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So Medhufushi Island Resort wins my vote.

Food…unbelievable

Room…see above

It’s small, private, it feels like we are the only people here, and the beaches and snorkeling are world class.

Sucks being an expat pilot’s wife in a foreign country like this. 

Pictures to come.

Lee and I have been lucky that he hasn’t worked much this past week.  As a result, we made up for some lost time taking photos and exploring together.  My camera and I are still in our honeymoon phase BUT I like my husband enough to let him play once in a while.  The movie setting on my camera makes it an attractive toy for Lee so I’ve had his camera and my lens for most of this past week (he usually shoots with his D300).  Anyway, I’ll try to tell a story for every picture here so you are adequately filled-in on what life in Male is like for a married white female LOL (lady of leisure, as we are frequently called by the pilots, our husbands).

We were sitting with these men until a few minutes before this shot was taken.  This was probably the worst day I had for men staring at me.  Some with awkward intensity.  The fella in the red shirt sat down a few feet from us, turned toward me, and looked at me the entire time we sat on this wall.  HELLO I CAN SEE YOU.  We left, but not before I had thought of telling him to fizzle off (in less nice words) a few times.  I hear from most people around here that the best response is no response at all, or as a friend here likes to call it: playing a total ignoramus.

We saw something fairly big jump into the bushes ahead of us as we strolled up a narrow sidewalk.  Lee thought it was a rat.  I hoped it was a lizard.  We didn’t see what it was, but in our search, came across this bug.  Which looks completely fake.  But is real, I promise.

Lee’s RAY BAM aviators.  Us sipping milk coffees on a balcony at a local cafe.

Three men sitting on top of a break-water in front of the sun.

Street stand across from the surf beach.  Where I could swim if I brought my snowsuit with me.  No, it’s not cold water (close to 30 degrees) but it’s totally unacceptable for me to wear my bathing suit here on this island.  I attract enough attention in shorts and a t-shirt let alone bikini.  Anyway, I’m not sure what you can buy at these stands, don’t think I’ll find out though.  I’ve had no stomach issues on my travels so far and don’t intend to change that story anytime soon.

Here fishy fishy…oh wait, you’re dead fishies.  Awaiting a new home, plate, fork/knife at the fish market in town.

At the fish market - on the ground floor of a large open building with no walls.  Fish get processed here by expert gutters for the customers on the left.  The light was amazing in this shot.  Both of us were over the moon about it.  But on video the fluorescent lighting was sucky because it created lines across the shot (think videotaping a computer screen, constantly moving horizontal lines).  At any rate, same problem not noted in photography :)  So, with minimal tweaking, this is the result (which I am still over the moon about).

Today was Christmas…which was completely odd.  We’re in a hot place, a billion miles away from our families, and in a country where Christmas doesn’t exist (in fact…not really that legal).  It helped, in a way, because being away from ‘home’ on Christmas is hard, we knew how much we were missing out on not being with our families but were reminded of it less often than last year, when we were in Inuvik with snow, Christmas lights, and a phone plan.  I told our families to eat some bacon for me (bacon and beer!) as I can’t.

We are moving into our new place tomorrow - just found out tonight after telling every one of our family members today (on Merry Christmas phone calls) that we had no idea when we’d be getting out of this hotel room.  So the answer is tomorrow… it’s a brand new 2 bedroom place, we’re in it with another pilot, and our room has two windows and a bathroom.  Funny thing about the bathroom is that the shower head is practically directly over the toilet.  The whole room is made to drain…so showering is an open matter…no curtain required.  Just wipe off the toilet seat after so the next pee-er doesn’t get a wet bum!  It will be interesting…but what in life isn’t?

I’ll post pictures of that when we are in/settled.

I also have a post to make about the Christmas cookie decorating that the LOL’s did on the 24th (ladies of leisure…I’ll be using that term often, because it’s my new full-time job).  And if you heard that I painted one of the ginger-bread men to look like a lady dressed in full face-covering garb which was then taken to the airport and eaten by a Maldivian man who was told it was a ninja…it’s true.

Time for bed.  Have a lovely day North America.  I’ll see you in the morning

Now that I am in Male I have my own photoshop guru to call upon when necessary.  Lee helped me edit this one.  Much learning to do.