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| Our survival kit! |
Before arriving Maldives, we were quite nervous with how much our total holiday cost. We pack some foods just in case everything is too expensive here. Though there is more discount with All inclusive meal package, we decided to just go with half board. Means that we get only breakfast and pay normal price for lunch as well as dinner. I'm not a big eater and David is on diet for his upcoming running race. Oh, that's not the only reason. Actually we have a sneaky idea to just stock up foods from breakfast. Hehehe. In our first day breakfast, we came so prepared with tote bag and some empty water bottles. You know what we're gonna do, right? Yes, flush some breads, cake, fruits and juice into my bag. A day stock up!
It only happen on the first day, before we learnt there is a more elegant way to deal with the pricey cost here. The resort is quiet generous to keep the guest happy. Everyday, there are scheduled activity. It normally comes with free foods, drink or dessert. So, we try not to miss these chance. Every morning we can't wait for daily activity menu and promo. The strategy is goodies hunting in the afternoon and a real good dinner in the evening. It's become more exciting than embarassing. Thanks God!
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| 5 Tweets for free cocktail. Not too bad. We are so up for goodies! |
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| Coconut tour around the resort. Learn the local name of coconut tree anatomy |
Coconut tour: A simple tour around the resort and learn the anatomy of coconut tree. It is not something unfamiliar for me as there are just so many of them in my hometown’s backyard. The different, this time I learnt the local language and the resort is named after Coconut in Divehi. Bonus.. free coconut water. We brought it to restaurant and ask for ice. ^_^
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| Coconut Ice with style |
Cooking class: This is one of the busiest class. We book as soon as we get the schedule and guess what.. we got the last seat! woww! It is actually not a cooking class, but a demo instead. We have one chef (I forgot his name) showing us how to cook Garudhiya or Maldivian tuna fish soup. This is one of the main dishes eaten by everyday in every home of Maldives. How to make it is also very simple. After cleaning, the fish is well cooked in boiling water with salt. It will produce foam on top that is removed and discarded. Chillies, onions and curry leaves may be used to flavour the soup, but usually it is made with fish, salt and water. It is served hot with rice, lemon, onion and chilli. Finished with Garudhiya then we learn how to cook Fihunu Mas, the Maldivian grilled fish.Tuna is the most common, but reef fish is also used. The whole fish is gutted with the scales removed and fillet sliced to the bone. Blend to a thick, smooth paste two ounces of dried chili, one ounce chopped onion, two garlic cloves, one teaspoon of cumin powder, two curry leaves, one teaspoon of black peppercorns and salt to taste. The fish should be pierced on a large skewer. The slits made from filleting should be filled with the spice paste. It is then cooked on a barbeque grill on both sides until it is done… And there, yummy fish dishes with rice and wine!!
Art Class - Maldivian Painting. An interesting one as we were guided step by step painting Maldives like a pro. Start with dip the wet brush into white paint. Stroke it all over canvas surface. Then do the same again with blue paint to make the sky. To make gradation sky, I have to make the brush really wet and stroke it several time to lighten the sky. Then i start carefully paint the tree and the bush. Voila!!! my very first master piece in Maldives. Served with cake and wine!
Reef tour. Before we jump to the water, the guide introduce us to the basic things about reef life and the fishes. They have many species there: Pursemouth, pufferfish, memo, damsel fish, butterfly fish, sweet lips, banner fish, blue-fin, surgeon fish, shark reef and titan trigger fish. Most of the marine species are very territorial. They like to defend their area, even the sweetest fish like Nemo. I’m surprise our snorkelling guides warn us not to the reef shark but to trigger fish. It seems that reef shark is not aggressive and on the other way around with trigger fish.
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| Watch and follow. Don't be panic (unless shark or trigger fish come closer to you!) |
Mixology. The fun part!! It’s lazy afternoon and we can just get lazy waiting for the sunset while watching the bartender does the demo for Capirinha and Virgin Mulberry Mule. Each of us gets both drink and also bonus whiskey on the rock for being such a curious student. Hahaha.
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| Virgin Mixberry Mule. Made from mixberrt comfort and ginger beer. topped with crushed ice. Simple yet refreshing |
Hospitality night. It is in our forth night when Jason the GM and Victoria his wife throw a party for the resort guests. Free flow drinks and foods. All we have to do is mingle with other guests. But we spent more then 30 minutes talking to Jason and Vic. They got so excited as we told them we are from Indonesia. It turns out that they worked in Bali for 3 years before and how much they miss Bali. It’s like.. come on, he works in paradise already and how come still thinking of another place. But he’s got another perspective. He said, in Bali you can have real a little bit of real life with some chaos here and there, get in touch with locals and at the same time chance to escape to any other place. Here’s the resort is my life and I can’t wait for holiday to come. We were laughing, what an irony world.
