Rainy day, we spent the morning inside. Jess had a late start at MATaxi so we lounged around the apartment drinking instant coffee and smoking American cigarettes. Just a little guilty pleasure I allowed myself as I settle into the island. You can’t beat sitting on our third floor balcony, hot and humid, overlooking the street watching life unfold while puffing on a smoke and drinking a coffee. The pack is now gone and I am back to being smoke free.
Jess packed up, dawned her uniform and ventured out to catch the Dhoni over to Hulumale (airport island). Everyday Jess walks down to the Jetty and catches the dhoni that takes about 10 mins. Not a bad commute. Jess’ daily routine varies but does consist of many short hops from island to island delivering tourists to their final destinations. Reminds us both of her job as a busdriver for whitewater, maybe a tad more glamorous.

After Jess left I fell into routine, read my book, (Slaugterhouse Five), and then did a quick daily workout consisting of push-ups, sit-ups and stretching. For the past three days I have been going out to Hulumale to the hotel and swimming in the pool it’s a fair sized pool and not too busy so I have been doing laps and seeing how far I can swim underwater on one breath. Today its raining so I’ve stuck around Male and see if I can find a bike. Bike are plentiful here on the island but hard to purchase. We are looking for old ‘townie’ so as not to get them stolen the first day. Everybody either rides a bike here or a scooter, few people own cars and the rest of the vehicles are either for work or taxis. After getting bikes its going to be interesting navigating around town as the streets are full with people.

I wandered out to the local surfbreak ‘towns’ as I do most days waiting to see some surfable waves and people out there so I can figure out where the best place to line up would be. There’s something spooky about being the only one in the surf. A few waves rolled in that were rideable but I think I will wait until I see others out there besides the dolphins that frequent the surf. I haven’t kited yet either but have hooked up with some fellow kiters who have been here for a while and have the launch spots sussed out. Hopefully we will go out soon. If I don’t surf this week I will definitely be able to get out Saturday. The pilots who surf, mostly aussies, charter a dhoni for the day and head out to other breaks such as Jails, Full moon, and Cokes.

Ramazan has now ended, for the past month the locals, all of them, have fasted from sun up to sundown, no food or water. This can be quite a feat considering the average temperature is 30 degrees, No Water! Come on. Maldives boosts to be 100 % muslim, personal choice or government required I don’t know. Anyway everything operates odd hours opening at 8:00 PM and staying open until 11:00. This has actually been very nice because if you wake up early enough the streets are empty and its quite peaceful, even in a city of 100, 000 packed into 1 square mile. Our building is actually right next to a mosque and the pray times, five daily, are announced over the loud speaker. The other inhabitants hate living hear as the first one starts at 5 AM, I have yet to be woken up.