What are the pros and cons of living in Male, Maldives?
07.06.2025 13:35
Skyline of Malé seen from Villingili Island — a 10 minute ferry ride from Malé. The tall building that’s sticking out from the rest is the new hospital building.
Moving on, the roads are designed poorly and unmaintained with almost no pavement for pedestrians. Even if there were, pedestrians would have to navigate around dripping buildings (mostly from air conditioning condensates), blocked pavement access (by inconsiderate drivers parked at the kerb or sometimes on the pavement, construction materials, garbage and large groups of conversing people ignoring you and refusing to budge, and slow pedestrians failing to give way). Every second on the roads of Malé is infuriating. The streets reek of cat piss and poop, garbage, cigarettes, and diesel fumes. Garbage disposal and management is a challenge in the city. The city is littered and people don't bother keeping it clean. The city is simply too small to accommodate over 150,000 people living here.
Not everything’s that bad in Malé. Sunrises here are still beautiful. Of course, that has nothing to do with the functional ability for executive thinking of the local city council, isn’t it?
A close-up of the inscriptions/carving.
To the tourists who're contemplating to see Malé: don't bother. We don't want you to see this side of the Maldives. We are a facade: clear azure waters, pristine white sandy beaches, perfectly maintained water villas and beach cabins and virtually no crime to those that can afford. We are beautiful on the outside, and ugly on the inside -- and that's what you will see in the capital city of Maldives.
Perhaps the successive governments have realised that Malé is beyond fixing. In 1997, the then President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom began an ambitious project to reclaim land from shallow areas to the west of Malé. The reclaimed island became known as Hulhumalé (literally, 'West Malé'). The aspiration for Hulhumalé was to seek recourse to most problems of Malé. Hulhumalé would be well planned and would support the entire population of Malé comfortably. Twenty-six years later, we still are yet to realise the fruits of this project. Hulhumalé should have been designed from the ground up to be a walkable city, but that is not what I see. I see a city that is planned for motor-vehicles first. Another crowded, unliveable city in about 20 years time (or maybe even earlier by the looks of it).
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Here’s a picture showing unsanitary conditions on the streets. What you are seeing is ‘red spit’, the resulting product of chewing betel leaf and Areca nuts.
Pros? I don't see that much here. Perhaps that living is bearable at best and that's only if you have friends and family here. People are forced to migrate because this is where all the action is -- education, work, and businesses. This place is disorganised, disorderly, dirty, dingy, and a din. People on the street are inconsiderate, move slowly (especially pedestrians) and would not acknowledge you as another road user. Expect them to not appreciate good manners, and acknowledge your good will. Malé is a culmination of decades of bad decisions boiling down to an insurmountable point of no return. The island city isn't at all that large; just under 10 square kilometres. I am yet to comprehend the reason for the abundance of vehicles on the road, especially mopeds (about 2 for every person living here). Now, 10 square kilometres is a very walkable size, in my opinion. The Central Business District in Melbourne, Australia is just about 6.5 square kilometres and extremely walkable. Malé is just a hair larger than that. I will never comprehend nor will see to why people need to dart around in mopeds when everything is within walking distance.
Moreover, the city floods even at the slightest bit of rain. The city is extremely overcrowded and has been since the early 1900s as evidenced in HCP Bell's monograph, '_The Maldive Islands. Monograph on the history, archaeology and epigraphy_' written in the 1940s. He describes the island then as 'greatly over-populated' and 'marred by crowded and insanitary habitations'. After all these years, the point still stands true. An avid traveller would also have noticed that there are almost no historic buildings on the island save for a few; The Friday Mosque (Hukuru Miskiy), Medhuziyaarai (a tiny memorial near the incumbent president's residence, Mulee-aage), and Kalhuvakaru Miskiy to name just a handful. These are beautiful structures made of impeccably inscribed coral stones and wood. I am frustrated that the Maldives emplaces no importance on architecture, especially our historical and unique architecture.
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The grounds of the Friday Mosque. The delicate inscriptions on the coral stones give me joy every time.
Living in Malé is not for everyone, and certainly not for me. Sure, it is nice to be here for a couple days. There are quite a few good coffee shops here that you can enjoy. But alas that is all the joy for me in this city, except for the company of my friends and family. Perhaps Malé would be nicer to live if the pavements were a bit wider, and with no motor-vehicles on the road (except vehicles for essential services, of course), with leafy green trees on either sides of the roads. The government needs to prioritise city development with pedestrians in mind and not mindlessly repeat what the Americans have done to their cities and streets. It might be too late to save Hulhumalé from this fate, but I am hoping otherwise.
A flooded street after a short burst of rain
And, here’s a nice picture of two people enjoying on the seawall trying to catch a fish.. A few good things do exist here and there.
A street in Hulhumalé. A cat’s chilling next to some litter. You can see mopeds parked illegally on the sides of the street with one moped carelessly parked on the pedestrian crossing. The pavements are a bit wider in Hulhumalé. However, not all streets are this walkable.