Maldives: Six Days in Paradise Volume 5

~*Day 5: The Supposedly Last Day in Paradise*~

It was supposedly our last day at Maldives.

Thus, we whacked the buffet table like some savages who had not eaten for days.

Of course, we did not do that. We did take lots of food but we did it with professional aplomb.

As usual, the dainty Japanese and Koreans would only fill half their plate and once again used their forks and knives ever so gracefully with such poise.



Over breakfast and bubbly champagne, kh decided to extend our stay.

We mused about how we had initially thought that 5 days would suffice for an island stay and how in actual fact time passed by in a flash. I for one, thought that I would very quickly get bored with 5 days on an island

After breakfast, kh made some enquiries and arrangement for a one-day extension. Everything was settled in a jiffy.



~*Day 5: Engaging in Many Last Activities*~

Besides lounging in the pool and making full use of our water villa for the last time, we also ventured out for some boat paddling.

I was still bumped about not being able to see any sea turtles or manta rays, sting rays whatever rays that I kept deluding myself that any grey diamond or triangular shape object on the sea bed was a sting ray. Some of these shapes looked like they were moving.



We were supposed to take the same seaplane and same SQ flight with our newfound HK friends, whom we knew from diving. Hence, the couple were surprised to see us paddling nonchalantly while they were heading for the last seaplane of the day.



~*Day 5: Exploring the Island*~

After some paddling, we decided to explore the island. The staff there informed us that it would take just 15 minutes to walk leisurely around the periphery of the island.

We uncovered a few beach villas. Some were single storey and some double. Whether the former or the latter, we could not help laughing at their gates for one could easily slip in through the open "cracks" at the sides. Of course, they were only for show-- to indicate where the entrance to each villa was.



Some distance away, we saw a single golf range and as usual, kh got into the king-of-pretenders mode and started hitting imaginary golf balls with imaginary putters. I can't help wondering where all the balls would go and if the golf balls were meant to be hit into the ocean, would anyone be picking up these plastic trash?



Somewhere in the middle of the island, quite hidden by greenery, we spotted what looked like the staff quarters. We also espied many tree planting plaques by couples who had wedded there. Back to where the main eateries were located, we saw a collective effort to plant a coconut tree and I smiled a little smile to myself.



I cannot help but wonder at how kh was so far away from the shore and yet the water level was still below his knees.



As the afternoon sun readied itself for sunset, our shadows stretched long and thin.







~*Day 5: Heavenly Dinner at Meeru Barefoot Grill*~

Soon the sun set and it was time for dinner.



This time, we managed to reserve seats at Meeru Barefoot Grill (the one which could only accommodate 20 people). The food was on par with that of JING where we dined on Day 3.





I thought that since it was a BAREFOOT grill place, I could dress down and headed off in my Tee shirt, dishevelled hair with no make up on. I didn't expect the food to be fine dining style and felt totally under dressed for the occasion. Then again, you could never be under dressed at a beach resort.



Our very last sunset and the clouds just wouldn't clear themselves from the horizon.



My camera which was better at low light shots was left charging in the room and so all the photos of the food you see here were taken with my BIL's spare camera and simply do not do justice to the food. The flash made the food look so washed out yet it was too dark not to use flash.

I love the salmon tataki and tuna, the yellow fin tuna loin and the angus beef tenderloin steak (in medium rare of course). All their raw food in the form of tartare, tataki etc were all scrumptious that I had cravings for them for the next few weeks.



Their sauteed and grilled vegetables were a little salty but delicious. And oh their desserts... they're to die for! I really love the honey glazed pear poached in red wine. It was served with Grand Marnier Sabayon and rum ice cream. The bitter chocolate sponge was topped by dulce latte mousse with crispy dark chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Do the mere description in words already make your mouth water?



Soon a blanket of darkness dusted with brilliant stars enveloped us.



In highly urbanized Singapore, every part of our country is lit by street lamps. It is quite difficult to spot stars in the sky in lighted places. On the other hand, it was really surreal to see so many stars in the night sky on a dark Maldives island, as if a frolick of fairies had waved their wands and sprinkle fairy dust onto the blanket of darkness.

The camera certainly could not capture it, but every part of the black you see is actually filled with stars.



The moon was exceptionally low that night. I'm pretty used to seeing the moon hanging high in the sky back in Singapore.



As usual, we'll watch movies in the lazy comfort of the bed.



~*The Disappointing Underwater Pictures*~

After complaining on a few occasions about the underwater pictures taken by the disposable camera, I've finally picked out the best from the worst to scan them into my laptop to share them with my friends and readers.

Could you see what I mean by murky blue waters and sea of corals that look like grey rocks?



Here are some from snorkelling:



Well, it's fortunate that they look a lot more vibrant when scanned as soft copies.



Here are the scuba diving ones:



We saw so many strange and colourful creatures but do you see them in the photos above? No.

It was great that the scanned photos looked a tonne better. Yet, they pale in comparison to what we perceived with our own eyes.



One more volume to go and we would wrap up Maldives.

Miss JoJo's Shop

I've been clearing my wardrobe, cupboard and drawers the past few days as the floor space in my room is diminishing by the square foot. I need the space to put all the things which have been left lying on the floor .

So today I ran so many errands and came back with some inner drawer storage from Popular and a nice weaved basket-looking box from Ikea to be stacked under the table. I’ve got a lot more space and also a lot more “junk” which I’ve not used before or have gently used. Gonna slowly take photos of these items to sell.

I've also set up a separate blog to feature the items. I'm one of those who take forever to conjure up usernames and nicknames but the name of my shop just hit me when I was creating the url and checking its availability.

Presenting to all of you Miss JoJo's shop!

You behind the screen, don't laugh at my shop's name.

Currently I've only got time to put these 2 items up for sale.

Silver Dinner Purse with Bow











Black Ruched Clutch with Detachable Chains







Click on my shop link for more description.

A Country A Second

I'm not too sure if this video has gone viral yet but I thought it would be nice to share it with my blog readers.

Guy travels the world and shoots one second of footage in each location


Ingenious concept aside, I like how there's continuity in his stride. But I do wish for him to hurry up to the camera so that I could see how cute he is.

Maldives updates would be taking the back seat for the time being. There are 101 things to do both at home and at work.

Maldives: Six Days in Paradise Volume 4

~*Day 4: The Disappointing Sunrise Fishing*~

It had been four days in paradise and I had yet to catch the sun rising from the horizon.

On the first two days, I made sure I set my alarm clock to the sun rise timing just to catch a glimpse of how it looked. Alas, there were always clouds along the horizon shrouding the golden ball. Kh suggested we sign up for sunrise fishing so that we could once and for all catch the sunrise.

Apart from the staff, there were only us and another Japanese couple with their cute toddler son on board. We set off on the traditional Dhoni for line fishing when the sky was still dark. We were taught by the guides on how to use a line to fish. After about 15 minutes of bobbing on the choppy waters, a slight drizzle ensued. As I stared for quite some time at the rising and falling crest of water where my line was cast, I gradually felt nauseous. That was then that I realized that I was suffering from sea sickness.

I felt the world spinning around me and had to lie down. Any more vertigo and I would puke right into the ocean.



Hence, you could see that there aren't many photos of our fishing trip.

Kh caught a fish and the Japanese couple with the cute toddler son caught two. One of the fish was brightly-coloured in patterns of brilliant yellow and blue. I was quite surprised that that fish could actually be eaten.

Soon, the rain fell more heavily and we had to wrap up the fishing trip.

And you know what? I was disappointed with the sun rise yet again. I wish I could wave a magic wand and chant "evanesco" to chase those darn clouds away.



Some really powerful being cast the "ascendio" spell on the clouds instead for they rose higher and higher like this.



~*Day 4: Breakfast & Walk*~

I was still recovering from nausea and the savoury smell of food irked me.

In the end, I could only drink hot cocoa. Hot cocoa wasn't on the menu actually but the wait staff saw how pale I looked and offered it. I reached out for some KokoKrunch when I felt better.

Meanwhile, kh took a plate of food which he thought was perfect for my state but had to finish my share instead when I was still feeling nauseous.



After that, we strolled along the beautiful beach The water was crystal clear, turquoise where it was shallow and royal blue far out in the deep. The beach was a pristine sandy white peppered with pieces of seashells and marred only by our footprints.





Little fishes swam right up to the shoreline; I often wondered if they would be swept onto the shore and be beached.



A boat had beached itself along with a lunatic who thought he was Captain Jack Sparrow.



There I went destroying the smooth sandy canvas in reply to what kh drew in the sand two nights back.







Making our mark and leaving our footprints on the sand.



Like little children, we had a whale of a time playing with the little fishes in the water. I relish walking through them and seeing the colours of the water changed around me.



Minus the shadows of the palm trees, the darker parts of the water were where the fishes were. You could see how they form a circle around us.

Here's a video of how these little fishes reacted to stimuli above the water surface like shadows.



Here's another video depicting the fishes swimming all around us in the water. Kh kept suggesting we should bring our snorkelling masks just to take a peek at these fishes underwater.



If you're watching the video with audio, please excuse kh's "Here's my fit. I'm standing right in the bitch." lol

The most absurd thing happened right when the video space ran out-- A whole horde of silver fishes jumped up from the water, flew right across my waist and disappeared into the water all within split seconds. I was taken aback by the sudden gleam of silver before me as they reflected the sun's glare into my eyes. I was dumbfounded for a few moments before I screamed, "What just happened?"

The staff from the dive centre who happened to be on the bridge near us laughed and explained why.

Apparently, the little fishes were escaping from the bigger fishes. I guess I was standing in their way and so they had to jump out of the water and back in again. Kh and I were both kicking ourselves and the camera for not having recorded that down! You could see some splatters of water on my t-shirt.


Outfit of the morning:
♥ Heritage 1981 Carnivore T-shirt
♥ Oakley Dartboard shades in berry red
♥ Worn to death shorts and shoes

~*Day 4: 2nd Scuba dive*~

I've shared a lot on my experience, thoughts and feelings about my 1st dive in Volume 2. I was really fast falling in love with diving by then. My only gripe was that we did not manage to meet with any manta rays or sea turtles




Outfit before dive:
♥ Rip Curl bikini
♥ Sheer Romance beach outerwear
♥ Oakley Dartboard shades in berry red

~*Day 4: Cocktail Party & Dinner*~

When we got back to our room, we saw an invitation lying idly on our bed. It was an invitation to a cocktail party at Jahaz Bar that evening.

Being greedy pigs, the first thought that came to us was: Would there be food provided?

We wondered if the cocktail reception included food and did not know if we should make any dinner reservation thereafter.

After dining at JING the other time, we were both dying to try out the food at Meeru Barefoot Grill. As we were able to access the menu from the tv in our room, we could see that all the food on the menu sounded really appetizing. Seating capacity was however limited to 20 people and we could not possibly walk in with no reservation made.

Before we headed to the main island, we took some sun set shots.





Sunset on one side and moonrise on the other. I love the blends of grey and orange on side and the hues of blue, purple and pink on the other.



As we neared the main island, we could smell smoke and bbq in the air. From the distance, we could see that most of the outdoor seating at Jahaz Bar were already taken up.



Other than alcoholic drinks, there was this one other finger food and I was about to die in drunken hunger there and then.

We didn't exactly know what the cocktail reception was about but we hazard the guess that it was more for the staff to mingle with us and get to know their visitors better. Although Maldives Constance Haleveli Resort is an idyllic getaway, I cannot imagine myself as a staff working there long term. I guess the staff enjoyed themselves a lot more than the guests did. lol.



A Caucasian staff attended to us for a while and remarked that we spoke very good English for Japanese. In a joking manner, kh answered, "Ah, that's because we're not from Japan." He enquired where we were from, meekly apologized and then drifted away to attend to a Caucasian couple. I wondered if he was embarrassed or anything but we certainly didn't take offence at all.

Next a Filipino staff came forward to chat with us. We found out that he is the chief engineer for Constance Haleveli. He shared with us about how such water villas were built, how they distilled their own drinking water, the water filter system and about island life. We were filled with awe. As for me, I was deeply impressed with the piping and draininage system on the island.

We dug a little deeper about how employment works in the Maldives and soon found out that most people in the tourism sector are foreigners and that the local themselves do not enjoy working in the various resorts on the various islands for months without their families and friends.

I've gained many new insights about Maldives but I guess it would take a whole post to write about my new-found knowledge.

By the time cocktail ended, JING and Meeru were all fully booked that we had to settle for Jahaz restaurant. Instead of an Australian themed buffet like in Day 2, it was Japanese this time round.





So far, we had nothing but praises for the food at the resort. However that time round, they fared a little low with their Japanese food. The sashimi were not exactly cold and fresh. Some were a little mushy. The miso soup tasted like MSG with kelp and beansprouts (or were they mushrooms). As for the meats, the yakitori and tempura were a little overdone and tough. The only saving grace were their desserts.

I think we've been spoilt by good Japanese restaurants in Singapore and thus felt that the Japanese buffet was the most disappointing meal we had in Maldives.

What I like about Maldives is how they focus on eco-tourism. Every man-made structure is built around natural structure. If a tree was standing in the way of erecting a wall, a space would be made in the wall for the tree.



Kh thinks the lizards pictures above are one of the most disgusting pictures of our trip. I was thrilled to have captured 2 lizards mating to care about what he had said.

A little surprise greeted us when we returned to our villa. We had a little cake each in two bell jars by the sides of the bed. The staff also arranged a bottle of water and a glass by the bedside as if to remind us to drink more water. Mats were also laid out for our bedroom slippers.



The bathroom was bathed in a futuristic blue glow. I never once noticed that there was a switch to switch the blue lights on.

Like every other night, we watched lots of on-demand movies and was glad to have caught so many shows which I've missed in the cinema.

I would conclude Volume 4 with a picture of my outfit.


Outfit of the night:
♥ Prada embroidered silk lounge dress
♥ Sheer Romance flower clip

I've been a little caught up with lots of non work issues that have been keeping me really occupied recently so pardon me if I don't reply to your comments or visit your blogs as frequently. I will continue to keep up with the reading of some of my favourite blogs. Continue to keep those lovely comments coming in though coz I simply love reading them!