Malta trip #13 – Malta Nightlife

Dinner time was again challenging, especially as I was bored with Italian. After a lot of browsing, physical and digital, we agreed on an Indian restaurant for tonight. It was a little distance away from the clubbing precinct and was called “Emperor of India”. It was quite popular and we actually had to wait for a table which I hate doing. I would rather go and eat in some other place if one is busy. To me, waiting for a table is a very bourgeois thing to do. I think it comes from my Indian upbringing where you can get great food even in a cheap, roadside restaurant (they are called dhaba’s and even in them some are better than others.)

Our wait was only about 10 minutes though, and we had something to keep us busy. Tell you later about that. When we got our table, I thought I recognised the couple at the next table. I asked them if they were staying in Corinthia. They were. They asked if we were as well and that told me that they were not the people from the swimming pool which I had earlier thought them to be. It was only coincidence that they were staying at Corinthia.

 

They were from Germany, the lady spoke a little more English than the gentleman. I see non-native people and I immediately assume they speak English. So stupid. The gent was from Garmisch in Germany which excited me because I have been there. I opened my blog on my phone and showed him the blog header image. 

 

“This was taken at Garmisch.” I told him.

 

He nodded and let it go. Two days later when I opened my blog I saw that I had changed the blog header image a while back. In my excitement I had not noticed it in the restaurant but the Garmisch image that I kept on my blog for about 15 years had been replaced by a more recent photo from Rohtang Pass in the Himalayas. The German tourist was just too polite to say “Are you shitting me, bro? This ain’t no Garmisch!”

 

Anyway, the food was good as we had hoped. The restaurant owner was also a great character. On the way back, we had to walk through the clubbing area so we decided to stop at one place to have a drink. The amusing thing there was that one of the bouncers at the door asked us for our “Proof of Vaccination”. He had to repeat it four times before I got it even though his pronunciation was perfect because I had never been asked this at a club in my life and I am too old to be id’ed. In some malls, we had had occasion that someone pointed something at us. After my first shocked step-back, I realised it was a thermometer. But this was the first time after the airport that anyone asked for our PoV.

 

Both of us opened the NHS app on our phones to show the NHS Pass as proof of vaccination but the signal wasn’t good and the app just kept showing the spinner. After a while he just said thank you and let us in. We do have trustworthy faces, Roberta and I.

 

As for the drink inside the less said the better. The drinks were not great and the party was kind of DOA. The drinks were not overpriced if you assume that they would have alcohol. We finished the drinks and came back to the hotel. Admittedly, it was Sunday night but in a tourist place like Malta I had expected it to have more of a buzz.

 

Our main topic of conversation this evening was the arrangements for return travel. We had our flights booked but there were other arrangement that needed to be made in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The UK government had set requirements that everybody coming in had to take a Covid-19 test within 0-2 days of arrival. The way they were enforcing that was to make all passengers book a test online with a test provider company, get a booking reference and enter that booking reference in a “Passenger Locator Form”. Remember, we had to fill a similar form for travelling to Malta? It was the same going back with his additional wrinkle. I sorted out my test booking and form at night, Roberta did hers the next morning in the taxi. I chose to have my test kit sent to my home.

 

Apropos nothing, one thing I hate is the hotel hand wash soap. This was a 5-star hotel but this practice never changes. They always give you this round bar (circle?) of soap which you put in a soap dish and use it every time you need to wash your hands. It always smells horrible, always makes your skin dry and the worst thing is that it gets disgustingly wet and melty. Why can’t they put a small bottle of liquid handwash there? This time with the pandemic still a concern, the hotel toiletries included two tiny bottles of sanitizer. I am sure they can do the same for liquid handwash in a way that’s cost-effective, if they want. I was carrying my own sanitizer and sanitising wipes but I still swiped those tiny bottles because they were perfect for bringing through airport security.

 

The next day we were planning to check-out and see the city before going to the airport so I made sure to put all my devices on charge before going to bed. I also made sure all my media was backed up including this morning’s great sunrise photos. Then I went to bed to dream of Covid-19 tests. Just kidding, my dreams are more cinematic.