Quite a nice gesture, awaiting our arrival at the reception, along with ice cold towels and cool minty lemonades after a 45-minute shuttle boat ride. The last time we were around these waters were 27 years ago, almost to the date. It was a very different world then, when the Maldives resorts were just beginning to make the world scene. Our package was arranged by Air Lanka on a DC-10. My RHKAAF pal Edwin Lau was station manager then, he upgraded his newlywed friends all the way to First Class from Row 66 ie the lowest fare we could afford then. We drank the Dom with vigor but literally did not know what to do with the caviar! We hired a car and driver in Colombo, and spent a week around the country including Kandy for the festival at the Temple of the Tooth, before returing to the capital to stay at the Gaulle Face, the proverbial colonial style hotel from the Raj. Maldives followed, but without realizing we booked a cottage in a semi-nudist resort with mostly European patrons. The big question was popped by a nice German couple, 2 days after we arrived, " .... we are all wondering when the Japanese couple will take their cothes off" ... yes, they were talking about us, and it was such a natural thing to do afterwards. Well, that was post-Xmas 1982 and not in our wildest dreams would we imagine this very day, post- Xmas 2009, when we revisit the Maldives with our own clan.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
WELCOME LEAF
Quite a nice gesture, awaiting our arrival at the reception, along with ice cold towels and cool minty lemonades after a 45-minute shuttle boat ride. The last time we were around these waters were 27 years ago, almost to the date. It was a very different world then, when the Maldives resorts were just beginning to make the world scene. Our package was arranged by Air Lanka on a DC-10. My RHKAAF pal Edwin Lau was station manager then, he upgraded his newlywed friends all the way to First Class from Row 66 ie the lowest fare we could afford then. We drank the Dom with vigor but literally did not know what to do with the caviar! We hired a car and driver in Colombo, and spent a week around the country including Kandy for the festival at the Temple of the Tooth, before returing to the capital to stay at the Gaulle Face, the proverbial colonial style hotel from the Raj. Maldives followed, but without realizing we booked a cottage in a semi-nudist resort with mostly European patrons. The big question was popped by a nice German couple, 2 days after we arrived, " .... we are all wondering when the Japanese couple will take their cothes off" ... yes, they were talking about us, and it was such a natural thing to do afterwards. Well, that was post-Xmas 1982 and not in our wildest dreams would we imagine this very day, post- Xmas 2009, when we revisit the Maldives with our own clan.
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