Maldives – cont.

Part II – I was blown away.

17/2 (Friday)

Morning seeped in through the curtains that I held with my hands. The sea looks calm today, lapping in the sun high up. I guess I missed watching the sunrise…and I forgot that Maldives timezone is 3 hours early. So it was actually 10am already. Another day not at work yay!! My friends were still asleep to my surprise. After we all washed up for breakfast, we were greeted by the hotel staff at the dining area cum reception (it was small) They had some tables out on the sand where we sat last night trying to finish our fried rice. We had Roshi, a popular Maldivian breakfast in which they teamed up unleavened bread with a type of dry chutney, a common Indian condiments in my country, but here they served it dry. Coconut flakes, raw shallots thinly cut, and cooked Tuna. At first I was a lil disappointed as it’s looks too healthy LOL nothing runny (read: oily) or spicy. I quickly changed my mind tho. I find it packed with fresh flavors, it felt very Maldivian. You’d totally eat that by the beach and it’ll feel so right if you get me =D In no time I kept coming back for more of Roshi until I was full. My friends, as always, astounded by the amount of Roshi that I ate. As if they haven’t seen something like that happened lool At the end of our breakfast I was like yeah I’m gonna make it when I’m back!

‘Roshi’ – my first step to eat healthier food

Our guide helped took few pictures of us before we hopped on the boat with an open deck. The ride took around 30mins as the boat treaded the strong waves (yes it was still windy as hell) and once it loses power. The boat swayed around for a while until they managed to repair it. I think the other tourists weren’t worried at all…we on the other hand still traumatised by last night’s trip…anyway the sea was unlike any other I’ve seen. The small atolls are numerous, you could see layers upon layers of brilliant shades of blue.

It was too amazing not to take lots of pictures to bring home. Sometimes I wish I could have a private boat just to steer the driver to bring me to interesting photo locations and get really close to where I wanted to be. Then I was startled by the boat halting in the middle of the ocean. Is this….is this the snorkelling point?

Gulp! Seeing the rough waves and the color of the waters you can guess its depth? Well when I was in Perhentian they did had snorkelling point far from the beach and it was really dark and deep but you could still swim to the beach. Here the reef is located somewhere in the open sea with shallow areas surfacing near it. You can’t walk on it tho 😂 it’s not a sandbank. So we watched the westerners jumped into the water one by one, amazed. Of course these people are almost always good swimmers. Idk it’s very uncommon to see western tourists who didn’t just get off the boat the first chance they got lol the guide told us to get into the water one at a time. It’s too obvious that we couldn’t be set to swim free unlike the others (we are losers) but heck I don’t want to risk being carried too far from the boat! We only get like half an hour going off around 10 feet away from the boat (the farthest that I got haha) felt disappointed but more like laughing to myself!! Need more water confidence practice in the pool I guess. So amazed by one Italian family on our boat that freely jumped in with their young kids unstrapped with any safety equipments. What the hell man? Later when we got to the sparkling turqoise waters where the dolphins were at, they again jumped while their kids reluctant to join, but they ended up jumped too. The guide gave in to them because actually they didn’t permit anyone to swim because of the rough sea. Everyone watched them following the dolphins with awe. I mean no one, on both boats laden with tourists were in the water. They were legit the craziest I’ve ever saw in any of my island trips. Must be awesome tho.

Crazy how pretty the color of the sea and the dolphins were sooo cute

The third place that we went to was the best one. Sandbank in the middle of the ocean. It literally a piece of white sand stretched and formed a little bay where it’s shallow and makes for one sparkling bright blue since the sand is glistening beneath it. It was quite a view. I began to regret badly the fact that I didn’t bring sunnies and any head cover. Fuck the sun is glaring hot and there was just sand – you don’t have any shady areas. To get off the boat you will need to be fast because it rocked in the strong waves and faltering towards the deeper sea. You will have to walk with your valuable belongings kept dry. It was funny for one of my friend nearly missed her Iphone into the waves and had to be helped by the guides. It was another loser moment being ‘escorted’ to the beach in mere distance. We were lucky because there were not much tourists around, and spent around 3 hours(?) taking photos, swimming, and having lunch. The sandbank two sides facing away are interesting, one was rough and the other was so calm you can go far by foot.

I didn’t edit anything. It’s that beautiful!

Being baked for 3 hours was enough Vitamin D for me as I was burnt already. Treading the waves back to our boat, we started the long return journey. I dreaded being in a boat too long but in Ko Samui it was insanely longer I tell you 😂 It was around 5pm when we reached Maafushi. I was in constant planning of what to fill up our days and nights in Maldives (I was the leader of our trip). That night we ate spicy fish curry (soo tasty) and talked about our loser moments and making stupid jokes, literally busting the calm nature of the island. I feel embarrassed by how quiet the Maldivian people were, 5 of them could have the table next to you and you won’t hear a fucking thing. And in Maldives the Muslim majority people would have their shops closed every prayer times. No bars, no beach party, no nothing. At night it’s practically dead. People spent quality time talking through candlelight dinner by the beach or walking hand in hand through the paved sand. You can’t really do anything other than these. We were like what the hell a group of single girls doing in Maldives?? Even the music played at restaurants and food places at night were soft. It really brought a slow and romantic air throughout the barely 1 km length island. A little discussion on Maldives and its people followed with our guide…if you’ve ever googled something on Maldives other than its beaches, you’ll find lots of interesting facts. Hint: politics. It’s quite turbulent for such a far fetched islands. Read for yourself! Second day done!

Maldives in February

Part I – I was in Maldives.

I was able to take a 6 day holidays since I haven’t been given any freaking holiday for the past 3 months
So thanks to my boss finally giving some thought to me who were in desperate need ( i literally was sick every week with fevers, cold and flu
that’s began to worsen with sore throat that very day. I was soo sleepless and dragging myself to work with this sick state that I hate )
I think it was the worse point I’ve ever had in 3 years of working in this shitty place.
So I finished packing my stuff that morning. Idk I havent been into it for all these months, I was just excited buying new clothes lol (as early as 3 months before lool)
My flight to KL will be at around 10am. I’ll be flying with my friend whom I havent meet for 2 years(?) and her friend whom I don’t know
I get to know her friend more later when we were waiting for the next flight to Maldives…talking for 4 hours…coffee…eat…talking again
It was such a detour from a normal day at work. I was frequently reminded of that thought. That comparison…oh my
It easily saved me from the entire 3 months of being stressed out.
So when all 5 of us has arrived I felt ready and I’m like yeah Im really going to Maldives cause to be honest my mind haven’t got into it
I need to hop on that plane fast lol
The flight took 4 hours and a half, and landed at Hulhumale Island (it’s an artificial island built to house the international airport alone)
At 9pm local time. You couldn’t even outlined the island onto where you landed. It was new for me as I’ve never landed on such a small island before in my life

Stepping out the plane only I felt the holiday vibes
I am really in Maldives!! I couldn’t wait for the morning to come and to see the turqoise waters around me as I’ve googled over the internet
All the ‘Summer Mixtapes’ on YouTube is playing in my mind
After taking some group selfies with the ‘Welcome to Maldives’ sign in the airport (it’s a Malaysian thing to do lol)
We quickly wait for our turn to get through the immigration and approaching the main exit towards the lobby where local people lined up holding signs for their respective guests
I spotted my name at the end of the line. Our guy led us out to the jetty in the night. The wind was blowing like crazy and we’re still chit chatting while making our way to the a small boat
We were still commenting on how sparkling the sea looked under the streetlights. The guys in the boat loaded the boat with our bags and offered his hand to me.
Ok so it’s time for the boat ride already?? Lol unbeknowsnt to us it was the most horrifying boat ride ever. I thought that one particular crazy excursion I did in Pulau Perhentian was the worse. but this topped it off!
My friend couldn’t help herself from vomiting and the rest of us holding our churning stomachs, sitting still on the seat in silence. I just looked to the waves shoving the boat around and trying to calculate my chance of survival. If I ever make it to our destination, Maafushi Island. Cold sweat running through all over me when finally we arrived in those horrifying 45 minutes on the rough sea. The local guys said they’ve been through worse when it rains/storming, I just nodded while in my head I couldn’t imagine living the island life. No matter how many boat rides you’ve taken you’d still at awe how these people who make a living out of sea travel and marine economy. Damn I have it better with my job lol. They all greeted us and we were like uh yeah we’ve arrived yeay *still regaining balance* with our heads swayed in the wind the hotel served us fried rice with fried egg on top.

We all looked in disbelief, the glass candle box illuminated our 5 revolted faces lol. I feel so rude but man after that boat ride I wasn’t ready for any type of food. After a while I did ate everything as I’m again holding my title as always finishing any dish ever served to me 😅 I slept that night in a really cold aircond room, flat.

Getting through this

Hello February.

Life sucks (because of work) and things that got left behind because I simply don’t have the time to look into each and every thing in my life. In that pretext however I’ve gotten lots of inspirations. Reading about Julia Michaels who’ve so young yet achieved a lot, answered my question of how do people do songwriting. I know this is probably stupid for people who KNEW it and have people in their lives who does it for their living, but I don’t have that privilege and I don’t think I’d bust out of my bubble and find actual people that do because I’m just being too personal about it. I’d rather talk about in like this, anonymously on the internet. I’ve read a post somewhere about a girl whose afraid of really trying and went out there with her voice and emotions because to her music is really personal. I’m like I got you girllll like yes I understand how it feels like. It’s a plague. I thought I’ll get through it when I’m an adult but nope. It becomes more personal than ever. I found that the article of her interviews was amazing. I never knew that artists actually throw in thoughts on a paper and jumble it into a song. But heyyy that’s songwriting right?? I thought that’s a crappy way which noobs like me do it (or trying to) it turns out that’s how it’s done. Of course you need musical knowledge to put melody to it and a good English vocabulary (lol) and the flair to balance the depth of touch to our emotions with making it listenable. Because we do want to share it. It’s something I argue with myself every freaking day – to make it for everyone else or for myself? If I’m doing it entirely for myself (as I do now) I won’t put my best because I know I can fail myself. That’s a norm in my life and it’s why I don’t succeed in every fucking thing that’s meaningful to me. I could as well do a hell lot of job and toiling for it but never for something I’m passionate about. I don’t wanna screw up even once. How is that even possible right?

Anyway I’ve also gotten a few (that’s actually a lot) of drawings done that I put of on Instagram just to see if it’s decent enough. Since then I’ve thought better of myself..and how fast I progressed when I really do it. I know what I can do and what I wanna do, I just don’t know how to come out as a person who does art. Heck it felt like a gay person coming out. lol. It’s really hard. There’s no one around me that does the same things and is passionate about it, and no one able to size up how my life fired with good story writing in video games, and come up with the best lines I could with music and movies that has affected me. People and places I’ve been. I couldn’t keep up with everything and everyone just breathing it I need to immortalise it into an art form which I’m trying to do seriously. Frankly it’s the only thing that makes my life go around…and fuelling everything else. Speaking of places I’m going to a dream destination next 2 days and I can’t believe it. It’s crazy. I haven’t gotten out of work for 3 months! I will write about it as soon as possible and not let it pass the heat of excitement like my last trip to Thailand last November.