After a lot of research for this port we knew the best thing we could do here is get off it again. Male is only 1km wide and 2km long and with a population of over 300,000 people, the only way is up...
As you sail into this “garland of islands” ( ha that is the meaning of Maldives in Sanskrit) you can’t help but ooh and aah at their beauty... then suddenly up ahead you see what you can only describe as a floating city spring up out of the water. Tall buildings seem to rise out of the waters edge, a whole island that can be taken in one camera shot.
We were able to sail fairly close to the island but couldn’t dock so it was a quick tender ride to the wharf. As I mentioned before there is not much to do in Maale and it is hot... very hot so we were off on a trip to Bandos Island resort. The plan was to do this with Princess but someone in our cruise critic group found a way to do this privately.
Once on shore we had about half an hour’s wait till our Donny to arrive so we took a short walk down towards the fruit and fish markets... you are always guaranteed to capture some great colourful photos in places like this.
Eventually a little blue donny turned up and off we set for our 40 min trip to our island. Once on the island we registered for the day and found a nice little beach where you could swim and snorkel. Close to the shore we manage to coax a few pretty fish with our small packets of crackers, but for the more adventurous you could swim further out where the water became clearer and the fish became bigger.
This snorkelling caper can make you thirsty and hungry.... so how clever they are to have a bar right there where you swim..... Cocktails, fish and chips and free wifi for dessert... true holiday fare... Oh and I promise you the fish tasted better than it looked.
It was soon time to drag ourselves away from the bar and head back to settle our accounts and wait for our Donny’s return... Patiently we waited as we watched the Princess boats come in and pick up their passengers and as we waved goodbye to the last princess transfer’s we cried “please don’t let the captain leave without us!!”
It was with great relief to see our little blue donny chug into the lagoon for our return trip. Apparently they went and anchored off around the corner to do a spot of fishing and with their spoils ( 2 little fish ) we turned and made our way back to the main island...
During the port lecture for Male, the lecturer mentioned about being careful about the private taxi boats. Telling us a story of how 4 passengers from another cruise hired a boat to take them out to an island and on the way back he stopped drew a gun and stole their valuables ..... later at our Deck 11 sailaway party, us ladies were chatting and laughed when we realised that we all had mentally had a plan of attack incase something like this happened to us.... our big blokes would tackle them whilst we grab Dennis’s walking stick and hit them over the head.... amazing how the we all had the same thoughts LOL....
Back on the ship and it was a swim to cool down, hot chips to top up the bellies and cold wine and beer to celebrate another good day in paradise....
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