Saturday, January 31, 2009

Words from the Maldives (4)

Hi,

Another day on this paradise like island. Today not much happened apart from the fact that I went diving this morning and we saw sharks, Whitetip Reef Sharks to be exact. Like six of them. Which was really cool. First time I saw so many sharks. We also saw a fairly big Napoleon fish. After the sharks (deco time at 5 minutes) we took a current and drifted for a while, which was also really cool. Unfortunately we couldn't spend that much time drifting. And on top of this all, while drifting, we heard dolphins. Yup, we heard the squirking (I really have no clue as to this is really called) by the dolphins. Unfortunately they were to far away, and we only saw them while back on the boat. But cool it was, some of them made some nice jumps. My guess is that these are trained dolphins, set out to entertain divers, and to make them feel bad that they didn't encounter the dolphins while diving :).

Nothing much else happened, although not to me anyway. Olcay on the other hand saw a turtle while snorkling. And considering that Kandooma doesn't have much of a reef, that truely is a sight to behold.

Until the next post...

Iwan

Friday, January 30, 2009

Words from the Maldives (3)

Hi,

Today I've got something to tell, as promised yesterday, because today and last night stuff actually happened in this paradise of total relaxation.

So what happened? First of all last night we had quite the rainstorm here on Kandooma. Well maybe it was just your average everyday tropical rainstorm, but we woke up from the rain, which especially in my case means something as I don't wake up usually until it is time according to the alarm clock (or Ray). But rest assured, the Water Villa we're staying in is build very well, and apart from the bathroom (which is partly open) no water came in.

Today I also went diving. First dive here with Euro Divers, which means you're not allowed deeper than 20 meters, which is cool. The diving site had a wreck at 30 meters, but the top of the wreck was at 20 meters deep. From what we could see, there was no way you could actually get in the wreck so not much lost here. After the wreck we saw an Octopus hiding its little cave and later on a turtle. Which in fact was small compared to the turtles we saw in Marsa Alam last November, about which I need to blog... still. That turtles crossed our path later on, but that was also because we went around a big rock a second time and that turtle was at more or less the same spot.
A bit later we saw some Morenes. Two to be exact, which weren't that big compared to the one that swam right in front of me in Oman last year, or rather 2007.
After hitting the 50 bar mark we went up and started our return to the boat. We now were over the rock we circled twice and Jerry, my buddy for the occasion pointed behind me. I looked behind me and saw a Triggerfish (see also Wikipedia) trying to bite me. Yup, it wanted to get a piece of my fins (I like to think that it wasn't after my butt). It was a bit intimidated by me and my mask as it hesitated everytime I turned around. After some distance it gave up, or maybe I left its territory or something. Anyway, I am still me, 100% and nothing was left of me in the belly of this terrible monster of the sea :) haha. Although I must say that its teeth were somewhat big and sharp, I have to admit.

So that was today on the Maldives. Soon there will be more.

Iwan

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Words form the Maldives (2)

Hi,

Another day on Kandooma which started of with sort of a disappointment. I overslept, so I was too late to enter for the afternoon Scuba trip. Tomorrow another try. Everything else was really great and every day we enjoy the resort even more.

Since not much happened today because we've been sunbathing and snorkeling and having lunch and diner and stuff, there's not much to blog. So hopefully (for you as well) I'll be diving tomorrow, and I'm planning on going deep the day after as well. I'll then have something more to tell you.

Until then...

Iwan

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Words from the Maldives (1)

Hi,

It has been a while, a real long while since I blogged last. A lot has happened in since then and I plan on getting you up to speed sometime. But the coming period I'll be blogging about our stay on the Maldives. Kandooma Island to be exact. That's why these words are from the Maldives instead of the Netherlands.

So today we arrived, after a rather uneventful flight from Dusseldorf (Germany) International Airport, which requires explicit mentioning, since my dad programmed the NavSat to get us to Dusseldorf Regional Airport, which is about 60 km away from Dusseldorf International Airport. Not to blame him, since I did something very similar the first time I had to program my TomTom to direct me.
The flight was okay, although LTU has rather small seats, and the couple sitting behind us was very chatty all night.

We were quite fast outside of Male International Airport. The passport control and the customs check was fast and we got our backs really fast as well. Nice done Maldivians!
But then we got our first scare. Nobody from Kandooma to pick us up from the airport. Fortunately there was a nice lady from TUI who knew we were looking for, and as it turned out, we were expected to arrive on the 31st instead of today. No harm done, and the Water Villa we booked was available. It just had to be readied.
After a boattrip of about 40 minutes we arrived on this really beautiful island. The website is really a great representation of the island, no lies there. We're enyoing our stay sofar to the fullest. Weather is excellent (28C, a bit humidity and sea water is excellent) and so are the two restaurants we had lunch and diner. Sofar everything is going great and besides sleeping and relaxing in the sun we didn't do anything yet.

So more tomorrow, when we've undertaken one or two things (like scuba or hanging around the pool soaking up more sun). Just to keep our minds of the boys (who are staying with my parents) and on the relaxing part of the trip.

Iwan