Originally Posted by
passionforhotels
Whoa! First of all, where's your sense of humour? Should have been pretty obvious by my sentence: "as a marginally more serious suggestion" that the suggestion to take the ferry wasn't serious.
Well.....no, because you have instructions and amounts in there that say what you have to do and how much you can save. You can't expect people to read the first paragraph which reads like a
"Tip on how to do x while saving n dollars" then regard it as a joke. Maybe that was your intention when you wrote it, but.....
Originally Posted by
passionforhotels
I did point out in my own post that taking the ferry would be a bad idea. In fact, I believe I called it 'hell'. But you know, if it makes you feel better to clarify that it would be a bad idea for anyone in this forum who isn't able to understand that 'hell' is not a good thing, by all means knock yourself out.
Yes, but any non-native English speaker (of which there are many reading this forum and thread, a couple of my friends included) could construe your post as 100% serious and really a way to do it, albeit while exaggerating the lack of comfort (remember how we use the word
hell in English). As I pointed out for those people, there is no way in hell (oops, there we go again with that word, haha) it would save you anything and in fact cost more.
In a nutshell your semi-serious (or however you like to spin it), totally misleading post was pretty much worthless and so it got the derision it deserved. No offense, but if I see BS I will make an example out of it.
Originally Posted by
passionforhotels
Secondly, you're wrong about ferry transfers. Any human being can catch a public ferry and hundreds of tourists to the Maldives do it every single day. You simply walk up to the ferry ticket office and buy a ticket.....but public ferries are just that: public. No need to book a guesthouse.
Well, fair enough if the rules have changed. I have read otherwise and on more than one aspect of the journey. Though I doubt that any foreigner can buy a ticket or get on a boat to any island that does not have either a resort or a guesthouse. Foreigners are / were? not allowed onto those islands without a letter of invitation approved by the authorities. So I suppose it begs the question: Have you done this yourself?
Regarding @
mb123's screenshots, if the rules have changed, the transaction should go through after you enter your country of residence / passport number etc.
Otherwise, just like on the Maldivian ferry website(s), it will come up with a message / popup saying that this service is only for locals / Maldivian residents like it did when I and others tried it. So this begs a question for you: have you done this yourself, mb123? Doesn't look like it based on what you wrote a few months ago and what your screenshots show. If you have, please provide pictures of your tickets that you held in your hand to get to Rangali. Something tells me I will be waiting an eternity to see them.....
Like I said, if the rules have changed, I stand corrected. Show us the Maldivian government law / website where it says that foreigners are now allowed to travel to islands themselves without showing reservation documents before boarding local ferries. Show us a completed transaction with the name of a non-Maldivian passport / ID holder on it. Show us pics of your tickets in hand at Maamigili getting onto the speedboat. Then,
and only then, will people believe you and we can put all this speculation to rest.