Day 60 – COVID tests and kayaking
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.
