A Race Across The World star has shared which country he surprisingly felt ‘discriminated’ against in.
Alfie Watts, season 4 winner of the BBC show that sees travellers literally race across the world without planes, smartphones or credit cards, opened up about his experience in the Maldives. This is a small island country in south Asia in the Indian Ocean, near India and Sri Lanka.
The country is popular with British tourists as it provides a welcome change of scenery and climate and is known for its white sand beaches, clear blue waters and all year round warm temperatures. Alfie spent a week in the tropical country in December but felt ‘discriminated against’ during his travels.
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Posting a TikTok video during the trip, he said: “I’m in the Maldives this week and I have never felt more discriminated against in any other country in the world. I’m not being discriminated against because of my skin colour or the fact that I’m a man, I’m being discriminated against because I am single.
“Never in my life have I felt so vilified for being single, they can’t believe it. These people that work in the hotel cannot believe that I’m here on my own, it’s like a foreign concept to them.
“Everyone comes here on honeymoons and things like that, the fact that I’m single blows their minds. The fact that I could possibly be here on my own and I wouldn’t dare bring a companion to have a rampant holiday love with just baffles people here so much so that last night the guy who was serving me at dinner poured me two drinks and told me that I could pretend that someone was sat opposite me.
“So would I recommend solo travelling around the Maldives? Well, it depends if you want to be an absolute victim for a week. If you do, crack on.
“If you don’t I’d probably still say crack on because the views are worth any kind of abuse. It’s worth taking it, trust me.”
Alfie’s TikTok video, accompanied by the on screen text ‘solo travelling the Maldives is not for the faint hearted’, has received 187,000 views, 10,000 likes and almost 300 comments at the time of writing. People in the comment section discussed the topic of being alone in the Maldives.
One user said: “Being told to pretend you have a partner by a waiter is crazy.” It seemed many people were thinking the same thing as this comment got 779 likes.
Another TikTok user added: “Haha I get that all the time! I’m travelling solo to the Maldives for the fifth time. People always say I’m breaking the rules by coming to the Maldives and not being on my honeymoon.”
Other people in the comment section of Alfie’s video claimed that even Maldivian residents get judged for being single. One person commented: “Been there bro, I am from Maldives. I don’t know why being single feels like a crime like people be in disbelief.”
A second user said: “Stay here longer, they’ll probably find someone for you. That’s nothing compared to what we locals deal with… this bullying usually starts at home.”
Some people commented on the video to share that they haven’t had the same experience as Alfie when travelling solo in the Asian island country. A user responded: “I always travel solo in the Maldives and never had this kind of issue, people are amazing on local islands.”
Another added: “I had the opposite experience – they just gave me an insane free room upgrade just because they thought I’d appreciate it the most.” Alfie sarcastically replied to this comment: “Great. Thanks for ruining my morning.”