Maldives (Soneva Fushi) Trip and dive report
Patrick NOEL
http://www.sixsenses.com/soneva-fushi/index.php . Flight from Paris in
Business Class with Qatar Airways, via Doha ; excellent service on
board.
Idyllic stay in that heavenly island : only 65 villas, set on 111 acres
of lush tropical forest where a network of sand trails leads to one of
the numerous beaches, to one of the 3 restaurants, to the spa or ... to
the diving center ! You can either walk or use the bicycles that are
provided with each villa.
The kindness of the staff, the luxury of the villas, the quality of the
food (and of the wine list !), the peacefulness, the lovely smell of
the forest, ... One doesn't know what to stress out to invite you to
discover that luxurious "organic" resort, bearing a truly unique charm
(see here, a few land pictures :
http://www.aquaphot.fr/SonevaFushi2008.htm ).
9 days - 8 nights of pure happiness.
A real environmental awareness : everything is made of natural
products, the wood used for building the villas or for the furniture
comes only from fallen trees or from plantations ; imports are reduced
as much as possible (there is an organic garden where are grown most
of the vegetables and fruits served in the restaurants) ; no caviar
(!), no foie gras, many species of fishes are protected (blue-fin tuna,
marlin, ...) ; paper and glass are recycled ; no plastic wrapping, etc.
A very active energy saving program and global warming awareness, even
if one comes there by hydravion and not with a rowboat, and if the
diving boat is not a sailboat, but, well ... All these efforts are much
better than nothing.
An what about scuba diving ?
Well, it's true that this kind of resort is not exactly home of
stakhanovist diving, and it's obviously not what one comes here for. No
3 or 4 dives a day like on a diving cruise ; only two dives are
proposed each day : one in the morning at 9:30, the other one in the
afternoon at 3 pm. During my 9 days stay I dove only 6 times ...
One or two boats, depending on the number of divers ; never more than
10-12 divers on a single boat ; one guide for 2 to 4 divers. The Soleni
Dive center (http://www.soleni.com/jsps/homepage.jsp) is owned and
managed, since 1995 (!) by Thomas Wälchli and Alessandra Benini and
their multilingual team. All the staff is very professional and
friendly.
In March, the dives are rather cool (much less current than during our
last stays in december 99 and december 2003) ; the diving profiles are
mostly similar : we dive on "tilas", most of the time slow drift dives
(at least during this stay !), sand is at a depth of 30-35m ; deep
divers, bring your shovel ! The tilas rise from the bottom to very
different depths : ranging from -5m to -17m. A lot of fishes, but not
so many big pelagic fishes (a few large sting rays, a few eagle rays
and tunas, though, but I only saw sharks while snorkeling on the house
reef !) ; a few gorgonian fans. Hard coral is rather healthy (after the
bleaching due to 1998 El Niño), but in most places, the reef is not so
colourful with a few exceptions ...
Due to the current, moderate but always present, and in spite of a
rather "milky" water, I chose to shoot only wide angle pictures, using
a Nikon D200 in an Ikelite housing, and a single lens : the Nikkor
12-24 zoom lens. Two strobes Ikelite DS125. But with only six dives, I
took no more than 50 pics or so. Here is a small best of :
http://www.aquaphot.fr/maldives2008.htm
Enjoy.
Patrick
(I'm French, so forgive my English ...)
--
(Pas de plouf pour m'écrire - No plouf to write)
http://www.aquaphot.fr/
ben bradlee
"Patrick NOEL" <plouf...@aquaphot.fr> wrote in message
news:mn.c27e7d83f...@aquaphot.fr...
<snip>
Good report. Thank you very much. I liked best the eel in the first set of
pictures and the Oriental whatever it was fish in the second set of
pictures. It is interesting to note that the number of small fish is quite
extraordinary.
Elliott Goldstein
elliott
-hh
> 4th trip to the Maldives... imports are reduced as much as
> possible (there is an organic garden where are grown most of
> the vegetables and fruits served in the restaurants) ; no caviar
> (!), no foie gras, many species of fishes are protected (blue-fin tuna,
> marlin, ...) ; paper and glass are recycled ; no plastic wrapping, etc.
Nice to see an attempt to be 'low impact' in the environment.
Naturally, one can compensate when one gets back home to Paris. I'll
have to try to visit 'La Varangue' (7th éme).
> In March, the dives are rather cool ..
Cool as in 30C? 25?
> Due to the current, moderate but always present, and in spite of a
> rather "milky" water, I chose to shoot only wide angle pictures, using
> a Nikon D200 in an Ikelite housing, and a single lens : the Nikkor
> 12-24 zoom lens. Two strobes Ikelite DS125. But with only six dives, I
> took no more than 50 pics or so. Here is a small best of :http://www.aquaphot.fr/maldives2008.htm
Nicely done, as usual.
-hh
chilly
Patrick, I'm a bit confused. I do understand that the island is quite
lovely and that the resort is to be admired. However, I don't understand
why you would travel so far to dive only twice a day.
Have I missed something in the reading of your report or is it simply that
you do not desire to do more than 2 dives a day?
Patrick NOEL
> Patrick NOEL <plouf.pn...@aquaphot.fr> wrote:
>> In March, the dives are rather cool ..
>
> Cool as in 30C? 25?
;-)
By "cool" I meant not too much current ... water was at 28°C ...
P.
--
(pas de plouf pour m'écrire - no plouf to write)
http://www.aquaphot.fr/
Patrick NOEL
Well, when you're with your wife in such a romantic place you may
prefer not to dive all the time ... There's so much more to do, don't
you think ?
;-))
P.
--
(pas de plouf pour m'écrire - no plouf to write)
http://www.aquaphot.fr/
chilly
> chilly a écrit :
> > "Patrick NOEL" <plouf...@aquaphot.fr> wrote in message
> > news:mn.c27e7d83f...@aquaphot.fr...
> >> 4th trip to the Maldives ; the second stay at Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa
:
> > (snip good report)
> >
> > Patrick, I'm a bit confused. I do understand that the island is quite
> > lovely and that the resort is to be admired. However, I don't
understand
> > why you would travel so far to dive only twice a day.
> >
> > Have I missed something in the reading of your report or is it simply
that
> > you do not desire to do more than 2 dives a day?
>
> Well, when you're with your wife in such a romantic place you may
> prefer not to dive all the time ... There's so much more to do, don't
> you think ?
> ;-))
Well, when you put it that way.
In another regard, are you living in Paris? If so, I will be in your
neighborhood very soon.
Patrick NOEL
> In another regard, are you living in Paris? If so, I will be in your
> neighborhood very soon.
Yes, I live in Paris, but I'm going to Sulawesi (Manado, Bunaken and
Lembeh strait) very soon ..
Enjoy your visit.
Daniel Kessler
> > Well, when you're with your wife in such a romantic place you may
> > prefer not to dive all the time ... There's so much more to do, don't
> > you think ?
> > ;-))
I've had three trips to the Maldives -- two where I dived in the Male double
lagoon and one over on the Western side of the atoll (can't right now recall the
name of the resort -- but a 1/2 hour helicopter ride from the airport in Male.
While I enjoyed my trips to the Maldives --always in mid-March to avoid the
monsoon, I can't describe the Maldives as a "romantic" kind of place...some
resorts are more into diving than others...on the occasion of my first visit
back in 1981 I noticed the Europeans engaged in near nude bathing as I headed
out on a dhonie to dive -- but that soon changed to a more modest approach in
keeping with the tenants of the Muslin religion -- no more nude bathing!
The resort I stayed in twice (now it comes to me -- it was Bandos) even had a
little mosque hidden away for the locals (hotel employees) to attend to their
daily prayers...as you know...devout Muslims have to attend to a number of daily
prayers according to their religion.
Anyway, on the occasion of my second visit in 1986 -- no more nude bathing! And
by the way, I've dived in a lot of world-class diving destinations ---but the
Maldives is truly one of those places where you have to be extremely careful
about sunburn..I mean, just the reflected light off the water is enough to do
you in...
But, on the other hand, if you want to get close-up pictures of fish if you are
a u/w photographer -- I can't think of a better place than the Maldives...I
wonder if it is still true? I recall that large trigger fish -- couldn't get
within miles of it on the GBR or Palau...but in the Maldives -- you could swim
almost right up to it and do a portrait. Incredible!
Daniel Kessler
"Charlie-the-wrecker"
chilly
> chilly a présenté l'énoncé suivant :
>
> > In another regard, are you living in Paris? If so, I will be in your
> > neighborhood very soon.
>
> Yes, I live in Paris, but I'm going to Sulawesi (Manado, Bunaken and
> Lembeh strait) very soon ..
Sounds great! Looking forward to seeing your trip report upon your return.
When next in SE Asia, I plan to incorporate that area into the dive portion
of my trip.
As for "very soon". One might wonder what your definition is compared to
mine. WG
> Enjoy your visit.
Thanks! I can't imagine not enjoying. Going to spend a bit of time in
other areas of France as well, with Paris on both the front and back ends.