After 14 hours of flights aboard the magnificent Boeing 777-300ER from Emirates (are those flight attendants all top models?!), I finally landed in Malé, capital of the Maldives and one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
After claiming my luggage and taking care of a few other formalities, what a nice feeling it was to see there was someone from WSVG waiting for me and my wife. Without any further due, he took both our luggage and threw us in a ferry boat that would take us to Malé, the airport itself is a separate island.
Already waiting in that boat, there was one of the North American qualifiers from StarCraft 2, Robert, a dude that liked to talk a lot and apparently thought that every single thing I said was "awesome". Even when I tried to make him understand that I was really tired after a 14 hour flight and was not in the mood for talking, he said: "you are tired?! what a coincidence, me too! AWESOME" -.-
As soon as we got to the main island, a Taxi from the hotel was waiting for us. Now this is where it gets crazy. I've never ever seen such narrow streets open to cars...But it gets worse: there are no traffic lamps, no traffic signs, the car honk is your best friend. And you think that will make them drive slower? Think again. The more dangerous it looks, the faster they will drive.
After finally getting to the hotel, I was given 5 minutes to change clothes and get on the boat that would take us to the resort island where the players will be staying and where the whole event will take place. Upon reaching the cargo boat (this one was going to take all the computers, screens, etc to the island), the first nice surprise: Taff and his wife and daughter; Genette and Nilpferd were all there waiting for me. So nice to see known faces again!
After a fun and relaxing trip to the Bandos Resort where we even got to see a few dolphins swimming around our boat, I was in complete awe at the beauty of the Bandos Island: literally, a little piece of Paradise on Earth. We made our way fast to the conference room of the Resort where the action will be taking place. There`s still a lot of work to do, still many details to solve, but Taff and Genette seemed to be happy with the progresses so far:
At around 8pm me and wife were too tired to keep helping and so we asked permission to take the next ferry boat to Malè and get some rest. We had dinner in the incredibly delicious restaurant of the hotel and on our way back upstairs, I even had the honor of meeting LoveCheng!
I told him I was Masmorra from Voobly and a big fan of his. He then threw me a huge smile that seemed to say (or so I thought) "nice to finally meet you man!!", but when he opened his mouth, the words that came out were slightly different: "me no english..."
Tomorrow is the opening ceremony day and the day were most of the players will arrive. Can't wait!!
Nelson
After claiming my luggage and taking care of a few other formalities, what a nice feeling it was to see there was someone from WSVG waiting for me and my wife. Without any further due, he took both our luggage and threw us in a ferry boat that would take us to Malé, the airport itself is a separate island.
Already waiting in that boat, there was one of the North American qualifiers from StarCraft 2, Robert, a dude that liked to talk a lot and apparently thought that every single thing I said was "awesome". Even when I tried to make him understand that I was really tired after a 14 hour flight and was not in the mood for talking, he said: "you are tired?! what a coincidence, me too! AWESOME" -.-
As soon as we got to the main island, a Taxi from the hotel was waiting for us. Now this is where it gets crazy. I've never ever seen such narrow streets open to cars...But it gets worse: there are no traffic lamps, no traffic signs, the car honk is your best friend. And you think that will make them drive slower? Think again. The more dangerous it looks, the faster they will drive.
After finally getting to the hotel, I was given 5 minutes to change clothes and get on the boat that would take us to the resort island where the players will be staying and where the whole event will take place. Upon reaching the cargo boat (this one was going to take all the computers, screens, etc to the island), the first nice surprise: Taff and his wife and daughter; Genette and Nilpferd were all there waiting for me. So nice to see known faces again!
After a fun and relaxing trip to the Bandos Resort where we even got to see a few dolphins swimming around our boat, I was in complete awe at the beauty of the Bandos Island: literally, a little piece of Paradise on Earth. We made our way fast to the conference room of the Resort where the action will be taking place. There`s still a lot of work to do, still many details to solve, but Taff and Genette seemed to be happy with the progresses so far:
At around 8pm me and wife were too tired to keep helping and so we asked permission to take the next ferry boat to Malè and get some rest. We had dinner in the incredibly delicious restaurant of the hotel and on our way back upstairs, I even had the honor of meeting LoveCheng!
I told him I was Masmorra from Voobly and a big fan of his. He then threw me a huge smile that seemed to say (or so I thought) "nice to finally meet you man!!", but when he opened his mouth, the words that came out were slightly different: "me no english..."
Tomorrow is the opening ceremony day and the day were most of the players will arrive. Can't wait!!
Nelson