Day 2.

After breakfast at the hotel we met up at 8am at Maafushi Dive before heading out on the boat for our morning dive excursion.


Quite a wide range of nationalities on the dive trip. Italian, British, Korean, Swedish, and of course one South African and a Kiwi!


We then suited up and jumped in for our first dive. My last few dives were in Bali and Hoi An, and the Maldives definitely seemed a step up though.


Clownfish bobbing in and around the anemones.


I was really blown away by the amount of underwater life too. Unfortunately I didn't get any good shots with my wide-angle Gopro, but we saw a sea turtle, a moray eel, some rays and a few sharks.


And doing our safety stop at the end of an amazing dive.


We then swapped out new tanks on the boat and then headed to our second dive site.


Our second dive was at the Kuda Giri wreck.


It was my second time doing a wreck dive.


It was really cool to explore and check out a relatively recent wreck in good visibility.


Underwater selfie.


A trio of butterflyfish.


More exploring of the wreck.


Again lots of fish to keep us company.


This guy was quite co-operative and stayed still while I took his photo.


Heading back towards the bow.


We then headed along the reef to check out the sea life.


Another butterflyfish amongst the coral.


Again it was a really amazing dive and definitely amongst my most memorable after 14 years of diving.


Back at the boat after our safety stop.


After a great morning diving we went for a walk along the beach back at Maafushi.


We then stopped for a cool fresh watermelon juice at a restaurant on the beach.


And shared the tasty pizza mariana for lunch. Again quite a cheap meal for $15 total.


A couple of local surfers heading out to the break to catch some waves.


The front door of a local house.


We then went for a wander through the streets and alleys before crashing out at the hotel after the busy morning.


After a decent rest we then headed out again.


A local family enjoying a Friday afternoon swim at a beach on the eastern side of Maafushi.


We then went to the main beach on the western side and shared another coconut.


And enjoyed watching the spectacular sunset.


We then headed to dinner at the Arena Beach Hotel where they had a BBQ dinner buffet for $10 (~$12 including tax, service charge etc.).


We had a table right by the beach, and enjoyed a candle-lit dinner while listening to the gentle lapping of the waves nearby. A great way to finish our second day in Maldives!



Day 3.

After a run around the island (I managed three laps) we had breakfast again at the guesthouse. Simple but tasty and filling


There was a bit of morning downpour but it quickly passed.


We then headed out on a speedboat we had organised through the guesthouse for a day trip out to Villivaru island.


The island was ~ 5 kilometres away from Maafushi, so the trip in the speedboat was relatively quick.


We then landed on the island and disembarked. The guesthouse had also organised a picnic lunch (in the cooler bin) for our day on the island.


We then went for a walk around to explore the island. Villivaru island is relatively small at ~350 metres across. In 1982 a three star resort was built on the island. The resort was later sold to a Singaporean investor. He then attempted to 'refurbish' the resort by extending the island and adding overwater villa's. This however resulted in significant damage to the surrounding reef and he was subsequently fined a signficant sum.


The fine went unpaid, the refurbishment halted and the island has since been abandoned for the last ~10+ years with only a few cats as now its only permanent residents.


A passing catamaran in the distance.


A heron enjoying some sun with Maafushi on the horizon.


The old and now crumbling resort pier.


A hermit crab having a stroll on the beach. The deserted island was home to quite a few of these guys, both big and small.


Our speedboat anchored by our 'private' beach. We then went for a swim on the sheltered western side of the island.


A couple in a catamaran came ashore for a break from their sail around the islands.


At about 12:30pm, our guide laid out our picnic lunch under the palm trees for a very tasty feast for two!


A great picnic lunch with an awesome view.


Our guesthouse had also organised snorkelling gear for us, so after lunch we went out to explore the local sea life.


You could see alot of broken and damaged coral about, presumably from the attempted resort refurbishment.


It appeared to slowly be bouncing back though with some live coral and plenty of fish about.


A school of Green Chromis hovering over some coral. Was fun to see them dancing and ducking about. If you got too close they would all retreat into the safety of the coral.


A lurking moray eel.


She was a little cautious when she spotted us, and even started showing us her fangs!


After the fun and cool afternoon of snorkelling, we had a stroll to the end of the pier. You can see the remains of the pier underwater at the end as it has started to crumble away into the ocean.


And then enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing unde the palm trees.


At about 3:30pm we said farewell to the beautiful deserted island of Villivaru and headed back in the speedboat to Maafushi. The total cost for the day for the speedboat, picnic lunch, beach towels and snorkelling gear was $65 each or $130 total, so was very reasonable. Such an amazing and relaxing experience too!


After retrieving our bags from the guesthouse and thanking them for a very enjoyable stay, we walked down to the speedboat ferry for the 5pm trip back to Malé to begin our trip back home.


Quite a few people, both locals and fellow tourists, were heading back to Malé so they had a second speedboat running as well.


We got to Malé at about 5:35pm. The speedboat was heading on to the airport but as our flight back to Dubai wasn't until 10:20pm, we decided to see abit of the capital instead.


The island of Malé is only 5.8 square kilometres in size, and with a population of 153,000, is 60% more densely populated than Hong Kong Island and 40% more than Macau!


After enjoying a walk around bustling Malé, we retreated to a local restaurant and enjoyed a banana smoothie.


We then had dinner of ginger and sweet and sour fish with rice for dinner.


The balcony of the restaurant looked out over the street below, and was great to watch the people, whizzing motorbikes and a few cars.


We then caught one of the frequent ferries (one every ~10 minutes) for the short ride across to the airport.


Getting some Oreo cake, coffee and water air-side with the last of our local currency.


And about to board the flydubai 737 after an amazing three days in Maldives!