Saturday February 14th, 2026 Queen Anne, Malé, Maldives
- Neil Wylie
- Jan 1
- 4 min read
Not wanting to miss the opportunity catch a tender boat, as occurred in the Seychelles, we made sure to be first in line this morning and boarded the first tender to leave the ship. The Maldives is a unique country consisting of 26 atolls stretched across the equator and an average land height of less than 5 feet above sea level: it’s the smallest country in Asia. Many of the tiny atolls are the location for beach resorts with small hotels and cabanas on stilts over the water. Two tiny islands that do not contain resorts are Malé and the adjacent Hulhumalé, the latter hosts the airport, and it is connected the Malé via an elevated roadway. Seen from the ship the island of Malé looks like some kind of shrunken Manhattan: the entire small island is built up with low rise structures, right to the water’s edge – amazingly it’s one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
All of the excursions offered by the ship involved a boat trip out to one of the island resorts; there was a time when that would have appealed to us but nowadays we much prefer to explore the history and culture of a city. So we took the short 10 minute tender ride over to the Malé where the facilities were much improved compared to the Seychelles, with the ability to dock 2 or 3 tenders at a time.
The dockside was alive with activity with many ancient looking boats loading or unloading goods – mostly fresh produce: bananas, potatoes, fish. All the workers seemed to be carrying something while trying to avoid colliding with the few tourists brave enough to get in their way. Even though it was still relatively early in the day the temperature was already beginning to feel a touch oppressive. At the end of the dock area we found a market consisting of several sheds jammed with stalls selling many of the food items we’d seen being unloaded from the boats. The aisles inside were extremely narrow, but we managed to squeeze in and take in the atmosphere: the merchants shouting loudly, the aroma of produce blending with faint scents of sweat and spices. Across the street we found the fish market and while we usually like to explore these places, the smell of this market was a bit excessive, so we gave a wide berth.
The Bandaara Mosque sits peacefully on a quiet side street away from the docks. Although all the doors stood open, no one was present to give us permission to enter, so we simply admired the building from outside. Across the street from the mosque, Sandra spotted a modern shopping complex – brightly lit, it promised the relief of air conditioning. The STO People’s Choice store turned out to be a supermarket come appliance outlet with powerful air conditioning and a convenient seating area.
Some of the side streets in Malé were really quite nice with trees and modern cobbles, though the quaintness is somewhat reduced by the thousands for motorcycles and scooters that appear to be the main mode of transportation on the island. It reminded me a lot of Penang Island in Malaysia many years ago when I would visit for my job; over the years as the economy on Penang developed the motorcycles were replaced by cars leading to even more congestion as the road system could not keep up. Looking at Malé, if it follows the same trend as Penang, I think the congestion will be even worse as it has far fewer roads that can support car traffic.
I had read good online reviews of the Seagull Café and as we rounded a corner, there it was. It wasn’t yet lunch time, but we needed a cooling beverage, and the Seagull was a good spot for a quick stop; sitting in an outdoor patio area with a cooling fan blowing over a small pot of burning incense we relaxed with drinks and pastries.
The National Museum was housed in an imposing, fortress like building – we had planned a visit, but it appeared to be closed, or we couldn’t find the right entrance; online reviews were mixed so I don’t think we missed much. Sultan Park was adjacent to the museum, but it too was closed – it looked to be under renovation. A bit disappointing to have two of the items on our rough itinerary be unavailable.
As we headed back to the dock area, we passed Republic Square, inaugurated in 1989, it is a central landmark known for its large, prominent Maldivian flag, lush greenery, and proximity to the Presidential Jetty – today serving as our tender jetty.
Later in the afternoon, back on the ship, I noticed a gigantic plume of black smoke emanating from a small fishing vessel that appeared to be in some distress. I saw a few other boats milling around the stricken vessel and hoped they had managed to offload the crew. I never saw any fire boat or other emergency vessel respond to the incident, maybe it’s a regular occurrence – though I’d like to think not.
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