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Published: November 4th 2006
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Last day exploring Male' City...
Checked out from Club Med quite early coz want to spend more time exploring Male' Capital. what a name male city... do they have female city? hahaha just realized it pronounce "Ma-lay"
The international airport is an island by itself, located about 4 km. (2 miles) from the capital, Male'. Arrived at the airport island, after asking few staffs where can we leave our bags, then we finally found the counter for leaving luggage near information center with the cost around 100 rufiyaa ( US $1 = MRF 12.85) At information center, I searched more information about Male' city and I met a guy who's working in some travel agency. He told me that he can suggest his friend, Naseem, who's at Male' island to guide us to interesting areas, no cost for that service he mentioned and he also told we can give some tip if we like to.
As in travel magazine I was reading, Male' is home for about 27% of the country's population. Most of the government offices are in Male', and most commercial activities are centered in Male'. Areas of interest in Male' include, the national museum, Islamic
swimming pool of memory...
too much burning out the FAT as Joe said... almost die.. hahaha but feel so nice at the end so I called it swimming pool of my memory.. Center, Hukuru Miskiiy, Jumhooree Maidhaan, fish market, and Muleeaage. ahh... strange names...
Dhivehi is the language spoken in the Maldives today... as seeing the Dhivehi fonts it's look cute.. Information Magazine said Dhivehi belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. It has numerous loanwords from Tamil, Malayalam, Singhalese, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese and English. Although there are some dialect differences between the atolls, more pronounced in the four southernmost atolls.
Crossing airport island to Male' island was not so long.. just about 5-10 mins and finally we met Naseem, the local guide. Well Naseem took us to explore all the places, and I couldn't remember the name of places, some religious center, I didn't take picture because I didn't want to offend local people, but stupid me, I should ask at least..
Noticed not many women walk along street, as from my understanding from what Naseem told me, the day was some kinda religious day, islamic people can not eat nor drink during day time, they can eat after 6 PM and women are staying at home preparing food. Also poor naseem he walked with us and couldn't drink even a drinking water >_<
The exciting
place is one mosque, local old people in front of mosque rush in to me and saying something and of course I couldn't understand. One guy tried to wrap me with Sarong he's got, few old men pointing and talking in Dhivehi.. Naseem told me to enter the place has to dress properly. The place was quiet, people sat and pray.. clam and peace atmosphere.
The we walked to fish Market, the market was great.. busy.. slippery.. noisy.. with many BIG tuna fish..
National Museum was closed that day.. so we just walked around and yes I still can get picture of HUGE torpedo from Germany..
After visited many many places I couldn't remember, Joe would like to rest and we walked to the restaurant, Naseem told me whether I interested to go to resident island nearby Male' Island. Joe didn't want to walk anymore, he finally want to end up some place to sit and kill the time. Well as for me, I still full of energy and curiosity so I agreed to go with Naseem.
Waiting to cross to another island nearby with Naseem, noticed so many local people crossing with us too. seems
like rush hour to me.
Walking around resident area was nice.. many kids running and playing around.. very friendly and shy but still like to saying hi to me.. House is very simple but warm feeling when seeing old people sitting and talking to small kids. Naseem told me he'd like to live on this island, easier for him to cross to work in Male'. I agreed with him that it's very nice place to live. few walks to beach, good for family, children playgrounds provided.. nice neighbors.. good for his family here..
I also told Naseem that if he come to bangkok, I can guide him as well as a friend... Naseem's very nice guy, I like talking to him.. one of the most precious things I've found on this trip is "friendship"
Finally back to Male' island, hope Joe still waiting for me there.. and yes there he was..
Time to say goodbye to my good friend Naseem.. I decided to give him 100 rufiyaa and Joe added another 100, It just because he's very nice, can speak many languages plus good english, did perfect job and we felt bad that he couldn't drink
water on that day.
Maldives will be the place that I definitely go back again after I can do a scuba diving >_< Naseem told me to keep in mind that he can arrange everything for me cheap!! coz he works for travel agency...
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