My kind of breakfast, chefs serving omelettes and pancakes on demand. Plus the usual continental breakfast plus scrambled egg. We declined the opportunity to snorkel today, US$ 10 per snorkel per day seemed a bit steep.
We started a slow amble around the island in something like sunshine -- very unusual. Not a huge amount to see but there are a few beasties to be caught on film. You do get to see Thila Fushi, the cement factory and garbage dump island looming to the side of Male' -- a small blot on the landscape.
I try snorkelling with only a pair of goggles. It's hard work. You can't see much, don't move too easily and, in my case, have to surface for air every 20 seconds. I'm sure as a kid I could hold my breath for nearly two minutes. There wasn't a great deal underwater either.
We head for some lunch at the coffee bar. The US$ 3 portion of fruit is indeed just one fruit from the selection available. The US$ 10 beefburger does at least come with french fries and a coleslaw salad. For a while we're the only people in the coffee bar and it must be said that for an island with probably 120 guests on it, the guests are hard to spot. We do see some bright red paraqueets and finally a couple of bats (not sure what type, they were too far away, but we do have the same fruit trees as Embudhu). We find a postcard showing an aerial view of the isalnd and I realise that my earlier goggled foray was straight down an endless sandbank. No wonder I didn't see anything. It turns out that if I'd turned right and walked twenty yards the reef would have been a five stroke swim away. Ah well.
Dinner is another several platefuls of very good food. In a bold attempt not to be fooled into having our starters after the main course as we did last night, we go straight to starters and [then] back to the table. At that point we see soup spoons and realise we've faux pas'd again. I'm still not sure whether the chef plans two main courses and you're supposed to eat one, or at least one then the other, but the buffet is laid out such that the easy option is to slap a bit of everything on your plate and hope the beef gravy doesn't wash away the fish napoleon (whatever that it). A good example is pudding, today, banana crumble and others. When we finally went up -- first pass, no custard, does not compute! -- a man moved through with his chocolate mousse (blancmange?) and slapped custard all over it. The chef gave him a look of "you're wierd" which I acknowledged. I got my banana crumble and custard and paused for a moment at the chocolate mousse and quick as a flash a spoonful was on my plate [by the chef's fair hand]. I obviously had a look of "that's a good idea" and there was a nod and a wink and two more spoonfuls of mousse and a bit of whipped cream and I'm on my way with a cheery smile from the chef.
The flip side of this gastronomic excess is the full stomach and early night channel surfing through crap TV. I do, however, have a general complaint about the number of people who can't walk properly. Not through inability but choice. Foot shufflers, aargh!
Giravaru N4.19916 E73.41219 Elev. 3m.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.