Maldives gone

[TwilightZ1]

HI everyone,

I just got back from Maldives and I enjoyed myself tremendously!

There are some corals on the shallow ends that are a covered by some sand but overall, you couldn't tell the place had just suffered a Tsunami hit.

We saw 2 whale sharks, tonnes of grey reef and white-tip reef sharks. At a site call Madivaru, we spent more than 30 minutes watching manta rays dancing by... we lost count of the number of mantas after 10 minutes..

The tourism there is unfortunately hit my the tsunami and many guest actually cancelled their bookings. In fact, our flights from Singapore to Male and back were changed 2 times and we ended up connecting a flight back from Sri Lanka because of a last minute flight cancellation.

There is really nothing to worry about diving at Maldives. Please support the people there if you had planned to go anyway.

Now... let me get back to sorting out my photos and video clips... :dazzler1:

 

[kurt]

Glad you had a great time - I have been in contact with several of the dive centres we have dived with over the last 6 years and the general feedback is that the reefs have not been affected that much - just the odd dive site scattered around the eastern sides of the atolls.
I would be interested in viewing some of your pics and video clips if you offer and I can send you some of the ones I took last year from Meedhupparu?
We are going to Kuredu in October this year and doing our IDC with Prodivers - I have only heard good things about them - does anyone know any different?

 

[pilot fish]

HI everyone,

I just got back from Maldives and I enjoyed myself tremendously!

There are some corals on the shallow ends that are a covered by some sand but overall, you couldn't tell the place had just suffered a Tsunami hit.

We saw 2 whale sharks, tonnes of grey reef and white-tip reef sharks. At a site call Madivaru, we spent more than 30 minutes watching manta rays dancing by... we lost count of the number of mantas after 10 minutes..

The tourism there is unfortunately hit my the tsunami and many guest actually cancelled their bookings. In fact, our flights from Singapore to Male and back were changed 2 times and we ended up connecting a flight back from Sri Lanka because of a last minute flight cancellation.

There is really nothing to worry about diving at Maldives. Please support the people there if you had planned to go anyway.

Now... let me get back to sorting out my photos and video clips... :dazzler1:

Is the food and water safe? Are resorts offering any kind of incentives to go dive there, or are they at regular rates?

 

[TwilightZ1]

Is the food and water safe? Are resorts offering any kind of incentives to go dive there, or are they at regular rates?

Hi There,

There is no problem with food and water at all. We have free flow of drinking water, and of course, coffee and tea!!

I am not too sure about resort as I went on a liveaboard. There are however some promotions from some of these operators for a cheaper rates. The Maldivians are trying to get tourists and divers back to their countries to revive the economy so you should be able to get some good deals.

You can take a look at their site, or some other sites with other dive safaris :
http://www.radheattravel.com/safari_main.html We were on the Handhu Falhi, nice new boat with 5 cabins.

http://liveaboardsmaldives.com/liveaboards.html This site has quite a list of dive safaris.

Liveaboard is preferred for diving focuses tourist to Maldives because the good dive sites are quite scattered and some takes 5 hours boat ride to get there. If you are staying in a resort, you will be limited to the dive sites around the resort.

Kurt,

I am sorting out the photos and videos. Here are some photos from the trip.

http://community.webshots.com/user/josephchanwaimeng

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I saw a TV article that showed some divers off Thailand after the tsunami, and they kept finding loose blocks of live hard coral that the tsunami had broken off and left upside down; and they were turning them to the right way up again.