An Italian connecting flight is late so our 2.20am flight to Male' [pronounced Maaley and spelt with trailing apostrophe] is delayed 'til after 4am. The destinations board shows two flights to Male and Colombo in Sri Lanka with similar numbers both delayed by the same amount. The announcement was for the Colombo flight via Male'. Sadly the menu on the plane first revealed the truth, it's the Male' flight via Colombo. So, a bonus hour sat on the ground at Colombo. Surprisingly, to me, less than 5% of the passengers are for Male', the plane sits quite empty as a swarm of cleaners do their thing.
At the strikingly unbuzy Male' International Airport [there's room for two planes] I delay everyone by requiring some quality toilet time then filling the immigration form in wrongly. We end up with a personal immigration service.
Outside comes the first test of our how-to-live-and-eat-on-our-own round the world. It turns out that most of the little kiosks [just outside the arrivals hall] are for pre-book pickups and we end up negotiating with the two "travel agents" for three hours over a holiday for 15 nights. We finally settle on 7 nights boat safari and 4 nights in [each of] two resorts. The boat includes two dives a day, the resorts do not. I feel especially pleased that I failed to move them from their chosen price -- almost exactly what we bugetted, some US$ 2100 -- although we did get some transfer concessions [US$ 40+ per person between islands] and I avoided their 5% levy on credit cards. Somehow, high season started the day before we arrived and everything doubled in price. I am relying on the threat of [punitive] Sharia Law to keep these men honest. On the other hand all we have [to show for our money] are some handwritten slips and their word. It's not enormously reassuring.
We get transferred by dhoni (simple covered barges) to Male' to get some wetsuits organised -- which we don't seem to pay for -- then a few moments shopping, on advice, for some cheap T-shirts for snorkelling, we get two for US$ 1 each. Then off to the Blue Shark Two which seems quite comfortable. Quite comfortable indeed.
The only issue appears to be that it is managed by a Japanese woman and Maldivian staff who don't speak much English. Simple pointing and gesturing is good enough to pass on the message that shoes are not allowed inside...
A simple dinner and the new customers don't arrive by 10pm so we retire to catch up on sleep.
Blue Shark Two, anchored at N4.21766
E73.53293 Elev. 24m! 
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.