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| Auto-color in Photoshop gave this a weird look, but it's better than the original, washed out underwater camera coloring. |
Before we got to the Maldives, the few recent reports we read were not particularly positive. 'It's expensive.' 'The coral is dead.' 'You can't go where you want.' Of course, the most recent reports were from cruising friends and acquaintances that were here in 2020, which was a bad time for everyone.
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| The dodgy pier at the abandoned resort at Dholhiyadhoo |
Sometimes we play a game at
dinner where we say how much we think our entree would cost if we bought it in
a restaurant in the States (have I mentioned that we don't have a TV?).
Yesterday, Matt made a lobster risotto and we threw out some numbers, then settled on 'Market
Price' because of the lobster. It was good but could have benefited from some white wine.
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| Sachiyo looking like she's seen better days. But this was the best we ever saw her. |
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| Look! A sail! |
We made it to the Maldives, a year behind schedule. As we were checking out of Sri Lanka, our agent gave us our port clearance document and said, 'You're going to the Maldives so it's very important that you have this because they're all Muslim there.' We're still scratching our heads over that one (for the record, just about every place you go wants a clearance document from your last port).
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| You never know when you'll see a random cow |
We're about a week or so away from leaving Galle, after over ten months here. We have been fortunate to have a relatively safe place to weather a lot of the pandemic, but are definitely ready to move on.
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| 'Red Dog' is one of our favorites |
Dogs here in Sri Lanka seem to have it better than in many of the non-First World countries we visited. Maybe it's the predominantly Buddhist culture, but people don't seem to mistreat them as readily.
Galle Port gets a lot of cement and cargo ships of various sizes, but we were surprised to see this ferry pull up a couple weeks ago. It is brand-new and was on its way from its birthplace in Vietnam to its final home in Trinidad and Tobago.