Journey of a Kyrgyz nomad to Europe

It was a dry-cold November day in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, when my friend and I were deciding where to go for our New Year 2014 holidays. We started off with Cancun, Mexico, then drifted off in our dreams to the Philippines, before finally settling on the Maldives. It was the azure of the water that seduced us. We decided it was the perfect place to warm our frozen bones, basking in the sun - but even more so for our friend, who was depressed for the last six months. A surprise all-paid trip to ease her mind – what could be better?

We put together our savings and got going with bookings. Was it to be Maafushi or a private-island? Would our joint funds afford that? After long hours triangulating reviews from Tripadvisor, Booking and Agoda, we finally settled on getting ourselves into the southernmost Maldivian island of Gan on the Addu Atoll. The reviews said the hotel we chose was a former British RAF base headquarters with vast expanses of tropical gardens, quiet atmosphere, and best snorkelling places, which were largely unspoiled by tourists due to its difficult location.

So in two months we were off from Bishkek on our 2-day long air travel to the Maldives with stopovers in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Abu-Dhabi (UAE), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Male (capital of the Maldives), before finally arriving to Gan Island on the Addu Atoll. The moment we set our feet on the ground we knew we were in the right place – azure water was all around us, quietly brilliant, with white shores of coral sand, breezy palms and sparsely placed buildings.

This is how our adventure began. With every day it unfurled even further – we found our only neighbours were also Russian-speakers. An older couple they told us their heartwarming story of friendship and love and travels around the globe, who had decided to see and experience as much as possible before they would have to go from this world. Together we went on several snorkelling trips, researched the whole Atoll on bikes and mopeds, shared tips and lifehacks that eased our stay on the island. We swam with reef sharks and turtles, raced across the ocean with packs of dolphins, got horribly sun-burned, and became friends for life.

So what we got in the end from this journey was more than we could have hoped for – we befriended an amazing couple, who helped our friend out of depression, saw a beautiful land as it is, and spent for all of that less than 2000 USD per person.