Footnotes From Maldives with Larasati Silalahi

Nov 2, 2009

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Kandooma Resort has various activities that guests and staffs can enjoy, and one of them is visiting local islands. From all the islands in the Maldives, there is one called Guraidhoo, which is located not so far away from Kandooma. I had not have the chance to visit Guraidhoo since I arrived, but last week, thanks to an ear infection and gastric problems, the opportunity to visit Guraidhoo came up – it’s the nearest place where we can find a doctor. So that morning my personal bodyguard, Alex ‘Teddy Bear’ Kolcakovski helping me out to set up the boat appointment for our short trip to Guraidhoo while I was crawling in bed, bored and paralyzed (ok, I might be a little bit exaggerating).

(Guraidhoo)

In order to go to Guraidhoo, we need to take a speedboat and travel for about ten minutes. It wouldn’t be so bad if the weather was fine, but that day the temperature was so high, it was like hell on earth, literally. Please take a minute to imagine a girl with an ear infection and gastric problems trying to reach an island in a speedboat. I know, not a very pleasing image. Sorry.

Thanks to our Maldivian friends from Euro Divers, Harry (who look a bit like Lenny Kravitz) and Ramesh, the trip to Guraidhoo went successful and safe, they even dropped us to the jetty place that is nearest from a clinic. We still had to walk around five to ten minutes under a very hot and humid weather to reach the doctor. If I weren’t sick and the weather was nicer, I really would find Guraidhoo as a pleasant island to visit – there are many interesting small shops along the pathways, including clothing shops, souvenir shops, mini markets and some cafes in between.

(Harry)

The clinic that we visited was pretty small; it really looked like a house. Just right across the clinic there was a chemist which at first I thought it was a coffee shop; seriously, it didn’t have the chemist look at all.

The procedures in Guraidhoo’s clinic are more less similar to what we have in Jakarta; the one thing that I found weird was the fact that the clinic’s pretty empty, guess I was the only patient at that moment. Also, because of that, they had to make me wait for a bit to call the doctor to walk from his house to the clinic. That was pretty cool, don’t you think? While waiting for patients, the doctors can simply chill-axing at home.

In total of four pills, one syrup, and one ear drop, the medicines cost me around US$7 and US$1.50 for doctor’s service. Pretty cheap – I know back home it would cost me more, and the ‘cheap’ medicines worked fabulously too. To cut the long story short, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant which is owned by Harry’s cousin, it’s located near the jetty place so it was a great idea to actually dine there before heading back. During choosing lunch menus, Harry told us that the local people love spicy foods, and one of the most liked local foods is mixed rice. Hey, that’s a bit familiar, isn’t it? The Maldivian surely would love to hang out around Kelapa Gading, hail to Nasi Campur Kenanga!

Also talking about food, Alex and I were so surprised that the restaurant had the one food that we had been craving for weeks, which was home made fried noodles (they call it ‘mee goreng’ as well, btw), so we decided to order that, while Harry and Ramesh both had mixed rice. If I had to rate the food, it scored 8/10 because it tasted so good and rich in flavors, they also served the after meal ‘snacks’ that the Maldivian love to consume – some kind of seeds that works as a mouth freshener, which comes handy when you’re having your first date J

We left Guraidhoo at around noon, and funny that I felt much better already even though I haven’t taken the medicines. It must have something to do with the yummy foods, or the fact that they’re for free.

(the boat)