Honeymoon In The Maldives

[mark]

Hi All

Got Married in April and the new wife Jodi suprised me with the Honeymoon by taking us first to Bangkok for 4 nights, Singapore for 3 nights and then to Lohifushi in the Maldives for 14 nights where we learn't to dive.

It was quite scarey and exciting as we've only done a try-dive in a pool in the uk and there we were in a lagoon in about 3 meters of water with only 2 meters of visability! trying to do our skills hanging on to a rope in quite strong currents (it was just before monsoon season) but then we did our first dive and it was great, like being in the tv when Blue Planet is on. It was amazing swiming with Turtles, Humphead Wrasses, Sharks and Manta Rays not to mention everything else we saw.

The reefs wern't as good as some i've seen in peps pics on here, they had a big wipe out in 98 due to the temp of the sea staying high for to long and it killed most of the corals about 90%, but there were signs of it coming back with lots of small colonys around on the dive sights we did, and some good sized ones at around 20 meters.

I have never been to anywhere where they have been Coral Reefs before and after keeping then in tanks for nearly 10 years it was a great experience.

Heres some pics from our dives taken by our dive instructor Chris with his Sony Camera in a underwater housing.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/blackfot%20clowns.JPEG
These are Blackfoot Clowns only found in the Maldives

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/cla..jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/eagl.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mant1.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mant2.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mant3.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/mor..jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/shol.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/shrim.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/turt1..jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/turt2..jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/us,..jpg
Here's one of Jodi and me.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/wif..jpg
Here's one of Jodi who is the reason I am able to bore you all with this thread :P

Hope you made it to the end of it all :thumbsup:

Thanks for looking.

Mark.

[alfa]

what a woman :bow:

[mark]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Yeah she's not bad. She only told me we were going when we'd got Married and were eating the Wedding Breakfast.

[Andythescientist]

How'd you get chris to take a photo of anything other than a nudibranch? :P

I here there's a lot of changes going on at lohi this summer (during monsoon season) including new pier, new bar and stuff. Unfortunatly i think chris's leaving in august :(

hmm where to go this october....

[mark]

Hi

How'd you get chris to take a photo of anything other than a nudibranch? :lol: :lol: He did me a disc of the pics he took of us, and filled the rest up with nudibranches!

The island was being altered while we were there, they just seemed to be digging out loads of sand and making the island bigger.

hmm where to go this october....
Go and see Chris he was looking at going to Vanuartu (sp?)

I gave him my Email so he could let us know where he went so we could go and dive with him again, but not heard from him yet.

Cheers

Mark.

[Suk]

Great pics Mark, dead jealous of you both... I've yet to see my first Manta ray!
The spotted Eagle rays look fantastic too, only ever seen one off Tioman Island.
:thumbsup:

[Andythescientist]

Manta points a cracking dive site, at one point we had about 9 manta's at the cleaning station.

Word of warning about maldives is that you need to check the time of year you go if you want to see mantas. They move between north male atol, and south atol, depending which monsoon season it is.


There's a pretty good rough guide, book just for divers for the maldives which is well worth a look. Lists and rates all the different dive sites in each atol area. For about a tenner from amazon well worth it if you plan to go. Especially as it lets you request specific dives from the school :)