One Canadian who swapped city living for a life on an island of 500 people in the Maldives says she couldn’t be happier.
Former Toronto resident Gen Darling, 31, is a full-time content creator and co-owner of Jimmy’s Excursions, a newly launched tour company in the Maldives that organizes snorkelling, freediving and group trips.
Expat life isn’t new for Darling.
“After graduating from Dalhousie University in 2015, I left Canada to travel South East Asia with my best friends, and after four months of travel, I got a job in Taiwan teaching English,” she said. “I mark this as the start of my expat life.”
Finding love in the Maldives
The Maldives wasn’t exactly part of Darling’s plan.
“The short answer to this is that I fell in love. I met my now husband while I was on vacation here in 2017, and I immediately had a good energy about the country,” she said. “I felt a freedom I hadn’t felt in other places. There’s calmness and peace in the way of living here that I haven’t found in any other country or city that I have lived in.”
Darling and her husband, Zaleeq “Picco” Adam, had a civil ceremony in 2022 and married in 2023 in the Maldives. The couple then moved in with Adam’s family.
“It’s very common in the Maldives to live with multiple generations under the same roof. Not only is it expensive to live on your own, but it’s also a land issue,” she said.
Making it home
Located in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives is made up of archipelagos, and it’s a beloved tourist destination for its beaches and turquoise water. But life for locals couldn’t be more different.
“The Maldives has always been known to be a luxury tourist destination that boasts lots of luxury hotels with over-water bungalows. However, the reality here is nothing luxury,” explained Darling.
“Life here is challenging. The Maldives is an archipelago of roughly 2,000 islands, so there are many challenges such as farming, access to goods and basic daily needs.”
Darling said that goods are expensive since most products must be imported, leaving locals struggling to make ends meet.
“It is still very much a developing country, so it made me appreciate what Canada has to offer for Canadians; however, it also made me realize how unhappy people are in Canada,” she said.
“Maldivians are extremely positive and nice people even when they have many struggles in life. It’s made me humbler and helped me understand my privileges as a Canadian.”
Darling has also put down roots. In addition to opening their tour company, she speaks the local language, Dhivehi, and has recently finished building a house.
“Everything from cement to paint had to be brought from Male, making it a logistical nightmare,” she recalled. Male is the capital city of the Maldives. “Once the goods are put on the cargo boat, they are no longer under warranty, so we had to hope that this boat would arrive safely with our goods in proper condition.”
Darling said that expats like her also face other issues.
“The most challenging part of living here is that even through marriage, there is no permanent resident or citizenship path here,” she said. “So building a life here was a bit challenging in the sense that both my business and my land are all tied in contracts as opposed to rights in my immigration status.”
Adjusting to island life
Darling has a large social media following and uses her platform to offer viewers a glimpse of her daily life. She said that most of her income comes from social media since she’s still not taking a salary from her new business.
And since regular conveniences are hard to find on the island, she’s learned to adapt.
“I miss having access to any food I want at any time of the day,” she said. “I’ve become very resourceful in how to make my own bread and almond milk and pretty much make as much as I can from scratch. As the country develops, we are slowly getting access to less processed food, but in general, I have to make a lot of it from scratch.”
Darling said that the Maldives has a large expat community and even meets other Canadians who come to the islands.
“There are quite a lot of Canadian seaplane pilots here,” she said. “They leave Canada in the winter and come to Maldives to fly the seaplanes for the high season and return home in the summer months in Canada.”
Breaking down living costs in the Maldives
Although imported products are expensive, local produce is affordable, and Darling said that fish and rice are a significant part of their diet.
“We also have lots of fruits and some vegetables growing on the island, which makes it quite a sustainable way of living,” she explained. “Apart from electrical and water bills, our living expenses are quite low.”
Darling shares some of their regular expenses:
Food: $570 CAD (for two)
Electricity: $285 CAD. “This is on the high end because we have three air conditioners in our house and a water heater for our showers.”
Data and wifi: $143 CAD
Insurance (annually): $85 CAD
Travel: $71 CAD. “I travel [to the capital of Male] monthly for groceries.”
The trade-offs
For Darling, the most challenging part about living in the Maldives is being far from family. Travelling to Toronto takes over one day, and flights can be expensive depending on the season.
When asked if she’d ever move back to Canada, she said that it’s something that she thinks about every now and then.
“As I get older and think about the possibility of having kids, I do consider it, but mostly to be closer to my mom. But at the same time, I can’t imagine raising kids in the current economy in Canada,” she said.
For those considering life abroad, Darling advises them to consider their options.
“It’s something you must think about because once you leave, you lose many privileges you hold as country residents,” she advised.
For now, she’s happy living on their home island of Vaavu Felidhoo, where she knows everyone and the longest road stretches a mere 380 metres.
“Leaving Canada was never a difficult decision. It always felt right,” she said. “I am happier this way.”
