Man, time flies when you are having FUN!!!! I can’t believe we have already been here for 6 days…it feels like we just got here. This was supposed to be a short blog post… but we have been keeping busy with the Uligamu “A Team“…. who took us in like family and treated all of us with generosity and kindness like we have never experienced before!!! Seriously, it’s no joke…. Meet:
Asad, our agent from Real Seahawks. He truly gets what cruisers want and expect. Since he was a kid, he has been in the “agent business” with his father! 
Ismadh, is the local chief on Uligan. He would message us every morning. 
Hammadh, who hooked us up with internet the day we arrived…even gave us a plan with 50GB?! 
Nayzi, our immigration officer who has been working here for over 14 years!
Checking in…easy peasey…almost : ) Well, we learned that the weekend is on Friday and Saturday..and Sunday is a working day. We arrived on a Thursday, but even if we had come on the ‘weekend”…no extra charges would be inccured.
Everyone came aboard around 4:30 pm, after afternoon prayer. We of course served our usual…Oreo cookies and sodas…. All was good: Trevor signed and stamped about 22 pieced of paper, he felt “almost” famous.
The only hiccup was that we needed a sanitation certificate that was supposed to be given to us in Indonesia….Unfortunately we didn’t check out with the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally, who got theirs, and that meant we needed to pay an extra $60 to check in. We tried to contact Nongsa Point Marina but no response. Oh well, that’s our fault.
SV Starry Horizons checked out of Indonesia with the Rally so they had their sanitation certificate. It looks like this…. 
We just paid and got ours anyways… just a heads up for those following our path in the future.
After all the official paperwork was completed, Trevor and I hopped into our dinghy and headed to shore to met with Asad to get SIM cards and connect to the internet. There really was no real hurry for internet but we were waiting to hear back from the BIOT administration (Chagos) for our permit to stop there so we were a bit anxious to get connected again as the process to obtain our permits for Chagos has been almost a month thus far.
Ashore at the pier…the “small” boat lagoon… a nice dredged and marked channel to get through the reef. Just don’t park your dinghy by the Coast Guard boats…they don’t like that ; )
Asad met us at the pier and led us to a small cafe,aka “tea house”, where men (not women) come in the afternoons to drink tea and have snacks around 4-5 pm before evening prayer. Mind you, one of our first “errands” when we come into a new country is to find an ATM…well…there isn’t one on this island… so basically we had no way to pay for anything…!!!!
Trevor headed in to the cafe…. 
We were treated to snacks filled with spicy fish and a sweet cheesecake like dessert…and tea. 
Ahh…shade and internet…. Hammah hooked us up as we chilled out.
That night we were invited, as were the rest of the fleet of 3 other boats here, to a homemade dinner at Nayzi house where his wife cooked up a mean meal of local flavors!
Do you see this set up?! Just amazing!!!! 
OMG….such a good meal with fresh grilled fish, rice and curry, fish stew, a salad of sort, and even a custard and young coconut pieces for dessert! 
I can’t believe we have only been in the country for less than 6 hours and all of this has already happened!
AND the generosity and kindness continues……The next day, Asad told us they are putting together a potluck BBQ on the beach…SV Alamic (Swiss) and SV Serafina (US) left that morning so it was just going to be SV Starry Horizons and us but we had just as much fun! We “slept in” and did a few things around the boat even though Trevor was invited to go spearfishing for that nights fish. We took our dinghy to the end of the atoll and rolled up onto a beach. There, they set up a BBQ and table and little seating area…. and a special surprise for Amy and David on Starry Horizons!
These guys caught all the fish for the BBQ…. Trevor is now regretting not going with them! 
You can’t go wrong with BBQ sauce! 
The BBQ fire uses coconut husks, but because it burns too hot, they spray ti with water to cool it down… 
The FEAST!!!! And we hadn’t even cooked all the fish that was prepared for us! Just a mention here…we all (cruisers) sat around and drank our beverages as all the guys ran around and set up, gathered stuff, prepped, and cooked…..even after many attempts to help from our end..they just wouldn’t have it…
We cooked chicken (no pork) and baked potatoes with butter and sour cream (breaking into our sour cream stash means it’s a very special occasion) …accompanied with Amy’s beet salad and brownies….fresh fish, hot dogs, roti, salad…YUMMMM!
We literally just hung out and chatted it up. Learned about the guys and where they have traveled to and where they come from, local customs and do’s and don’ts, who’s married, how many kids…you know the drill!
SURPRISE!!!!! It was Amy and David’s 9th Anniversary on March 27th, just a few days ago…and the ladies of the town, so I assume, made a cake for them. You should of seen the detail of the decorations….the presentation was gorgeous…these guys think of EVERYTHING! Even more… Amy was gifted a handmade shell necklace…What an incredible memory!
Congratulations you two…so glad we are here to celebrate with you…Maldivian style! 
You guys look so happy ; )
During last nights festivities…I had randomly asked to learn how to make roti….Imadh said he could arrange for that the next morning…so the next day, Amy and I went to shore to learn how to make Roti. We didn’t know where Imadh lives or where we were going and didn’t want to push the “envelope”, as he hadn’t planned on this event, so we wondered the “streets” and sat in the cool chairs and just hung out until Imadh contacted us…
Roti making lessons!
Step 1: Sift flour 
Step 2: Add a touch of oil and salt 
Step 3: boil water and add just enough to make the texture of dough 
Step 4: Kneed to mix 
Step 5: Roll by hand into little balls 
Step 6: flatten just a bit
Special pan…. 
Step 8: lightly brown..no oil needed 
FLIP…. Done…only about 15-20 seconds 
So it was our turn to try…Amy did a much better job than I did!
To remind you…we have been here for almost 5 days and with out any local currency…..we finally got an invitation to go to the island named Ihavandhoo, which was about 8 miles away, one afternoon. We were starting to get worried about how we were going to pay for our clearance in, SIM cards, and possibly provision if we could…we just needed money (LOL)!
So a team picked up Amy and us at our boats…. 
Asad, Hammadh, the captain, and the local chief of another island came with us.
When we arrived, it was just dusk….the town, little bigger than Uligamu , was full of color!
The ATM’s in the Maldives, we heard, only allows you to take out about $600 USD each day. So Trevor called our bank to see if we could authorize a larger sum since we had no idea when we would see another ATM again….it worked, we took out about $1000 USD to pay for our clearance and SIM cards, and any other incidentals we may have.
After the ATM visit, Asad said “let’s go”….we were a bit confused and asked where we were going…thinking this was a just a quick trip. But of course…if you’re going to another island for an errand or two (the chief of the other island needed fuel we didn’t know about) why not go to dinner and say hello to friends?! …even though we just went to the ATM….dinner,again, was hosted by Asad and his team!
This place was so awesome…there were little side rooms to have a more private dinning experience, fans all around…and a green light that made everything look …well…GREEN! 
I asked Asad to order me whatever he was eating..thinking it was going to be a local dish…He ordered a club sandwich…Love it! 
A server treated us to these new and tasty treats, almost like an after dinner dessert gum with cinnamon, honey, nutmeg, made out of…I am not sure…but who cares?
AND…the royalty treatment continues!!!! The next day we were invited to Nayzi’s house for breakfast. Generally their mornings consist of tea or Nescafe with a few biscuits. Breakfast is generally around 10 am or so. Nayzi and his wife had roti, potatoes and fish, boiled eggs, fresh watermelon, and fresh lemon juice and cold water ready for us!
After breakfast, Nayzi took us to his new house he is building. It has taken him 10 years to get construction to this point as work is mostly being done by himself. Trevor was impressed by the granite counter tops, the detailed ceilings made from plaster forms (crown molding), and the tile work! I loved the second “loft” or deck area. In total, it will probably cost him the equivalent to $50,000 USD to complete. Land here is “free” once your name has been pulled from the “lottery” but some people don’t have the resources to actually build a structure. Women can own land here and generally inheritance is based on civil law where it is split up between the siblings, no matter their gender.
Trevor loving it… 
The counters were super short…perfect for them. However, Trevor noticed the upper cabinets would be really high to get things out from them. 
Tiled outer wall, he did himself this year!
Well, Amy got a message that her cruising permit was ready AND that the supply ship came into port that day…so headed to shore to do a bit of provisioning…. Love the name of the store (LOL)!
Asad and Hammadh took us on a ride to the school and the gardens and we got bread fruit chips?!….
Hammadh’s classroom…. 
The school was really well kept! 
Asad tried to teach me about the writing in Arabic….from right to left…so confused! Maybe I should go to Hammadh’s class?
Snacky treat made fromHammadh’s “girlfriend?”…
Bread fruit chips!
Se had them with Nacho sauce!
The garden was fantastic! There are no specific roles for the community to tend to the garden but you can sign up with the community council to be a part of it…I would of course kill everything as I have no Green Thumb!
…..cruising permits in hand…now we had permission to explore the rest of the Maldives!
Just a note: These are the “habituated” atolls we are allowed to visit. We do plan on stopping at “inhabited atolls” but will claim we had engine issues and had to stop. We probably won;t be checked up on but leaving AIS off is not a bad idea..so we are told…. 
Another note: We had been anchored in Uligamu for 6 days without our cruising permit. Since the government has fees for staying here, we were concerned about eating through our 30 days while waiting. We were assured that our 30 days does not start until the day we receive our cruising permit so we basically got 6 days free in the Maldives..literally!
We have been met with incredible kindness in other countries and villages alike… but this somehow feels different. It’s hard to articulate…. how well organized and professional everyone is here despite being a very small village, the level of care and thought that goes into everything from dinners, to anniversary cakes, to making sure every morning we have what we need though WhatsApp or FaceBook, all while maintaining the island attitude that life is easy going and everything will work it self out and very healthy sense of humor!!! Seriously, we have never been welcomed into a new country like this before….I know we are not the only ones who received this type of treatment here…it’s just what they do…..but we appreciate all the work that goes into doing these generous and kind acts and Uligamu has been such an incredible stop. Honestly, Trevor and I didn’t do much research about the Maldives as we were unsure if we were even coming here…so glad we changed our minds!
A huge Thank You to the “A TEAM” for such an wonderful time in Uligamu…it was hard to leave paradise ….Let’s keep in touch!
Up next….I have no idea where we are going….
Awesome. So glad u had an amazing caring experience… Wonderful photos. I feel as if I was sorta there. Great photos.. love you guys. No rain at all? No storms?