The Dutch are blind, and the Chinese are deaf...

CAN YOU HEAR ME?...DO I HAVE TO YELL LOUDER?  I DON'T KNOW IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, BUT I THINK THE CHINESE HAVE GONE DEAF!  WHY ARE THEY ALWAYS YELLING AT EACH OTHER...CAN'T WE JUST NOT YELL?  THEY MUST BE DEAF...I'M NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF THIS YELLING I CAN DO...IT'S LIKE TRYING TO TALK TO MY BUDDY LUF...BUT I THINK HE JUST IGNORES ME!  ANYWAY, WE GOT INTO HONG KONG THIS MORNING AT 6:20 AM...WENT THROUGH THE IMMIGRATION LINE WHERE EVERYONE YELLED AT EACH OTHER...THEN GOT IN A CAB AND THE DRIVER YELLED AT US, AND WE STARTED YELLING AT HIM...IT WAS A YELL-FEST! ANYWAY, NOT TOO MUCH TO REPORT TODAY...HAD LUNCH WITH ALEXA AND TRISTAN, DIDN'T YELL...GOT A PIC OF A COOL BUILDING...

 ...COOL AND HAZY IN HONG KONG.  I LIKE THE PLUMBING THEY DO HERE...EASY TO SEE WHEN THERE'S PROBLEM...

...SEE WHAT I MEAN...

...TOMORROW WILL BE EASIER...I'LL GIVE MY VOICE A REST...SEE YA!

Another last day...Maldives this time...

We are an hour from boarding the plane to Hong Kong, and I thought I could get the post done.  Capital city of The Maldives is Male...pronounced Molly...why they insist on spelling it wrong I have no idea.  Anyway, first place I've been to that was airport on one side, marina on the other!

...those are the boats that brought us back from the island we were on...Bandos.  We did a little exploring in Male this afternoon...Muslim everything...lots of women who looked like they were about to rob a bank...but didn't as far as I know.  Here is one of the big mosques behind a big tree...

...here's Cassandra heading into the national museum...

...the Chinese gov't donated the museum...nice ceiling...

...couldn't spend any time in a city without going to a market with Cassandra...anyone know what this stuff is?

...and I know Luf knows what this is...

...some of the people looked like this...

 ...we had tea at a cafe overlooking the port...

...then went to the old Muslim graveyard...

 ...got a little tired, so we took one of these back to the airport...

...they have soooo much perfect sand here that they dump it out by the airport to get rid of it!

...and this shot doubles as the sunset, and the town ferry...

...now, the Red Eye to Hong Kong!

5 days remaining...

Yep, 5 days left on this trip...2 more here, 3 in Hong Kong, then home sweet home.  This has been a really good trip...we loved Sri Lanka, and it was exciting to see the people's reaction to the new government.  The Maldives has been wonderful in its own right...although today was kind of rough out on the ocean...no snorkeling today!

  ...that's the breakwater for the resort...those lamps are about 8' high, and the breakwater is about 30' wide at that point.  They hit the wall with enough force to wash all the way over! A couple of flowers on our way to and from meals...

...so we are at the second last sunset for The Maldives...not a bad one...

History of The Maldives...lesson 4...the Seahawks shoulda won!

 One bad play call can cost you the Superbowl...and it did...CRAP!!!!
I was feeling kinda low, so I tried to pick a fight with this fish from San Jose...

...took one look at TLD, and ran...well, swam...chickenshit!...

...I'm friendly with the smaller guys...

 ...on land, there are many nice flowers...

 ...and lizards...

...but when you look towards the ocean...it looks like this...

...and here is Cassandra doing a painting...

...why is that little kid spanking his monkey?  Tomorrow is another day...

The History of The Maldives...lesson 2...Gangsters of The Maldives

There were none.

Lesson 3...Fish
There are several kinds of fish in The Maldives.  There are little fish, little to medium sized fish, medium sized fish, medium to big sized fish, and big fish.  Normally, that would be the end of the lesson, because it's not history...and I'm ALL about the historic-like stuff!  But in this case, I happen to be (as you've already noticed) somewhat of an expert on fish!  First, this is the water the fish live in...taken from underneath it...no, this is NOT MAGIC!...

Cassandra got, at great expense to TLD, an underwater camera for Christmas.  I've learned, at greater expense to TLD, that not all cameras can go under the water...well, actually they can but they're not worth shit afterwards. Anyways, here's a fish...

...and by comparison, the lovely Cassandra...

...it's pretty easy to tell them apart because people can't really go under the water unless they are frogpeople...in Seahunt days, they called them frogmen...I called in some Navy Seals so you could see the difference...

...Navy Seals love TLD because I'm such a manly man!  Anyway, here are some little fish...

...and these are little to medium sized fish...

...ok...ok...I'll slow down...that's a lot of information all at one time.  Let's recap...water, fish...got it?  Here's some medium sized fish...

HA!...tricked ya!  That's something else that grows down there...the latin name is "Bigmuthafanlikething"...you don't have to remember the name...just a little TLD humour...hahahahahaha...I crack myself up!  Ok, serious now...

...this is the giant hurdygurdy fish...about 12' (ya, feet!) long...that would be sort of the medium to big sized fish.  Now this is one of my favourites...

...the ruby finned willywanker...and this is a shot Cassandra got...

...believe it or not, that is one fish...the Siamese Piranha...tear you to bits!  This is the Dutch Seeing-Eyed Blind as a Batfish...

...ok, ok...it's too much for one day, isn't it?  Here's some more, but there won't be a test...

 ...tomorrow...well, I haven't planned that far ahead yet...get over it.