Revillagigedo Islands

Here’s some footage from aboard the Solmar V on a journey to the Revillagigedo Islands. I spent a week here while Kristin was home pregnant watching over our house renovations.

Veligandu Wall, Rasdhoo Atoll, Maldives

Here’s some video from a dive site near our resort island in the Maldives. We dove this site twice after first checking for Manta Rays on the Manta Block site in Rasdhoo and finding none. This site had more moray eels than I’d ever seen on any site – you were stumbling on one (or two!) every five meters or so.

Goa, Going, Gone

We’re back home in Toronto after one last weekend in Goa. We stayed at the Riviera de Goa, which was located right across the road from the semi-famous Goa Night Market, also known as Baga Saturday night market. The night market was fantastic – huge number of vendors, live music, food and drinks. It seems that all the hippies are drawn to Goa, many staying half the year or more before going back to their home countries.

I had my first adventure with medical tourism, getting my teeth whitened. At about a fifth of the price in Canada it was worth a shot, and it seems to have went well.

We toured into Panaji, the capital of Goa. A fairly easy city to tour by India standards. We spent most of our time near the water on Calangute beach. It was very strange to be on a beach, packed with people, all of them standing and fully clothed.

We ate at Souza Lobo twice, both times fantastic. We also tried East meets West one night which had a massive restaurant garden.

Manta Point, North Ari Atoll, Maldives

Here’s the video from our Manta dive in the Maldives. Words can’t describe it – have a look. If you double click and view on youtube.com you can watch it in high definition by selecting the 720p HD mode and going fullscreen.

Back to (frustrating) India

We planned our trip to stay 2 nights and 1 full day in Trivandrum in Kerala. We booked into Ginger Hotel in the technopark.

First off the hotel and technopark were 20km out of the city, making doing anything very costly. The hotel itself is more like a poorly run hostel. Our bed only had half a sheet – our feet were on the mattress. Despite having lots of staff around, it was hard to get anything, and I mean anything, done. They forgot to book our cab for the day, they didn’t clean the room, they don’t have change for the vending machine, they took about 30 minutes to check us in despite no other patrons etc. Honestly, a really bumbling crew.

The technopark is weird. It’s like a mini-western village – complete with nerds in shitty suits eating at subway for lunch. I’ll write more about my thoughts on India vs. Philippines for IT outsourcing later but there is something inherently strange about the mesh of Indian and Western culture. It’s like two polar opposites colliding and coexisting at the same time. I think that is why India is so strange to travel in. Take for example my getting a coffee five minutes ago in the coffee shop downstairs. I walk away and when I come back the guy has wrapped the plastic take away cups in tin foil and was about to put them in a plastic bag because I said “take away”. I shake my head, unwrap all the tinfoil, ask him to cut a hole in the top of the cup and put the straw in. I motion that I can carry the cups, one in each hand, instead of two of them ratting around in a bag. It’s just awkward stuff like that which you deal with everywhere and all the time in India.

Also, I was under the impression before coming to India that many people spoke English, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The level of English is much higher in the Philippines – here in India it is quite a struggle to get anywhere or do anything. Tourism facilities also are not built up in India, giving it a very raw travellers feel if you are into that sort of thing.

So today we took a cab out to Neyyar Dam Sanctuary as Lonely Planet mentioned they have trekking to see wildlife. We take a cab 2 hours there and after being redirected many times we finally find out that trekking is not happening due to the “river being closed”. Say what? The river is closed? Our other options at the Dam were a lion safari (which looked much like the one outside Toronto), a crocodile sanctuary (crocs in 10×10 cages) and a boat ride. No thanks. We called our cabbie to pick us up. No answer. Lovely. Again, typical India. We walked around the “sanctuary” trying to find the exit where our cab driver might be hiding. Eventually 45 minutes later he happens to drive by.

On the way to the sanctuary he pointed out a palace. We said to take us back there. We arrive and find out after being redirected many times that its not a tourist site but rather an entertainment palace for private functions. No offence to the folks here, but I wouldn’t use the ‘palace’ term for this facility.

Next we hit the Zoo/Art Museum/Gallery/Gardens. Everything closed over lunch except the Zoo. Its another Indian thing – closing major attractions over lunch. Everyone has to leave and come back at 1 or 1:30pm. So, rather than sit we enter the Zoo and start looking around. Kristin became depressed quickly – the turning point being a vulture hanging his head in a little cage. It was also 35 degrees out which was killing us so we hailed the cab and headed back to the hotel.

Sadly, we couldn’t even fill one day in Trivandrum without wanting to leave. Tomorrow we head out early for Goa. Hopefully our last weekend is a solid end to our India adventure.

Costs in the Maldives

Getting here from India via Maldivian air: $240 USD per ticket round trip
Ferry from airport to Male: $1 USD
Overnight hotel in Male at Mookai Hotel or Mookai Suites: $90 USD per night
Taxi from jetty to Mookai Suites: $3 USD (watch out for rip offs!)
Seaplane from International Airport to Resort island: $250 USD per ticket round trip

Once on the resort:
Fullboard Water Villa: $600 per night for 2 people
Fullboard Beach Villa: $400 per night for 2 people
Beer: $5 USD
Cocktail: $9 USD
1.5L Water: $2 USD
Lobster dinner for 2: $150 USD
It is really critical that you get either full board (no drinks included) or all inclusive (drinks included) as costs at the restaurants are very high. We found most of the guests to be coming to the resort on 1 or 2 week packages from Europe, so we assumed that you could get a better rate than booking by night – check European tour providers if you plan on coming.

Diving:
Boat charge per dive: $15 USD per person
Dive Safari extra Boat fee: $40 USD per person
Dive cost: $50 USD per person
Rental gear: up to $20 per person
Overall diving the Maldives was about as expensive as Palau – which has been on the high end of the diving we’ve done to date.

Maldives

Tomorrow we fly back to Trivandrum, India after 6 days in the Maldives. We’ve been singing songs about our dreams dying today – the Maldives is a place that you really don’t want to leave.

Day 1:
We arrived in Male, the most populated city in the Maldives, late Wednesday night. If you have a chance, take the morning flight into the Maldives so you can view over the atolls. Our flight arrived after sunset so it was just darkness for us. From the airport it is a quick 5 minute ferry across to Male city. We stayed at Mookai Suites which was affordable (not much is in the Maldives) and had huge shared living rooms – 1 per every 2 rooms.

Day 2:
The next morning we woke up and went back to the airport to get aboard our seaplane to Kuramathi – a resort island in the Rasdhoo atoll. We had to rearrange our luggage a few times before they would let us board but we eventually got our heavy bags the green light. The plane ride was only 20 minutes. One of the down sides about choosing Rasdhoo was the fact that it was the atoll next to the atoll Male is in so we didn’t get a long flight over the famous Maldives view. We got enough of it though – breathtaking.

When we landed, the plane pulled up to a floating platform and we were met by a smaller boat to take us to the pier. The island was gorgeous. Imagine an island where every inch is covered in soft fine white sand, with lush vegetation in the middle all perfectly landscaped, surrounded by beautiful coral reefs, a lagoon on one side, a wall drop off on the other. The island was perfection. The biggest complaint we heard from those that had been to the Maldives on many occasions was that the island was too big and that some of the smaller ones allowed you to walk around them in 10 minutes. I however, quite liked the fact the island was large and had lots to see and do.

Our room was on stilts above the lagoon. We had some coral right underneath our walk out which was always filled with fish. We could sit outside on the deck and watch as sharks swam by and jump in and find pipefish, puffers, snappers, nudis, parrotfish – all right underneath us. The room was big and the beds were very comfortable. Our shower had a big window that looked out only onto lagoon. We were amazed at the logistics of running such a place. When you think about the fact that you are on a small piece of sand in the middle of nowhere – where everything you consume has to be flown in and everything you create has to be dealt with, it is an amazing feat that they have been able to create a 5 star experience.

We did a dive to get started, at Madivaru (most famous site in Rasdhoo), but the current wasn’t quite right so we didn’t get the full effect (I did a few days later after a hammerhead dive). We found the diving was similar to Palau in that there was lots of fish life and you had huge drop offs into the blue.

Day 3:
Krisin and I both got up at 5:15am to get out to dive with Hammerhead sharks at Hammerhead point. As we were doing a feature for The Circumference, the dive center agreed to do a special trip this day for us. We dove down in the blue and it was like flying in space as the water was filled with “fireflies of the sea” – a plankton or something that glowed blue. We swam around for 40 minutes at 25m depth zig zagging back and forth but only saw 1 hammerhead and it was at a depth of 70m or more so we could only see his big body cruising by. Couldn’t make out the head we wanted to see. There was about 10 different liveaboard boats also diving so the site was busy and perhaps too loud for the hammerheads.

After a breakfast buffet (we loved the buffets on the island) we did another dive – scheduled for Manta Block in Rasdhoo. When we got to the site the guides looked around and no current (no current = no mantas) so we did a nearby wall just off the other resort island on Rasdhoo atoll. It was moray central. We’ve never seen so many. Every 5 meters you had another huge moray popping out of the wall. We also saw “mini” mantas (same family but different species), napoleon wrasse, and some black tip sharks.

We took the rest of the day to swim in the lagoon, enjoy our terrace and then attend the nightly Stingray feeding. Stingrays and sharks come in like clockwork at sundown to feed near the pier. A fellow gets in the water and the rays literally climb him to get fed. It’s quite entertaining and we took it in 3 nights out of 4. One night the herons that also get in the action sat on my head twice. I thought it was some weirdo massaging my head at first!

Day 4:
I got up again for the hammerhead dive, this time without Kristin. Again we spotted 1 but he was a bit too deep for me to get a good look. Better than the first day in that I could see his fins and his unique swimming style at a 45 degree angle to the bottom but not good enough to feel that I really saw him. I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn’t see one – as this was a big reason why we chose this island. In all the Maldives this was the spot for hammerheads and we were the only island that was within distance. Everyone else had to come via liveaboard. I confirmed with the dive center that March was the best time of year – yes correct. Apparently in January, everyday they saw the school of 50 or so but since then it has been spotty. They talked about the boat that was busted a few years ago where they found 75 hammerheads on board – fished out. Its strange to hear them talk about it – just hoping that they don’t get fished out in the middle of the night. Lost forever.

I tried for Manta Block again, but again no current. Same dive as the day before – moray city. I got a bit crazy playing with the Morays – some of video footage shows my camera getting nudged by one and almost bitten by another!

In the afternoon Kristin and I went for a nice walk along the sand outcrop – walking until the beach finally ran out. We did a bit of snorkelling as well then took in the nightly Stingray feeding. Most days late afternoon we’d do a some work online, have dinner and then get to bed fairly early.

Day 5:
I’ll call this the best diving day of my life thus far. In the morning I got up once again at 5:15am for Hammerhead point. I was hoping for 3rd time lucky. My guide on this day told me his theory that when the sharks are hard to find that he thinks its best to stick near the reef. I said sounds good – and that’s what we did. After about 20 minute of searching, I look behind me to my right and there is a big one maybe 10 meters away following us! As soon as I turned to look at him he did a 180 and started heading the other way. My dive group was swimming on, away from him. I tried to bang my tank but couldn’t make a noise and so just took in the view for the few seconds he was right there. I got a good look at him, and could see him completely. Before I could alert the others who were swimming away they spotting another one and so I rushed over to see the second hammerhead. Again a great view – the head clearly visible and the unique hammerhead swimming style. He dove down to 50 meters and was gone within 5 seconds. We kept searching and a few minutes later found #3 for the day – again a clear view. I chased him down to 30 meters and tried to get some footage as the first shark I was too surprised to shoot and the second my camera jammed and I didn’t get a thing. He dove to 50m and was moving fast so the footage was a wash but the view was great. Since we’d seen 3, we now went on to survey the rest of Madivaru. As there was very little current we could really swim along the ridge and move across the site. I felt it to be a mini Blue Corner – a place where you could sit and look into the blue and watch sharks but also find fields of garden eels, eagle rays (saw one on this dive) and corals and fish galore. I could dive that site every day.

Elated from such a great hammerhead experience, I went back and got Kristin and we headed out on a North Ari Atoll dive safari. Again the dive school arranged this just for us as they normally do it later in the week but we would have been gone. They were awesome! Our first dive was at Hafza Thila (near the famous Maaya Thila) and the highlight was a school of big dogtooth Tuna (maybe 10-15) which we got in the middle of. As we surfaced, a school of dolphins was swimming by the Thila just a few meters away – we almost came up into them! Our second dive was at Manta Point. After trying twice in the week for Mantas we were really hoping. Our dive guides searched by snorkel for 45 minutes – waiting for the current to change and start pulling out of the atoll. They timed it perfectly because as soon as we got down on the bottom we found five huge manta rays. As one of the guys on the boat said, it was like being on mars on a sand landing strip and having flying saucers coming in and hovering over your head. These Mantas were fearless. They came in and pretty much sat right on top of us. We were bent over backwards just trying to lie flat enough that they wouldn’t touch us. Our experience a few weeks ago in Palau was so fantastic we didn’t think it could be bested but this experience was even more magical.

Satisfied, on our boat ride home we did our nitrox lessons and then wrote the exam. We both passed and are now Nitrox certified. Diving nitrox, while a bit more to plan for, certainly makes you feel better at the end of the day and I really wish I’d done it earlier in the trip. Better late than never though. It really came in handy on the hammerhead dives.

Day 6:
Check out day. We were both sad and looking for places to handcuff ourselves to. I went snorkelling while Kristin went to check out the infinity pool. Snorkelling was amazing – best snorkelling I’ve ever done, as good as a “great” dive. Countless sharks, Napoleans, schools of sweetlips, half beaks, snappers, butterflies – stunning. It took the first couple sharks to get used to snorkelling with them. Up until now I was used to seeing them only when decked out with scuba gear.

We spent the last few hours on our terrace overlooking the lagoon and by 3:30 we were back in Male and looking for food. I wouldn’t want to spend much time in Male. Its very crowded – hundreds of thousands of people living on an island only 1.5 miles long. It’s also very expensive for everything. If you come to the Maldives, try your best to avoid having to overnight in Male. The best is definitely on the resort islands.

Kuramanthi Resort Island

We’re in the Maldives now, staying on a tiny coral atoll. It’s picture perfect – a tiny sliver of fine white sand in the middle of the sea. I’d always wanted to stay in a room on stilts above the water – and we’ve been enjoying stepping off our balcony and into the fish.

No more Mantas in the bowl

Sitting in the airport on our way to the Maldives, I thought I’d skim over some old unread dive magazines I had on my computer. I happened to come across a small blurb, in issue 7 of X-Ray magazine, about the Mantas of Burias island in Sorsogon. They say “It is estimated that an average of three manta rays are being killed in Ticao every week. This is equivalent to 144 mantas killed each year but the number could even be higher.”

Warren and I dove Manta Bowl in Ticao’s Pass a few weeks ago and sadly didn’t encounter any Manta Rays on two attempts. From asking around, it seems no one had seen any all week. We did however encounter fishing nets draped over what our dive guide called the Manta cleaning station and saw our own boat rip a huge coral apart with its anchor.

Perhaps the call for action from X-Ray magazine came a little too late (issue was from October 2005) and the destruction continues. Very sad to witness such a sharp example of the quick degradation of a world class dive site and Manta population.

Fort Cochin, Kerala

We arrived in Kerala Friday night and have been staying at the Arches Hotel. Pretty much the only place in town advertising wifi in the rooms, we we’re a bit distressed when we arrived and the internet was neither in room nor working at all! After some work they did get it sorted out and put us in a room where it was functioning. Since then they’ve been absolutely fantastic in arranging everything for us from activities to cars to houseboats. Things here in Cochin are much cheaper than Delhi – you can have a delicious dinner for 2 (butter chicken, fish, rice, bread etc.) with drinks for about $10 Canadian. It’s also very relaxing here – a really chill vibe throughout the area of town we are in. Lots of tourists hanging about – probably because it is like a breath of fresh air compared with other places in India like Delhi. I’ve come to realize that if you’re a serious hippy in Canada, the US or Europe and you have retired, you come to India.

First day we went down to the water and checked out the ancient Chinese Fishing nets. I tried my hand together with a few local guys and caught 2 small fish. Seems industrial fishing practices have rendered these old beauties pretty much obsolete.

After checking out town and basically wandering around we took in a traditional Kathakali dance show. Elaborate costumes were preceeded by make up that took 2 hours to apply. We were able to watch them as they got done up for the show and it really added to the experience. As the theatre was old and small, you really had the feel that you were of another time – a few years ago.

Sunday we drove to Alleppey and stepped on to our backwater houseboat . We had one all to ourselves – a two bedroom unit with an upper and lower deck. We boated through small villages and saw people bathing, doing laundry, catching fish – living off the water. It was incredibly peaceful and we had afternoon tea overlooking rice fields and birds. At night we docked near a small 10 house village. This morning we boated back, through the backwater canal system. One of the best days of the trip – beautiful, interesting and relaxing.

Today we explored Jew Town street after getting back, which is known as a good shopping area. We got a few things for back home. I liked how many of the stores have the word “Curios” as part of their name. We don’t use that word very much in North America – but I quite like it.

Kristin also did a cooking class tonight, but said it wasn’t as fun as the one in Thailand as this one wasn’t hands on. It was more “watch and learn”. I hope she picked up some Indian cooking know how regardless! A few more days here, then Wednesday we fly into the Maldives.