マクルラ レジデンス(Maclura Residence)

Communication was smooth with the guesthouse from the beginning, i.e. the time we contacted the Aboo on WhatsApp, he helped us with all the questions we had in advance and booked us the flight from/to Malé to/from Dharavandhoo. Aboo was flexible: when we told him we had a lot MVR and therefore, wanted to pay for the accommodation and the transport in MVR instead USD, he had no problem with it. In B.Maalhos it was Matheen who was our host. Shipon from his team came to pick us up at the airport and accompanied us to the airport on the way back, too. We were transferred in a small speed boat between Daravandhoo and B.Maalhos. The location of the guesthouse is great, it’s right next to the jungle of the island and is like 50 m from the beach. In addition, the part of the bikini beach of the island where we usually stayed (on the eastern side of the island) is also really close, around only a 150 m walk from the guesthouse. The guesthouse provided us with sunbeds along with an umbrella on the beach. When one of the snorkeling masks we brought from home turned out be too big, the guesthouse rented us snorkeling mask free of charge. The home reef of the island is really amazing, one can easily swim to the reef slope through a channel at the bikini beach and then just drift with the current all the way to the northern side of the island enjoying the view on the way – the underwater life is very abundant along the reef, we saw a lot of colorful fish. The guesthouse provides unlimited bottled water; tea filters, instant coffee and a water heater are also available. The guesthouse provided us breakfast in Waataru Café, which is next to the harbor and around a 5-minute walk from the guesthouse. Breakfast was really abundant; in addition to sausage and omelet, it always included Maldivian specialties, namely mas huni and roshi – as well as fresh fruit juice, fruit and coffee. When we asked the staff to serve the breakfast for one of us with papadum (?) (we found out that this food was made from gluten free flour and was widely available in the Maldives) instead of roshi – the person in question needs to keep a gluten free diet – the staff gladly responded to our request. When we turn to Matheen with a special request, namely that we wanted to have miruhulee boava, a spicy Maldivian dish made from octopus tentacles for dinner and join the chef while he or she is cooking the food in his or her home, Matheen readily responded to our request and invited us to his own home. It was Matheen’s daughter, Rafaa and his wife who cooked the dinner, we learnt about the ingredients and how to prepare the octopus and make roshi from them and had an exciting conversation about each other’s cuisine, culture and country. We ate the food together with Matheen’s four children and one of their cousins, it was really intimate and authentic, we followed them and ate in the Maldivian way, i.e. with hands. The excursions organized by Matheen and his team are at a reasonable pr