Bet you didn’t know these tidbits before!

1.There are more mopeds than people in Malé (at least that’s what it seems like when you are walking down the street and trying your best to stay alive!). There are a few bicycles but no one ever rides them.

2. Always ask to see the menu with prices in rufiyaas, not dollars. Otherwise you’ll end up paying double the price!!

3. Maldivians like their smoothies with square bits of jello.

4. The B-roll in the newscast has no audio.

5. Eating at a local restaurant in a tiny, crowded back street will cost the same as a in a fancy touristy restaurant by the beach (either that, or we got scammed at the local restaurant…heh).

6. The waiters will bring a water bottle to your table without you asking for it. Sometimes this water bottle can cost $3-4, so it’s best to check the price from the menu before opening the bottle. Often times you can ask to switch it to a bottle of non-brand-name water that costs just $1.

7. At the end of the meal you’ll automatically be presented with a plate of betlenuts. And you’ll be automatically charged for the plate, unless you send it back right away (in which case they cross it out of your check, after already inserting the charges for it up front… because you wouldn’t want betlenuts after dinner??). By the way, the nuts taste like wood and will make your teeth red if you keep on chewing them. Apparently you can get a little high if you chew the nuts long enough, but since they taste like cardboard, it’s unlikely that you’ll get that far.

8. You should forget that you even own a bikini (unless you are going to one of the luxury resorts that the Maldives is famous for). At the very least, your swim gear should consist of a T-shirt and shorts, and even that’s considered a little risky… in fact, a police officer came to complain to us on the Hulhumalé beach that “This is not a resort! You can’t wear a bikini!”. Needless to say, we were NOT wearing bikinis… he still looked at our shorts/t-shirt regalia with slight disapproval, but then decided those were at least a tad better option than string bikinis.

9. Speaking of swimming, water aerobics is a popular sport even all the way here! We happened across this aerobics class at the artificial beach a couple of nights ago. Techno music was blasting and the women were on a roll!

10. Notice the shirtless guy in this photo… in Malé, apparently anything goes -as long as you are a guy. But if you are female, don’t even dream about doing water aerobics in anything less than (practically) a burka.