Underwhelmed in the Maldives (Trip Report)

[Shasta_man]

We did Taveuni and Northern Fiji in 2004 and Palau in 2005 and found them to be similar in soft corals. If you're comparing the current areas.

In Taveuni, we had torrential rain for 6 out of 9 days, so our experience there wasn't great. The last day of beautiful sun showed Somosomo Strait could be like a lake though. Fiji people were fantastic but we had a lot of rain so we didn't get the full tropical water experience.

Palau had great weather for us and the dive sites are close together. A liveaboard is a necessity in Palau if you want to avoid hour long rides out to the sites from the city. However, you get great value for your money as you get many dives on the liveaboard. The dives down off Peleliu are the most exciting. Hook dives can be the easiest dives you ever do.

Given the choice, I'd take Palau for so many dives easily accessible.

Date Mar.28 - April 9th, 2005

Safari Boat – Handhufalhi (Broke down on 2nd day) Slept first 3 nights, then last night spent on board upon returning to Male area (Boat repaired by then). Congested, claustrophobic boat. Not much outdoor space with protection from sun either.
24m x 7m

Transferred to Blue Shark Two – Excellent roomy boat! Great food! 3N/4 Days ; 32.8mx11m

Good food on both boats. Blue Shark Two even has a bar!

This was my first liveaboard. I will definitely pay attention to both the length and width of any future boat.

--

I recently returned a few days ago from a trip to the Maldives. I did 4 Male based dives and about 20 liveaboard / safari boat dives. I must say – I am unimpressed by the quality of diving I experienced in the Maldives. I was so underwhelmed by my much higher expectations. Can someone sympathize?

Of the 8 other people with me on the safari boat – an Israeli couple also concurred with me. They had been to Palau last year, as I had too. We both made continual references back to Palau. From my readings on the Internet I had expected the Maldives diving experience to exceed Palau. Tis' not to be.

None of the others (5 French, 1 Israeli, 1 Kiwi) had been to Palau. The Israeli couple preferred the Red Sea to the Maldives. My favorite site – Kudarah Thila, the husband (Wife didn't dive it) said it was good, but not as good as what is in the Red Sea.

Here is a list of dive sites:

Male based – Banana Reef (Tricky currents, not the best choice for the 2nd dive), Maa Giri, Kiki Reef, Furana Fushi South

Safari Boat Dives

N. Male – Kurumba Reef check dive, Maldive Victory wreck

S. Male – Kudagiri (An easy but satisfying site – colorful thila and good visibility wreck)
Cocoa Corner (A channel swim/sprint – no hanging around corner. Why not? Saw maybe 2-3 sharks far below), Guraidhoo – Medhu Faru channel crossing (Why swim across the channel?? Didn't see anything!!), Medhu Faru – boring drift, Embudhoo Kandu (1 of only 2 sites that matched my expectations – though I expected better coral coverage. Seeing 20-25 white tip sharks from the accessible bottom (35 meters) is good though. Along with a large Napoleon and good sized turtle while drifting)

Rasdhoo Atoll – 3 dives here including a fruitless early AM hammerhead search (Supposed to be only 1 dive, but safari boat broke down)

Ari Atoll – Rangveli Mandivaru (Manta search – saw 1 giant one)
Maamigili Out, Sun Island Out, Ranveli Thila, Villamendhoo Thila

Whale Shark chase – snorkeling...saw one on 2 different swims, but far too much of a circus. Did this for 2 days in a row!

Kudarah Thila (Excellent site! 1 of only 2 total that matched my expectations)

We missed Maaya Thila and Fish Head due to the safari boat breaking down. We transferred (3.5 hours!!! in a dhoni at 5am) to another, better boat, that had already dived these sites the prior day. My understanding is that these are two of the best Thilas and similar to Kudarah....true??

Skipped a night dive due to fatigue/rest and a repeat of Rangveli Mandivaru.


A few thoughts:

1)While I know there are many other atolls possibly with expectation beating sites in the Maldives, the tricky thing about the Maldives is that all the sites are spread apart as opposed to Palau and other destinations (Red Sea?) where the top sites are more closely grouped.

2)Boats cannot travel at night due to atolls, thus forcing more time at a particular location than what is ideal.

3)Day diving from Male is problematic (At least at the dive operator I used – Sea Explorers) as the morning dive is separated from the afternoon dive by having to return to Male. And often the boat needs to pick up somebody at the airport which necessitates a Northern Male dive – as opposed to a trip to Upper South Male Atoll.

4)Safari boat did not go anywhere the 1st day (1st night anchored by airport) as it had to wait for all passengers to arrive and board. More smoother would have been to have all passengers on board by early AM then head away from Male to do diving.

5)Male itself is quite congested and does not lend itself to being a restful place between diving or non-dive days.

Questions:

If my goal was to always see colorful soft coral with fish life, and pelagics only secondary – which atolls are best?

Is Fiji a better bet for soft coral than the Maldives?

Are some of the sites I listed – better pre 1998?

 

[circusoflife]

Now, if it's sharks, mantas, whale sharks, eagle rays, etc. that you want, Maldives is still a very good place. Of the two places you missed, Maaya Thila and Fish Head, you missed a lot of gray reef, white tip and black tip sharks. At Fish Head, you missed a pretty sad but close up look at a Napolean wrasse. When I was last there in November, there were plentiful small reef fish at both sites too but you didn't miss any coral.

Our dive guide cautioned me that both of those sites shark populations were finned out. Possibly around 2001-2002. I know they are protected reserves...but maybe they caught them outside. Didn't get to see for myself regardless. There were lots of sharks there in 2004?

 

[circusoflife]

Shame to hear you traveled so far and feel you only had a mediocre experience.

Fortunately...being based in Bangkok for a few months...so the trip wasn't that far relatively speaking. But, when the only purpose to go there is diving - it is far.

- IMHO it's a terrible idea to compare ANY dive sites. Even in the same area beyond a general "this was great for turtles, this other site had fewer on the day I dived". Every dive site has good and great days and each dive area is unique. Comparing Fiji or Palau or Cozumel or Great Barrier Reef or Red Sea or wherever to some other area isn't helpful. They are different areas and offer different things. No, they aren't the same - otherwise why would one try something new?

I have a thread in the General Travel forum on % of good dives = good trip. I made some comments regarding this.

I've done alot of travel over the past couple of years. For example - Palau was part of a 7 month straight sojourn on a RTW ticket. Which was on top of other travle. So I know the compare and contrast routine - both the positives and negatives. It is a double edged sword, we can be disappointed, or we can be impressed. we can learn or just observe and be "indifferent."

Maybe this is where I differ from most too..I 've done so much traveling recently...I have to work hard to find unique sites (The good or ugly I'll add) otherwise it gets boring. Not just diving, but anything. It's like looking at stupas in Asia or castles in Europe. Too much of the same thing and it can just becomes a blur.

--
A positive on comparing is that as divers we should expect sites to be good and ideally take action to keep them that way...otherwise who cares if they get finned out / fished out or get degraded by warming seas. A negative would be - being disappointed. For one of the two "great" dive sites in the Maldives on my trip...one of them happens to be a marine protected area. Makes me wonder if more areas were protected what would those look like?

Does this make sense?

At the very least...dialogue on places like scubaboard should be honest to at least try and keep in check all the exaggerated advertising in magazines, etc...thankfully there is Undercurrent too.

-forget it. Dump out all the negative & non-positive things from your head. Write down ONLY the positives...every time you think of a negative, say NO and find a positive instead. It sounds silly and it kinda feels like one of those group seminars at first, but I've found that it actually gives me a much better feeling/view of what really happened. Negatives weigh so much more than positives and really overshadow them sometimes - we have to work harder for the good stuff.

Well...the good never seemed to gather enough momentum to make the trip a overall happy experience. Issues with both diving and non-diving plagued me.

Over time I'm sure the negatives will fade further away and the positives will stay (I still remember the thila! - though even that dive was tainted as I had to surface early because the buddy/room mate I was teamed with ran out of air FAST! Total dive time on that was 30 minutes or so. Most others got in at least 45 min. I had plenty of air. Got to test my Dive-Alert for the first time though...in very large surf I'll add. The kind you could easily get lost in, largest I've ever experienced in diving) The low air buddy was one of the diving related issues that detracted from my experience. Quite annoying. Also happened on my last prior diving to Hin Muang/Hin Daeng in Thailand - two premier dive sites in the area. Though the 4 others dives there went very well with good air buddies.


PS: I did my cert in 92' in the Seattle area. Didn't dive again until Australia in 2001, then alot more in 2003-2005. I did a couple of dives in the Seattle area recently. Not again. Cold murky water is just not for me. Someday...if I ever get the stomach...I'll go dive British Columbia. That is where some of the best temperate diving is supposed to be.


Thanks for the reply.

 

[Zippsy]

Our dive guide cautioned me that both of those sites shark populations were finned out. Possibly around 2001-2002. I know they are protected reserves...but maybe they caught them outside. Didn't get to see for myself regardless. There were lots of sharks there in 2004?

dozens of sharks where at both sites this past November so maybe the sharks are winning the finning war against the fishermen.

 

[Quero]

Our dive guide cautioned me that both of those sites shark populations were finned out. Possibly around 2001-2002. I know they are protected reserves...but maybe they caught them outside. Didn't get to see for myself regardless. There were lots of sharks there in 2004?

I saw grey reef and white tip reef sharks at Maaya Thila. And I saw napoleon wrasses all over the place.

 

[neilstewart]

I think there is a lesson here. "You get what you pay for". Very sorry that your experience was poor. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be looking forward to a trip so much to be let down, yes I can Hawaii, but thats another story. I have travelled to maldives a lot as I am a UK diver but I have also been to Palau twice. Personally I prefer Maldives becasue of the diversity of life it is possible to see. The coral coverage is better in the Maldives than Palau if (and this is v.important) you are in the right location diving the right sites with an organisation that knows where they are, believe me a lot of companies do not. I know everybody wants to do liveaboards. Sometimes I think that this is said just as an impressor statement. A well located island at the right time of year is much more relaxing, comfortable and just as likely to provide you with the Maldives thrillls you are hoping for.

I always dive liveaboards in the Red Sea because the coatal diving is nowhere near the quality of the sites liveaboards go to but in the maldives all the sites are coastal to somewhere. Is it absolutely neccessary to dive a liveaboard in Palau? NO - Maldives is the same.

Maldives liveaboards will allways want to try to take you to ALL the Marine Park sites e.g. Kuda Rah, Fish Head, Maaya, they will allways try to get you to see Hammerheads at Rasdhoo. They are likely to take you to one of the seasonal Manta Points and a trawl along South Ari Atoll for a whale shark because this is what their customers expect and they want to tick off the sites and sightings in their dive guide to the Maldives books all in one week no matter if that site is good at that particular time. But there are more fabulous dive sites to be found that are not listed in any book, less dived and the deeper ones in absolutely superb condition even post El Nino.

Anticipation on the boat pre Maldives dive of not knowing what might turn up is a thrill for me but I just don't get that feeling in Palau although of course Blue Corner, Blue Holes and Pelilieu Express are terrfic action dives.

I am thinking of making a last minute trip to Rasdhoo next week on my own. I can fly and stay all inclusive at Kuramathi for 2 weeks for £750. Diving will cost an extra £400 for the 2 weeks. This would be my first trip to that Atoll but even though the price is terrific I will not go until I have all the information I need to make sure that this is a good place to dive at this time of year. If not I shall dig a little deeper in my pockets and go someplace else.

 

[RSdiver]

Very informative thread, thank you

 

[liamklenk]

hi circusoflife

it's always really bad to generalize like that...
i've been to the maldives 3 times already and there are 26 atolls, more than 1,000 islands and hundreds of resorts...
it's one of the most magical places on earth and there are amazing dive sites to go to. but you have to venture out there and explore.
next time you go i recommend the lhaviyani atoll which is farthest north and has some great and affordable resorts and wonderful dive sites for all levels of experience.
i have been to kuredu island, and greatly enjoyed encounters with countless grey reef sharks, underwater caves filled with sea turtles, all kinds of rays, beautiful nudibranches of all colors and sizes all over and a multitude of reef life that was almost staggering.
so, i suggest you go again, try different places...
the maldives are a damn big place with tons of variety. no island is the same. be that above water or underwater.

happy bubbles
liam

 

[AlaskaDiver]

I highly recommend Mike Ball's Paradise Sport in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea to see soft corals and just about anything you ever thought possible for fish and marine life. My husband & I were almost in tears when we were leaving the boat. It was the absolute perfect vacation.

 

[Zippsy]

Did someone just move Milne Bay to the Maldives? Was the final bill really so high that you actually cried? Have you sold your shares in Mike Ball yet?