Island hopper's diary

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Agaley

http://www.agaley.blogspot.com/
Please say hi.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Random Reflexions

My favorite writer chooses my photo... for his blog.
Check out Simon Shareef's writing at http://www.randomreflexions.com/

Hopper's first underwater experience.

My camera is inside a water-proof bag.
Thanks Elvis.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

From a secret meeting...
after a photo outing at Villigili Island. Coffee break actually. We used to call it secret meeting, just for fun.
From here discussions on various topics may take place.

This is a small part of UM group of Flickr.
John is heading this meeting. Clockwise... Azzu, Muha, Kekuri, Mans pic, and Iyshi.
On the other side... Mode, Ibu Mohd, Juman, Millzero...
Some people hidden from view... Sunie, Andhu, GeniDark, Maapu and a few others I can't recall names.
An experimental photo.

Lifestyles Series. 001

First a list of what I see in the photo. The story follows, maybe in parts.
Iron board, clockwise and hidden from view, Dresser, folding table, sewing centre, play centre, entertainment and tv, pc and study, laundry, cupboards and various storage, make shift bed, wardrobe...

Living is a bit crowded in this house. Originally started when the parents moved in with their Seven children... 3 featured here. So the house was equally divided into 8 rooms of 12x12 feet. One extra room for parents.

Unlike humans, houses don't grow in size here in Maldives. But they do divide. Both for practical reasons and convenience. However things get a bit complicated when the children decided to get married. And started their own small families. With their own little children.

Now each of the 8 rooms is itself a complete house. Each with their own appliances, furniture and children to dwell inside.
35 People live in this congested combined house of 8 rooms. Typical in the capital Maale, one of the most crowded places on earth.

Seen here, preparing breakfast for the morning. Part II coming up.

A day of family fishing...

...along the coast of Feydhoo Island. This is from the infamous link road.

A question for Darwin

It is easy for one to daze into postcard scenes of these fantasy islands. It is also easy for one to ignore the underlying realities behind these tiny specks scattered over large distances of a deep Ocean.

Someone couldn't have just scattered them? They cover an area, roughly equal to that of UK! Contrary to western belief, these islands do NOT float on water... "like swans on lakes".
So how on Earth?

Darwin must have proposed a theory.
The theory of coral island formation: "These could have been leftover fragments from a huge mountain. A volcanic mountain erupted here, and burned away to the bottom of the ocean... leaving thousands of these tall pinacles to form islands."

Hmmmm. Kidding? Right?

There are 1,200 islands in the maldives. Could be a whole lot more. Someone has yet to come up with a defintion of island. There are islands who peek in the morning and get washed off later in the day!

While none of these islands rise above one or two meters... the bottom is even a deeper mystery.