Off to Mombai

Male (mah-lay) Maldives


Beautiful sail-in and a fun tender ride to the sea wall which surrounds this small atoll. Lots of various ships at anchor including another cruise ship, probably Italian. Once ashore, we grouped for the walking tour in a small park. Our guide was “Sud” one of the 150,000 inhabitants of this island; the whole Maldives has 300,000 plus the tourists for the many resorts here. Someone said that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had honeymooned here. They have the money as this isn’t an inexpensive place; everything is imported.
It was in the 90s and the humidity was just short of a downpour; the sweat from your hair dripped onto you as if you’d just emerged from a pool. It is exhausting and breezes and shade are cherished. Drinking lots of water is a must and the shower and change of clothes back on the ship is welcomed.
We saw the mosques from the outside and much of the inside of the very elegant and modern new mosque. There are gold domes and minarets as we’ve come to expect and we know without being told to remove our shoes before mounting the stairs. I’m also surprised that some folks still don’t “get” the dress code: knees and shoulders covered. Many men in shorts were provided swathes of material to wrap around their waist to provide modesty. I think all the women complied; we were allowed to wear slacks as many of the local ladies do though most of the women do wear the full head scarf here. Everyone is Muslim they say.
While you do see a few vehicles and bicycles, you are mostly overwhelmed with the numbers of mostly modern scooters. And beware they don’t run over you while crossing the streets. There are stone streets and the land is mostly fine sand from the coral. The greenery is lush as the tropics provides. We saw fruit bats resting in some trees. They call them “flying squirrels” in Asia. But I don’t recall seeing anything live that could be labeled a pet: dog, cat, etc. there were a few scattered birds but I couldn’t get close enough to describe them and none were interesting enough to photograph. The flowers are lovely and I recognized our friend we call “ham and eggs” (for reasons I’ve never understood).
We walked by the old and new Presidential Palace, Supreme Court and some other official type buildings. Just looked in, no going inside. The Natural Museum had some old furniture and cannons but the ladies who “guarded” things were the most interesting. All in colorful full length clothing with the head dresses and so tiny you can’t help but stare at them. We look like giants next to them. This and the souvenir shop (on a second floor up steep stairs: how do they expect customers to find it?) were the only air conditioned places we were in. Folks kept wanting to peel off and do other things or return to the ship but Sud kept insisting we had to stay with him. He didn’t provide much narrative but we are no longer surprised by the varying quality of the guides we get.
There was no question that we were going right back to the ship when this was over. We stripped, showered, and went to lunch in the dining room where we were joined by a couple from Idylwild, Ca (who are moving to Oregon) and a British couple who were very “jolly”. Both couples came on in Singapore.
Afternoon movie
This was “Vantage Point” with Dennis Quaid. I was looking forward to it since I enjoy him but the directing wasn’t very good imho. I left after maybe 30 minutes. It depends on a lot of special effects and shooting and bombs. Apparently the director was trying some melding of Groundhog Day and Roshomon, and it didn’t work very well. The setting was Salamanca, Spain and I wanted to see that as much as any thing else but given the way it was filmed I only saw the square…over and …over and….over again. Ed did stayed for the whole film which is predictable.
Vicissitudes of foreign diets?
For several days now I’ve been having some lower abdominal pain but nothing terrible and nothing else seemed to be changing. Except for the bratwurst I described in earlier blogs, he and I have eaten the same things, so I was very puzzled. Last night it got so bad I felt like my guts were on fire. I got up in the night and took an ibuprofen but I had warned Ed that if it stayed this bad, I was going to see Nikolas at 8 am when the clinic opened. And I was feeling bad enough I was considering going down in my housecoat since I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to manage the shower and dressing. I woke up with a still tender tummy but nothing like the earlier evening and so I went without a problem. But this evening I spoke with another lady who’s been experiencing similar symptoms though not to the same degree. So who knows? I just consider myself lucky. Between my tummy and my vision challenges (mixing up my contacts and not being able to determine by my vision if they are on correctly; wondering if I’m creating lesions on my cornea since they feel like I have sand under them lately) I was considering throwing myself a pity party and getting over it all. Ha.
Dinner
Given all the above and other things I’ve shared before, I just didn’t have the will to endure the table tonite so I sent Ed on by himself to the dining room and I went up to the Panorama Buffet where I joined Lysle and Ellie from our first table assignment. We sat on the back outside and watched the sunset. Pretty quickly it began a rainstorm which we thoroughly enjoyed. We discussed various films and previous passengers who would fit right into your local mental hospital.
Ed endured some stories at the table about previous lives and drunken brawls in the Antilles by one person at the table. It sounds like he’s a little more aware of the Chatty Cathy quality of the ladies.
Dressing for dinner
Mike has written puzzled about the big deal some folks have about dressing for dinner. There are dress standards for the dining room, and to a lesser extent for the Panorama Buffet. We are given a schedule with “smart casual”, “dressy casual” and “formal” descriptions of dress. The complaint is that folks are coming to the dining room for supper (lunch is pretty open) in tank tops, shorts and flip flops. Some folks seem to wear a combination of clothing that varies little all the time. Something slightly above beach wear. The discussion and complaints speculate that the dress codes aren’t being ‘enforced” since no one wants to anger a passenger and lose a customer. I know they do bend over backwards to please folks who clearly think their specialness entitled them to extraordinary attention, because in the end, it is all about attention.
The Panorama buffet crowd has been offended by (you won’t believe this happens but it’s true) folks coming in their housecoats to eat, and eating in their bathing suits at the tables. If you want to eat in your bathing suits, there are areas around the pool for that.
So anyway, it’s an interesting cultural mix to hear the stories. Equally as interesting (and sometimes mildly shocking) is the insensitivity of some folks—and hypersensitivity of others. And then of course there are always those who are calling the other kettle black.
Magician/Comedian
Well you know by now how I feel about these folks so I passed. There is much discussion about how many times can we see the rope trick done by another entertainer. In truth, it is very difficult to please everyone; they do their best. And many folks do genuinely enjoy the magicians, like Ed who tries to figure out how they do it. ;-) However, he decided not to go this evening so it was just he and I alone quietly. Very nice. I did my hand laundry and he did his Sudoku. Then we turned the lights out early. Very peaceful and domestic on the high seas.