We arrived in Male after lunch. Male is interesting in that it is a
completely developed island. The
Maldives is made up of over 1,100 islands but only 180 of them are inhabited.
We waited for our launch to go ashore – it took a
while. Then we got our guide for our
Walking Tour of Male. Unfortunately,
they combined two groups and the guide was very soft spoken so we couldn’t hear
a lot of what he told us. We walked
through the crowded and somewhat congested city and saw the Presidential
Palace, the tomb of many of the former Sultans of the island, a graveyard where
the tombstones were shaped like phalluses for the men and rounded at the top
for women (and they were taller or
shorter depending on how long the person lived). We saw the Congress, the largest mosque in
the Maldives and then we went on our own to the market. Unfortunately, again there is trash
everywhere and plastic bags and bottles floating in the water at the
waterfront. The fish market had tons of
fish and at one place a man was swatting flies on top of the fish. As he would kill them, he would pick them off
of the top of the fish and throw them on the ground. Yuck.
A strange site as we sailed in - the island rises up out of the sea
Every inch of Male is built on right to the edge of the island. This is the lowest country in the world and it is expected that global warming will flood the country within the next 50 years
Enjoying the views of Male, Maldives from our balcony
"Art" in Male, Maldives
The capital of the Maldives
Tombs of the former sultans
An old graveyard - the mens' tombstones are pointed at the top, the womens' are rounded!
The Presidential Palace of the Maldives
More graveyards with ancient rulers
A monument
Interesting art in Male
Side view of the memorial in Male
The large mosque in Male
A minaret in Male
'
The Silver Seas Voyager as seen from Male
Busy streets with lots of motorcycles
We headed back to the ship and dressed for dinner. We had cocktails and dinner with Paul and
Patricia and then went to the Cirque L’Amour show in the theatre – it was
great. We had front row seats and we
whooped it up as requested of us by the dancers during the can-can dance. It was great fun. We had an after dinner drink in the
Observation Lounge and then went to bed.
I had to help Patricia down the hallway!!!!
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