Originally Posted by
brandonpkt
Hi MF! Yup, I have read all of your posts (and the whole thread from the start of 2014), your posts are very helpful! When you say the last 3 SWVs, are you referring to 340-342?
Yes.
Originally Posted by
brandonpkt
Also, I had read that you have stayed in 338 & 339. Would you recommend any specific villa among the group of 334, 335, 338 and 339? Or do you think they are all fairly equivalent when it comes to sea life, view and noise factor?
Thanks again for your help MF! I hope to meet more FTers on my return
For noise, I think I already mentioned that 338/339 would be slightly better than 334/335.
334 and 335 have good views of course but out of those two I'd choose 335 as you would probably see 335 out to the far left if you were sitting on the far right hand side of 334's jacuzzi. The dividers/privacy walls are on the RHS of all SWVs so the LHSs are somewhat vulnerable to their view including the outsides of other SWVs should you be near or at the edge of the deck, i.e; in 339 for example, we had maybe a 150 or 160 degree panoramic view when sitting on the edge of the deck facing the ocean, so even when sitting at the edge you couldn't see any other SWVs. Great stuff because all you see is endless ocean as far to the left and right as you can see. Here's my video of the view from 339.
http://v9.tinypic.com/player.swf?file=21eu48z&s=9
If it came down to a decision between 338 and 339 if you wanted to be a little adventurous in your snorkelling, I'd have to say 339 as it's easy to skirt the coral formations and go around the back of them and cover more ground, i.e; you'd go almost directly west from the villa and circle round the darkest, most dense patch of coral
making for a slightly easier and slightly better snorkelling experience. I went right out to the edge of the lagoon and back and it required much less effort from 339. BTW if you do decide to venture far away from the villa, put some brightly-coloured cushions or something similar on the edge of your deck. Makes it much easier to navigate back.
If you had young kids and didn't want to venture too far away from the villa then 338 would be your best bet as you'd have coral amd lots of fish on both sides after you got down into the water.
Note that you
can swim over most of the coral formations on the western side of Rangali with a reasonable degree of safety but only at the peak of high tide. Anything lower than the higest water level and it's a little too dangerous because if you kick your feet to paddle you could quite easily hit the coral. That and you'd need to wear a life vest if you weren't that good at keeping bouyant. Touching/damaging the coral is a big no no as you are most probably aware.