Maldives - Beach, diving & air-con

Huh who are you???

In Maldives this air-con hater turned quickly into an air-con lover. Sometimes you just have to escape from the sun & heat & humidity and spend some time inside. Especially if you work during the travels... So, air-con, I think we are friends now. Until the next time u make me sick.

In Maldives I stayed with friends at Vilimale/Villingili a short ferry ride away from Male. Lovely small local island where you hardly see any tourists and if, they are on a day trip. A few expats live there but otherwise it's a place for the locals to live in. I had an important job to do at my friends neighbours (who were on holiday) apartment: feed the cat. Cuddle with the cat. And clean up the cat litter... As a return I got my own apartment just next to a beach & fantastic snorkeling reef. No complains here!

The plan for Maldives was to dive, dive, dive. Martin was about to do the Advanced open water -course so I decided to join him. I still think that certificate is just a money rip off but well, at least then I don't have to argue with dive shops anymore about going for deeper dives. There's a small local dive shop in Vilimale which we used. Nice people, some chaotic moments with all the dive master students but good dives & good fun.

We did the learning stuff as buoyancy conrol and navigation in a lagoon reef nearby Vilimale. And found a HUGE sting ray under a small wreck. Never seen such a big one. I couln't even see it first , it was just too big and hiding too well. Finally after spotting the eye I even realised what I was looking at. Otherwise not much to see in that lagoon but it was sunny & shallow so good for the learning stuff. 

For the deep dive we went to Banana reef which is one of the first & oldest dive sites in Maldives. No wonder why. Great small caves, huge overhangs, many schools of fish. Probably the best place in North Male atoll. 

The next day I went for a wreck dive near hulhule, the airport island. There lies since over 30 years the 110 metres long MV Victory  at a depth of 35 meters on a sandy bottom. The current was really stong that day but we still managed to search the cargo holds and visited the bridge. Amazing place. A ghost ship.

Later I also did a night dive. A frustrating one. It was more like a drift dive, we flew next to the reef so no time really to see anything. Oh well. I don't think that'd be my new favourite anyways. Too much work to find something interesting. But it was kind of cool to be in a pitch dark ocean. So: been there, done that.

Home beach at Vilimale.

After finishing the aowd I took a day off, just snorkeling, hanging out with Annett & Amalia and managed to do also some work. For the next day I booked two more dives with a different dive shop as my “home shop” didn't have a trip for the day. It was quite a long trip to Hulhumale from Vilimale early in the morning but for sure worth it.

Lion fish traffic jam.

First dive of the day was to Faydhoo, a deep reef next to a small island. We found lot's of small stuff, some turtles, I hung out with trigger fishes and just had fun under water. And I saw a moray eel swimming for the first time!

For the second dive we went to Banana reef again, this time with the current was quite strong. We saw much more fun stuff than on the first time there: turtles, eagle ray, crabs and one of the group also spotted a reef shark. I was too busy trying to stay in no deco limits (yea didn't work) so I missed that one. But the best part of the dive shop was the dive master, who was leading the group. (all us stupid tourists had dive masters as buddies too... quite weird). I haven't seen anything that gorgeous for quite a while. Body like a (thin) greek god, wide white smile, half long hair and fantastic attitude. Why didn't I find this dive shop earlier? :( Oh well, time to move on. Today is my last day on this atoll paradise, moving on to Sumatra via KL this evening.

"Finally she's leaving!"

P.S. There's absolutely no alcohol on this island. Getting a beer worth 10 dollars would have meant I have to make my way to a resort. Couln't be bothered, there was enough party in Sri Lanka and there will hopefully be some more in Sumatra. Good to behave for a while. Drinking non-alc beer on a roof top can also be nice.