I have hesitated in posting my Maldives experience in August, 2010. I spent a week on Bandos. I just returned from another dive trip in the Carribean and the Maldives trip came back to my memory. I feel that it is time to post my experience.
I went to Bandos, Maldives. It was a short transfer (15 minutes). It was my first time diving in Asia although I am Asian. All of my dives have been in the Carribean, Hawaii and Florida.
First, the resort ground was nice, the beach and view breathtaking. Diving was out of this world. The dive op was fantastic. Dive masters Sivad and Hassan were awesome!! I saw many eels, sharks, and best of all, gigantic manta rays. It was one of those dives that you waited on the sandy bottom for the manta rays to come.
In general, most of the resort staffs (housleeping, front desk) were accomodating and friendly. However, mealtime was a horrible experience for me. I bought the meal plan so I ate at the same place every day. The food was fine, neither too good nor too bad. The service to me was horrible. I emphasize "to me". There were at least 2-3 waiters that displayed blatant discriminative behaviors towards me. It is discriminatory because European guests (which were the majority) were treated very well compared to me. They were consistently greeted upon arrival and led to the table, served drinks etc. I, on the other hand, was ignored every single time. The discrimination was blatant with very cold and unfriendly service towards me but extremely friendly with other guests, from the SAME waiter!! I am not kidding. One of my dive buddies was from Germany and it was her first time to bandos also but she was being treated like royalty compared to me!! We were both first time visitors. After a couple of days of this observation, I made peace and try to ignore this behavior, basically not to let it ruin my trip. It was difficult as I ate there 3x/day. Based on this experience, I would never return to Bandos. There, I have never posted anything like this before, hence my hesitation of posting. Again, this happened last August, things have may changed already now. Thanks for reading.
I went to Bandos, Maldives. It was a short transfer (15 minutes). It was my first time diving in Asia although I am Asian. All of my dives have been in the Carribean, Hawaii and Florida.
First, the resort ground was nice, the beach and view breathtaking. Diving was out of this world. The dive op was fantastic. Dive masters Sivad and Hassan were awesome!! I saw many eels, sharks, and best of all, gigantic manta rays. It was one of those dives that you waited on the sandy bottom for the manta rays to come.
In general, most of the resort staffs (housleeping, front desk) were accomodating and friendly. However, mealtime was a horrible experience for me. I bought the meal plan so I ate at the same place every day. The food was fine, neither too good nor too bad. The service to me was horrible. I emphasize "to me". There were at least 2-3 waiters that displayed blatant discriminative behaviors towards me. It is discriminatory because European guests (which were the majority) were treated very well compared to me. They were consistently greeted upon arrival and led to the table, served drinks etc. I, on the other hand, was ignored every single time. The discrimination was blatant with very cold and unfriendly service towards me but extremely friendly with other guests, from the SAME waiter!! I am not kidding. One of my dive buddies was from Germany and it was her first time to bandos also but she was being treated like royalty compared to me!! We were both first time visitors. After a couple of days of this observation, I made peace and try to ignore this behavior, basically not to let it ruin my trip. It was difficult as I ate there 3x/day. Based on this experience, I would never return to Bandos. There, I have never posted anything like this before, hence my hesitation of posting. Again, this happened last August, things have may changed already now. Thanks for reading.