Well, been thar, done tat!
Guess I am real spoilt in regards to what dive destinations I've been to in
the part but, unless someone was going on a honeymoon (or something special
like that where half your time is not spent on boats or underwater ie only
wanted a couple of dives a day at the most) the Maldives would NOT rate
highly on my list of 'must-see' places.
The resort we stayed at had a brilliant restaurant run by a fantastic
french chef who put on the most beautiful food. Won't tell you how much
weight I put on that week but my favourite was their homemade ice cream ..
I was having that for sweets at lunch & dinner time.
As for prices, everything, except for the duty free alcohol which you
purchased on the way out of there, was over-priced.
A friends sunglasses were stolen from the dining table. He forgotten them
when leaving the table but by the time he'd reached his room, realised &
had marched back to fetch them, the table had been cleared and set up for
the next guests and said sunnies had not been handed in at the desk - they
had disappeared in a puff of smoke. Those sunnies were special fishing
glasses valued at over $190 (OZ$). He made do with a cheap pair from the
boutique. The only sunnies available, which we would have paid $8-$10 in OZ
for, was selling for $25 UD$.
You even had to pay for the water - at the resort & on the liveaboard boat -
$3.50 small bottle, $6.50 large bottle. Many of us outsmarted them there
by having water purifying tablets for the water we used to brush out teeth
with anyhow so filled up our bottles we were using to quench our thirst on
the dive boats from our rooms.
My glass of fresh orange juice cost more than a glass of wine!! Not
surprising to see everyone drinking wine with their meals if they were not
in to beers. Actually the customs folk are cunning they sure you pay for
the alcohol served at the restaurants so scanning all your luggage on
arrival and escort you with your liquor bounty to the counter to sign it
over for collection on your departure.
Even using any of their water equipment - windsurfer, etc, cost you. I've
never been to a place where - if you paid full-board in advance you still
got hit with all these other hidden costs. Live & learn, eh.
While they have a few diving rules I don't agree with the worst I
encountered was on the liveaboard sector of the trip. This vessel was run
by an Italian company and their rule was that you dived as a group - went
down as a group, came up as a group. So you exited the water when the first
person was down on air. One day we only got a 25 min dive due to the dive
guide insisting we swam in to the current where the air hogs churned
through their air in no time. As the liveaboard costs were in US$ I don't
think we got value for $ for the majority of the dives. In fact I have to
be honest and admit that, apart from 4 new critters sighted that week,
things were a little boring for a liveaboard trip. I can confirm that
feeling by how many pics I took that week. I only shot off 2 rolls of slide
film - unheard of for me.
While the liveaboard had great accommodation the food was bland & boring.
Breakfast - toast, musli, banana or lebanese bread.
Lunch - pasta for entree, fish main meal.
Dinner - pasta for entree, fish main meal.
By the 3rd day I was craving some meat so queried if they had any protein
on board. Yes, there was some sausages and a few chicken legs.. but they
could not guarantee their guality because they had been having freezer
problems. Later on I find out that most of the liveaboards & resorts have
fish, fish, fish, and more fish.
They actually got the hint that some of us were pretty annoyed that we felt
we were getting the equivalent of a McDonalds meal so for some variety they
served up pizzas for dinner. Yup, the first one came out with TUNA on
top... aaaarrrgh. 2nd one had tiniest slivers of sausage on top. 3rd one
came out covered in artichokes. The next day they served lasagne for
dinner - have you ever had lasagne that is meatless? It was pitiful, made
even worse by being served up with a tray of sliced tomatoes and deep fried
onion rings.
I am half way through writing up a trip report - 1st week landbased for the
SPUMS conference, 2nd week liveaboard. Had some good diving in the first
week .. weather held out for us and dive guides let us dive in buddy pairs,
2nd week weather started to turn ugly, as it was the beginning of their
monsoon season, and things we slightly downhill from there.
Viv
|
