Heading to the airport
Today, I leave Maldives for Trabzon in eastern Turkiye. Boo was flying back home to Malaysia and had to take the 0730 ferry while I had the luxury of the 1230 one for my night flight.
This allowed me to fit in a 45 min final dip at the beach before returning to prepare for the 1200 check-out. Just before my departure from the hotel, heavy rain came but cleared in time for my walk to the port.
The ferry came about 20 mins late and got me to the Male around 1415. I made my way to the Nepali restaurant for a vegetable curry and parathas. I worked out that I would have enough local money for the ferry to the airport but the menu wasn’t correctly priced.
I ended up having to pay for my airport ferry with USD1. The lady at the counter didn’t like my note saying it was a bit old but when my next note was USD5 she relented. Fortunately, I didn’t end up with USD4 change in the form of Maldivian currency!
Somehow, I managed to kill about 2h in Male quite well, mostly at the café. I made it on to the airport ferry at 1615 and went into the Moonima Lounge located landside at the airport. No evidence of one’s ticket was required but they took details of one’s departing flight and a 2h time limit was quite strictly enforced.
The lounge was not crazily busy like last year. With the weather not as hot as my last time, I didn’t need to use the lounge shower. Incidentally, the airport public toilet does come with showers but it would be a bit awkward with nowhere to put one’s luggage.
I grabbed a snack just before they closed the buffet at 1800, presumably to change over for dinner. This happened last time as well but I thought it was due to Ramadhan and the staff had to break their fast and needed some rest.
The buffet didn’t reopen when I left to check in for my flight around 1840. So my visit was more for the comfort of the air-conditioning, seating and cold drinks!
Checking-in on standby
After clearing preliminary security, I got to the Turkish Airlines check-in counter about 2h30 before departure. On standby, I was very lucky to receive a boarding straight away today.
I went through airside through immigration and the proper security check before waiting downstairs at the all-in-one departure hall. Boarding commenced by bus 1h20 before the scheduled departure time of 2150.
Flying to Istanbul
The Airbus A330-300 closed up 40 mins ahead of departure time and pushed back 30 mins early. I quickly move backwards into the spare row of three seats in the tapered zone of the aircraft.
When the meal came, I noticed that the water and butter appear to be Turkish brands. That prompted me to ask the crew if the food was catered from Istanbul rather than Male. He confirmed that.
When I mentioned that it was an 8h flight from Istanbul plus a 9h-plus turnaround, he explained that the trolleys were taken off the aircraft to be chilled somewhere. I would have expected them to just keep the chillers running and use lots of dry ice.
I worked out that the second meal would have left the Istanbul catering centre around 25h ago, by the time it was served!