We arrived today to a beautiful day, with 86 degree heat and lots of humidity. Well, we had better get used to it, since it will not get cooler for quite a while. Oh, I guess I shouldn’t be complaining since you are all still in winter. Sorry.
The Maldives (pronounced Mal-deeves) are a group of islands, 1190. Only 192 are inhabited. Within these islands there are 94 resorts. So, yes, a major part of the Maldives income comes from tourism. The next largest income comes from tuna fishing.
The airport is located on reclaimed ocean (Indian Ocean). Like Dubai, the Maldives are trying to make some new islands. They need more land. Male, pronounced mah-leh, is the capital island. It is the second most densely populated island in the world. The first is Ap Lei Chau of Hong Kong.
They constructed a beach and lagoon on Male, for the locals. I guess for the tourist,too, since we saw mostly tourists there. Most tourists stay on the resort islands. Since the Maldives are a Muslim country, no alcohol is allowed on Male. It is allowed on the resort islands. As is pork.
Notice, on the lower picture, the circle of light colored ocean. It is hard to see, but there is a dark center to the circle of light ocean. This is either a sandbar or coral. Not sure which.
We went ashore via tender. We started our day trying to find the visitors’ information location. We did not find it, so we just walked around. It was not too important to have a map, since the island is only about 1 mile by 1/2 mile. We we made our way to the beach. Arleen just got her feet wet. It isn’t deep enough to swim in.
We continued on and walked the streets and found the town’s botanical garden. The most interesting thing there is the well, pictured below. Do you see anything strange about it?
Right, no coins. This may be the only one of its kind in the world;)
This is the sculpture at the “center” of town.
The tourists that come here seem to be on the higher income scale. See the 3 masted schooner. Note that is is taller than anything on the island it is passing. Well, that is part of the biggest problem facing the Maldives. If the predictions about global warming are true, and the seas rise about 2 feet, much of the Maldives will be underwater. About 80% of the Maldives is below 6 feet above sea level. The new president of the country is trying to either build a sea wall around Male and is also trying to find a new home for the about 400,000 inhabitants of these islands. Wish them luck.
This is the schooner. Beautiful, isn’t she.
Don’t know if you will be able to blow this up. It is the whole island.
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