After a long flight with an hour layover in Bangkok, our group of 14 divers arrived in Male just past mid-night local time. We quickly collected our bags and headed straight to the jetty to catch our water-taxi to our "home" for the next 5 days. It's a live-aboard boat painted in brilliant white.
It wasn't the best start since our tour-leader had to wrestle with the dive guide to make sure he takes us down to South Ari Atoll to see Manta Rays and Whale Sharks. The dive guide "claimed" that they are not in season but we said we will take our chances! The next morning we did a "check-out" dive at 10am and the boat slowly cruised down south. That check-out dive was the first and last dive we had that 1st full day in the Maldives! That was definitely a crime!
After an early night, we all got up the next morning at 6am for our 1st dive at 6:30am! The dive guide took us down and the water was very pristine with immense life underwater. All our anxiety from the day before started to slowly dissipate. After a nice little breakfast we had a couple of hours of rest before we headed back into the water. With in the 1st 5 minutes of our dive we spotted a gracious Manta Ray gliding effortlessly in the deep blue. With all our energy we finned out to meet this gorgeous creature. We managed to get a few good shots and were quite pleased with this encounter. Our group started to move on again and after another 10 minutes we once again saw the shadow of that gracious creature. This time he was a bit more allusive and just gave us a little wave and left the scene. As we moved toward the shallow we saw ahead there were another group of divers congregated in a small circle like a prayer group. We rushed over to take a look and the most amazing scene appeared before our eyes. There were 4 Mantas of various sizes performing a choreographic dance in mid-water. We all knelt down in that circle and marvelled at their performance. They glided in circle and over our heads and as they swam over I could see their eyes and as if they could read my mind, they gave me a look to say that God has answered my prayer and they are here to impress upon me His Grace! I could feel tears rolling in my eyes but I held them back. I didn't want any distraction from my admiration of these creatures.
After a good 20 minutes, I reluctantly said good-bye to the Mantas and made my way up to the dive boat to greet the Maldivian sun.
Stay tune for Part II...
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