While walking towards the ticket window he inquired me about my country and having known that I belong from India he was more affectionate towards me, not because of any other reason except the fact that he was Indian too and home town being New Delhi. So, now he felt more responsible to provide me with accurate details and ensure that I catch correct ferry to Male and onwards. Ticket to Male costs me USD 1.00 since I was not having local currency to pay except USD and the same was easily acceptable in the transaction.
He escorted me towards ferry, greeted me and went to carry on his work. This brief meeting with fellow countrymen helped me to solve some of my problems and at the same time was feeling great. (didn’t knew why??)
Ferry took another 10 minutes to reach to Male city and hurriedly I went towards ticket counter to book ticket to Rasdhoo island but the booking counter denied sale of ticket to any island since they were meant to sale tickets to Airport only. I could see some more ticket selling counters where I inquired about ferry to Rasdhoo but no one gave favorable response. It was really a difficult task to locate ship to Rasdhoo since there was no help desks, no sign boards, no parking lots, etc. It was a matter of surprise for me since Maldives is known for its tourism throughout the world but at the same time the facilities are not tourist friendly.
As the time was passing I was losing hope to catch ferry to Rasdhoo and pictures of my past journeys started travelling inside my brains giving me signals of another probable “miss”.
However, I remembered the name of ship which the Indian guy told me at Male Airport and I started inquiring at the jetty with the name of the ship which was “Coral” and “Navi” and also locating it myself amongst the countless ships anchored at the Jetty.
After walking for about 5 minutes and inquiring several people at jetty, I came across a ship anchored at Jetty with name similar to one of the names provided to me and the name of ship was “Coral”. I could see some passengers on board the ship and some standing out.
I inquired one of the guy standing on jetty about the fast boat (ship) to Rasdhoo. He looked me from top to bottom in a strange manner and inquired me reason to visit Rasdhoo. The expression of that guy was strange and weird as I don’t think that my question was wrong or it was not meant to be asked from anyone standing at jetty. But still I answered his question that I was on vacation and had booking at hotel in Rasdhoo, he asked me to show the hotel booking voucher and also asked me whether I had made booking for transport to and fro to the Rasdhoo. Having received all details from my end he replied me that the ship “Coral which was anchored there would go to Rasdhoo but since I am not having advance booking, he requires permission from his boss to allow me on the ship.
He called his boss and spoke with him in his mother tongue which anyhow went over my head but still with his expression I could make out that he is willing to give me lift. He then asked me to talk to his boss. His boss told me that he would allow me to board ship subject to payment of fare of 700 Maldivian Rufiyaa. I accepted the proposal without any delay.
But before boarding the ship I realized that I was not carrying local currency so I asked the same man to accept USD, he again called his boss and asked me to talk and this time his boss asked me to pay USD 40 to the captain of ship and also asked me to hand over the phone to captain. I asked the man to take me to the captain of ship as boss wanted to speak to the captain of ship. To my surprise, till that time I was having interaction with the captain of the ship and very confidently he replied ” I am captain of the ship”. The attire of that man didn’t reflected any quality of “Captain of Ship” but this was another experience for me…”Surat nahi Sirath dekho”.
The ship took 90 minutes to reach Rasdhoo island and was the fastest medium to visit the island as i came to know thereafter that a public ferry also departs from Male to Rasdhoo at very cheap cost of nearly 100 Maldivian Rufiyaa but it takes 3 hours. For a traveler like me, time is more precious than money subject it is of worth to spend on some beautiful moments.
And another interesting thing to add is that the fast boat leaves Male City and visits Male Airport to take more passengers and than proceeds towards Rasdhoo so one can also catch speed boat to Rasdhoo from airport at 10.30 A.M, having known this fact I could had saved USD 1.00 but no regrets since I was now confident that I would reach Rasdhoo without any failure.