DIVE HAPPY

The Maldives have thousands of islands with great diving - so a liveaboard is the logical way to see as much of the underwater world as possible without being tied to one resort

Excellent write up in Chiang Mai City Life magazine this month of a recent liveaboard around the Maldives. This is another of those spectacular destinations that is on my "Must See" list, whenever I find the money - or a willing sponsor - to get me there.

Gary R. Johnston, the article's author explains:

"Our plan was a week-long safari around the central islands [on MV Savruga, a Turkish-built, 75 foot, two-masted sailboat], visiting their best dive sites and looking for new ones as well. The trip put my wife and me in the poor house, but we’d heard the underwater sights of the Maldives were the stuff of legends, and the idyllic islands could sooth the soul of any savage beast, (I’m referring to myself of course, not my wife).

There's plenty more detail in Johnston's report about their Maldives liveaboard, but the highlight was a close encounter with a whale shark:

Suddenly, out of the blue it came, and straight towards us! With its wide mouth housing a mouth evolved to filter the smallest organisms from the water, and grey spots covering its nine metre long body, an encounter with a whale shark is one of those rare moments that gives any human a rush of humility and a reminder that even after the age of dinosaurs there are many living things in this world larger than us, and we may be lucky enough to see them if we’re willing to visit their habitats. As it slowly passed an arm’s length away, all I could do was float and stare. As it passed, others chased it down into the impossible abyss.

Fantastic stuff. Given the relative expense of visiting the Maldives due to its popularity with honeymooners, a liveaboard seems the way to go if diving is your priority.