Male, Maldives
May 21st 2002
This was a real James Bond (or at the very least Miami Vice) trip. I had no illusions about taking
a study tour this time - you couldn't come to the Maldives and not get in the sea, and Hassan had said he'd
get a friend to take us to somewhere nice.
We were met at the pier by some driver. Hassan said he'd catch us later, because he was obliged to go on a tour to the Muesum of Islam or something, but that our driver would take care of everything. Then we were put onto a rather nice speed boat, and zipped over the gorgeous waters to a tiny little island.
A lovely woman met us off the boat, and showed us our room (we were only going to be there for half a day!)
and gave us a bunch of snorkelling gear. This island was paradise. Stunningly beautiful, hardly any people,
and some really high-end-looking resort bungalows.
We spent the morning on the pristine beach or in the pristine sea, Hassan caught up with us later and
treated us further to a really nice lunch. He wouldn't accept a penny for anything, and just said that it, and we,
were part of "the plan", and that we'd figure it out some day. How mysterious. We never really did figure anything
out, other than that he was a cool and generous guy, and unfortunately we heard he died about six months later of
a heart-attack.
Male (two syllables, "Ma" and "le") is the main island of God knows how many that make up the Maldives. Most of the other seem to be tiny little sand-bars just above sea-level, with a single resort on them. They are absolutely stunning, but usually well out of my budget. The main island hosts most native Maldiveans - who seem relatively well-off compared to other resort-countries.
Yazan and others who, as part of the "Global University" program, had to go on a study tour rather than the beach option,
emphasised how they had interacted with the "real people" of the Maldives, and Kurt saw a whale-shark on his diving trip, but
I was wholly satisfied with our little island adventure. Peace, man.
PEACEBOAT HIGHLIGHTS:
37th Cruise
DepartureShanghai
Danang, Vietnam
Singapore
>Male, Maldives
Safaga, Egypt
Suez Canal
Port Said, Egypt
Athens, Greece
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Tripoli, Libya
Bilbao, Spain
London, England
Amsterdam, Holland
Oslo, Norway
Fjords, Norway
Belfast, N. Ireland
Azores, Portugal
Havana, Cuba
Acajutla, El Salvador
Acapulco, Mexico
Vancouver, Canada
Petropavlovsk, Russia
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