Male - The Maldives

Sunday February 19th - Day 46

The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty six atolls oriented north - south. The atolls encompass a territory spread over about 90,000 square kilometres making it one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. Only 200 of the 1192 islands are inhabited. The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area and with an average ground level of 1.5 metres above sea level it is the planets lowest country.

There were four tours offered today - a trip in a submarine...definitely not for me; a trip to a local fishing village...pass; a trip to Paradise Island Resort but as it was a fifty minute water taxi ride away and  we'd just had four days at sea we decided not to bother; the last tour was a guided walking tour around Male.....but we decided to do our own walking tour at our pace...and save a few dollars!!

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We spent about one and a half hours on our walk passing the national museum where Vance found some World War 1 relics keeping him interested for a few minutes then into the shopping centre which was just a street with hundreds of shops that all seemed to be just selling shoes - and no I didn't buy any.

We ended up back at the harbour and explored the waterfront and local fish market. It was fascinating the watch the speed of the locals filleting the fish especially the large tunas.

Although it was interesting to explore Male we never got to see a beach so maybe one day we'll come back for a beach holiday.

Twelve noon ritual beer then lunch followed by sunning and swimming in the pool all afternoon....well someone has to do it!!

Tonight we dined in Restaurant 2 with Justine and Mark. It wasn't crowded in fact we were the only four in the restaurant - it was such good service!! Mark joked he'd booked the whole place just for us...yeh right but no complaint as he did treat us to a bottle of St. Emilion (Les Aromes de Pavie by Chateau Pavie 2005)....thanks dude.

Back on deck for a 'Rock The Boat Beatles Evening' where we sang and danced to the music of the entertainments team. Definitely ready for my bed after all that exercise!!