Surprises of Maldives

Finding something fancy and stuff that catches your attention during travel is common. The last time we girls traveled to Vietnam, I had posted some of the quirks that we noticed. Maldives also had a few and I thought I need to share it on my blog for you all.

Faux coconut leaves :

Coconut palms dote the shorelines of this island. Many of the villas and structures in the resorts use faux coconut leaves (dried version), which beats the original, made of flexible fiber. Maybe the maintenance is easier and it could last longer. Even in Hulhumale, saw some of the structures using them to bring in the aesthetic element. And its difficult to spot the difference, and the artificial ones definitely beats the original from what you can see in the pictures.

The original and the artificial ones 

The Central Park :

Look at all those amenities 

At Hulhumale that we stayed on arrival at Maldives, where mostly working class people live, we came across this fairly large park called the Central park. Crowded with health conscious people of various nationalities, a couple of facts impressed me about this park. For a small island, the park was large.

Considerable number of trees, seating arrangements, walking / jogging tracks, a nice water fountain was on one side of the park, on the other side was a skating rink and adjacent to it was an array of gym equipment. There were 15 different ones, two of each kind open to general public, which is a thoughtful gesture. The equipment was of good quality, and we saw many using it, including women in hijabs. We can spend a couple of hours in this park without getting bored.

Maldivian traditional chess 

Traditional chess : 

On the roadside, we saw a set of Maldivians playing something like chess, though the chess pieces looked very different.

Stopped to have a chat, ( much to the embarrassment of J), clicked a picture of them playing it with their permission. The men didn’t want to be in the picture and they told that it is their traditional game like chess.

A book cart :

The Book cart 

This novel concept was seen on the beach of Hulhumale, an unmanned book cart left open for public. A collection of books are kept here for people to read, instructions on use pasted on the side. You can take books to read from here, and you can donate your books as well. Notice this cart uses original coconut palm leaves that has started deteriorating a bit.

Trust me, this one stole my heart.

Food habits :

In a few local restaurants that we were passing by, we could see the natives eating mounds of rice with spicy looking curries and vegetables, just like I have seen old traditional people from my native, Kerala, eat.

Friendly cats :

The islands has a number of well fed, good looking cats which are friendly. Though I am not a cat person, they did make my head turn, also made me smile with their playful behaviors and surprisingly didn’t see a single dog or any other animal. (Colorful fishes though made up for the lack of other animals)

Few playful strays at the Central Park 

A pretty feline

Hola fruit :

I have seen this fruit on the net before, but Hola fruit surprised with its colors and size in the vegetable market of Male. Almost the size of Jack fruit, opens to a colorful inside.

Hola fruit, as big as a Jackfruit

Colourful insides of a Hola fruit

Postbox :

At the Male airport, happened to see a functional post box. Red and hot. Must have been ages since i came across an in-use post box at an international location. 🙎

I am in still in use, twice daily, red and hot