On Day 01, the boyfriend and I had breakfast buffet with Iuthi's family at Lemongrass by Citron in Malé. In the afternoon, we took a 45 minutes speedboat from Malé to Maafushi Island. We checked-in to Masaaree Boutique Hotel and explored the north side of the island.
Breakfast Buffet @ Citron by Lemongrass
On the first day of our trip, we took a 15 mins morning walk from Orchid Magu to Citron by Lemongrass to have breakfast buffet with our uni mates, Iuthi's family. On the way, I saw this beautiful street (first picture: left) where trees grow slanting towards the sky and the branches shape like Neptune's fork. Between gaps in
the trees’s canopy, lances of the sun's beams splashed onto the street. It was such an awe-inspiring view in a city. I wanted to take an instagram-worthy picture with me standing in the middle of the road but cars were coming and we were too ravenous to even wait for the perfect timing.
The restaurant was located by the sea and we were directed to a seaview table. The view is magnificent (first picture: middle) and opposite the island is Malé International airport—imagine having your breakfast while watching plane landing and taking off in the middle of the sea? The sea looked dozy as it rested in the morning glow. The food was satisfying except some dishes were spicy. Breakfast buffet cost around MVR100 (USD6) per person, and with the splendorous view and good food, it's worth it. The Maldivian usually take areca nut as an after-meal mint. In the first picture: right, I was trying areca nut for the first time—no, it does not taste anything like mint but Chinese herbs. I did not like it.
It was almost twelve—walking back to Orchid Magu may be a little too sunny so we rent a cab—here we paid MVR25 taxi fare. We packed our bags and luggages and headed to the Ferry Terminal.
Leaving Malé
We took a 45mins speedboat from Malé to Maafushi Island. The boat ticket cost USD20 per person.
Arriving Maafushi Island
A lot of hotel staffs were holding to their respective hotel's welcome card when we arrived at the jetty . We did not see our hotel name written on any of the cards. It reminded us that we did not inform our hotel about our boat schedule. We could have saved up a lot of energy and time if we had done so. We trusted our own instinct, walked cluelessly to the south of the island and hoped that luck wound be with us. After 10-15 minutes of walking under the blazing sun, we finally reached our destination.
After removing our shoes, we were greeted by the hotel staffs. We sat down at the lobby to soothe our sore legs. Chilled welcome drinks was served as we sat down, I quickly chunked down the whole glass to relief the heat from the uncovered walking under the glowing medallion. That was the best drink I had in Maldives. After settling down, I felt peckish and made everyone to take late lunch with me. We ordered two plates of fried noodle and shared among ourself. Hotel's food are usually pricier so this meal cost each of us USD20. The food was so-so and I did not expect it to be very good too.
The hotel provides free bicycle rental and so we rode to the north side of the island. We explored, took pictures, compared water sports prices and rode back to the hotel to catch the sunset. It’s not often you get to see a sunset-gold beach. Far out to sea, rivers of pulsing light saturated the sea with gold. That moment was so quiet and peaceful. There were no other tourist, only the occasional local walked past us.
After the sunset, we took a 15 minutes walk back to the north for dinner. We chose an outdoor dining restaurant that provide romantic candlelight dinner by the sea. We had two large pizza and local grilled reef fish, the pizza was super yummy and it tasted better than Domino or Pizza Hut. The price was reasonable, one large pizza cost around MVR95.
After dinner, we went to the local convenient store to buy slipper because I forgot pack one into my luggage. Clothing in Maldives is very pricey as compare to Malaysia, a slipper cost MVR100 that's around MYR27.50, and flipper only cost MYR16.
Then, we walked back to our hotel and that marked the end of our Day 01.
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