last day on the boat
well, our dhoni was recovered but the engine got fried from trying to dislodge it from the reef last night. for the dive today we used the dhoni from the blue shark 2 - the boat carrying the group of japanese tourists. figure they've rescued us so many times that we're essentially guests on the boat anyhow.
we dove kandooma thila closeby. a deep drift dive with a fairly strong current and really cold water - at times down to 27 C which was a good 3 degrees colder than the air temperature. brrrrrrr! caught sight of an eagle ray and a white tip reef shark at one point but after that i was to aware of how cold the water was to notice much else. met a really nice lady - the only western guest aboard the blue shark. sarah from israel who works for el al. she gave us a great recommendation for a dive shop in palau to look up in case we ever find ourselves there. she couldn't say enough amazing things about the diving in palau. maybe that'll be my dive trip for next year.
we hit malé around noon after 2 hours and i quickly packed up my things and said goodbye to everyone. shame to be so rushed in my goodbyes. we seemed to be really well matched - both in personality and diving ability. plus, the fact that there were only 8 of us on board made it so we really were able to get to know one another and become friends. looks like i now have people to visit in singapore and wherever bruce and nicole end up after bruce's u.n. term expires at the end of the month. i'm going to miss them all.
the flight to filitheyo took about 30 minutes on one of those twin engine sea otters. filitheyo is amazingly beautiful. my room is amazing - king size bed with mosquito netting, and outdoor shower (hello!) and a 15 meter walk to the water's edge. they have a very impressively organized dive center (run by germans of course), the food is excellent and the grounds are as pristine as you would expect of a resort in the maldives.
i definitely started to feel very alone here. the majority of the visitors are german and french with a few italians, japanese and brits thrown in for good measure. i, of course, am the only american - for some, the first one they've ever met.
the one thing here that i don't remember kuramathi having is mosquitos. not a ton of them but all you need is one and my life is miserable - the mossies seem to love me. their bites suck for the first 30 minutes or so but then the itch goes away. with any luck i'm developing a tolerance given the amount i get bitten.
the day was spent idling... had a drink (o.k. i had 3 - c'mon, they were my first in a week), booked a balinese massage for myself tomorrow at 3, had dinner and met my waiter - sabreen. an affable young maldivian guy who always has the biggest smile and is willing to crack jokes at the drop of a hat. one of the dive staff is this guy named babu from nepal (?!). long way from home that guy is. very quiet and friendly.
jo ella the manager told me later on that i was the cause of some laughs when i arrived - of course. apparently the manifest said that i was arriving from "handhu" since they couldn't fit "handhufalhi" in the space provided. in divehi, "handhu" means "moon" so apparently i had just arrived from the moon and the porters were asking jo ella if i was neil armstrong. i must say, i feel like i just arrived from the moon. my land legs still haven't found me and everything is in a constant state of gentle swaying motion.
nothing that more booze can't take care of (or enhance, as the case may be).
we dove kandooma thila closeby. a deep drift dive with a fairly strong current and really cold water - at times down to 27 C which was a good 3 degrees colder than the air temperature. brrrrrrr! caught sight of an eagle ray and a white tip reef shark at one point but after that i was to aware of how cold the water was to notice much else. met a really nice lady - the only western guest aboard the blue shark. sarah from israel who works for el al. she gave us a great recommendation for a dive shop in palau to look up in case we ever find ourselves there. she couldn't say enough amazing things about the diving in palau. maybe that'll be my dive trip for next year.
we hit malé around noon after 2 hours and i quickly packed up my things and said goodbye to everyone. shame to be so rushed in my goodbyes. we seemed to be really well matched - both in personality and diving ability. plus, the fact that there were only 8 of us on board made it so we really were able to get to know one another and become friends. looks like i now have people to visit in singapore and wherever bruce and nicole end up after bruce's u.n. term expires at the end of the month. i'm going to miss them all.
the flight to filitheyo took about 30 minutes on one of those twin engine sea otters. filitheyo is amazingly beautiful. my room is amazing - king size bed with mosquito netting, and outdoor shower (hello!) and a 15 meter walk to the water's edge. they have a very impressively organized dive center (run by germans of course), the food is excellent and the grounds are as pristine as you would expect of a resort in the maldives.
i definitely started to feel very alone here. the majority of the visitors are german and french with a few italians, japanese and brits thrown in for good measure. i, of course, am the only american - for some, the first one they've ever met.
the one thing here that i don't remember kuramathi having is mosquitos. not a ton of them but all you need is one and my life is miserable - the mossies seem to love me. their bites suck for the first 30 minutes or so but then the itch goes away. with any luck i'm developing a tolerance given the amount i get bitten.
the day was spent idling... had a drink (o.k. i had 3 - c'mon, they were my first in a week), booked a balinese massage for myself tomorrow at 3, had dinner and met my waiter - sabreen. an affable young maldivian guy who always has the biggest smile and is willing to crack jokes at the drop of a hat. one of the dive staff is this guy named babu from nepal (?!). long way from home that guy is. very quiet and friendly.
jo ella the manager told me later on that i was the cause of some laughs when i arrived - of course. apparently the manifest said that i was arriving from "handhu" since they couldn't fit "handhufalhi" in the space provided. in divehi, "handhu" means "moon" so apparently i had just arrived from the moon and the porters were asking jo ella if i was neil armstrong. i must say, i feel like i just arrived from the moon. my land legs still haven't found me and everything is in a constant state of gentle swaying motion.
nothing that more booze can't take care of (or enhance, as the case may be).
posted by michael | 7:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home