Bryan writes...
Male is like a medium sized Asian city on speed. It's a two by two
kilometre piece of compact real estate, where everything happens faster,
noisier, smellier... than anywhere else in the Maldives. Consider the
juxtaposition between this and the laid back islands and the difference is
even more stark.
Two-thirds of the Maldives population lives in Male. Space is so precious,
all of the islands around here have been reclaimed up to what used to be the
edge of the reef. Each island has its own clearly defined use; Male is
commerce, two other newly reclaimed islands are residential 'suburbs', there's
'rubbish island' (where they incinerate whatever isn't disposed of in the
more usual 'throw it under the coconut trees' method), an industrial island,
and even one for detaining political prisoners. My favourite one is airport
island, where a narrow rectangle of runway has been reclaimed so that it
juts out into the lagoon.
We share our anchorage under the runway (it reminds me of Mirdiff...) with a
motley collection of dive / surf / sailing charter boats. Tourist numbers
are down and it's also the off season; there must be hundreds in here. We've
anchored between two large sailing ketches, so that we swing at anchor in
much the same way. Our neighbours have been happy to run us back and
forwards from the nearby ferry terminal, so that we don't have to leave our
dinghy (worth $6,000; the second most expensive boat I've ever bought!)
where it may not be when we return.
We've done the main tourist stuff in Male- seen a couple of mosques (one
especially large, one especially old...), the little museum (where we
finally found the Buddhist and Hindu ruins we've searched a few islands
for), the (outrageously over priced) souvenir shops, and enjoyed a few
restaurant meals.
Our experiences in the Maldives have been for the most part very positive.
We have visited many small islands well off the beaten track, each which is
known for something special; crafts, ruins, bird nesting sites, etc. The
reality hasn't always lived up to the expectations, but it's been good to
look to differentiate between the islands; otherwise one tropical island
after the other would get boring. The cruising has been more difficult than
we expected; the water seems often to be too deep or two shallow- we joked
about those channels where we had only 40cm under our keel (sometimes on the
top of the tide!), but it was nerve wracking stuff at the time. We wanted
to travel as free spirits between idyllic anchorages, but the truth is that
you need a power of internet research to identify those that are safe.
It seems strange that Helen and the kids fly back to Dubai tomorrow. For
them it's a clean end to the adventure. For me, I still have a fairly long
sail to go. I guess I'm now looking more to getting home than to the
journey itself.
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