was not a happy one, our lovely Funfushi and little Funfushi, the lovely little islands in the harbour where we had partied through the night and snorkeled through the day, were now construction sites, full of building materials and workers accommodation. I felt so sad.

We landed on the jetty and were suddenly surrounded by bushes and shrubs, the beautiful jetty and sunset beach had been filled with greenery, why, I do not know. We walked towards reception, the Lohifushi Pagoda had gone and more bushes had been planted, I found it rather difficult to find my way to the reception area it had changed so much. 

But that was nothing to what was to greet me when I entered reception. 
It had all gone, all that wonderful Maldivian style wood reception area, and in its place was a plastic rather cold, too open meeting area, with settees and chairs decked out with cream cushions (like to see those in a few months) open sides and a very plastic reception desk. What had they done..

We were invited to sit and wait for the deputy general manager, Moosa, all we wanted to do was have a walk round the island and take in the changes, but they didn't seem to want us to go much further than the reception area. It was not till we came home that we found out the reason why they did not want us to walk round the north end of the island. I had my camera with me and they know I have the web site; these are the some of the pictures they didn't want me to see. Compliments of a guest, who stayed on Hudhuran Fushi at Christmas and is now taking his complaints along with a lot of other guests to the tour company.

What they did want us to see were the new bungalows, they seemed quite proud of them, I thought they were awful, gone were the little terraces with their little fences giving you some privacy if you wanted to sit out side, in their place was a small piece of decking, no dividing wall between the two terraces, no privacy at all. The new shape thatched roof looked like it should be on a temple more than a Maldivian Island bungalow but they seemed to like them. Jenny (a Philippine from reception) showed us inside and explained to us how a French interior designer had been responsible for the interiors. Oh.... Again how non-Maldivian can you get, sunshine yellow and very plain. Lovely little pictures over the bed but were was the beautiful woodwork that had been there before, rich and inviting. All you had now was cold and uninviting. Surely a Maldivian interior designer would have been more qualified to design the interior of a Maldivian Bungalow....

As we were leaving the bungalow, Jenny told us that building had started on the 40 water bungalows - FORTY I said that is far too many for a small island like this. They will over shadow all the beaches on the north side, if there are any beaches left, and all those extra people will make the island too busy. 

So they have ruined the reception, they have ruined the bungalows lets have a look at the Hiyala Bar, this is where we used to sit in the evening, dance on the dance floor, have crab races and karaoke. 
Yes you’ve got it - all gone...

No Hiyala bar, no dance floor and no space for crab racing. But there is a pool table... and there is a swim up bar at the pool, although there are no type of seats in the pool except steps, suppose you will just have to sit on these whilst you have your drink. You could always sit around the pool, although there isn’t much room left now, after the pool has been extended, which I must say is an improvement. If you did sit around the pool, you would be sitting on what we call our Tsunami furniture. It used to be on the terraces of the deluxe rooms and when the Tsunami came it ended up all over the island. It is now re instated around the pool. (could they not afford to buy new or even made new) 

So by now it was nearly lunchtime and we knew the lads would be in the restaurant waiting for us, so off we went, we walked back through reception and towards the reading area with the fantastic full size settee swing - oh yes, again, all gone, its now offices and what an eye sore they are. I asked one of the staff if they were temporary, because I couldn't believe they would build anything like that permanently, but they were permanent. 

We approached the dining room; where there used to be a canopy, if it was raining it meant you didn't get wet between reception area and dining room -yep gone..... and all that rain we had in December - bet a few guests got wet. We entered the dining room and it looked lovely at first sight, then we noticed that the small wall around it had been knocked down, just like reception and Hiyala Bar area, what’s wrong with these Sri Lankan’s, do they not like privacy. It was all very open and it had SAND on the floor, the main dining room had a sand floor, WHY? It had a lovely tiled floor before, which was easy to clean and easy for the staff to walk on but someone in a mad moment thought it would be nice to have sand. So ladies if you dress up at night don’t wear shoes, there is nothing worse than sand in your shoes!

But then, we saw the real reason we had come to Lohifushi for the day Amjad, Ansar SP Shaeer and all the other waiters that we had traveled from Bandos to see. It was the highlight of our holiday seeing them again. We would have been staying on Lohifushi had reservations bothered to get back to us, but now I am glad they didn't, I would not have wanted to stay on this alien island, it was not Lohifushi any more, only the staff were the same. We also would not have wanted to stay had we known about the building site at the north end of the island, we can only imagine what it must have been like for guests staying there this Christmas.

We had flowers on our table and at least four waiters waiting on us, we got them to come outside and pose for pictures, hope the other guests didn't mind waiting for their drinks etc., 

After lunch, which was delicious, we only had a short while before we had to set off back to Bandos, just enough time for the lads to finish duty and meet us at the Sunset Bar, well what used to be the Sunset bar it looked derelict, this bar used to be the hub of the island, it was always busy, now it was deserted, just some staff who looked relieved when we walked in as they needed something to do. We met Ansar and Sp there and had good ole chat, Then it was time to go, the Bandos boat was entering the harbour, we could just about see through all the greenery so it was time to do the walk, we hate this walk, up the jetty to the boat, you know it is time to go but you really don’t want to. We weren't too bothered about leaving Lohi this time but leaving the staff was so sad, we didn't know when we would be seeing them again, it brought back memories of April 2006. So yet again I got on the transfer boat in tears.

Bandos for Christmas and New Year

Back on Bandos we carried on with our holiday, reflecting every now and again on the changes to Lohi, and then on Boxing day we found ourselves going down for breakfast and about to walk through reception at exactly 9.15am I stopped in my tracks and went to walk around instead of through, it was exactly the same time we had walked through reception on Lohi 2 years ago. At the breakfast table we had 2 minutes silence at 9.22am and our thoughts went out to all those people who were caught up in the Tsunami of 2004.

Later that day we received a phone call from Lohi it was Jobe he had someone who wanted to talk to us, it was Stephen and Sandra, they had been on Lohi Christmas last year and they had managed to book for this Christmas. They were not impressed, they hated the changes and were disgusted that the island had opened whilst there was still so much building work going on. 'Come over to Bandos and see us' I said. So they did, a couple of days later we were meeting them on the jetty, and as they got off the boat they said 'we have a surprise for you' and just behind them was Ali - restaurant manager from Lohi, he had been in Male when we visited, so he had come over to see us with Stephen and Sandra. It was a lovely surprise and so good to see him.

We had a good day, although the weather was not very kind to us, and later on when we went to the jetty to meet the Lohi boat, three more staff had hitched a ride over to see us. We had now seen nearly all of the people we wanted to, the only three we hadn't seen were Adil, Maahy and Ubay, but they were on Kanahura, a long way from Bandos and Maahy had been trying to get the management to allow us to come up on the sea plane transfer since we had arrived, but there had not been any room.

New Year arrived and my phone was red hot with texts and phone calls, from Lohifushi, Kanahura and even from Sri Lanka, the DJ who used to dj at the Christmas and New Years disco on Lohi was Sri Lankan and we had kept in touch. But we still hadn't been able to get to see Adil, Maahy and Ubay. Then on New Years day Kanahura's accommodation coordinator called us to say he had seats on the transfer for the 2nd January, did we want them? Yes please came our reply. Even though we were going home on the 3rd. it was too good an opportunity to miss. 
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Our Trip to Kanuhura The One and Only

It was the only transfer to Hulhule that we could get; 7.30am and our seaplane to Kanahura didn't leave till 9.30am. 15minutes to the airport by boat and then we had nearly two hours to wait. But who cared we were going up to Kanahura, the seaplane trip in itself was worth the wait never mind seeing the lads. So we arrived at the airport and seated ourselves at the coffee bar, we looked around to see if we could see any familiar faces like Wahead and Ashfaq but no, we didn't recognise anyone, maybe they had all left when Lohifushi closed. 

At 8.30 the One and Only desk opened and we presented ourselves, they checked their list and there we were Mike and Lynne 9.30 transfer to Kanahura. We were on our way. We were escorted to the bus and driven round to the mini airport for seaplanes, it was a beautiful hot and clear day and we were excited. 

They showed us into the Kanahura private lounge, where we were offered an ice cold flannel and a cool drink, it was all very nice but I wanted to go outside and watch the sea planes. So we sat in the open watching these planes come in and go out at such a rate, I never dreamt it would be so busy. Then came the time to board our plane, we found a seat and waited with trepidation for the take off, wow what an experience, if you have never been on a sea plane, book your next holiday to Maldives on an island that has sea plane transfer, it is fantastic.

We flew low over Bandos and then headed north, I looked out of the window just as we were passing Lohi, look I shouted there's Lohi in the distance. I had never seen it from the air before and looking down on it I could imagine that it was just the same as it always had been. 

The flight took approx 35 minutes and then we saw Kanahura, it was beautiful, the lads had certainly found somewhere lovely to work and as we were soon to find out it wasn't just a lovely island it was a great place for the staff.

There waiting on the jetty were Maahy and Adil, dressed in their Maldivian uniform, looking really smart. I jumped off the plane, quickly shook the hand of the welcoming committee and then ran right passed them to give both Maahy and Adil a big hug.

We walked down the beautiful jetty over the most turquoise lagoon we had ever seen, towards the perfect white beaches. It was a little bit too perfect. 

Letchy the accommodation coordinator, took us to reception where yet again we were offered an ice cold flannel and a cool refreshing drink. We were then taken on a guided tour of the island, we were shown the beach villas

and the water bungalows,

the water sports centre and then to the Veli cafe. Whilst walking round the outside terrace we heard a shout ‘Hi Leen’ when we turned, there was Ubay, it had been 12 months since we had last seen him in Male, and he looked so well, Kanahura was obviously good for him. He took us by the arm and carried on with the guided tour, he showed us his restaurant and the disco at the side. Letchy took a back seat - hope he didn't mind. Although we did ask him to take our picture with Ubay and he seemed quite happy to do so.

 
From there we went back to reception, we were offered the use of the hospitality room for the day and then we were taken to the main area, the swimming pool was gorgeous and the surrounding bars and restaurants equally gorgeous. A quick tour around the spa and the main dining room (to die for) I have never seen so many colourful cushions in my life. And the really lovely thing was, it all had a Maldivian flavor. None of your cheap plastic, just the real thing - wood. All this time I was enjoying the tour but all I really wanted to do was to get together with the lads and see how they were doing. So when we were shown to a table for lunch, I asked if Adil and Maahy may join us, he said it was ok for them to come and sit with us, but they could not have lunch with us. I didn't care as long as they were there.

Maahy and Adil joined us and Mike and I had lunch, a very nice sandwich, with some french fries, a small salad and some melon, if you are thinking of going to Kanahura I can tell you that this sandwich cost $27 each, I had a glass of wine and that was $17. it was certainly not a cheap island.

After lunch the lads showed us their part of the island, they even have their own beach and it was a big beach, with volley ball and football nets, the staff accommodation was really nice, lovely colourful canteen and a really cool games room with pool, darts etc.We got to see their studio, where they had so much computer stuff, and a karaoke machine. 

This island really was good to the staff. No wonder they didn't want to go back to Lohi. And when I had finished telling them about Lohi and showing them pictures, I don’t think they will ever go back. Which is a shame for us, because we cannot afford to go and see them on Kanahura and they are too far away to meet them on Male. But hopefully we are going down to Addu with them in May or June, we were supposed to be going last year but when they got the job on Kanahura our trip had to be put on hold.

Time was going far too quickly, we managed to see Ubay again and we got to meet Adil's brother. But then it was time to freshen up in the hospitality room, settle our bill (we had to pay for what we had here whilst on Lohi it was all complimentary) and then we started the walk up the long jetty to wait for the plane to take us back to Hulhule.

It wasn't long before we could see the plane coming in, I was starting to get myself upset so I took a deep breath and said, I am not going to get upset, there are other people on this plane and I am sure they do not want to see me blubbering.....

The plane landed and passengers just arriving got off and had their first real sight of paradise, we unfortunately were getting on and saying goodbye to paradise and our friends. After hugs and farewells we boarded the plane and waved at our friends until we were in the air. My last sight of Maahy and Adil was as the walked down the jetty and we were by this time up in the air banking round to head for Male.

The trip back was just as good as the trip up, the light hadn't gone yet (the sea planes don’t fly at night) and we saw Lohi and Bandos again before coming in to land. After we landed, the bus was waiting to take us to the other side of Hulhule where the big planes take off. 

As we got off the bus at the departures area we heard someone say,' I thought it was you', as we turned we saw Wahead, he had spotted us getting off the bus. After a big hug he took us for a coffee, we were in no hurry to get back to Bandos; we hadn't even arranged transport yet. Over coffee we caught up on all the gossip and it really made our day. Wahead then organised transport back to Bandos for us, we went by Dhoni (the slow way) the sun was just setting and we had the boat to ourselves it was a wonderful end to a wonderful day. 

We had left Wahead telling him that we were going home the next day and we had promised to contact him as soon as we left Bandos, he said he would come and meet us.

Bandos for Christmas and New Year

Next morning we finished our packing and placed our luggage outside our door. We slowly strolled down to the Sundowners Bar, we had spent a lot of time here and we now knew all the staff by name. We decided we would eat our last breakfast there, so we sat down and tucked into the most delicious cheese on toast and fresh from the bakery (a selection of breads and rolls which are still warm and so beautiful and fresh) then came the goodbyes, promises of coming back one day and lots of we will miss you's.

From there we went to the Spa to say good bye to Rhina and her husband Janne, more farewells and nearly some tears, but on then to the Sand bar, here we sat quietly and had a beer and it was from here that we saw the boat come round to the jetty and we knew it was time to leave. More goodbyes and more promises of coming back and we boarded the boat and left Bandos behind. But we will be going back.

As promised Wahead was waiting for us at the airport, he had the trolley ready for our luggage and he steered us into the bar area for a drink before we went through. It was the last hour of our being in the Maldives for this visit. We had met so many old friends and had made so many new friends and now we were going home to cold Old England, but it won't be long before we visit again, it won't be Lohifushi any more and I think that if anyone is considering going there in the next few months they maybe should think again. I don’t think it will be long before most of the Maldivian staff leave and go to other resorts and I think it will be at least 12 months before the building work is finished. 

Then you will have the most non Maldivian island in the Maldives, run by Sri Lankans with an Australian General Manager. 

Why couldn't they have just left it alone ?
 

For accommodation in the Maldives
visit  www.cirrusmaldives.com