Maldives, Part 3

DAY SEVEN
We decided to be a little cultural and took a boat trip to the capital so we could check out the huge mosques, colourful markets, and streets packed with little souvenir shops. Look at the size of these big mamas at the fish market:
After all that high intensity strenuous exercise of walking around, I was famished by the time the boat arrived back to the resort. I wasn’t in the mood for anything light or healthy, I was in the mood for something greasy and satisfying to make up for the calories I had just lost. After scouring through the menus for each restaurant at the resort, we stopped by the Reef Club for some pizza.

Blue Cheese, Caramelised Onions and Candied Pecans Pizza
The thinnest and crispiest pizza base topped with the melted, creamy blue cheese, and sweet, crunchy pecans. The flavour of the blue cheese was so rich that there was no need for any tomato sauce and it was perfectly balanced out with the sweet contrast of the pecans making the perfect sweet and salty combination!

Margherita Pizza with Pepperoni
A super thin pizza base topped with tomato sauce, ooey gooey mozzarella cheese, scattered with thin beef pepperoni slices and chunks of olives.

Mango Sorbet

Virgin Pina Colada

Seeing as we enjoyed the lunch so much (mmm.. blue cheese pizza), we just had to go back in the evening!

Prawns
Big meaty prawns with crunchy pine nuts and sauteed mushrooms.

Mixed Greens Salad
 Cripsy greens topped with a crunchy crostini with a generous slather of soft goats cheese.

Spaghetti Alla Chitarra
I chose the spaghetti with chicken, tomato sauce and no white wine. Rule of thumb: when you go to an Italian restaurant, never order chicken with tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was lovely; chunky and mixed in with an array of herbs, but the chicken just weighed down the dish, had no seasoning and was quite dry.

Muhsroom Risotto
BW, the lucky guy, ended up getting the best dish of the night. A creamy risotto cooked with different types of wild mushrooms that added an earthy flavour to the rice.

Chocolate Canoli w/ Orange Truffle Cream
In my defence, I like to live a little on the wild side and order items that sound “different” but sadly, this doesn’t work out for me about 95% of the time and I end up being jealous of everyone else’s meals. So when it comes to a dessert involving chocolate, citrus, and pungent truffle, I really should have left my adventurous persona aside. The chocolate canoli was so delicious and sweet on its own however it was filled with an orange and truffle infused cream which didn’t work well at all. The taste of truffle overpowered the sweetness of the dish and I couldn’t finish the dessert!

DAY EIGHT
After a couple of hours of snorkelling around sand banks and in crystal clear waters, BW and I were feeling a little peckish. Knowing that dinner wouldn’t be for a while, we decided to grab our little backgammon board and head down to the Poolside Lounge which is the home of the amazing infinity pool!

Keeping in mind that Italian was on the menu for tonight (I wanted to have another go at ordering), we decided to stick with something light for lunch. Well, we tried, but would you have a look at that yummy spread of food!!!

Fish Tacos w/ Fries
Even though we ordered these earlier on in the trip, there was no way we could go on an exotic beach holiday and only order fish tacos once. The tacos came in a smaller portion this time, and rolled up with strips of grilled white fish, chunky guacamole, and tomato salsa.

Tortilla Crips w/ Guacamole and Salsa
Because the fish tacos weren’t enough, we decided to order off the menu and request nacho crisps with salsa and guacamole – maybe a tad bit demanding but they delivered! Freshly fried tortilla crisps arrive piping hot with both guacamole and tomato salsa.

Green Lentil Salad
And to feel like we didn’t end our honeymoon in such a fat and indulgent way, we ordered the green lentil salad. The salad was packed with soft green lentils, spinach and shavings of carrots

Oreo Milkshake
A good attempt at an oreo milkshake but the consistency was too watery.

Too stuffed to even think about dinner, let alone move, we sat on the lounger and played backgammon until the sun started to set. Determined not to miss our last Maldivian sunset, we power walked our way over to the Reef Club to catch it and managed to make it in time for the shark feeding.

Sensing my excitement at the prospects of sharks, the Reef Club Manager did us a special favour and handed over some raw snapper so we could feed the sharks just outside our villa!

DAY NINE
And then it was time for HG to say goodbye to the incredible Maldives. Yes, I may have shed a few tears (very embarrassing) about leaving paradise, but it was time to go my new home and start my new life. I’m now married to one of the most incredible guys I know and after 1.5 years together, we finalllllly tied the knot, I couldn’t be happier. But something even MORE exciting occurred to me. There happened to be a Shakeshack in Dubai airport, and we, coincidentally, were stopping by in Dubai for two whole hours on the way back – it was clearly meant to be!