How I wish I had kept one paper boarding pass from each of the airlines! Would have been a great collection!

Till that evening with Tim and Christine about a year ago, I knew very little about Malta. I had an idea that it was an island south of Italy and I knew the name of the capital. Later I got to learn about the flag and also that the breed of our first dog Princess – Maltese – originated from that island. I do not know anybody else other than Tim and Christine who has spent some time in that island.

After hearing the stories of the island from them, Sharmila and I had put it in our list of countries to visit.

We are headed there now!!

The Air Malta plane had just cleared the clouds and started straightening out when I got up from my dozing off. Sharmila was still sleeping. I picked the magazine up (yes! they still have the airplane magazine!) and started leafing thru the pages. Rather desultorily, I might add.

And then this page hit me! I woke up with a start! Had it not been for the inconvenience of taking my glasses off, I might have even rubbed my eyes to make sure I was not dreaming.

HORLICKS!!!

In an instant, I was taken back to the those days of stealing Horlicks from the jar in the kitchen when mom would not be around! It was meant for my baby brother. But my dearest baby brother be danged, the Horlicks had a taste like no other thing I had tasted. Ever. And it was not just the taste. It was that texture of the malt grain as it soaked up the saliva from the tongue and coagulated in the mouth. I can still feel it.

Some of my friends from those years in Bengal might remember the ad where different personalities (including Moon Moon Sen) were expounding on why they have Horlicks – “Ami keno khai?” when a cute kid interjects with the sweetest reason – “Ami to emni emni khai”

For crying out loud, the airline was serving Horlicks! There was no mom or baby brother to cry foul! This was going to be my day.

Moment the air hostess came asking for our drinks, I (who could barely conceal his inner child exuberance) put on an extra nice tone and asked in a matter of fact way – “Do you have the hot Horlicks?” pointing to that magazine page. As much as I had the calm exterior, inside me, I was chafing my hands, going “Muaaahaaahaaa!”

“No!”, she informed me.

I unchafed.

“What? You have it in your magazine”, my completely unprepared self blurted out.

“Sorry, sir! What else can I get you?”

I had no ability to think. I was on a brain freeze. Like a robot, I went for my go to drink… “Red wine, please!”

“Sure, sir!” She went away wondering what kind of idiot drinks red wine at ten in the morning.

Apparently somebody who has been thwarted from his beloved Horlicks after 45 years!

One thing about this island I had learnt from Tim and Christine was how it has been ruled by so many different folks. Given the location in the Mediterranean Sea, a very short distance away from Europe and Africa, this island has had very strategic implications from a military as well as a trade point of view.

Over the centuries, they have been ruled by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Greeks (Byzantines), the Arabs (Adhlabids), the Italians (Normans), the Germans (Swabians), the Aragonese, the Spanish, the Order of St. John, the French and then the British. Somehow the Ottomans could not ever conquer them.

When I was talking to the hotel gentleman about airport transport, I found out that we are actually going to land up amidst their Independence Day festivities. Malta finally became free on Sep 21, 1964!

I have no idea why it says INDIA 1 on the ground. Anybody has any clue?

If the view was clear, we might have been able to see Sicily. It is about 80kms away

Every single street is packed with folks eating dinner or drinking. There is just some small space left to walk along either side. And these streets go up and down about 5-6 stories. The tables are set up on the inclined streets! Every other server is from Nepal or India. The whole area is seeping in energy. We tried out the local buses today. Very efficient, I must say!

Found this in Valetta. Never seen this or heard of this in any other country. After all the climbing up and down the streets I just did, I need access to this minister, just about now!!! I did not find any suggestion box around the ministry, but I was going to suggest that it might be more to the point to have the minister’s parking spot a few hundred yards away from his /her office so that he/she can stay active!!

Jokes apart, have you seen anything like this?

If anybody remembers the island called Ogygia in Homer’s Odyssey, well, this is that island. I am guessing a few things have changed since then.

First, I was wondering why all those cars and trucks were lined up there without moving. Then I realized – all of them were also waiting for the boat like me. About 100-150 vehicles got on to our ferry. And there are about 40 ferry crossings every day between Malta and Gozo. That is a lot of traffic between the two islands once you realize that Malta is only 17 miles by 9 miles and Gozo is even smaller at 9 miles by 4.5 miles.

I did not realize this but Malta is the fourth most densely populated sovereign country in the world!

This is in Cirkewwa.

Those are jellyfish. We saw hundreds and hundreds of them!

The sheer face of the walls rising up from the waters is mind blowing. To give you an idea, the St. Mary’s Tower that you can see is about 4 stories tall. The island used to produce a lot of cumin at one time and hence the name. The current population of the whole island is a whopping 2!! A priest and a policeman. Who commute to work to Malta island everyday!

The dry, sandy and rocky island with the sandstone buildings reminded us a lot of Jordan!

The halo of the sun was near perfectly placed

Looks like Batik print from Santiniketan.

In Gozo!!!

The enclosed beds are filled with the sea water and then dried to harvest the salt. It is then packaged and sold.

The wind erosion is going to collapse it one of these days

The whole thing is made of sandstone. And every year, it is getting smaller and smaller in size due to the erosion caused by constant high winds!

This must remind you of The Redeemer in Rio. Michael, our cab driver, told us the story how this mountain Tal-Merzuq was once feared to be a volcanic one. To set this in context, Mt. Etna is just next door in Sicily. The locals built this statue of The Risen Jesus to keep the volcano at peace.

Years later, seismologists concluded that this mountain does not have a volcanic basis!

There is a subtle difference between the waters in the Caribbean Sea which is more “Aqua” and the ones in Mediterranean Sea which is more “Turquoise”. There is a more pronounced effect of green in the Mediterranean.

There was once a bridge between those two rocks out there. Eventually wind took care of it. Also, you see the two persons on the top? I do not know how they got up there but they did a head long jump straight from up there into the water even as we were watching them!!

We have seen white beaches, pink beaches and black beaches. Today we saw red beaches.
Ramla Beach was very crowded. We did nto spend much time there.

Back to the island of Malta! This used to be the only way to get to the city from the harbor.

We continued with our streak of finding some of the best Indian food we have ever eaten in the small islands! Remember Indian Summer in Nevis? Or SJ Curry Club in Turks and Caicos? Or Tandoori Heights in Curacao?

We hit another jackpot with Saffron in the island of Malta. Barely a few hundred yards away from our hotel, we were super impressed with the food. So much so that we went back the next day for dinner again. The food was very tasty and and was neither oily nor left us with that overeaten feeling.

We met the owners the second night – Piyali Sarkar – from Maniktala, Kolkata – and her husband!

The norm is to post the picture of the food before eating it. I just wanted to show you how much we enjoyed it!

Plan today includes checking out the local arts and crafts scene, exploring the original capital of Mdina, visiting Valetta one more time and then taking a long walk back along the water all the way to the hotel!

Sharmila found what she was looking for. Luckily, I had the wallet with me! Anyways, now we will have to wait for it to be delivered to our house in the USA – hopefully in one piece!

As it is, I cannot appreciate art without two glasses of wine. And then shopping for it – with all the choices – is exhausting!! Need some refueling with cappuccino to keep awake!!

Those are actual streets from many centuries back. Horse carriages and cars can barely squeak by in one direction. Check out how everything is made from sandstone.

We are looking due north from here. It is a very windy day – kicking up quite some sand. The sand in the air is making it difficult to discern but in the yonder is the Mediterranean!

I asked the waiter in Mdina – “Do you really accept checks?”

“Yes,” he said!

Wow!!

I knew Mdina goes back long, long time… but, still…

We came back to Valetta from Mdina just in time to capture this dusk sky.

We are now in Tas Sliema. Beautiful weather. Even more beautiful walk by the water (Balluta Bay).

St. Julian’s area was teeming with people and loud music everywhere. I was sure there was some kind of festivities going on. I pulled one young guy aside and asked “Is there some celebrations going on or is it like this every Saturday?”

“It is like this every Saturday”, he assured me!

This morning we walked again the same route as last night except this time we took in the whole city by daytime! The water – again, I cannot possible tire of staring at it.

Most of the beaches in Malta (and Gozo) are not sandy. They are rocky but not very rough rocky. Fairly smooth sandstone rocky. Usually, I see people laying on the sand taking in the sun. Here people were laying on the rocks! Reminded me of seals that huddle around on a rock for sunshine!

On our walk back, this statue got my attention. Mostly because I thought it was wearing the traditional Indian dhoti! Pulled up closer to check out who it was. It said “Sri Chinmoy” !! I do not know him – but the plaque read:

“Sri Chinmoy
Dreamer of World Peace
Ambassador of Peace for Malta
Founder of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run”

We are going to miss this island and its people. Sometimes the most beautiful things come in small packages. This island is a good example of that.

The one regret I have from this trip is that I did not get a chance to take a picture of the local cactus with the prickly pears on them. I wanted to stop a couple of times to take the pictures but never quite managed to. Michael, our driver in Gozo had told us that the pears are called “Bajtra” in the local language. They eat it. There is also a liquor that is made from it.

What do you know? I picked up a bottle of Bajtra liquor from the airport!! Of course, that means for the first time I will have to check in my suitcase this trip in the last leg from Paris to Atlanta. But I think it will be totally worth it.