Maldive Alternative Magazine issue n. 2
July 2010
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Claudia, this is me Back home after two weeks in Keyodhoo with my boyfriend, I’m thinking about our next trip. I’ve realized that next time we will go to Maldives, Iba, Sheefu, Alco and all the other children who live in the island will have grown up. For three consecutive summers, in August, we visited the lovely atoll of Felidhoo and its terrific landscape. This year we agreed that it was time to make a change. We are planning to go to New York next month and I’m sure it will be amazing, but I’m going to miss my Maldivian friends. During these two weeks in the island, one of them spent with Ilaria and Pietro, we had a chance to appreciate the two faces of this place. The first week was characterized by typical monsoons:
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the second night strong winds and a heavy rain woke us up, we looked out of the window and the power of the storm was simply breathtaking. The next morning, when we woke up, the sun was shining, but in the afternoon a sudden downpour radically changed the landscape for the second time in less than two days. The sea was rough, with scary massive waves, but the bad weather conditions didn’t prevent us from seeing a beautiful manta and a big sea turtle. When Ilaria and Pietro left to go back to Italy, the weather suddenly changed again. The sea was calm, the water clean and clear and the temperature was so suffocating that we were forced to stay in the water all the time.
The weather may hold surprises but trust me- Maldives deserves a visit, warts and all. I’d like to have people aware that rainstorms are around the corner, but amused by the idea of running in the rain. Bad weather days can’t ruin your holiday when you are so lucky to be in such a paradise. So just relax and leave your troubles at the door. Have a good trip!
thanks to Chiara for the help!
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The noise of Vuvuzelas arrives in Key dh !!! page 4
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World cup matches seen in Maldives! italia sakarà!
We can beat time with the sound of vuvuzelas even in a small village like Keyodhoo. Although Maldives doesn’t take part in the World Cup, everyone here is attracted to football matches. The majority of Keyodhoo guys root for the most popular teams: Argentina, Portugal and Brazil. Just a few of them support Italy, but they all wear the original t-shirts, bought in Male. The island is well-equipped for the occasion, with a projector screen that transmits live matches. Enthusiasm is so high that it is not easy to find a free seat when the most popular teams play.
On the 14th, when Italy’s match was about to start, I fell asleep. Off course Alessandro was in front of the screen with the others, ready to support our team. Chef Ammado offered them a piece of cake and cool water melon…the game wasn’t so exciting after all, but Ale keeps saying that it was a very special night!
They are three hours ahead, so when the match starts at 0830PM, in Keyodhoo it is 11.30PM. That’s quite late, but Maldivians are so enthusiastic about soccer matches they can stay up till penalties! Those who have a chance to walk around the island in one of these nights can hear a leitmotif interrupting the silence: that’s the sound of vuvuzelas. The noisy symbol of this World Cup will always remind us of the first time South Africa hosted these Games.
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The wedding of Tikey e Aisha bride, groom and all the guests, in pink!
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Tikey and Aisha, two young guys who live in Keyodhoo, decided to get married in June, just a few months after their engagement. “They live on the same island” my friend Soofora told me when she saw that I was amazed at the news that they were going to get married after such a brief acquaintance. It was a hot morning in Keyodhoo and walking in front of Mario’s house to go to the beach, I met a group of women at work. They were cutting potatoes, carrots and onions in large quantities, so I realized that there were preparing a banquet. “Tonight there is a party!” I was told by the youngest girl of the group. Another woman turned to her and asked her “Koba vali?” (“where is the knife?”). Then she gave me a knife and three potatoes. The team spirit of the community is always strong and I was happy to help them with the preparations for the wedding. In the afternoon, at snack time, we received the invitation. A pink card was announcing the wedding of Tikey and Aisha at 0830PM, in one of the two restaurants of the island. The fact that the card was pink indicated that it was the colour of the evening.
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Everyone, from the mother of the bride to the father of the groom, including the majority of the guests, would have had something in this nuance. At 8,30pm we met in front of the bar, after having bought a wedding present- bubble bath, perfumes, biscuits and other useful things, according to tradition. The newlyweds were in front of a painted panel, ready for greeting the guests one by one. Tikey was wearing a black dress and a fuxia t-shirt, while Aisha looked like a princess in her sparkling, lovely pink dress. Between them the young Nadjuva, the sister of the groom, was taking care of the gifts. I let you imagine what colour was her cute small dress. For three hours they remained there, taking pictures and shaking hands. In the meantime the guests had dinner at the buffet. The choice of dishes was considerable so we had a chance to appreciate unusual tastes! For Keyodhoo people, it was the kind of event nobody wants to miss. Some of the guys that work in Alimathà arrived at 8PM and left around midnight, while others made the trip from Male. On these occasions, friendship and team spirit are stronger than ever.
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Ilaria an
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nd Pietro
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With a pinch of curry! three-in-one recipes, depending on what you have in the fridge ingredients for 4 serves: aoil aan onion, a garlic a2 spoons of curry powder a200 ml of coconut milk afish, chicken or vegetables awhite rice
How to do it: 1 Cut the onion and the garling and fry them lightly in the oil; after a couple of minutes add the coconut milk, curry, chilli and then the fish fillet, the chicken or the vegetables. Cook for above 10 minutes adding a glass of water! It’s advisable to eat the curry dish with white rice.
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Pan-Cake (that is cake with bread) ingredients for a cake: a3 eggs a300 gr of condensed milk a5 slices of sandwich loaf a70 gr of coconut a200 ml of milk aVanilla flavour
How to do it: Put the bread with milk and coconut and mix with hands. Then add eggs condensed milk and vanilla; cook in the oven for 30 min. at 150° or in a nonstick pan for 10 min.
Uda’s recipes!
When ready, cut in pieces and serve also
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The diary of Francesca e Marco page 14
second part www.maldivealternative.com
F
riday 30th April 2010
We planned also for Friday some snorkeling. We saw a lot of fishes: school of butterfly fishes, flag fishes a starfish, a lobster and lots of small blue fishes,: it was like being in a show! We stopped in another point and we were able to see also a turtle closed to us! At noon it was pray time, so after a small stop to see the grouper culture, we went straight to Keyodhoo beach. We stayed under the parasol and we relaxed listening to the sea-waves. In the afternoon we went to Felidhoo, the fisherman island that is the capital of the Atoll of Vaavu. We went to see the fish culture and we saw the garbage dump of the island. All the garbage was collected there and people got rid of it by burning everything together. Maybe people need a new culture of waste disposal, trying to recycle what you can... Of course, tourist contributed to increase that problem. I suggest to everybody to bring back home all the plastic bins: that is the only way we have to bear down less on the environment of this paradise. Going back to our story, we were at Felidhoo! We visited a friend of Idrees and we got the chance to see his house. He had a big garden and there was a group of women, that was smoking hookah and played caroom. They seemed to be not too much bothered by us. In the road we met a lot of people.
Children played together with a ball and were curious of us. I took some pictures of them: their smiles were dramatic and some of the shoots were wonderful! Back again in Keyodhoo, we did a “Maldivian happy-hour” by Franco (Mohamed), who welcomed us together with his wife Fatima. They were really kind and showed us their house proudly. Inside he had also a small picture with his family tree. Their house was really nice and we congratulated with them. Franco and Idrees picked up coconuts for everybody: actually he had plants of coconuts and bananas in his garden! Fatima gave us coconuts to drink with a straw and at the end Franco divided them in a half to eat the flesh with a spoon! They were delicious! In the evening there was also a little surprise: they had organized a Maldivian dinner. The table was prepared outside and Ammado arranged with care all the dishes. We tried a lot of Maldivian specialities: flapjacks (the best filled with tuna) a sauce made with dried fish, macer boiled in broth, grilled fish, pasta, rice and also the dessert! Some fishermen arrived with their boat after dinner, we were stunned by how many fishes they caught. Time flied so fast and we were close to the end of our holiday. I felt asleep with all the beautiful pictures of the places we had being these days and of the dramatic smiles that a lot of people gave me.
Saturday 1st May 2010 On Saturday we planned the trip to Bodhumura. The crossing was not short, we relaxed talking and listening to the music. We did also snorkelling before arriving and we saw also sea-eagles that swam close to the sea-bottom: it was amazing their elegance, they seemed like birds! When we saw Bodhumura for the first time we had no words: a huge, light-blue swimming pool! Just the time to anchor the dhoni and we were already into the ocean. When we arrived on the island, we put on the same pink towel and we got ready to scout the island. Actually it’s here the palm that a lot of people had already shot. The walk took us around 20 minutes: the landscape was gorgeous. Idrees told us that some people lives there and we heard the noise of a generator near a little house. In some point we found again garbages left. How was it possible? This place is so wonderful, how can anyone left plastic bottles on the beach, close to the sea!?! Arrived at the “palm point”, we took some pictures: the landscape seemed a poster, the colors of the water, the palm and the sun high in the sky created a fabulous clash…. We went a little bit further, where there was a higher palm, whose leaves washed into the ocean.
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We relaxed a little in this piece of paradise, enjoying the shade and chatting. The battery of the camera didn’t last for long and we decided to come bak here later in the afternoon with high tide. We went back to the dhoni for having lunch and Alibé had already finished his “work”: he did a traditional deck chair, weaving some yarn. After lunch it was completed! At 2:30 p.m. we went again on the Island and we found close to the seashore a group of small sharks! The way back to the palm was not easy at all: the tide grown up a lot and almost all the route was under water. The first palm was completely covered by water so we took pictures of the second one. We went back to our “camp” and we put on a lot of suncream and then we did a bath. Idrees and Shabin picked up something from the sand, that I realized later were clams, that were used by Ammado to do spaghetti in the evening. We went back home, we took a shower and we did a stroll around Keyodhoo before dinner. On this evening I tried to recover all the emotions of this holiday to write down something on the memory book of Casa due Palme. I read the notices of the other guests: we were the third in this house! I try to stick down few lines, since I didn’t have a lot of time left.
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Sunday 2nd May 2010 This morning we planned to visit the school with Idrees. We woke up earlier than usual, because we had to be there at 7:00 a.m. In Keyodhoo school is closed on Friday and Saturday and every Sunday there is a sort of “inauguration day” of the week with songs, speeches and the flag waving. When the school bell rang all the students entered in the classrooms. We walked around the school, some of the class had a side completely opened, some students smiled at us and greeted us. They all had a uniforms: some had a white one, other a blue-white one. All the girls had a pigtail with blue trimming flakes, and that brought me back to my childhood. In the morning we went back to the slice of sand, we enjoyed the crossing even if it rained for a little. We relaxed all the morning on the beach and we had a quick lunch on the boat. Alibè caught in the morning two octopuses using some crabs as baits. Before we went back to Keyodhoo, I helped him (even if I’m not as good at it!) to clean off the skin of the octopus. When we went back to Keyodho, we strolled around the main roads. I met Alco, that gave me some jarmboude: he was so tender!
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We went to the old harbor and we saw again the fish clearing. As soon as the sun started to set, we went to the beach to enjoy the last romantic sunset: the colors that rotate were amazing and cover all the palette of yellow, orange and pink. We stayed quiet, looking at the sky, that didn’t need any word. Even if they tried to keep the secret, we understood that tonight they planned another surprise for us… Idrees picked us up at 8 p.m. and led us to the beach. The small path to the beach was lighted with torch and it was stringing… On the beach our dinner table is decorated with flowers and plant’s leaves. They made also a whale with the sand, lighted in some point with torches. It was wonderful eating there and the Ammado’s dishes were delicious (the octopus was yummy!!!) At the end of the dinner, a lot of boys of Keyodhoo played for us some Maldivian songs and some of them also danced. Everything was well-organized to be the perfect conclusion of this wonderful week. We went back late to Casa due Palme and we closed our luggages. We were sad for the close departure and we wrote on the memory book our thoughts on this week. Monday 3th May 2010 We woke really early this morning: at 6:30 a.m. the speed-boat was ready to leave. We did breakfast at Casa due Palme, to enjoy the last moments here. We greeted Ammado and we thanked him for his wonderful cuisine.
The crossing was more relaxed than the outward. We left our luggages in the airport and we took a small ferry boat to go to Male. Idrees was really friendly and offered to show us around the city. We went also to the fish market and farmer’s market, where I bought a banana dessert and a packet of breadfruits. We met his wife and Iba, his daughter in a bar. She is a very clever baby, we played together and she smiled a lot! She is 4 years old, but she is so smart: she is able to read and knows the name of fruits in English! Unfortunately it arrived the time to go back to the airport. Idrees and Iba came with us, we greeted each other, with the dream in our hear to come back here again.
Conclusion This holiday was unforgettable …. I was a little bit uncertain before coming here. I fired a lot of questions at Claudia on Keyodhoo. She was very kind with me and that heartened us. Now, back home from 1 month I’m really happy I took this opportunity to spend my holiday on that island. I appreciate people’s hospitality and their kindness. They affected me with their serenity, their slow rhythmes … far from the way we used to live… Idrees was not only a guide but also a friend. He was always ready to answer our questions on culture, people and also a big heart person. He was a focus for everybody during the holiday and also thanks to him this holiday was so special! Casa due Palme is wonderful: furnished in a original way, nice painted and cosy. There is everything you may need: the kitchen is well equipped and the rooms are functional and wide. We immediately feel like at home! I hope that Keyodhoo will not change and that tourists will not ruin this wonderful Island, where you can taste the real Maldives in a alternative way.At the same time, you need to adapt yourself a little at Keyodhoo’s habits. Ammado is a wonderful cooker, maybe you will not find a wide choice of dishes as in a resort, but they are all better than in a resort... a lot better! Secondly this is a muslim island, so women should use a suitable dressing code (no tasteless and too glaring clothes). I’m sure you will enjoy an holiday here!
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1° Competition of Maldive Alternative
I need a Holiday in Maldives! Win a Stay in maldives
WHAT IS THE PRIZE?
HOW TO TAKE PART
DATE
You can be the winner! Everybody can take part in the competition, which it’s free. The winner will win a one week stay in Keyodhoo island, for one person, with excursions in islands of the atoll, full board, accomodation in double room and fishing excursions. The dates of the stay will be decided together with the winner.
Partecipating is very easy! Give us a good reason to choose you, explain us why you need a holiday more than others! You can express it in different ways: you can send us a video, a picture, an e-mail, a poem, a song... everything that represents yourself, everything that can convince us!
You can send the material to this address: claudia@maldivealternative. com until December 31, 2011. The winner will be chosen within January 10 2011. The material received may be used in our channels (Facebook, You Tube, Maldive Alternative Magazine). Good Luck!
Join the competition and win Maldives!
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Atoll tour in Safari Boat
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bl a l i a av
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s: e c a l p
2
Explore every day different islands!
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Special offer August 3-11 -Transfer from/to airport -Safari boat double room accomodation -Full board with soft drink -3 Dives per day -Cylinder hire -Excursions in islands of the atoll
Journey suggested for: -Divers -Ship lovers -Young couples
price for divers: 700 euros price for not divers: 550 euros
English and Italian speaking crew
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MALDIVE ALTERNATIVE FACEBOOK: MALDIVE ALTERNATIVE -ENGLISH VERSION-
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