Male Pitstop
24 Mar 2007 — I promised and I will deliver. So yep, after all the craziness of the week, let’s take a trip to Male to clear my head a little, take my mind off work for a teeny while. So where did we left off? Oh yep, we had just reached Male island itself after a pretty grueling journey.
And this is where we come to after we get off the dhoni. You can still see them on the right.
Another common sight along the jetty are these private boats — afterall, the Maldives is a destination for the rich and famous.
Sharing the waterfront, the Coast Guards.
As we start walking a little more inland, we come to this square. In the foreground, the Maldivian flag, and in the background, the Shaheedh Hussain Adam Building, headquarters to the Maldives Police Service.
This part of Male still looks pretty lush, lots of greenery. Erm, but not for long…
In this “administrative” part of Male, we also see the Grand Friday Mosque, otherwise known as Masjid-al Sultan Mohamed Thakurufaanu-al-A’z'am. It is the biggest mosque in the Maldives, and can accommodate over five thousand worshippers at a time. Why Friday? Well, it’s the holy day for the Muslims, kinda like the equivalent of Sunday for Christians. Here, everything shuts down on Friday, including restaurants! The place looks deserted — imagine Chinese New Year in Singapore, just that it happens on a weekly basis here.
Just beyond the mosque is the entrance to the Sultan Park — a quiet green oasis in the bustling capital, with ponds covered by water lilies and leafy trees filled with bird song. This now public park used to be the private gardens of the former Sultan’s Palace, Mulee Aage’.
And this is the new Presidential Palace, Theemuge’. One website claims this is “one of the most beautiful buildings in the country, and could easily be counted among the most wonderful examples of modern architecture in South Asia”. Erh… most beautiful? Most wonderful? Personally, it looks like a Phua Chu Kang job — big and tacky. Maybe, just maybe, inside it’s a completely different story.
But ok, enough of all this official stuff, let’s get into the alleys and passageways that makes up the real Male.
It is like a giant maze where every inch of space serves a purpose. And one thing, there are NO buses here in Male. The streets just aren’t wide enough for them to navigate through. In fact, other then dhonis, the only other form of public tranport are taxis, which because Male is so damn bloody small, operate at a fixed rate no matter how near or far the distance you travel — 15 Rufiyaah! The strange thing though is that the percentage of cars around that are taxis is like 90%! Which makes me suspect people just turn their private cars into “taxis” by sticking on the word.
No prizes for guessing what’s another popular mode of transport around town. But frankly, it’s true to say you can walk to everywhere in Male!
As mentioned, no space is wasted. These “hole in the wall” shops are commonplace indeed. But don’t get the impression that Male ONLY has these dingy type shops. Oh no no no, OF COURSE there are a handful of poshier places…
For instance, this place that sells Roxy and Quiksilver stuff. It also carries brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc. And by some coincidence, this is the place that Elli comes to stock gym wear for the Fitness Centre, so we got ourselves a grand 5% discount! Whoohoo! Connections, connections, it’s ALL about who you know…
And being the bread queen that I am, how excited was I to see this corner bakery?!!
Doesn’t it look like a nice respite from the difference out there?
And check this out! A Maldivian wedding cake!
There was also this chocolatier that Shimana and Jenni, the receptionists at the MAT Hilton Lounge, brought us to. Well, it’s the closest thing to a chocolatier we’ll get here in Male.
Here are the girls.
Ooh… and see who’s getting a heart-shaped cake from Jenni. Must admit, it is very sweet and pretty and looks sooo creamy and yummy too!
Also, as part of our Spa Party, we actually played “Angels and Guardians”, where each spa team member gets someone to anonymously protect and shower love over — here, Mod generously gets not one, but TWO, chockie packs for her custodee. Wah… spoil market…
But considering this is our first trip to Male, guess where it was that really got Yukiko and I buzzing? Give up?….
The Supermarket!!! (Squeal!!!!) A REALLLLL Supermarket!!!! (Squeal!!!!!)
I KNOW, it doesn’t look very exciting at all, DOES IT?!? But you know what? That’s not going to stop us from having a GRRREAT time in there! Yipee!!! And shop I did! Body wash, muesli, strawberry wafers, tons and tons of chocolates, umbrella, tupperwares, plastic bags, potato chips, biscuits, etc, etc, etc! Haiyoh… 一个字：爽!
Oh, a couple of things I wanted to show you from the supermarket:
First of all, Areca Nuts — which is the Maldivian equivalent of an after-dinner mint, or chewing gum. I’ve tried it a couple of times, and have lived to regret it. I don’t get it, it’s soooo hard so you can’t really bite down on it, and the other thing is that it’s soooo SIAP! But the locals — they absolutely LOVE it, young and old, girls and boys, they are always chewing on it! And yes, as you can see, they sell them by the bagloads in the supermarket!
The other thing that caught my attention — laundry powder. But not just any laundry powder… HANDWASH laundry powder! Handwash? Handwash?!? Wow… who even handwashes their clothes anymore?!! Once again, another chance for most of us to ponder how lucky we are…
Okay! Last but not least, time to hit some Maldivian Makan places what say you?!
The first eatery that Yukiko and I went to, not knowing where to go really, was this place called “The Olive Garden Restaurant”.
Dunno whether you can see, but here are a few typical Maldivian dishes.
Yukiko bravely tried the “Garudhiya and Baiy” — a traditional Maldivian rice dish with fish broth, spicy grilled fish, lime, onion, green or fried chilli and pickles. It turned out to be a really bland fried rice dish.
Me, I just stuck to very safe-sounding Seafood Fried Noodles, which was safely tasty, nothing to shout about.
We also had the Devilled Cuttlefish, another just ok dish.
To give you some idea of how much it costs to eat out here in Male, this meal together with a couple of juices costs us US$27. Not cheap hor?
But after Mod and Asih came, then ah-hah, no worries oredi. They being Male-regulars knew exactly where to go for good food. First, there was Salsa Royal, a restaurant that served a mix of Thai and Italian cuisine. We had mainly Thai dishes, which were prepared by a Thai chef — very authentic and of course aroy mahk mahk!
The second place, which we went with Shimana and Jenni, was Thai Wok, reputed as being the MOST popular restaurant in Male. And it’s easy to see why, the food was finger-lickin’ great!
So all in all, it was pretty interesting to take a look around Male, to experience something that was NOT the resort. But after two mere days, both Yukiko and I agreed we had had enough and were quite ready to return to Hilton. Unfortunately, while Yukiko hopped on an air taxi, I had to stay another two days to make sure everything ran smoothly with the MAT project. So imagine my relief when it came to my turn to board the seaplane. Yay… going “home” to my own bed. Yeah, that’s all it is, isn’t it? Not a house, not even a room, just a bed. Still, it was my space. Strange how attached we get to some things. Ok then, that’s it folks!