Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

• Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
• Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

• In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
•  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.

• West Timor Island, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
  10° 9S by 123° 34E
  Dec 27 – 31, 2007 & Jan 2 – 9, 2008
  Traditional village tour
• Flores Island, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
  08° 50S by 121° 30.8E
  Jan 10 – 15, 2008
  Crater Lakes
• Rinca Island, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
  8°39.15S by 119° 42.9E
  Jan 16 -24, 2008
  Komodo Dragons & other native wildlife
• Labuan Bajo, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
  08° 29.5S by 119° 52.5E
  Jan 21 -24, 2008
  SCUBA Diving
• Bali, Indonesia
  08° 44.5S by 115° 12.7E
  Jan 25 – Feb 8, 2008
  UN conference, island tour, whitewater rafting, SCUBA Diving, Monkey Forest, traditional show
• Karimata, Indonesia
  01°40.7S by 108° 54.2E
  Feb 12 – 14, 2008
  Medical assistance to islander
• Sentosa Island, Singapore
  01°14N by 103° 50E
  Feb 12 – Mar 08, 2008
  Side trip to Hong Kong, Museums, Rides
• Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
  02° 31N by 101° 48E
  Mar 8- 18, 2008
  Side trip to Malacca
• Langkawi Island, Kedah, Malaysia
  06° 21N by 099° 40E
  Mar 20 – Mar 28, 2008
  Sky ride, Geoforest Park, waterfall hike, extravagent gift museum
• Ko Muk Island, Trang Province, Thailand
  07°23N by 099°17E
  Mar 28 – Apr 2, 2008
  Emerald Hawng
• Phi Phi Islands, Krabi Province, Thailand
  Don: 07°43N by 098°46E
  Li: 07°40N by 098°46E
  Apr 2 – 4, 2008
• Phuket Island, Phuket Province, Thailand
  Ao Chalong: 07° 49N by 098° 21E
  Nai Harn: 07° 46N by 098° 17E
  Apr 4 – 17, 2008
  Traditional dancing, Elephant ride, Hawng tour, Fantasea show
• Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India
  11° 40N by 092° 42E
  Apr 17 – 23 & 29, 2008
  Visit to Ross Island
• Havelock Island, Andaman Islands, India
  11° 59N by 092° 56E
  Apr 23 – 29, 2008
  SCUBA diving, Elephant training camp
• Male, Maldives
  04° 13.0N by 073° 32.0E
  May 02 – 18, 2008
  SCUBA diving
• Port Salalah, Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman
  16° 56.2N by 054° 0.2E
  May 21 – Jun 02, 2008
  SCUBA diving, Guided Tour Dhofar
• Port Ghalib, Marsa Alam, Egypt
  25°31N by 34°38E
  Jun 13 – 17 & Jun 23 – Jul 05, 2008
  SCUBA diving, Trip to Luxor to see Temples & Burial Tombs

On Tuesday morning, we found out that a storm has formed at 5N, 82E (Male is at 4-13N and 73-32E). The rough weather we are experiencing is the fringes due to that storm. We just need to keep moving to outrun its impact. The good news is that the wind stabilized at 16 – 22 apparent knots on the nose, and thanks to the stable wind, the seas were no longer confused. It was still a mildly uncomfortable ride, thanks to sharp waves at rapid intervals, but it was better than Monday night.

Yesterday, conditions were identical to Tuesday. The most exciting thing that happened was we watched a flying fish jump aboard and then manage to throw himself back into the sea.

Today the winds dropped today to 15 – 16 knots, still on the nose. Man, just a few less knots of wind really makes the ride so much better! In the afternoon, something incredible happened. Spots of blue appeared in the sky and a bright light shone from above. With all the inclement weather we have had since arriving in the Maldives, we had almost forgotten what blue skies and sunshine looked like. Tonight, the moon came out and it was full and bright. The clouds had been so thick the last couple of weeks that they had completely hidden the moon.

And some answers to questions:

Q: Please tell us about your fuel consumption, and refueling adventures.
A: Overall getting fuel has been pretty easy. First time in Nuka Hiva was probably the scariest. We have reported on each fueling experience.
Special Blend and Getting Fuel (in Nuka Hiva),
Getting Ready to Leave Tahiti,
Welcome to Navadra & Vanua Levu,
Thursday Island,
Australia to Kupang, Indonesia — Day 1,
Exploring Sanur and Getting Fuel,
Chores, Errands and The Kilim Karst Geoforest Park,
and Getting Fuel and Hulhumale High Winds.

With regards to consumption: Winds, seas, and currents have a big impact on our miles per gallon. So far our range is between a dismal 2.0 nautical miles per gallon (nmpg) and pretty nice 3.2 nmpg, with an average of 2.8 nmpg on our trip through the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Also our nmpg varies if we are trying to arrive at a desired time, because we will increase or decrease RPM accordingly. The message here is real world conditions can make a difference in our overall efficiency/range. However in practice we do not worry about it too much. We always plan to arrive with plenty of fuel. In contrast sailboats often have to micro-manage small fuel supplies, and generally they think in terms how much time can they run their engine. In many cases they can only run their engine a fraction of their overall passage time. As such sail boaters find it easier to use the measurement of gallons per hour (gph), and often ask us our gph number. We usually say “about 2”. Yet knowing gallons per hour is only part of the equation to overall range. The trouble is gph is a very precise number. In fact we have not yet seen it change for a given RPM. But, that highly precise number has to get mixed with less precise number of speeds through sea conditions. So more accurately we try to convey that given a full load of fuel, we can do between 2400 and 3800 nautical miles depending on conditions, and we usually go about 6 knots on average, but speed can vary to 5-7 knots, sometimes more or less.

Q: I have been reading up on Karimata, and it appears that it is Malaria paradise. Did you take any Malaria precautions?
A: We took preventative malaria medicine in Flores and Timor, Indonesia, but stopped when we got to Bali since there isn’t a Malaria problem in Bali. We were not expecting to get off the boat in Karimata, so we had not taken any preventative medicine. However, the same medicine (Malrone) is used to both prevent and treat malaria, and we have a sufficient supply on board to have treated it if the need arose.

Q: Would you say A/C is essential out in the tropics?
A: Air conditioning is a very nice to have luxury. The air conditioning dries out the boat, keeping mold from being an issue. Mold is a major problem on boats without air con. Also, it gets unbearably hot and stuffy when you have to shut windows and hatches in rough seas/rain. And it rains very hard and very often in the tropics.

Q: How is it working out for you to have cabinets on the port side saloon instead of a couch?
A: Love having the cabinets on the side instead of the couch. It was a good choice. There is a lot of storage space on the boat, but most of it is difficult to access. We put our kitchen appliances and tupperware in the cabinets. Most appliances are too big to fit in the kitchen cabinets, and it would be a pain to always have to tear apart the couch every time we needed to use the blender or coffee maker. Yes, it would be nice to have a couple more seats for when we have guests, but for us, the storage space is more important than the seating. [76-79]

Once we arrived in Male, we went to see the agent to process our paperwork. Much to our chagrin, the check out fees had the extra $500 cruising permit fee that had not been disclosed, making the total fees a little over $1,000 between agent fees and government fees. We were furious that the agent had not told us about the fees up front. They said the fee is very new and when they quoted fees they didn’t know how the permit fees worked. It sounds like pretty much every boat needs one. Of course, they bought us the permit the day we arrived, and we feel we should have been informed then about it. We did see a receipt for the cruising permit and they didn’t tack on any charges beyond what the government charged them.

We also found out that in order to claim our spear gun, we’d have to take Kosmos back to the 100+ foot anchorage, anchor, get the dinghy down, and take the dinghy to the government office, go straight back to Kosmos, and leave the country right then. We told them to keep spear gun.

We went to Jade for lunch and calmed down while we waited for our paperwork to be processed. At 1430, we picked it up and were on our way. As mad as we are about the cruising permit fee, we have to give the agent credit for doing a very good job overall. They were always incredibly responsive to all of our questions and everything with check in, check out, and fueling went very smooth thanks to their help.

Underway it was actually calmer than it was in the anchorage. Winds are on our nose, but seas are not too big, and so far all is going smooth.

We are going to share our opinion of yachting in the Maldives now. When we were doing research on destinations to stop at along our route, the consensus seemed to be that Cochin, India (southwest tip) was a better stopping off point than the Maldives because the Maldives are expensive and not cruiser friendly. We often find that our assessment of a destination does not match most of the cruisers, primarily because we are a different demographic than most cruisers. So, while we carefully weigh the input of fellow cruisers, we do take it with a grain of salt. We opted for the Maldives over Cochin for a couple of reasons. One, the point of this trip is to go to exotic islands that are hard to get to by plane and, two, we wanted to go diving in the illustrious waters.

We have to say that we agree with the assessment that the Maldives is not a good cruiser destination. Tourism in this country has been carefully set up for high end package tours, and if you are not a part of one of these packages, you are basically out of luck.

As we have already said, the Maldives is made us of 1190 islands. 192 are inhabited by locals. The government strictly forbids private yachts from going to any inhabited island other than Male and Hulhumale. Resorts occupy roughly 100 islands, with more going in constantly. We have read about, been told by fellow cruisers, and personally experienced that the resorts do not welcome yachties. The resorts also control the water around their islands, so not only do they forbid you from stepping foot on their property; they also forbid you from dropping anchor in their waters. They even forbid swimming in their waters, which rules out a lot of potential dive and snorkel spots.

OK, so there aren’t many places you are allowed to take the yacht. You are relegated to either isolated sand bars or the city. There isn’t much to do in the city. The resorts control all the tourist activities in the whole country (except for 2 dive shops) and you aren’t allowed to participate in any of these activities if you are not a hotel guest. OK, so you can forget about going horse back riding or to the spa or any other fun activity you may want to do. And, for the honor of being made to feel unwelcome and restricted like crazy on what you can see and do, you have to pay literally a small fortune. $1,000 is four times what we paid in the second most expensive country we visited, Indonesia. Most of the other countries have only had nominal fees.

We would recommend that cruisers by pass the Maldives, at least Male. We have heard the other ports of entry might be easier. We want to make it clear that we are not slamming the destination as a whole. We do think the Maldives are probably a very nice destination to visit via plane on a tour package, but it is definitely not a good place to bring a private yacht.

Some more FYI’s that could affect your decision to visit the Maldives:
• The diving is good, but we have been to better spots in the world.
• Alcohol is hard to come by. Non-resort restaurants do not serve it at all (and cruisers can’t go to the resorts), and as a tourist you can only purchase a small quantity from the store (locals are not allowed to purchase alcohol at all). We are not sure how it works to buy alcohol as we did not get any while there.
• While government fees are expensive, the non-tourist places are not. Items such as food and general supplies sell for the same or just a little less than in the US.

We bit the bullet and got to work on getting ready for sea, despite the rocking. We had originally planned to leave today, but it wasn’t going to happen. There was too much to do between getting the boat ready and errands. Plus, the wind was coming from wrong direction, so it would be a rough ride. The weather forecast still said nice weather with occasional localized storms, so hopefully by tomorrow this crazy “localized storm” will have cleared up and it’ll be a nicer ride.

By late morning, the winds calmed down to the low teens, but it was still rollier than we are comfortable in. Claire from Fafner came over and changed the navigation light for us. She is a brave (or maybe crazy) girl, climbing up there in less than ideal conditions. We thought changing the light bulb would be easy, but it turned out to be something of a puzzle box getting the cover off. After sitting up there in the rocking for a long time and after lot of tries with assorted tools, Claire finally located the hidden magic screw that held the cover in place. The light bulb was quickly changed and the cover replaced. Thank you Claire!

In the afternoon, Claire and Jeff went to shore. Since Alex and Karen were staying behind, they offered to give us a ride. Even with the calmer winds, the seas were rough. Our first stop was an Internet café we heard had a fast connection, called Shell. They served food, but it was mostly pre-made food, such as pizza and lasagna, that they re-warmed. The food wasn’t very good, but the connection speed was. Eric worked on posting blogs while Christi went to a few grocery stores, the bakery, and made a few other miscellaneous stops.

Leaving the café, Christi had noticed a lot of chairs set up in the park by the government building. Later, she saw a marching band walking down the street. Still later, she could hear marching band music and saw a crowd of people surrounding the chairs that had been set up. It couldn’t have been too big an event, because school was still in session and most people went about their business and ignored the happenings in the park. But we were curious, so we went to watch for a while. From what we could surmise, it looks like it may have been some kind of competition between three different marching bands, or maybe just an exhibition by all the local marching bands. The bands were all good.

With all four of us having completed our to-do list, we headed back to our respective boats for the night.

On a side note, we have neglected to comment on the style of dress. With the exception of a handful of old men in traditional skirts, all the men wear western style clothing, mostly pants and short sleeve shirts. About 50% of the women wear head coverings and a loose fitting (though still figure flattering) long sleeve blouse that generally covers the rear end, along with long pants or a long skirt. The other 50% of the women do not wear a head cover and wear short sleeve tops with long or Capri style pants. Most people are fashionably dressed. The westerners are all in the latest trends, and the traditional Muslim outfits are usually very attractive fabrics, with matching head scarves pinned with decorative brooches.

Also of note, we see tons of women on the ferry every time we ride it, but we are not sure where they vanish to after they get off. It seems like most of the people walking around are men. It also seems that a big percentage of the people around are in their late teens to mid-thirties. Maybe people here just age incredibly well and look young, but this seems to be a very young society overall. [74]

Shortly before 1600, we were back in the dinghy on our way back to Kosmos. We saw the fuel barge at another boat, so we stopped by to ask them about our fuel and they assured us they were coming soon. The fuel barge pulled up behind us about a half hour later. It is a steel mini-tanker. They threw a rope to Eric and he tied them up behind us. Then they handed Eric the hose attached to a rope and he put it in the fuel tank. Then one of the crew jumped aboard to man the pumping. It is one of the nicest and easy fueling experiences we have ever had. We are sad to report that fuel was USD$3.50 per gallon, which is the new winner of most expensive diesel ever. But, of course oil prices are skyrocketing all over the world so we actually did ok.

Once we were done fueling, we went out for dinner and ice cream with the Fafner crew. There is a restaurant and gelato shop called Seagull on Male with good gelato. We got several liters to go. One can never have too much ice cream.

This morning the day started off according to plan. Christi started cooking up a couple dishes with the intention of freezing them for passage food. As soon as she was done, we’d head to Male to run the errands we hadn’t gotten to yesterday. It was yet another gloomy and rainy day, but most of the days here have been.

At about 1300, out of nowhere the wind picked up to 30 -35 knots. We had absolutely no shelter at all from the wind in our anchorage. The seas instantly picked up and all of a sudden it felt like we were at sea in the South Pacific again. Christi doesn’t cook when it is rough, period, so all cooking efforts were instantly abandoned. Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t much rain to go with the wind. The squall passed in about two hours and winds died down to the high teens/low twenties. Even with the reduced wind, it was still incredibly rolly and uncomfortable in the anchorage.

We are actually relieved that we were on board when it happened for a few reasons. One, we were there to deal with any emergency that may arise. There weren’t any, but we would have been a nervous wreck about “what if’s” had we been ashore. We watched other boats drag anchor and have to move to avoid hitting/being hit. It could have just as easily been us. The other reason is because the waves were violently pounding into Hulhumale’s sea wall, breaking over the top of it. Had our dinghy been tied to the sea wall, it would have likely been damaged. And even if the dinghy had been in tact, with the rough water, we’d have a hard time getting from the dinghy onto Kosmos.

Given the situation at the sea wall, we obviously couldn’t go to shore. We checked the weather. Except for a few localized storms, the weather forecast was favorable. This must be a localized storm that will pass quickly. We basically did nothing for the rest of the entire day, figuring there was no point in making the supreme effort to do things in rough seas when it would be calming down soon. But it never did.

In the evening we had our heroine and Johan over for dinner as a way to thank them both for their hospitality to us. The dinner conversation was once again fascinating and we had a wonderful time with our guests. We have to say that through these two people we have really gained a lot of insight into the culture. Since both of them had to work the next day, it wasn’t a late night. One thing worth mentioning is that school is taught in English, which is why most people’s English is so darn good. The native tongue of the land is called Dhivehi, a derivative of the Indian Sanskirt language. Another item of interest is that neither of them could explain to us the significance of yesterday’s holiday.

Today, Eric went diving with the same dive shop. Christi couldn’t go because her ear was still infected. Both were drift dives along a wall, on the west side of Male near Garbage Island (yes, the dump). The first dive had several neat overhangs with some sort of yellow plant growing on it that sharply contrasted with the dark colors along the reef. There was a very high concentration of fish. Eric saw a sting ray, moray eels, and some sort of fish with enormous orange eyes that he couldn’t find in the fish book. There was a big nose unicorn fish, which is a dark color with purple lines that was actively following one of the divers. Eric got too close to the diver and actually bumped into the fish, scaring it off. The current was slight and everyone moved along very slowly, getting to fully enjoy the scenery around them. The scenery isn’t very different from the sites we described a few days ago. Visibility was good at the first site.

The second dive had much less visibility, but once again, lots of fish and moray eels. There was one really big, fat eel that stood out amongst the rest. And he saw a scorpion fish, which are hard to spot. Towards the end of the dive, the current abruptly switched directions, which he found very strange.

Eric is extremely proud to report that on these dives he was the most efficient with air he has ever been. Back in the early days, he sucked air like crazy, and he has been slowly getting better with the air, and this was the biggest leap he has made yet.

Christi, meanwhile, went to Jade to use the internet. She ran into Peter and chatted with him for a while. She met some fellow cruisers and chatted with them. Then she decided to hit all tourist sites. As she walked along, she noticed that all the flags that had decorated the streets only a couple of days ago were completely gone. Darn it, we missed our chance at a free flag.

Conveniently enough, the tourist sites are all clustered relatively close together on the northwest side of town. The first stop was the Presidential Palace, an attractive two story house sort of along the lines of what you would see in an upscale California neighborhood. It is surrounded by a fence. She didn’t go up and try the gate to see if it was unlocked, but the gate was definitely shut tight and there was no activity whatsoever going on within the grounds, so she assumed it was closed.

The next spot she went to is called Mulee-aage. It was originally built for a prince, and with the end of the monarchy, became the presidential palace until the new one was built. It is a cute one story bungalow painted in red, white and blue. It also looked to be ominously closed.

She went to a historic mosque built in 1656 called Hukuru Miskiiy. There is a big sign in front saying non-Muslims are not allowed. This wasn’t too surprising, since many mosques do not allow non-Muslim visitors, which is why we so rarely comment about visiting a mosque. She peeked over the wall and saw a building that looks a lot like an ancient church with an adjoining graveyard.

Across the street from the Hukuru Miskiiy mosque is the tomb of Abu-al Barakaat, the person credited to converting the Maldives to Islam and a former sultan. The tomb is housed in a small, low blue and white building that looked very closed. Man, talk about striking out!

The next stop was the Sultan’s park, a pretty garden that houses a small national museum in one of the corners. The park was open and the museum was open, too! Finally, success! The entrance fee was around USD$2.50. The smallest bill she had on her is roughly equivalent to USD$40 and they didn’t have enough change, so they sent her away and told her to come back with smaller bills. So close….

The next place listed in the directory is the Islamic Center, directly across the street from the park. This is a large building with the standard dome and minuet in the corners. The sign said non-Muslim visitors welcome when it is not prayer time. Yippee! Like churches, some mosques have ultra fancy decor and some are very plain. This mosque is definitely classy and elegant, and not overly decorated. The steps up to and the area around the sanctuary is all white marble. The windows are covered with matching carved wooden overlays in a repeating 8 pointed star design that lets in plenty of light. The interior of the worship area is located under the dome and is probably four stories high. It is carpeted with a red and black carpet. The décor is mostly some type of Arabic writing in gold. There are stained glass windows high up that cast down a soft light.

Christi chatted with a cleric about the fundamentals of Islam until it was time to meet Eric back at the dive shop. We went to Jade to use the internet and eat a late lunch. We bumped into two cruising couples there. Both had just checked out of the country and were heading off to dinner, so we invited ourselves along, despite the fact that we had just eaten. One of the couples had used the same agent as we had and was complaining bitterly about how the agent had tacked on all kinds of service fees that had not been previously disclosed.

They were also mad about having to pay the new $500 cruising permit fee when they never left the anchorage. They had arrived before the new fee went into effect at the beginning of this month, but had to pay it since they checked out after the fee had been instituted, despite not cruising to anywhere. Fafner had already warned us about this new fee. They had not initially used an agent for check in, though they eventually needed to get one to extend their stay beyond three days. When Fafner checked in, the officials had told them there was a new cruising permit fee of $500 for leaving the designated anchorage. Our agent had not said a word to us about this new fee, so we thought maybe we were exempt because we had contacted the agent well before the beginning of the month to arrange our entry paperwork. But now we wondered if we would have to pay this fee, too?

Our new friends had heard from other private yachts that checked into the country at places other than Male that no cruising permit fee was charged to them, and no agent required, so their fees were quite small. The low cost in the other ports of the Maldives made our new friends even more mad about the permit and agent fees.

The restaurant we went to is called Sala Thai and the food was good. We did not order anything special, it was mostly fun talking with fellow cruisers about their experiences.

After lunch, the guys stayed and played on the internet while the women went grocery shopping. The market was farther west than we had explored on Friday, but except for a couple fancy government buildings and a park area in front of one of the government buildings, everything looked much the same as we had seen the other day.

They passed a tourist shop where the owner beckoned them in. We had never gotten a Maldives courtesy flag, so Christi asked what on would cost. The two shopkeepers said USD$30.00. The truth was we were contemplating stealing one of the zillions off the street, and weren’t ready to buy just yet. She just wanted to know out of curiosity. She started to walk off. The guys called her back to bargain. She said “My husband said I could only spend $10 on a flag, so if it is more than that, he will have to come back with me.” The two guys both said “you are a very good wife” and left Christi alone.

The store they went to is called Fantasy and is small, but surprisingly well stocked for such a small and uncluttered store. A block away is Fantasy Bakery, which was filled with yummy looking delicacies.

As we walked along, we kept a keen eye out for any possible signs of a celebration of some sort for today’s National Day holiday. As far as we could tell, nothing was going on. Johan had told us nothing would be happening today, but one can still hope to be lucky enough to be able to participate in a special local holiday tradition.

Karen and Alex had bought perishables, so they needed to head back to Fafner right away. Christi returned to Jade to collect the men. After a short discussion, Christi and Eric decided we were tired from yesterday’s late night, so we said our goodbyes to Mike and rushed off to the ferry to catch the incoming boat. Mike said he was going to go sightseeing for a couple hours, then would head over to the airport.

Back at Kosmos, Eric told Christi to unlock the door. Christi told Eric he had the key. Eric said “No, you have the key.” Then suddenly a bad feeling washed over us. Mike was the one who last locked the door, meaning chances are Mike had the key. Uh-oh. We pulled everything out of our backpacks. No key. We tried calling Mike on his cell a couple times to see if he had it, but the call wouldn’t go through. Shoot.

When Mike was figuring out his transportation to the airport, he was irritated to find out that, even though the airport is on Hulhumale, he wasn’t allowed to go to the airport via the road. The only way he was allowed to arrive was on a special ferry from Male. It seemed ridiculous that he had to take a ferry from Hulhumale to Male, get off the ferry, get on the ferry next door, then go back to Hulhumale, but time and again he was told that was his only option.

We hopped back in the dinghy and arrived at the Hulhumale terminal to find out we had just missed the ferry. Between the four ferry rides it would take to get to the airport and back and the wait time in between ferries, it would take a solid three to four hours to retrieve the key. And that was assuming we could even find Mike in the airport, which may not happen if he had already gone through the security checkpoint before we arrived. There had to be some way to get to the airport via the road. We asked the ferry cashier and she said there was no way to take the road. Argh.

Just then, we noticed a beautiful, petite young woman in professional attire walking past us towards the exit. She’s the kind of woman you look at a second time, and at the second glance, we saw that clipped to her lapel was a badge that said “AIRPORT” in big letters. Bingo. We asked her how to get into the airport via the road. She said only employees were allowed. We explained the situation and asked if there was any way an exception could be made. She said she would get the key for us. She immediately got on her cell phone and started making calls.

We all piled into a taxi and took the road to the gate to the airport, where the guard stopped us. We explained the situation and he said he couldn’t allow us in, but he could call the airline to ask them to get the key from Mike and hold it for us. That sounded good to us. Even though four hours of ferries wasn’t appealing, we would feel better knowing the key was waiting for us and hadn’t flown away before we could get there. The only problem was we weren’t sure of the airline or the flight time. We thought it was Singapore Air, but there was no flight that matched Mike’s destination. Shoot. While we were talking to the guard, our heroine (who shall remain nameless because we don’t know if she would get in trouble for helping us out) paid the cab fare and sent him off.

Just then, Mike called us. He had gone through security and found the key. His cell phone wasn’t working and he was calling us from a pay phone. And he was on Bangkok Air, so we were way off. Our heroine told Mike to take the key to her friend in a certain department, then called her friend back and told him the key was coming. Several minutes passed and we got a call from her friend saying the key had not arrived. Uh oh. Thank God, Mike called a few minutes later and told us he had dropped the key off somewhere else. Our heroine called her friend and had him run across the airport to retrieve it. We were so relieved to know the key wasn’t leaving the country.

At that point, we were ready to go back to the ferry terminal and for the 4 hour key schlep. But our heroine was insistent that she would bring the key to us and we didn’t need to go and get it. We had not realized just how far the distance was from where we were to the terminal, or that there were multiple check points. She spent quite a bit of time coordinating a relay of people and vehicles to run it from the terminal through the assorted check points to where we were waiting at the gate. She even enlisted the help of some employee who was waiting at the gate for his friend so they could head home together. The friend arrived within minutes, but the guys patiently waited until our heroine got the call that the person had made it to the check point closest to us. She hopped on the back of his scooter and they sped off, coming back a few minutes later with key in hand. The guys on the scooters waved and sped off as we yelled thank you to their retreating figures.

We were speechless and humbled by the whole string of events. A whole slew of people had jumped through ridiculous hoops to get a key to a couple of strangers who meant nothing to them. And the crazy thing is that we would never even see most of the players involved in the key rescue mission and never would have a chance to say thank you to them. Even the guys on the scooters probably didn’t hear the “thank you” over the roar of the engines.

As a thank you, we invited our heroine out to dinner. She called a cab and we went back to her apartment on Hulhumale, where she lives with her parents and some siblings. We hadn’t walked around Hulhumale yet. From what we saw, the majority of Hulhumale is vacant land scattered with trees, with only a few buildings, such as the ferry terminal, around. However, on the north east corner of the island is a cluster of development. There are few dozen apartment complexes that are three and four story and a handful of commercial buildings that are two and three stories, and a mosque. Since it was dark and we didn’t tour the entire area, we are not sure what else is around. All the buildings in this cluster are brand new and nice. The complexes have big yards, the roads and sidewalks are very wide, and there is a lot of construction going on. It is abundantly clear from the systematic look of the development that the urban planners have a master plan for this island and are working on making this the new urban hub.

Our heroine invited us in and had us wait in the living room while she changed. Each wall that we could see is painted a different color and the effect is bright and cheery. It is also a stark contrast to Johan’s place, which is all gleaming white, but equally cheerful. There were several chairs, a computer on a small computer desk, and a TV that was tuned into Islamic prayers.

She changed quickly and we walked a couple blocks to a new restaurant that she had not yet tried. The food was pretty good. We really enjoyed our time with her, learning a lot about the life and culture of Maldivians. Our heroine says that it was destiny that we met, because she normally takes the road home. She had just happened to go to visit a friend in Male after work, which is why she was getting off the ferry when she did. It was highly unusual for her to be at the ferry terminal when she was. We tend to agree that our meeting was destiny. In the month Mike was with us, he often locked the door and had always handed the key over. Today was the first time he had ever held onto the key.

The first dive site turned out to be very close to the resort we had been rejected from yesterday. The ride out there was rocky and wet from the rain and rough seas. The site is called Magivi Rock. We all geared up and hopped in. After much arguing and insisting, the dive master relented and gave Christi 10 kilos of weight. Christi’s allergies had mildly bothered her all day yesterday, and still continued to bother her this morning. As expected, it was a very slow descent because of the difficulty clearing her ears.

The primary dive site is actually a rock 90 feet under the water, then from the rock you head up a gentle slope with coral up to the surface. The site is really nice. The visibility wasn’t South Pacific phenomenal, but it was pretty good. Definitely better than the Andamans. As soon as we started to descend, we could see there were thousands of little blue fish with sideways looking fins, oddly enough called redtooth triggerfish. Later the dive leader told us they were juveniles, probably only recently hatched.

Down at the bottom, we saw a very large multi-colored triggerfish, a large tuna, and a crayfish or slipper lobster right off the bat. We also saw some grouper, in more of the natural brown tones with some brighter colors amongst the brown. As we rounded the corner to the other side of the rock, we saw an enormous school of blue lined snapper. We have seen these fish all over, but never knew their name before.

There was also a school of small silvery fish swimming in very tight formation. There were a lot of anemones around, and this variety is a little different than any we have seen before, but of course, just as graceful and pretty. The little orange clownfish hovering around it are called Maldives amenonefish. We also saw a few black eyed rabbit fish and a guineafowl puffer.

We are pleased to report that the dive guide took us at a very slow speed, so we had plenty of time to look in the nooks and crannies, where we saw lionfish and eels. There are a wide variety of corals, including fan coral, daisy coral, mushroom coral, and many more. The coral was colorful, but not as colorful as we have seen some other places.

With all the wind, it was much colder out of the water than in. The dive company gave us some cookies and we froze as we waited for enough time to tick by so we could get back in the nice, warm water. Christi had felt like she was over weighted with 10 kilos and dropped down to 8 for the next dive, which got some serious “I told you so”s from the professionals on board.

The second dive site was even closer to where Kosmos was anchored and is called Banana Reef. This was a wall and another nice site. Once again, Christi had a very hard time with her ears. We saw quite a few batfish and grouper. We also saw a few banner fish that have the funny nodules in their head.

We saw a couple tuna. The highlight was a large Napoleon Wrasse swimming alongside a large eel. We rarely see eels out of their holes, so this odd swimming pair was quite an amazing site. We saw a few more eels in their holes, a red pincushion starfish, and one of those caterpillar looking sea slugs in purple, a color we have not seen before. We also saw a new type of surgeonfish that we couldn’t find in our fish book that has bright yellow accents. There were quite a few oriental sweetlips and lots of little red fish. We think the red fish are soldierfish, but they could be rabbit fish, or maybe some of both. We see them lots of places, too, and there are generally a couple of similar varieties swimming together. And a unicorn fish. And a young adult yellow box fish, which is olive in color.

Once again, there was a large variety of coral and some nice colors. Unfortunately, it was a short dive. It took Christi forever to get down, then Mike ran out of air very quickly, and since we all stuck together, we weren’t under very long. After we came up, the others saw an octopus hiding in a niche in the wall, and we have put in the picture because it is cool. We think he looks like Fat Albert’s friend from that angle. We included a couple more cool shots, one of an interesting six pointed starfish and one of Johan swimming alongside a large fish that we never identified.

Before and in between the dives, we had chatted with two different men who did not know one another, Peter and Johan. Both were taking photos, and when we asked them if we could get copies of their photos, Johan invited us back to his apartment for a picture sharing party. Johan has a nice apartment in one of the narrow “high rises” on the west side of the island. His windows overlook the bay where we waited for customs, and from the rooftop patio we could see almost all of Male. From up high, it was clear that our original assessment that the city is jam packed was accurate. Virtually every square inch that is not a road or a park has a building of some sort on it. There are no American suburbia type houses with big yards, that is for sure! And we were also right about the construction. We could see the construction crews working away on the new buildings.

It turns out the two men have a lot in common. Both do international aid work and both are diving enthusiasts. They are both fascinating to talk to. Both have worked both with the poorest people in the world and in the middle of war zones, sometimes both, and have a different perspective on life than anyone else we have ever talked to. Somehow our quick visit turned into a late night in what seemed like the blink of an eye. We reluctantly left shortly after 2300 (11:00 pm) only because we were worried the ferry might stop at midnight. The bad news is that as the night wore on, it was clear to Christi that she had an ear infection.

By the way, as you may have guessed, the photos in this post are compliments of Peter and Johan. And, while we are on the topic, Mike took several of the photos in the last couple of posts. And, we forgot to mention that Omar took most of the photos in the Hong Kong posts and many of the photos featured in our Singapore posts. Thanks to everyone who helps with the photos!

We took the ferry over to Male at about 0900. The plan was to go back to the Sea House for breakfast because they are a wi-fi hot spot. We could check e-mail while eating. Then we would set out in search of the dive shop and do some sight seeing.

We got off the ferry and headed upstairs. The restaurant was closed until 1330 (1:30 pm). We wandered down a very short and incredibly narrow road walking toward Relax Hotel, noticing that every business on the street was closed. We had heard the food at the hotel was good, and being a hotel, they would likely be open. The menu was huge, with lots of international choices. The food was OK and they didn’t have a wi-fi connection.

Once we were done eating, we set out to do some sightseeing. Male is different from any place we have ever been to before. The closest comparison we can come up with is a very old European town. The roads are paver stone. The main roads, such as the one the ferry terminal is on, can hold two cars. The side streets varied from being one and half cars wide, to one car, to barley wide enough for a scooter. Wider streets have narrow sidewalks along them. Narrow streets have no sidewalk. There are a zillion scooters everywhere. Just about every street is lined from end to end with parked scooters. The few cars on the road seemed to be mostly taxis.

The buildings are literally right on top of one another, with most sharing common walls. There are quite a few low buildings around, more than we had realized from the distance. There were a lot of buildings under construction, too, all of them tall. Since it is the Sabbath, we couldn’t tell for sure if the construction is actively on-going, but we got a definite sense all these buildings will be all completed soon. We could be wrong, but we got the impression that the low buildings are older and that they are slowly being torn down to accommodate the high rises that are predominate around town. It looks like most streets are a mix of residential and commercial. Low rise residential buildings have big walls around them and, in peeking through a few gates, it looks like there are tiny courtyards with several residences within each set of walls. Most of the high rises look as if they are incredibly narrow, and we guess the lower ones must be narrow, too. Many of the streets are lined with mature trees rooted in tiny planters at the side of the road. Most of the shops are small specialty stores, and looking in the windows, there is a definite sophisticated mall feel to the stores, not a mom and pop feel. Every single business was closed. Every one.

There were quite a few people out and about, the vast majority of them men. After wandering the streets of town for a while, we headed to the west shore. There is a man made beach there, with a walled off swimming area, similar to the Children’s Beach in La Jolla. There seemed to be a lot of people swimming, especially kids.

As we continued on, we saw the rest of the shore was covered in funny concrete cones that look like giant jacks. Here is a photo of one that was made into a monument thanking the Japanese for providing the breakwaters for the shoreline.

We passed a park where boys were playing cricket. We rounded the corner and followed the south shore, eventually coming to another walled off swimming area that seemed to be for just men, and a marina. On the other side of the street is the diesel power plant, the prison, and a few more non-descript buildings.

At this point we had been walking for almost two hours. It was really hot. We decided to cut through town back towards the ferry and hopefully spot one of the elusive dive shops along the way. Not too far from the terminal, we asked someone for directions to the dive shops. One of them was close to the terminal, the other the opposite direction. We set out for the one near the terminal. And, boy, was it near the terminal, all right! Directly across the street, in the low buildings we had mentioned in yesterday’s post. Guess we took the long way.

Not surprisingly, the dive shop was closed. We took down the phone numbers, but figured there would be no answer given the Sabbath. We went across the street to the ferry, figuring we would head over to the resort near Kosmos to inquire about diving. Shortly before reaching the dive shop, prayer time had started. We could hear the prayers bellowing from the near by mosque over their loudspeaker. Inside the terminal, we found out that they do not sell tickets while prayers are going on. We waited a half hour for prayers to end, and then asked when the next ferry would be. 1330, when the service was completely over. OK. Now we understand why the restaurant upstairs opened at 1330.

We decided to get lunch upstairs and use the internet before heading to the resort, and we were waiting at their door when Sea House opened. We ordered some food and asked about internet. The waiter looked at us blankly. A local young gentleman sitting next to us explained that the procedure to buy internet time was via your local cell phone. Hmm… we had no local cell phone. After hearing we had no phone, he immediately offered to help us out and bought the time for us using his cell phone. Talk about a helpful person! The wi-fi service is cheap, costing less than $3.00 for two hours, and the speed was OK. Certainly not high speed, but not painfully slow, either. Within 45 minutes, the restaurant was jam packed, mostly with men.

With food in our bellies and vital internet stuff taken care of, we took the ferry back to Hulhumale, then jumped in Kosmopolitan to go to the near by resort. We neared the hotel’s dock and a security guard came over to us. We explained that we wanted to go diving. The guard told us “Not allowed” over and over and made us leave. This came as no surprise to us since it is exactly the way other cruisers report being treated by most of the resorts in the country. On the way back to Kosmos we saw a turtle happily swimming along, but as soon as we got close, he dove deep.

Once on board Kosmos, we called the number for the dive shop in Male, not really expecting them to answer. We were delighted when someone answered and said to be at their shop at 0900 in the morning. Yay! Mission accomplished!