Hospital trips and first lunch in Male

I have had the unfortunate need to fly to Male a few times over the last weeks for doctor visits - first A got fungi in her ears, the right, then a couple of weeks later the left. and then, ouch, i got tooth ache, so i just had to take 3 trips for one tooth! That is definitely the down side of a small island. We have a doctor on site but obviously he is neither ENT or dentist for that matter - but then you get to travel in a sea plane, and that's bonus... even with tooth ache!

View of Male after take off 

Sea plane just landed! sometimes we take off from a platform! 

So if I understood right, this is the chain of events: the resort doctor refers to a specialist at the hospital - we went to ADK hospital. I got a letter with his diagnosis and you can call the hospital for an appointment (and try to get one), otherwise you have to go early early to the hospital and get a token number before they run out... and then you wait. I was lucky enough that our HR guy went got the token so when we arrived to the hospital we were seen after 30 min, for the dentist part he kind of talked his way in and I was seen. The hospital is supposed to be the best in Male. I have to say that both the ENT and the dentist were good. The ENT didn't even prescribe antibiotics for my daughter when I told him I didn't want them! Just drops for the ears. The dentist was definitely on the patient side and treated my tooth well. I think both were from India. Price wise it was of course super cheap compared to European standards; 200mvr (13usd) for a consultation and 650mvr (45usd) for the root canal. I needed to go back on a couple of occasions, the hospital called me the day before to give me the appointment.These rates are for Maldivians and Expats. Tourists apparently pay the double, if i understood well. All in all a positive experience, it wouldn't be my first choice to get treated here, but for something like a tooth where I couldn't really do differently it's ok. 

One of the times we managed even to squeeze in a lunch. My husband needed to go quickly back to work so we had a lunch in a cafe by the jetty where the ferry goes back to the airport. 

Service was ok, food was okish, not super exciting, not horrible either. It's an easy and cool place (as in there is air conditioning!!) to go to if you are coming/going to the airport. I think the Maldives must be the only country where they serve tuna, when you order a portion of fish and chips, thought that was funny; A didn't like though, H eats everything. I had a local dish with dhal, grilled tuna in chili paste (yes again and always) and paratha. I liked mine. The place was clean with quite a lot of people coming to have a drink and take advantage of the free WIFI. 

Fried rice - it was over cooked though, so not very nice.

kids dish - whoops picture is not very clear! 

I think a main dish was about 100 mvr - I paid in US dollar and get change back in half mvr and half usd, don't forget to take your calculator with you. I think the check came with the price both in Dollars and Rufiyaa. 

From Hulhumale to Male

We have a 2 ways of leaving the island if we want to travel to Male, I am fortunate enough to have a fairly easy access to the sea planes, but otherwise we have boats leaving a few times per month - early morning and coming back late afternoon.

So the trip starts with waiting for the sea plane's departure time; we only get that confirmed the evening before and then we wait to see if the plane is on time or not! it is often that the schedule is changed in the morning. It happens also that we transfer by boat to another resort to catch the famous twin-otter. Obviously both kids absolutely love the travelling part of our island life! Don't tell anybody, but so do I...

Sea Plane landing at our resort. Credit for this picture goes to my little 4 year old paparazzi!  

After the awesome 25 minute flight to Male airport, we transfer to the pier where the boats to Male leave from. That happens right in front the departure hall of the International Airport. There are minibuses going from the sea plane terminal to the main airport. It only takes about 5 minutes, well depending if they are closing the road because a plane is landing or not. I was told that before the cars/vans/buses were crossing the runway... until a bus got stuck and there was a plane was landing! I don't know the rest of the story, but I suppose it ended well, but thankfully they decided to build another road that goes behind the runway.

The pier, view from the boat

Back to our trip. We bought our tickets from a little booth, for the price of 10MVR (Maldivian Rufiyaa - 1USD = 15MVR) per person we went from Hulhumale, the airport island to Male. It is possible to pay is dollars as well, i guess the price in $1. For that matter, in absolutely all shops, restaurants they take US$. 

The ticket booth

our boat

and the inside

The crossing takes about 10 minutes, it goes very slowly - the kids thought it was much fun! They leave about every 15 minutes. We were the first on board, but 5 minutes after it was buzzing with locals, tourists, expats from all over the world and full of luggage and noodle boxes as well.

A boat crossing

View of Male from the sea

And finally here is a picture of the pier in Male as well as the booth where we bought the ticket to go in the other direction.