Day 6 - Tour of a local Island

I set my alarm for 8am today because Jay and I have booked a tour to a local island by speed boat and it leaves around 10am.  I wake up every morning to about 40 texts and 30 emails so I wanted to make sure that I could go through those while it was still a decent time at home (about 9pm home time).  I went through them, answered a bunch of texts, had a call with Cindy about 2 client situations and then got ready to go for breakfast.

The girls lost their game vs Lindsay last night but they're still in the Playoffs Round 2 because we are tied vs DW but we won against them which is the 2nd tiebreaker (record vs other tied teams). 1st tie breaker was number of wins and we each had 3, we each also had 2 ties and 1 loss - but they're showing higher on the Standings than us because they had more goals scored during their games..but that's the 3rd tie breaker and we don't get to that point so because we won against them in one of the two games and we tied the other game we move on.

In order to go to Provincials we have to win, tie or lose by less than 2 and that game is tomorrow (March 7th).  The team we play for that game is the DW team we just put out of Playoffs and so they'll be gunning to win by more than 2 in order to put us out of Provincials.  If we're out the 2nd DW team gets to go which is another reason they'll want to win by more than 2 goals.  

Assan told us when we booked the tour that it included a typical lunch so we wanted to have a good breakfast a little earlier than normal.  I got my normal fruit, yogurt, croissant and today tried the pineapple jam, which was delicious.  Jay had oatmeal and a croissant and that's it surprisingly.

After breakfast we walked back to our room, changed, sunscreened and called Assan to see if he could give us a ride to the dive centre for the tour.  He's picking us up at 9:40am.  Also asked Maria if she could lend us some cash for tour tips and so she dropped that off on their way for breakfast (Jim slept in this morning because Maria worked until 1am and he kept her company - but he's a night hawk anyway so often up late).

When we got to the dive center Jay had to fill in the waiver (I already did it when I picked up the snorkel gear) and had to write the date March 6th "We go home tomorrow" I said - you should have seen the way his face lit up with a grin.  Holy Smokes - is he happy to be headed home.  We both love it here, he just has a hard time being away this long - this is the longest vacation we have ever taken, 2 weeks.

The tour is ready to go, we're on it with just one other couple - they're young, from Miami.  They were in Canada in January in order to see snow - not a great winter for them to do that, but they went to Tremblant and Montreal so there might have been snow there, and then came to Toronto for a UFC fight and then went to Niagara Falls.

 Our tour guide is Pato, he works at JW but is contracted out - he works for Best Dives.  He's our local tour guide, he grew up on the island we're going to.  It's about a 20 min speedboat ride, Jay asked how deep the water is and he said it's between 15-30 meters between these islands but beyond the Capital (which is where we are going) it gets to 100 meters deep pretty quickly.  He said we may see dolphins, if we're lucky, which we weren't.  The waves were rolling as we travelled and it wasn't a bumpy ride but it wasn't smooth either.

On the way to the Capital we passed the island Pato was born on.  He said there were 200 people who lived on the island with no electricity, his family left in 1996 and everyone else who was left was moved after the tsunami in 2004.  3 islands were abandoned and the government made room for them on the Capital Funadhoo which now houses about 2000 people.  There is no more natural room on the island so the government is expanding it by bringing in sand.

We got docked and had to climb up onto the wharf - as soon as we got out we started walking (Jay says this is the moment he knew we had made a mistake, lol).  It's HOT.  Hotter than hot.  Pato started to 'show us the sites' - "this is the police station" walking "this is the school" walking "this is the government building" walking "this is the cemetery"..."this is the mangrove lake" more walking.

**

The island is powered by diesel, we walked past the power station and in the trees above us were dozens of fruit bats hanging and resting.

Water is supplied by a combination of fresh water wells and captured rain water.  At the beginning of the rainy season everyone cleans their roofs really well and after 3 days of heavy rain they start to collect the rain water into cisterns under the homes.

There is a sanitation plant at the other end of the island where they recycle waste into compost.

We continue walking towards the Airport, there are 3 flights a week into the island.  Pato didn't like that you can't windsurf and kite board when flights are expected in because that's the best beach.  

I had asked him maybe 5 mins before if there was somewhere to use the washroom - Oh, let me preface this with we were told when we booked the tour that it would include lunch and at this point he said we would have to make a special trip to the restaurant to use the washroom.  As we continue walking past the Airport (which also houses the Morgue) Jay said why don't I go to see if there is a bathroom there.  Because Pato has a friend who works at the airport they let me in to use the bathroom, it's literally just inside the door.  The entire airport area is on a man-made extension of the island.

During Covid the whole island was quarantined for 30 days when one person got COVID, the police would bring supplies to your house.  Only fisherman were allowed out so a lot of men took up fishing. It didn't make a difference, he said many people on the island got COVID.

It's so hot - we checked out the supermarket just for the AC.  Jay said it really goes to show how much effort and logistics goes into the JW and all the fresh ingredients they have for all our delicious meals because everything arriving here to this island and available in this store is canned, packaged.

It's been about an hour of walking now all around the island (it's not that big) and Pato says "do you want to go see the other half of the island or go back to the port?"  There is another couple with us but I quickly say "we're ok to go back if you are, I'm not sure how much more there is to see".  This tour was a total bust.  It was not worth the $160USD per person for the tour (and I'm not usually a complainer but it was awful so I will likely email about it when we get back to the resort.

We saw lots of people and no one greeted us the way we have been on the resort with a nod and a hand over their heart so finally I asked "is the greeting we get around the resort a Maldive thing or a JW thing?" and he laughs and says "It's a JW thing, same with changing the time by an extra hour, that's not the time it is actually, that's only on the resort" WHAT?!  Weird.  I decided later that I think that that's so there is more daylight later - the sun set around 7:30pm instead of 6:30pm because they went ahead by an hour.

Jay said when we got back "I thought you might get that hot angry thing happening".  It was close, there was very little breeze and very little shade.

It's 11:30am and I sent a text to Maria to let them know that we were coming back (no lunch included) so we can grab lunch together after going back to the room to change, swim and cool off.

We met for lunch at the Italian restaurant, Jay and I just split a pizza, which they make fresh in a pizza oven outside and he had a salad.  I brought the 5 Crowns down but we didn't get one of the tables with a fan above it so it's too hot.  We each just went back to our rooms - Jay and I went snorkelling but it's a little windy so I didn't want to go past the breakwall because there were waves on the other side of it today.

I do this every time...the last day never gets written properly.  Oh well.

We went to dinner, surprise surprise.

Next day we went for breakfast and lunch, haha, Jay and I packed up all our stuff, we did one last snorkel beyond the breakwall - there were lots of fish and it was HOT.

Our flight out of the resort was at 4pm, it left a little later at 4:30pm and was already full with people from the Fairmont who are about 10 mins further.

We had 4 flights to make it home, they all went smoothly and our bags were checked right from Male through to Toronto and actually made it all the way!

Day 5 - Flight Change Home

I woke up this morning to the alarm that I set for 8:30am.  A few things to take care of today - mortgage clients bought a townhome that I have to do their mortgage today and Air Canada sent an email with a notification that Frankfurt may be seeing strike action later this week which may affect our flight home (as we have a connection) so if we want we can change our flights for no cost.  Since Maria is the traveller extraordinaire I'll wait to chat with her about it at breakfast and see if I can do it on the app or have to do it on my computer or call in.

We meet them for breakfast, they've got a table for 4 outside.  I got a lemonade jam today to have with my croissant and it's not my favourite..it has lemon zest in it and I think the little pieces of zest are what I dont love.  It's still good though - my favourite is still the mixed berry, don't tell Jay.

Maria took a look at the email I got from AC and then looked up some flight options for us.  The best option, I agree, is a return flight through Vienna which leaves Doha at 2:40am and has a 3h45m stopover in Vienna and gets us home at 1:30pm on Friday now (6 hours earlier which has Jay literally grinning because he can't wait to get home - you wouldn't think it but he's the homebody and misses the girls and the dogs and the house and his car and our friends and routine and always ALWAYS wants to go home early).  So now we're leaving the resort at I don't know what time yet because we won't find out until tomorrow - then we leave Male to fly 5 hrs to Doha with a 3hr layover to Vienna with a 3.5hr layover and home.  So I cancelled the airport hotel that we had booked in Doha because now we'll just be killing 3 hrs in the lounge in Doha and try to sleep on the first flight and then stay up the rest of the time because home is 11 hours behind us and it will be a pain to get back on 'time'.

I can't get it booked on the app, it keeps giving me an error message so I try on my computer and I get the same thing.  I HATE that companies make it almost impossible to find a phone number to call and AC website has be turning around in circles before a Site Feedback tab pops up - I click it, its asking "Did you find what you were looking for today?" Fuck No.  Would you like to elaborate in this blank space with room for 1000 characters - I sure would, thank you.  I leave a polite but irritated message about how the "Contact Us" button should actually allow you to contact them and not give you the run around to anything but a phone number.  I finally google "What is the phone number for Air Canada" and find it, I'm sure AC is working hard to purge that info from google, but whatever.  I try it and it says it's the wrong number so I keep looking.  Finally I google "how to make a 1-800 call out of Maldives".  I have to dial    0-0-1-888-247-2262, the first 0-0 is to get out.  I get through, I make it through all the prompts and it says there is a 20 min wait - that's not bad, I mean it is like 11:30pm Toronto time, it gives me the option to leave my phone number and have them call me back - amazing. Except apparently my calls are going straight to voicemail I have 4 bars here so I'm not sure why but they do.  Maria has a magic concierge number she can call because of her status with AC so she's coming down to my room and I call in to AC again to see if the 20 min wait is really a 20 min wait or if it's longer or shorter.  Someone picks up in probably about 12 minutes and within about 5 minutes he has my flights changed to the one I want and he has my seats selected and has emailed me a new itinerary - thank you very much!

Maria and I head to the adult pool, Jay goes to work out and Jim is hanging out in their room but will both meet us for lunch at the Thai restaurant a little later.  We arrive at the pool and there isn't anyone there.  I say "Shocking", someone comes down and brings us water with 2 glasses with ice, we didn't notice them but I saw them at our chair and transferred mine to my yeti cup.

Jay came, got in the water and we all .  watched the fish and little reef sharks swimming under the pool within the breakwall.  There were 2 little sharks maybe 18" long and then another that came by later that was maybe 2.5' long.

Jim met us for lunch, we went up the stairs to the Thai place and there weren't any tables for 4 so we sat in the same area but I sat with Jay and they had their own table.  There was one other couple sitting at a table for 2 - the whole time we were there they didn't say a single word to one another, they were both on their phones as they ate sharing their meal. They were young, it could have been their honeymoon?  That's one thing we try to be aware of, we often try not to use our phones at all during meals and a lot of times Jay will leave his in the car if we're out.

We had Zahuvan again as our server (I checked the spelling this time) he is from an island at the far south of the Maldives and lives on that Atoll's Capital. There are about 1,200 people on his island and it has a school, college and hospital because the Capital's feed all the smaller islands for medical and education and supplies.  He has to take a flight to Male from the JW and then a flight down to his island from Male.  I asked him if they got a discount for airfare for being local and he said no, so I said "so you pay $600 for your flight?"  His eyes got big and he said "No, we pay about $200-300 for our flight depending on timing"  We paid JW, through our reservation I think $675 for the flight here and back - so that's good in a way that tourism can supplement the local airfare (hopefully JW isn't the one who is getting the extra money).

It's HOT.  There is less of a breeze today up in the trees, I'm sweating and can't wait to get back to our room to go in the pool for a dip.  Though by the time we get back there it will be in full sun so I won't be able to be in there for too long regardless.  I've tried to be extra diligent with the sunblock since the first day when I was out for so little time without it and got burnt.

When we get back (we ended up getting a ride from about half way back because Jay didn't want to walk the whole way!) I work on the mortgage application and get it all submitted.  It's the middle of the night back home so nothing will get reviewed for a while but that's fine.

We got a text from Juls and Steve that Myah got her license today!!  Crazy.  Of course she passed it on the first try and she drove part of the way home from the office...frightening.  Jay and I both have to take the girls on their birthday so that if they both want to drive home they can - or, I guess, we are choosing to take 2 cars so they both have the opportunity to drive home if they want to.  April 30th and they'll be 16!

Once Jay is done his outside nap (around 4:30pm) we go snorkelling.  We decided to go PAST the breakwall today so I wore my fins, up until this point I was just wearing the mask and snorkel but the fins do actually help a lot.  So we swam out an opening and Oh My God there are 1000% more fish just outside the breakwall than inside!  There are SO MANY FISH.  I really wish that I had brought an underwater camera or even a waterproof case for my iPhone so that we could take pictures of the fish here, I've never seen so many and so many varieties in a small area.  We swam down the breakwall until the next opening and came back in - tomorrow we'll go further down a few more openings before coming back in I think.

So now it's 6:30pm, I've probably been writing for 45 mins to get this far in the day.  I'll finish up tomorrow morning sometime and then add photos (which I mostly get from airdropping from Maria's phone sometime around breakfast or lunchtime for yesterdays photos! you can thank her for all the photo memories).

We went to dinner at the main restaurant, it's good and there are a lot of options (it's also free for Jay and I because of our plan).  But also they'll make you something off of the Italian restaurant menu, which is closed for dinner - Jay and I wanted something light for dinner so we each ordered a double size caesar salad with chicken (the one that you get usually is a side size) and an order of fries to share.  Jim and Maria shared the steak sandwich and a caesar salad too.  Maria's had some work calls late this afternoon and into dinner so she's a little stressed.  She did a quick estimate of their per day spending and they're WELL under the $650 a day that it was for them to add the all inclusive package that we had and they don't feel like they're holding back on ordering anything so that's good.  We 100% got our value out of the $230 or so it cost us to add it because we're eating and drinking more than they are and they're spending well over that per day right now sharing most meals.  They got their stay for free through points and just had to pay for the flight transfers - so they're still WAY ahead of us, lol.

We decided to have dessert tonight, which we don't usually do and they were both a bust.  Jay ordered the lemongrass creme brulee which tasted like lemongrass, so it wasn't false advertising, but it was too much lemongrass.  Maria and Jim got a souffle - Jay asked me before what's a souffle and I said it's basically like egg whipped and baked..it tasted like sweet scrambled eggs and was disgusting.

On the way home Jay ran ahead again and got us cool towels from the gym.  There was a nice breeze tonight so it wasn't so hot.  The towels are scented with lemongrass and if you sucked on them I'm sure would taste just like dessert!

Maldives - Day 4 - Do we finally play 5 Crowns?

 I had a great sleep last night, I probably turned off my book around 11pm and went right to sleep. Maria brought my some more of the Buckley's cold medication which is actually amazing.  I've never had it before and I'll definitely get it for home - works way better than the Advil Cold and Sinus I usually buy.  I think I'm at the end of the cold though, I only took 3-4 pills today overall. I think that I can skip medication today.

I woke up a little after 9:15am!  Jay was still sleeping, Maria had texted to say they're heading to breakfast so I waited a little bit and at 9:35 asked Jay if he would rather sleep or have breakfast, he said sleep but then asked what time it was and when I told him he got out of bed and got dressed and we went down.

The girls had another game last night - another frickin' tie!  Ugh, at least there isn't a loss so we get 1 point.  Durham West (DW) beat Napanee yesterday in playoff games (twice! and one was an 8-1 shellacin') so now we've secured out spot in the next playoff round even if we lose against Lindsay this week because Durham West if they win all the games will be tied with us for points at 8 but we beat them in the first game and tied the second so head to head we are ahead of them and that's the first tie breaker so we're in round 2 for sure which starts March 11 and goes to April 2 and I think there are just 2 other teams in that mix for a home and home game vs each.  I was texting back and forth with Jim - I wondered what happens if all the games are tied for provincials - because we've tied the 3 games we have played so far and just have one more to play - it would really suck if we don't make provincials this year since 2 teams move on out of the 3 teams playing!  Jim thinks if DW 1 beats DW 2 we move on but if DW 2 ties or beats DW 1 we would have to have a win in the next game.  Both DW teams have really stepped it up in playoffs and playdowns (or we are sucking).  We finished first in the regular season after a sandbagging team got moved up a division by the OWHA because they categorized themselves wrong (clearly), DW1 finished 3rd and DW2 finished 7th!

I was eating my croissant and jam when Jay said "what kind of jam did you get this morning, mixed berry?"  Nope, I went with the cherry and it was yummy.  I also got an iced latte which was good. Jay ordered pancakes,, which get delivered to the table to go with his fruit and 2 chocolate croissants and I think oatmeal he had - but it doesn't come and we waited a little extra time and then left.  Probably good because otherwise he won't be hungry at lunchtime.

Maria came down to our villa to go snorkelling, there are so many fish right off the deck and it's a good time of day for her because it's very calm and the water is only about up to your waist off the dock this time of day so you can easily stand and get yourself situated.  We snorkel for about 20 mins seeing tonnes of fish.  There are little pockets of reef right off our villa specifically.  She also comments that we get a lot more shade than they do, they only have shade for 1 person - that makes me so thankful because I sit in the shade all day long and Jay joins me out here laying on the couch in the shade either reading or napping.  Right now (as I right this) it's 1pm and Jay is lying in the shade, I'm sitting in the shade and our 2 loungers on the other side of the deck are mostly in the shade as well.  There is a point at about 4pm where I have to move my chair in order to capture shade but there is still plenty of it to be had.

Jay came out while we were in the pool after our snorkel with his goggles and fins and I said he should swim over to Jim and try to scare him.  It's a half kilometre walk over there on the boardwalk so I'm assuming it's about the same, maybe a little less, for a swim.  Jay swims over and when we see him swimming back Maria texts Jim and asks "Did you get you?"  "Nope, even with my blind spot my spidey senses started tingling". haha

We're going to go to the Italian place for lunch today which is right by the main pool (which is smaller than the adult pool - I think because everyone has their own pools and only the beach villas are large enough to accommodate families most people are using their own pool.  We go to the pool so that we can socialize with eachother.  Also, if we can get the table in the shade over there I'll bring the cards over and we'll play after lunch.

We went to lunch, got a big table with shade and (bonus) a fan! Ordered drinks and lunch - one thing here they do not bring appetizers first, everything comes at the same time so Jay got a caesar salad (which was much bigger than the last one), a meatball sandwich and a pizza (FFS), I got a quinoa salad from the main menu and asked them to add grilled shrimp which they did - it's just little but yummy and I had some of Jay's fries and 2 pc of his pizza which is made in a pizza oven with thin crust.  Jim and Maria both got the meatball sandwich too. The margaritas from the Italian restaurant share the same bar with the main restaurant and they're so good - perfect blend of tequila, lime and simple syrup.

We DO play cards!  We played one round of 5 Crowns and if you'd asked Jay, even though he was winning, he would have quit after 8 hands and gone for his 'official nap' of the afternoon.

On the way back to the room Jay asked for the key and ran ahead to the gym and grabbed a cold towel, scented with lemongrass, for each of us to have for the remaining walk - it was nice to cool down because it's HOT!  If you wanted to cool down while at lunch you just had to go into the bathrooms because they're frigid..but so nice.

I got Jay to sunblock me up (again) before he went down for his nap and hopped in the pool for a dip and to read my book for a few mins.  You can't stay in there long because there isn't any shade and I wouldn't say it's refreshing per se, but it's wet and cooler than the air.

I've been watching the flights because I asked Assan to please arrange for us to be on the last flight out of the resort possible on Thursday when we leave.  Our flight out of Male isn't until 8:15pm and even though we're only 55 mins away there is an hour time difference, but it doesn't matter really.  A flight just landed at 4:20pm here, that's the latest one I've seen so far - but it didn't take back off, it's now floating anchored out in the little harbour off the main pier.  Actually that plane is still floating so not sure because the 4:20pm plane took off - and then later today a 6:00pm flight showed up!  So it will be interesting to see when we can leave.

We went snorkelling off of our deck again, still lots of fish! lol, we went under the pier at the front of the villa to the shallower part on the other side where the big, bright turquoise fish always are and swam with them for a bit.  Jay sat up on the sea wall and looked over and could see a little black tipped reef shark on the other side.  We've seen a few.  It really drops off deep when you get to the other side of that seawall immediately and Jay figures there are lots of bigger sharks over there considering we've seen 3-4 from where we are.  There is a snorkel tour we're considering doing that goes to 2 local islands where you could see stingrays and turtles but it's 3 hours - there is another one that is only 2 hours but is in the afternoon when it's super hot at 2-4pm so we're still thinking about it.

Assan showed up at our room just around 7pm, I don't remember why but he offered us a ride to the restaurant and since he was there already we accepted.  Maria was just finishing up an impromptu work call that came up so they would meet us at the restaurant when she was finished.  On our way to the restaurant he pointed out some neighbouring islands and said that the staff will go to one of the uninhabited islands for picnics.  He also said there is a local island that they'll do a tour of twice a week where you can go, learn about the culture, tour around the island, see the school, etc and have a typical lunch - it runs next on Wednesday so we talk to Jim and Maria - they aren't interested in going but we let Assan know that Jay and I would like to do it.  There is a 4 person minimum so if another couple joins it then we'll go, if not it won't run and we'll know the morning of.

There is one server here who MUST be new.  The service is stellar.  She has a hard time with comprehension and communication and we're trying to be as patient as possible with her.  At lunch I ordered the quinoa salad and a margarita - thank goodness she always repeats back the order and so she had me down for the salad and a margarita pizza (with no salt, lol).  We had her for dinner as well and Jay switched from having the reef fish and chips to an order of butter chicken and when she repeated the order she had him down for both!  She also came back and told us there was no caprese/buratta because they were out of tomatoes and it was a little confusing because she said there was enough for one but not two so we said that Jim and Maria could have it and asked for a caesar salad instead but then she asked Jim and Maria what they wanted instead of the burrata and we were like "sorry, there was enough for 1 portion or there wasn't?"..then as she apologized that there were not tomatoes for any servings and they chose to have a caesar salad as well the 2 orders of burrata showed up - with tomatoes - and she had a hushed conversation with the server who brought it to our table, clearly she was upset - we were like "were these meant for another table? because it's ok, we don't need them"...anyway, they were delivered to our table, they were good, there were the same number of tomatoes as there were the other times we've had it - just overall very weird.  Jay couldn't have a second mojito because there were no limes but Maria and I ordered margaritas they came with limes, IDK.

Dinner finished about 9:15pm so we headed to our rooms, I had a cool shower before bed and will deal with the consequences of having curly hair and going to bed with it wet in the morning!  I did skip cold medicine all day today and don't need it for bed, while I'm still a little congested it's working itself out and I don't have a cough at bedtime now so all good.

Maldives - Day 3

 I had a really hard time getting to sleep last night - I might be repeating that from yesterday, but I set my alarm for 8:15am and at 7am changed it to 8:45am.  I'm so glad I did because I got a text from Juls that said that Kobe was playing today in about 15 mins in the final game in LA.  My phone is doing something wonky and it's saying that texts are coming in about an hour after they are - I get them on time (8:48 my time) but it says they came in at 9:48am my time on the app.  Anyway, we have the link and open up the app to watch the live stream of the game and it looks like it really is 15 mins from now.

A 7's game is 7 men on the field and 7 minute halves, so it's a quick game so we're super lucky that the timing worked out that he's playing at 6pm LA time and that translates to 9am here. We watch the game, they lost but Kobe got in in the second half and had a great run with the ball down the field!!  Great start to his first start.  Liam also played, I'm not sure if it was his first start or not but he had a great game too, he played with Kobs on the Arrows and they're roommates in Victoria. But I think they actually played New Zealand..so not sure what’s up with the schedule  

After the game Jay and I go to breakfast, Jim and Maria already went and watched the game on her iPad at the restaurant while we watched it in the room.  My breakfast hasn't changed - decaf cappuccino, fruit, a croissant with some jam and a little yogurt.  It's so good - Jay challenged me to have a different jam tomorrow because I've been having the mixed berry so I think I'll try the cherry tomorrow and maybe even a different flavour yogurt and an iced latte..live a little.  Maria had the french toast which looks amazing, she said it was very flavourful.  Jay offered me a slice of his bacon, I wondered why until I tasted it - very salty.

It's. Hot. I didn't wear my 'security tank top' under my t-shirt that's how hot it is, lol.  I also wore a t-shirt because I don't want to get burnt and put sunblock on my arms, legs, chest and face before I left for breakfast.

Assan reached out and asked if we wanted to do a snorkel tour this afternoon, but we can get snorkel equipment from the dive centre and snorkel off the deck in our room - Jay went in the water yesterday and said there were tonnes of fish right off the villa (he also picked up about 10 long, black zip ties that must break and fly into the water, maybe from the roof?, in about a 10 x 10 area).  We also told him we don't need the morning housekeeping service again today and we'll do it tomorrow.  We didn't do the turn down service yesterday either but we're almost out of the water bottles so we will need water tomorrow.

Maria and I go over to the Adult Pool, because it's beside the dive centre, at around noon maybe, maybe a little earlier.  There isn't anyone there again today, we have it to ourselves.  So we park our stuff on a lounger in the shade of an umbrella and sunscreen up.  At this point I realize part of the reason why I'm sunburned is that I brought 45 sunblock.  I'm not sure how that even happened?  I buy 60 minimum and like to buy as high as I can - so I definitely didn't re-apply enough yesterday if it's only 45 (which is is).

Jay went to the gym and came back and had a shower - Jim did some yoga stretching and chilled in his room while we were at the pool.

On our way back we stopped at the dive centre and picked up snorkels, masks and fins in a bag and we had messaged Assan on Whatsapp asking if he could pick us up at 1pm so that we didn't have to carry it back to our rooms.  He was running a bit behind so when the second golf cart stopped to ask if we needed a ride somewhere we accepted the ride and he let Assan know that he had picked us up.  When we got to our pier with the villas on it we saw Assan driving off the pier and he thanked our driver, then I wondered if there was a miscommunication and he thought we wanted to be picked up from our rooms to go to the dive centre to get the equipment, not to be picked up from the dive centre because we were already over in that area.

It's 1:30pm approx, I'm a little hungry but everyone else had a bigger breakfast or is just still full.  We're going to go over to either the main restaurant or the italian restaurant and grab a light lunch at 2:15pm and Assan made us dinner reservations for 7:15pm outside at the main restaurant for tonight.

I'm in the room, writing the blog and then will read for a bit - (when I say I'm in the room I'm actually out on the deck in the shade looking over the pool and water!)  I try to do it in bits and pieces so it doesn't take me so long but is maybe why sometimes it's a little disjointed like yesterday when I said "It's 10:30am and I just realized it was Myah's birthday" and then said I cried 2-3 times today already - I wrote that whole thing a lot later in the afternoon but went back and put the time that I realized it was her birthday as when I sent her the text wishing her a great day and telling her we love her.  It was about 11pm her time and that's when I learned from Juls that my kids were at their place, lol.  The girls had surprised Myah with a birthday dinner at One Eyed Jacks and then a sleepover at her place for the night to celebrate her along with their friends Ava and Izzy.

I'm also working - Nicole is working on an Offer for our clients while I'm away and I'm working on their financing so that they're all prepared to go in with the strongest offer they can.

 

We went to lunch at the main restaurant and sat inside because there isn't any shade outside.  Jay tried a new drink with rum, banana, baileys and nutella - tasted like banana and that's it.  He didn't like it, my pina colada was good but too foamy (they make it fresh with rum and pineapple juice and coconut cream maybe but it's too foamy and not creamy - they don't use coconut milk I don't think.  The margaritas are the best at the main pool..they're delish so I have one of those too.  I'll just stick to those probably.  Jay and I shared a crispy chicken burger and the reuben, the reuben was flavourful but only had 2 slices of meat on it, each come with fries and the fries here are crispy and delicious, they must double fry them every time. Since Jay didn't like his drink (and gave it to me) he had room for dessert so ordered the chocolate cigar which was thick chocolate mousse inside of a thin chocolate shell, it was good and lighter than you would have expected but there was a lot of it. Jim and Maria shared the crispy chicken burger as well, it was good but not great - the first thing we've had here that wasn't exceptional.

Jay comes out and asks if I want to go snorkelling so I grab just my mask and snorkel and we have stairs down to the water and then a ladder to enter.  So I get all situated, my mask is missing one of the pieces that you put between your teeth to hold it in place but that's ok.  There are a tonne of fish right off our villa, small colourful fish, larger fish.  I have a few, small moments of anxiety (very small and very few) - I had a panic attack while diving in Croatia 5-7 years ago after a series of unfortunate small equipment malfunctions that individually are no big deal but overall caused me to panic.  That's one thing I think sleeping with a CPAP has helped, I have to breathe with my nose covered (or nostrils anyway) with my mouth closed and so it's made me accustomed to a breathing apparatus.  I'd like to try diving again, it's one of the things I absolutely loved, I was very calm under water - the instructors always commented on how much air I came back with in my tank because I was so comfortable.  I'll be sad if I can't get that back.  As I'm older I have more anxieties though, I have anxiety giving blood at the blood donor clinic - I've given almost 50 times and haven't done it since Covid and every time I see the clinic is on it makes me feel guilty and anxious..and I have anxiety at the dentist that I never had before, it's weird.

We spend the afternoon in the room, on the deck reading and working.  Jay is napping and then napping some more - inside, outside, back inside.  It's HOT, so best to be in the sun in the morning and shade all afternoon.  I'm covered up when we're back at the house because I already spent an hour in the sun at the pool with Maria.

We have dinner reservations for 7:15pm at the main restaurant and arrive to a table by the water which is nice.  

It's still tonight, not a lot of breeze so guess what, it's HOT.  I had a shower before dinner and I will 100% be having a shower to cool off before bed as well.

Jay and I shared the cold messehs (hummus, babaganoush, another dip, pitas and delicious olives which are in a spiced sauce and I get all to myself because Jay doesn’t eat them) and a street chicken tikka which is also good. I ordered the steak frites, Jay got avocado toast, Jim got the spicy noodles we had the other day and Maria ordered a Greek salad (after they said they ran out of the caprese).

Best laid plans to play 5 Crowns tonight but with all the napping and lazing and eating and drinking and lazing and napping and drinking and eating we're tired so retire to our own rooms.  Maybe tomorrow.

Maldives - Day 2 - Myah's Birthday!!

 I woke up in the night with a runny nose..not a big deal you think but I wear CPAP to bed with just a nasal mask so in reality not great.  Not a lot I can do about it, I wiped it out, took another cold pill and went back to bed hoping it didn't happen again and planned to clean it well when I get up.

We briefly spoke last night about possibly doing the Yoga at 7am but several times I said "I'm not committing to 7am Yoga".  Good thing because I woke up around 9am!  We have black out curtains which are glorious.  Jay was up already, he said he had a good sleep but he woke in the night for about an hour and had an email that needed attention so he had to do that.  He'll likely make up for it in naps today - he does that...Vacation Jay as we call him - if he can get into the mode he will make up for months of sleep when on vacation.  He works long hours, he trains long hours but when he shuts'er down he shuts'er down which he needs every once in a while to recharge.

Maria is up but Jim is still sleeping and breakfast goes until 10am so Jay and I send her a message that we're going to head to the restaurant and we'll either meet them there or see them later.  We walk over, it's not far, not even a 10 min walk but A LOT of the guests call to their butlers and have them drive over with the golf carts.  It is hot here, so I can see the appeal, but I just decided that breakfast time I'll wear yesterdays clothes over so that when they're sweaty after walking back to the room I can change into fresh today clothes!

The buffet is Amazing (everything here is), there are fresh yogurts (I think they literally mix plain yogurt into flavours, I had the blueberry and it was heavenly), fresh fruit, fresh baked pastries, an omelette station, a Dosa station (which I really loved on the tour and he had said it was a breakfast food but for me would be more of a snack food).  I'm not a huge breakfast eater so I had a yogurt, some fruit and a croissant with a decaf cappuccino (which was perfect).

The restaurant Manager brought us out a very cool plate with some treats on it and a card wishing us a Happy 20th Anniversary.  I looked at it and wondered about the coral and dolphin.

When the Executive Chef came over to say hello and to ask how we like the dolphin I wondered if it was made of chocolate.  The Chef asked about our Anniversary, he had also just celebrated his 20th.  He has a wife, 19 year old daughter and 13 year old son in India.  After he left I said to Jay "break off a piece of that coral and see if it's chocolate" and it is!  So we took it back to our room and put it in the mini-fridge because now if we want something sweet rather than eating $18 M&Ms we can have a bit of the coral (I'm not sure if the dolphin is also chocolate or if it's fondant, we'll see).

On our way back to the room we passed Jim and Maria heading to breakfast and told them to let us know when they're done.  They saw Assan at breakfast (so did we, he came over to say hello and asked if we would like the morning service for our room and we said no) and I asked her to ask him to make a reservation for the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant for dinner tonight - she also arranged for him to pick us up to go to the restaurant because it's the furthest away (over a km) so that we don't get sweaty for dinner and then we'll walk back.

I came outside to sit on the deck and try to finish up the blog because I'm a couple of days behind and realized that even though it's not yet midnight at home (so it's March 1st) it's March 2nd here which means it's Myah's 16th birthday.  Then I cried.  I've actually cried 2-3 times so far today because we're missing her 16th. It's a huge milestone and I love her.  I sent her a birthday text and I know we'll do a celebration when we're home.  Juls sent a message to Maria and I with Kobe's schedule - he is rostered for the Canadian Men's 7 Rugby matches this weekend in Los Angeles!!  When the Toronto Arrows MLR team folded earlier this year he was offered the opportunity to move to Vancouver and train with the Canadian Men's team (it's an Olympic team, so he got his letter from the Olympic Committee and everything - they likely won't make the Olympics because there is only one more qualifying tournament left I think, in June, but what an accomplishment and Kobe is still young, for a professional rugby player, at 22 so if he does well then he could stay on for the next 4 years to train for the next Olympics).  They didn't think he would have the opportunity to play this season, that he would be in training mode, especially since he's a 15s player and not a 7s player (though he has played 7s)..but he's Kobe (and Steve and Juls are extremely humble) and so of course he's travelling as one of the 14 chosen to go to LA.  Kobe is...Kobe.  He's electric.  He's positive, driven, dynamic, energetic and a complete weapon on the field.  I can't wait to be able to see him in this new environment.  I love him too.  And now I'm crying again.  I’m very proud of all the Faust kids - I cry when I’m sad but mostly when I’m happy, I usually cry at least once while watching Kobe play (I’m a sucker for the National Anthem) and Myah dancing? I’m a mess.  Ava won’t let us go watch her ride but I’m sure - waterworks.

The seaplane lands just off our deck when guests are arriving and departing. 

We headed to the Adult Pool area, which is over by the Japanese restaurant and arrived and no one was there.  A server came down and brought water and asked if we wanted anything to drink - because I'm on the all inclusive I got a pina colada and asked for him to bring a bucket of ice, everywhere we go now I ask for a bucket of ice now - I like a COLD drink and the ice melts quickly.  While we went to the pool Jay went to the gym for a workout and then joined us.  Looking over the edge of the pool we could see fish and a small reef shark at one point.

I started to turn pink so we got out and went to the Thai place for lunch which is at the pool but raised up into the trees, it’s very cool and you get an awesome breeze.  I decided to get the grilled prawns with black pepper sauce and glass noodles - it was perfect, 3 large shrimp and about 2 tbsn of noodles (I could have had more noodles but I stole some of Maria's rice) and Jay and I shared vegetable rice paper wraps.  Jay had a beef dish with rice and the server asked if he wanted it spicy..he said "how spicy is spicy" the server said "there is medium spicy and then "indian spicy' and then "maldivian spicy" which is very spicy" - Jay opted for medium spicy but then asked for some peppers on the side and the server, who's name I can't remember how to spell but was like Zeruvan but longer than that so I'm missing something in the middle - he said if you added all of the peppers it would be maldivian spicy, he's from the Maldives.  He said that all the staff live on the island in staff quarters and there are about 150 of them in total.  He works in 2 restaurants, the Thai and the Japanese & Steakhouse so we'll see him tonight.  There are only 61 rooms on the resort between the beachfront villas and the overwater bungalows, most rooms only accomodate 2-3 guests so at most there are likely 150 guests at any given time so there is a 1-1 Guest-Staff ratio which is why the service is exceptional.  Maria had a Thai green curry dish and Jim had a fried rice dish and everyone said everything was excellent.

Walking back to the rooms, its a little over a km, we were passed by so many golf carts carrying guests either to or from their rooms.  I enjoy the walk, helps to digest our food, but I'm definitely looking forward to a dip in the pool when I get back.  

When we were walking back from dinner last night I wondered how the island was powered.  It's 180KM from Male, do they have a big generator?  Jim looked it up somehow and it does have an island generator that is powered by diesel fuel, Jay said "I guess we'll know if we see a tanker this week show up" but I bet that they do it at night so that the guests don't have to see the tanker or on the opposite side of the island from where all the villas and restaurants are.

I've had sunscreen in my eye since putting it on at the pool and my eye is burning and watering - such a pain!

I dip, I blog, Jay naps and then comes outside for his repositioning nap and now has gone back inside to read (and nap) hopefully he can sleep tonight after all this napping.

I definitely have a full blown head cold.  I'm still taking medication - thankfully it's not like a flu.  I don't feel achy or feverish or even tired really, just congested.

Somehow it's 5:30pm already.  I'm caught up on the blog - I need some photos from Maria, lol.  I'm going to read my book for 30 mins or so then take a shower before supper.  Also, time for another cold pill.

I didn't end up taking a shower, I read for longer and decided to just shower after dinner because I'll just get sweaty at dinner and walking home so that's when the cool shower is required.  Have I mentioned its HOT here?  It's supposed to be like this all week.  Its glorious in the shade but I also learned that the sun is INTENSE.  I only was wearing my tank top today for the walk to the pool (not wearing sunblock yet), lunch which was completely shaded (sunblocked but before we hung in the pool for 40 mins) and the walk back to the room which is also almost all shaded except for the pier back - and I'm burnt in my tank top shape!  Going forward I'll make sure I'm wearing sunblock from morning until night regardless of if I'm in full sun or not.

Assan picks us all up at 7pm and drives us over to the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant, we have a reservation but didn't specify inside or outside.  They want to put us inside but we want to be outside so they move 2 tables for 2 together to accommodate us.

They brought curry leaf bread and chimichurri to the table to start and it's so good.  I love chimichurri.  Jay, Jim and Maria all order off the Steakhouse menu - Wagu steak with sides of broccolini and parmesan truffle fries without the truffle oil and I order off of the Japanese menu some spicy tuna rolls to start (and so did Jay) and then teppanyaki chicken for dinner which is just stir fried chicken and sauteed vegetables. Dinner at this restaurant isn't included in our stay but our drinks are still included and we get 60% off of the meal so overall dinner came to just under $200USD after our discount.  I had 2 glasses of the Rose, which grew on me, it wasn't amazing but that's ok and Jay tried a Sri Lankan beer called Lion which was kind of a mid-colour beer, not quite amber, he liked it.

Our server tonight is also from the Maldives, his home island is 3 islands away and has a population of about 1,200. He gets 1 day off a week so usually saves them up so that he has 3-4 days off and goes home which is about a 40 min speedboat ride.

After dinner we walked back to the room and said good night to Jim and Maria with plans to play 5 Crowns tomorrow night - we just have to find a place with a table inside that has air because it's too windy to play outside.  I think it's about 9:30pm when I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and go have my cool shower and get ready for bed.  I've taken another couple of cold medications, I'm almost out of what Maria gave me but I know she has more.

I read my book until I finished it and then couldn't get to sleep, it was 1:30am when I got out of bed the last time.  The girls have a hockey game (Playdown) while it's the middle of the night here, it's too long to stay up for but because it's too late now when I'm going to bed I won't get up to watch it either so I'll just have to check the score in the morning.