25 March Male

It was a hot day and we had a list of wants and needs to find in the metropolis of Male. After the quiet and peace of the atolls Male is an assault on your senses. Motorbikes dash, weave and charge along the narrow roads and you have to keep out of their way. Cars dash, weave and charge through the motorbikes. Shop owners invite you to come in and look at their gaudy souvenirs. And it is hot. We needed two new pillar valves for our steel air tanks and by asking at the first dive shop we were directed to a supplier. He had the correct parts and the first item was ticked. Then we visited all of the chandleries, and there are quite a few, Volvo Penta dealer for instrument bulbs, an electrical relay, filter shop for diesel filters, the water maker dealer had the correct Italian pressure gauge for our system. We were amazed and grateful to find so many specialist shops in this, relatively, small and distant island. It's a reflection of the importance of boats and diving to the country's economy. You can find things here and the prices are in line with Thailand or better. There are pharmacies where you can restock the medicine box without needing a prescription. I renewed our generic antibiotics and ear, nose, throat treatments. At the fishing tackle shop David bought enough tuna hooks and lures to last for six months. Now there are fish in the sea to catch we need to be prepared.

Close to the fishing tackle shop is the fish market. As a welcome change to our last visit over a decade ago there were no shark fins for sale. The fisherman have agreed to no longer catch sharks. Their reason is keep the sharks and the yellow fin tunas are more plentiful. I also suspect it is more sharks equals more divers equals more tourist revenue. The yellow fin tunas are all line caught – nets are illegal – and are big.

yellow fin tuna for the fish market

fishing boat harbour at sunset

Across the road at the fruit market I bought what I could. In a country of sand atolls there is minimal local produce apart from coconuts and bananas so everything has to be imported. I believe most comes from India and Sri Lanka which means limited range and higher costs than compared to SE Asia. The exotic is available at select stores at sometimes eye watering prices.

In Male all the shops close at midday for prayer and reopen at 1.30pm giving us a long break for lunch. We discovered the air conditioned Lemongrass 5^th restaurant next door to the Seagull cafe does a buffet lunch of local and European food for MVR 120 / £6 a head drinks included. The food was excellent, plentiful and the service very good.

It was a handy three day stay in Hulhumale; Jackster stayed safe, our dive kit supplemented with new parts, food stocks replenished and diesel and petrol topped off.