Three years ago, my wife suggested we go on a holiday to the Maldives and I half-heartedly went along with the idea. I didn’t think there was much for us to do in Maldives at the time. Thankfully, my wife diligently did all the research on the island and managed to curate a wonderful itinerary for us.
We flew to Maldives after a short visit to Mumbai in India. As the flight was descending, the view of the ocean and islands brought immense joy to me.
We landed at Male airport, which was small and quiet but there were plenty of helpful ground staff around. Our hotel was on Maafushi Island, which was 45 minutes away from Male by speed boat. The weather was good, the sea was not choppy and journey was pleasant.
The island was small – about 1sq km – and there were not many vehicles around. The place was also very clean and the hotel workers were happy to help us whenever we asked. The hotel organised activities such as snorkelling and diving for a fee. But the price was pretty much the same everywhere on the island so we didn’t have to worry about getting scammed or cheated.
Our first snorkel was at a shallow area in the middle of the sea. There were lots of colourful fish of various shapes and sizes swimming around. It was really a great place to snorkel.
After that, the boat took us to another area that was also shallow, but here we were able to see some turtles and even sword fish. The corals were a little pale though, possibly because of environmental changes.
We were then taken to a sandbank for lunch. It was quite a surreal experience: There we were in the middle of the sea sitting on a sandbank, enjoying some food, the cool breeze and the gorgeous view.
On our third day in the Maldives, I went diving. I was the only hotel guest to go that day and I had the time of my life. I descended 30m underwater with heavy undercurrents and I had to cling to some hard corals so as not to drift away.
Fortunately visibility was great as I saw so many huge sharks swimming around – amazing!
Later, as my guide and I were drifting along with the current, we came across a school of eagle rays.
Our second dive spot was where you could sometimes see manta rays but when the guide checked he couldn’t detect any that day. So we went to another location in hopes of finding baby sharks. But while we were drifting, we saw a turtle resting on a coral reef and when it started to swim, we swam along with it.
Unfortunately it was not for long as my 45-minute session was ending and it was time to ascend.
Because I was so happy with the experience, I arranged for a night dive on the same day. We began our session at 7.30pm at an area with coral reef and a shipwreck. There was good visibility but the current was a little weak.
We managed to see plenty luminous creatures, corals and plankton as well as mantis prawns, eels and crabs. It was truly a feast for the eyes. On our last day, I went for another dive. We went to a different manta ray spot, this time at a place where small yellow fish “clean” the manta rays’ bodies. Luckily for me, a large manta ray swam past us. Its movement was so graceful that it was just gliding, not swimming.
We spent another 30 minutes to find other manta rays but we could not spot any more. However, when we ascended, we saw a few of them and even a school of yellow fish from our boat. I was so happy!
On our second dive, we saw some more colourful fish, unicorn-shaped fish, octopus and other amazing creatures.
By the end of the day I was so satisfied with my diving excursions and all the other things we did on the island. I have so many beautiful memories of the Maldives that will hopefully last a lifetime.
The views expressed are entirely the reader’s own.
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