Today was a tender port and we arrived before 8am under cloudy skies. We watched part of President Trump's State of the Union address before getting some breakfast. The plan was to be off the ship and on shore by 9am. Due to windy and choppy water conditions, we as 5 star Mariners did not get off the ship until around 9:15 and we're on shore by 9:30. Our group leader was among the few that got off on the first tender. Since our group was so large, Carol sent the first half off on tour while we waited for two more tenders containing the remainder of our group.
The local tour leader took us to the Presidential Office Building, a couple mosques, a terrorist attack memorial, a produce market and a fish market. Along the the way the sprinkles started and allthe while the temperature was in the low 80's. Perfect sauna weather inside my light Frogg Togg rain jacket. This is an Islamic country, so much so that one can't own property without being Muslim or marry a Muslim without converting. The fish market was clean and neat by Asian standards and one could purchase fish and on the south side of the building, men would clean and filet them. I also found a money changer and got $20 changed into 308 rupees. We went back to the produce market on our own and walked the entire market. There was lots of interesting produce and items we didn't know the names for.
Interestingly, there were virtually no women in either market. All transactions were between men. We did see lots of women walking and riding some of the many thousands of scooters. Generally they would have a head covering and a few would have a burka with just a slit for eyes. But the clear majority of the people in public were male and many of those with the ubiquitous cell phone.
We ate a lovely light lunch at the south end of the island overlooking a beach. It cost the equivalent of $5.50 each. While waiting for our food and eating it, the skies opened up once again. But we stayed dry! We then walked the length of the island using the main south to north street. This street was crowded with pedestrians, thousands of motorcycles, cars and light trucks. It was an interesting and slightly chaotic solo dance between all of the partners even though none never touched though some came close. One has to be totally vigilant when crossing streets. Stopping and signaling are mere suggestions!
At the north end of the island was the Artificial Beach which had ladies in full Muslim garb swimming in the sea. We also watched airplanes take off and land from the adjoining island airport which is connected by the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge. We wandered back to our tender location and checked out a Burger King (the only American franchise we saw) and the King Salman mosque which is under construction. Our full tender took us back to the ship and it wasn't quite as rough as the morning tendering process.
I'll add also that there is no alcohol in Malé, but it is available on one of the many private islands that are home to resorts. It's sort of what I'll call a 'wink' policy ( we didn't see you drink, therefore you didn't).
Shortly after 5pm the last tender arrived with a full load of guests and the Captain soon announced that we would be under way to Utheemu where we will tender also. We watched the sailaway from the Crows Nest as the shipsailed out of the harbor and amongst the islands.
Terry Greenberg presented a talk on his early travel life when at age twenty he took off to travel the world with 3 goals: spend no money on transportation (ie hitchike), pay nothing for lodging, eat the cheapest local food possible. It was a great talk and very inspiring.
Ashok Ferrey read excerpts from his books and both the reading and the writing was quite good. He'll do more literary events on the remainder of this cruise. This should be a treat!
At 10pm the Captain proposed a toast to the Nieuw Statendam and even acknowledged us as having sailed on it (we were wearing our Dutch orange shirts). Following this was a video of Oprah Winfrey naming the ship on February 2, 2019 and giving a little speech along with Orlando Ashford, President of HAL. After the movie, a couple passengers came up to us and asked questions about the Nieuw Statendam as they will be sailing on it.
At 11pm the Indonesian crew performed their crew show. And our long day was over!
Zodiacs tomorrow in Utheemu! Stay tuned.
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