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Paradise Found
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Hahahaha.... WOW! Here I am in the Maldives. Having a marvelous time. Visiting great friends who I have only seen once in the past 6 years. And they have a new addition. An absolutely gorgeous 10 month old baby! Little Neve. She is so sweet.
Rewind: I finally got a flight up to good old Bangkok and I had a great night with Brodie. We ended up in some strange strange pool hall. Random but heaps of fun. Back at my familiar hostel I met a lovely fellow from Holland and we spent the rest of my time in Bangkok exploring the Sukhumvit area and spending our evenings around Kao San road, testing all the different outdoor drinking options. It was a good time. And no no, not a "fellow" fellow. Still no flings. Don't worry I know how much the public gulps down romance gossip. I'll be sure to post accounts as soon as anything happens. (Don't hold your breath!)
Back to the airport. Back into the plane. Fly fly high in the sky all the way to Malé. I hadn't really given the Maldives much serious thought before, and I honestly had no idea what to expect. I had just pictured an expensive resort paradise that I could probably never afford to come to (that whole wanting a job that relates to art and photography thing...)
But then Jill and Shane move here and I happen to be in Asia, and the price and timing is right... so here I am!! But I never pictured what Malé (the capital city) had in store for me. Nor am I sure that I can do it justice with a description. First lets say I pictured a small town, dirt roads, small shops etc. etc. What I got was a 2km by 1km island packed to the brim with a developing and quite lovely mini metropolis. I'm talking televised billboards, gelaterias, fancy surf shops, funky architecture, cobbled streets (all of them) and for some strange reason an absurdly high number of baby supply shops. This is a place where olive oil is found in the hair products section, balsamic vinegar can't be found, but expensive underwater housings for digital cameras can be purchased. This is a place that shuts down five times every day for "prayer time" and once a year for a whole month. Also to pray. This is a place where you can be stopped at the border for trying to bring in a cosmo (women in their underwear counts as porn and porn is illegal!), pork or the Christian bible, not to mention any sort of alcohol... but where you can smoke your brains out and watch excessive violence on TV. Ahh, the logic... refreshing in a round about sort of way, wouldn't you say? This is a bustling and fascinating place that produces a strange claustrophobic sensation deep within, knowing that driving 5 minutes to the other end of the island is as far as you can get. It's the Canadian coming out in me... all that VAST VAST space that I didn't know was so deeply engrained into my inner consciousness. But the cars, oh the cars... the environmentalist in me sees this island as having had the potential to be the perfect environmental utopia... 2kmx1km it could have been the most perfect town to develop into a pedestrian only capital city. I believe it is faster to walk somewhere than it can be to drive. Everything is so close, and yet the island is packed with cars. It reminds me of those little puzzle games with all the cars that are stuck inside a box and you have to push them all around trying to get one out, or trying to make a certain pattern. All these cars and motorbikes, driving, driving, honking, driving... and where are they going? Where can they possibly be going, other than in circles or to the outer edges of the box. Cars here act as an invasive species, taking over what could be the most peaceful and clean little town.
All these fascinating idiosynchrasies aside, Malé is a pretty neat little place. The people have been nothing but friendly, the food is delicious (lot of tuna) the streets are really pretty, the ocean is an incredible blue, exploring is a fun adventure and Jill and Shane's home is a nice peaceful sanctuary in the middle of it all to retreat to for some healthy organic muesli or tahini.
Jill was in the UK on business until this morning, so it was just Shane, little Neve and I for the past few days. We did some exploring, but also headed to a resort for two days. That was amazing. Beautiful white sand, a gorgeous and cool bungalow, sensational buffet meals and of course a fabulous pool! But I'm sure many people have gone home to their friends and family talking about this horribly neglectful mother they saw in the Maldives and how the father had to do absolutely EVERYTHING!! Yes, I believe that many a person made the obvious assumption that I was Neve's mother and that I was a very strange mother indeed. Thankfully for little Neve, these people were dreadfully wrong and she in fact has the most loving mother a baby could hope for. But I wont be going into the mothering business for quite some time yet. I adore playing with little Neve, but wow I have certainly seen how much work it is and how massive of a responsibility motherhood is. Will I ever be ready? Oh, I don't know. Life. life. life.... so many turns.
Well my friends... the next time I write, I will be in EUROPE!!! I can hardly believe that in 4 days time I will be off to Paris to finally reunite with my sweet Nicole for 3 more months of adventure. This feels like the beginning of the last leg though, and it wont be long until I begin to have reunions with all of you as well. I am most excited.
Please write me!
missing all of you
big hugs.
me
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