We left Kuala Lumpur in the evening of October 24 on our way to Maldives. We arrived in Male at 8:00pm. Since we are staying in Hulumale, we arranged a pick up by the hotel we will be staying. We met with the driver at the airport and headed to the hotel for check-in. After check in we went straight to bed.
On October 25 we took the local ferry from Hulumale to Male, the capital of the Maldives. We walked around the city until we found the local market and the fish market. There was a lot of things happening in the area, the fisherman come with boats full of fish to sell to the locals; they also sell them at the fish market where you can have the fish clean and fillet. The skills of the guys filleting the fish are amazing, they can convert a 45Kg tuna into several fillets in 5 minutes… what the video filleting a small tuna!
After the market we headed to visit the Islamic Centre and Friday Mosque. We met a local guy who showed us a nice restaurant for lunch… after taking us to a souvenir shop where we did not buy anything.
After lunch we headed to the National museum. There is a nice collection of artefacts found through the Maldives, as well as things like the first generator used in Male.
We then walked to the ferry terminal to find out the schedule for the local ferry going to Rasdhoo, the first island we will be visiting. We crossed the island on foot, which took just over 20 minutes. Unfortunately there is no other way to get that information, even the info online is wrong so we needed to be sure. After getting the information in the ferry terminal we visited the Tsunami Monument, a memorial for all the victims of the 2004 tsunami.
After a lot of walking around the city, dealing with lots of motorcycles driving like crazy (well, not as much as in Vietnam) we took the ferry back to the hotel.
It was a good experience to see Male, however it is just another busy city. It does not have too much to see or do, other than the fish market, the mosque and the museum there is nothing else.