Getting to Male
17 March 2007 — Hello, hello! Ahh… finally a WHOLE day off! Yep, Tara just found out that for us supervisors, we can only accrue up to 4 days off instead of the 8 we previously thought, which means I’ve already chocked up more than enough hours, which means no point for me to continue taking half days off!!! Yipee!!! You have no idea how SHIOKODOK this is man…
And as promised, let’s take a trip to Male! A bit of background info first: for the last month or so, Yukiko and I were placed in charge of setting up a mini spa over at the Hilton lounge in the MAT (Maldivian Air Taxi) seaplane-port. The plan was to offer ten minute complimentary treatments to arrival guests who were enroute to Hilton, and also inform them about our welcome treatment, otherwise known as the “Eiru Revival Ritual”. Eiru means sun in Dhivehi, and the idea was to energise and revitalize guests from the strains of travel. Our aim was to promote early awareness of the spas and increase our guest capture rate. Yukiko and I were pretty much thrown into the deep end and had to learn how to swim, quick. From training therapists to organizing equipment, from rostering to creating the welcome treatment, from designing vouchers to even setting up the therapists’ apartment in Male, I daresay it was a massive undertaking for us two newbies. All in all, a steep learning curve, but my gawd, was it worth it! The very first treatment that was booked in brought tears to my eyes. Really, it was like having a baby, the anticipation and seeing it come to fruition. Totally awesome!
But I’m jumping ahead, first there was tons of planning to be done. And to do that, we had to get to Male. As scenic as the journey was, this was no mean feat, as you shall soon see. In total Yukiko and I went twice, once to scout and once to do the actual set-up. It was only Male, but considering how often we left the island, it was still pre-tty exciting.
See, whilst waiting for the seaplane, we even had drinks (soy coffee that is) at Rangali, as if we were going away for a real holiday or something?!?
Ok, got the news that the plane has arrived. Let’s go!
All aboard!
Quite a squeeze really
If you can see, the whole atmosphere of the seaplane ride is meant to be pretty casual, so much so that the pilots are barefooted when driving. And actually they only wear slippers as part of their uniform.
The usual safety demo, but in a much more confined space. And yes, you’ve guessed it, this is a non-smoking flight. Thank goodness too, cause this is a non air-conditioned aircraft.
Which is why these safety instruction cards come in veeery handy indeed.
Take-off time
And now some aerial shots of the resort… bear in mind, these were only taken with my 4.0 megapixels Canon… the Maldives, it really does not need to try very hard to impress…
The main island, you can see the bridge on the left side, and towards the back, those little huts, yep, that’s the Spa Retreat and the Spa Villas
A closer view
And this is the smaller Rangali island, with the Water Villas
Leaving Hilton behind, on the journey to Male, there were other curios to be sighted. Any form of land parcel was surely used in one way or another, whatever its shape and size.
Cute hey?
And yes, this particularly well used island is none other than Male.
Definitely not the biggest land mass in the Maldives, but certainly the most densely populated. And I thought Singapore was bad…
Ok, going to land soon.
Taxiing into the docking station
We have arrived!
But only to the MAT lounge though, not quite Male yet. You see, the seaplane port and the international airport is actually located on a separate island from Male itself.
In fact, from the seaplane lounge, we first have to catch this mini bus over to the main airport…
…which looks like this, not very exciting.
And from the main airport, to get to Male, we have to transfer to a dhoni. A single trip between 6am and 12 am costs 10 Rufiyaa, which is about US$0.80; and during those hours, it’s double.
The luggage is all placed in the centre of the dhoni.
The trip takes only about 10 minutes, and see, before long, Male is in sight.
Modern buildings flank the sides of the jetty, most of them house airline companies, including Singapore Airlines. How lucky am I that there’s a direct flight from Male to Singapore on SQ! Happiness is an SQ flight home… soon!
And finally, we are in Male! Enjoyed your journey everyone? Haha, and that’s just the beginning. But I’m sleepy now, will continue on our Male adventure tomorrow ok? Stay tuned!