#komandoo

Day 55 – the underwater restaurant

We woke up this morning with anticipation. We didn’t go to breakfast because today we are having lunch at the world renowned underwater restaurant, 5.8 Undersea Restaurant at Hurawalhi.

We did some morning admin and then spent a couple of hours at the beach bar with Ali, who is now making S a very sugar free lime daiquiri.

At 1:15pm, we put on our finest attire (no shoes needed) and boarded the speedboat to Hurawalhi island. Hurawalhi is one of Komandoo’s 11 sister resorts and apparently the top resort in the group. It was only built in 2016 and used to be an uninhabited island. It is super posh, read multiple $1,000s a night and is frequented primarily by Russians, Indians and folks from the Middle East. Too rich for our blood. Lunch will sit you back at least $500 but it’s worth it for a one-time experience.

The restaurant is in a plexiglass cylinder, the top of which is a few feet below water. There are 10 tables, but there was only one other couple at lunch while we were there. Of course they were German speaking. The lady showed up in high heels with a Dolce & Gabbana bag, only to be told she had to put her shoes in the shoe locker as this restaurant is barefoot only. Her partner was in a casual suit. S was in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and no shoes. J was in a bikini and cover-up. We obviously had a different understanding of this restaurant than the Germans. It should be noted that S has not worn shoes for 5 days running.

The views from the restaurant were unparalleled. It is surrounded by coral and a sunken dhoni (a traditional Maldivian fishing boat). Fish swam by us in droves. We saw various multi-coloured fish, including parrotfish, butterflyfish, grouper, etc. The Germans even pointed out a small shark to us, which swam by on their side of the restaurant. As we about had the restaurant to ourselves, J took tonnes of photos. The sommelier is a photographer on the side, so he helpfully took lots of photos of the German couple and us.

J spent a good hour playing with one of the butterfly fish (see video). It is exceptionally friendly and will follow your finger around if you wave at it. At first we thought that the fish were entertaining us. It turns out we were entertaining the fish.

Lunch was 5 courses. We started with tuna tartare, next was scallops, the third course was red mullet, the penultimate course was lobster two ways and we finished with a deconstructed mango cheesecake. We topped it all off with a bottle of Sardinian Vermentino. We were not as precious as the Germans, who spent 30 minutes deciding on which Malbec to have (by the glass). Again, this restaurant is pricey, but well worth the cost to tick this off J’s bucket list. The food was very good. Our favourite dish was the dessert with the coconut sorbet.

In a bizarre accident, S’ dental crown broke while he was eating the lobster. He calmly handed a piece of the broken crown to J and asked her what it looked like. She thought it looked like a piece of tooth but didn’t understand where S would come up with one. S then said “Does this look like a piece of tooth?” J began to freak out. S calmly described his dental emergency as an annoying, but painless break in his crown. Over S’ objection, J put the piece of broken crown in her purse for safekeeping in case it can be glued back on (but S maintains this is not going to happen). Looks like we will be visiting a dentist on the main island or Kenya to sort this out. In the meantime, we are hoping it doesn’t get worse and that S doesn’t swallow his disintegrating crown.

We then hopped the speedboat back to Komandoo and stopped in at the main bar for a quick drink. S called his friend Ian in Australia for a quick catch-up and to natter about the India v Australia cricket match.

We then headed to dinner, which was barbecue night. J really enjoyed it. S was feeling a bit ropey after lunch so kept to chicken soup, corn and pasta salad. We finished the night with a nightcap at the main bar with Ali and Suraj. They clearly know us by now as Ali’s parting words were “I’ll see you in the morning!” After that we headed back to the room to finalise our itinerary for Kenya, which is our next stop.

Today was the theoretical day we hit 1/3 of our six-month journey. We say theoretical because if things don’t improve in the UK, we might continue our journey beyond 6 months. We have no interest in a long-term quarantine in an airport hotel with no service and no real food. The UK government policy is a mess. Apparently a study out of Australia has ranked its COVID response as 66th in the world in terms of effectiveness. Given the resources the UK has at its disposal, this is appalling.

Once again we received our negative COVID test results, as expected. So we are cleared to continue our journey. We were also informed by Salim that he was extending our checkout until 3pm and putting us on the last seaplane back so we could enjoy the bulk of our day on Komandoo.

At this point, there is little new content on our stay in the Maldives: beach bar, lunch, pool, black-tipped reef shark sighting (two), beach bar, dinner and main bar. We were supposed to go to a snorkelling trip this morning but simply couldn’t rally for it.

When you’re in a secluded atoll you better like relaxation, beautiful weather, good drinks and good food. There is only limited sightseeing and activities unless you are a diver, which we aren’t. Nonetheless we both love this place and give it four thumbs up. J is sad to leave but S is excited about the next leg of the journey.

At dinner, the sous chef, Alex, came out to check on our food. We said it was excellent and J remarked on how much she liked the roast jerk chicken. To be fair, it is not authentic Jamaican jerk chicken, but it was really tasty. Alex found us later at the bar to give J a printed copy of the recipe and also shared his email address in case she had any follow-up questions (see recipe below – soy sauce?? Soy sauce is definitely not Jamaican). He also gave her a rundown of the recipe for the amazing lentil salad.

We had to have a farewell shisha to commemorate our excellent time at Komandoo. We chose strawberry and coughed our way through our final shisha. J noticed our three favourite bartenders (Ali, Vipyn and Suraj) standing together at the bar and made a beeline toward them as she had been planning to tip them for their excellent service. They are all sad to see us go as we seem to be their most regular customers.

We woke up early this morning to take our eighth COVID test of our trip. Salim, our host, escorted us to a villa which had been set aside for the COVID test. The test taker was in full PPE (see picture below) and was not in the mood to joke with S. S suggested he looked like an astronaut. The test taker found no humour in that and in response, made sure he stuck the test swab in extra deep. Unlike all prior tests, the test samples were taken from our mouths and our noses (thank goodness the sample was taken from one nostril only).

Today was a bit cooler, so we were able to go back to the beach bar without baking. We had a long chat with Ali about what life is like in the Maldives and gave us some Maldivian history. Apparently the US/British naval base at Diego Garcia was given to the Brits by the Maldives and then leased to the Americans. The British also had a second military base on Gan, which they gave back to the Maldives in exchange for the Diego Garcia deal. This account of Diego Garcia is not what you will see on the internet. The publicly available sources we found state that Diego Garcia was sold to the British by Mauritius. He also told us that all cars in the Maldives are second hand as the tax on bringing in a new car is 100%. The Maldives have very limited manufacturing capabilities and do not make their own cars. They also export tonnes of fish, including fresh tuna, around the world as ‘white label’ so it can be branded in other countries. This explains why there is an abundance of fresh tuna at the restaurants.

We headed to lunch. J tried the hardboiled egg curry, which we did not know was a dish, but is apparently quite popular. J thought it was fine, but found the texture of the egg to be a bit odd. S had the grilled tuna. The chef now knows that S likes his food very rare and obliged with barely seared tuna.

After lunch, we spent a little bit of time sitting in the shallow water at the beach to see if we could spot any fish swimming by. We didn’t really see much today.

We went for a kayak trip this afternoon. After J hit S for the second time with her paddle, he suggested that he do all the paddling and she enjoyed the ride. It was much safer that way (and pleasant for J). We then went back to the pool to see if we could spot another reef shark. We did. J spotted a baby black-tipped reef shark swimming by the pool.

Tonight’s dinner was chef’s choice. The chicken tandoori was back, but in a skewer form and not quite as fresh as when Krishna cooked it outside. S had grilled jumbo prawns and eggplant curry. We loved the soft ‘brie’ cheese, which was perfect.  

We then finished the night in the beach bar.

We started the day at the pool as it was another scorcher. We went for our usual lunch. J really loved the lentil salad and S enjoyed the freshly grilled tuna. Again, it required some cajoling to get a rare tuna steak. Our favourite chef, Krishna, has left for holiday, so we are quite sad. We head to lunch. The highlights were the incredible, spicy lentil salad and the fruit. S had a few rambutans (a hairy relative of the lychee) and J had the white guava.

S spent much of the day listening to cricket to hear the thrilling England victory against Sri Lanka. As Sri Lanka was collapsing, Suraj came up to ask us if he wanted to have a drink, but hid his face behind the drinks tray to hide his mock shame. S and Suraj had great banter during the course of the day.

We realised the swim trunks S bought at the gift shop were slightly too tight. We went back to get the larger size, which fit well and realised while the print on the trunks (white with Komandoo turtles) was the same, the design of the shorts was entirely different. Very weird. S thinks this new pair ought to work but keeps muttering about how unconventional the pockets were. S had to take a couple of calls with the UK while J took an afternoon nap by the pool, enjoying the breeze.

Tonight was dinner at Aqua, the à la carte restaurant. As Krishna wasn’t here to cook the meal, it was a very different experience. We were the only people in the restaurant and our dedicated server, Rasheed, came out to serve us. J got the scallops, halibut and mango sorbet. S got the same dishes as last time, but switched to the mango sorbet for dessert. The starters were fine, but the mains were not that great. J’s halibut was too salty and S’ tuna was overcooked. However the chef came out, apologised and cooked S a new, rare tuna steak. Apparently rare is not a common cooking preference for fish or meat in the Maldives.

S decided to start throwing bread and raw tuna into the water to see if he could attract more fish. It had the desired effect. The fish started going crazy. one point, we even saw a new type of shark, which we think is a nurse shark. This shark type is apparently quite lazy and is nocturnal. We think it enjoyed the raw tuna.

We finished with a final nightcap in the bar. Suraj came by to accept defeat and S and Suraj had one last good banter. We called it an early night as we have to wake up early for our COVID test tomorrow morning.

We started our day with breakfast at the buffet restaurant. Breakfast was good. J had a mix of Indian and eggs. S had a half English breakfast (scrambled eggs, beans and mushrooms). We were surprised to see they had pork bacon as we had understood pork is illegal in the Maldives. Apparently if you can create your own time zone and serve alcohol, you can ignore the ban against pork products.

Most of the day was spent lounging at the beach and pool. It was a bit overcast and rained from time to time, but we were still able to stay in the pool. Our host, Salim, tracked us down at the beach to make sure everything was going well and helped us with some reservations. The Komandoo app is great. We can see our personal itinerary on the app and view the hotel’s daily activities.

J made friends with a Great Blue heron that we now call Harry. Yes, Harry the heron, in honour of our friend Harry in London. He is apparently a regular at the pool and beach and doesn’t seem to be that bothered by people. Even S was able to get close enough to see him. We did our usual jacuzzi in our outdoor bathroom / sanctuary and J fell asleep in the tub.

We went back to the buffet restaurant for dinner. Tonight was ‘International’ night. J had more Indian food (butter chicken, daal and shrimp / fish curry). S had paratha (an Indian style flatbread) with mint sauce, minestrone soup, a summer roll, parma ham roll and baba ghanoush. Note that the soups, while good, do not reflect what they are called. The Hot and Sour soup yesterday was onion soup and today’s minestrone tasted nothing like minestrone. J had a bit of cheese and bread pudding for dessert.