MALE, Maldives

Good Sunday morning, from Male!
It's a quick 3-1/2 hour flight from Dubai to Male...in the middle of the night so you get to watch sunrise at landing through the plane's nose camera...how COOL was that?

The airport is on a separate island and Male itself it a 25-minute ferry ride away. We stayed in a small local b&b hotel on Hulhumale which is connected to the airport island with a coral roadway!

We took the ferry into Male late in the afternoon on Friday after it had cooled down some. We visited the fish market, saw the local fishing boats (who do NOT long-line fish by the way). All fishing in the Maldives is done with a single line & a single hook. The record catch on ONE boat was 40 men fishing and they took in 80 TONS of fish in ONE day!

We toured the town, saw the gardens, beautiful mosques and the huge President's palace which the previous president had built. When the new president was elected, he opted to live in the much more modest "old" Presidental home and has closed the "big" palace and they will be turning it into a school!

I'm going to TRY and upload a few photos from Male...it's a busy little town.

There are over 1,000 islands in the Maldivian country, only a few over 100 are inhabited.

We're off to the boat in a few minutes and our diving journey will begin...I'll be trying to update and upload when we near inhabited islands with cell towers...wish me luck!
Merry Christmas, everyone!