DIVING INTO MALDIVES

Bina Bakshi explores the exciting locales of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

As the luxurious speedboat tears across the rippling waves, and the stars stud the sky like shimmering diamonds, I can barely breathe. The wind is rushing past me as I stand on the top deck holding on for dear life. In the inky blackness of the night, the white surf tossed up by the speeding hull is all that we can see.

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1,190 islands – some only a couple of acres in area; one entire island an airport. The capital of the Maldives, Male, is only 1.77 sq. kms. The world's smallest capital, Male is very laid back and clean. An old mosque is situated here, which has rows of graves of the Sultan's family, which was wiped out when the Sultan was assassinated.

Before deciding on the Maldives as a destination for your vacation, you should choose the island/s to visit. Its 1,190 islands are scattered across the Indian Ocean, 800 kms. off the southern tip of India.

Each island houses a single resort and the management is responsible for the ecology of the entire island. We went to Hembadhu Island (800 acres), which houses the Taj Coral Reef Resort. From the sky, the island looks like a teardrop of deep, azurite green set amidst waters of cobalt blue.

Scuba diving is a must-see-must-do at the islands as both an advanced sport and a beginner's training ground. Diving, with all its paraphernalia and innate risks, remains a heavenly experience. The ocean floor and the life hidden beneath the waves open up to you as you descend into the blue depths of the ocean.

The coral, when alive, is found in colors of pink-magenta, blue, green, and pearl white. The Taj Coral Reef has its own reef, which is basically a shipwreck, sunk more than a decade ago. In one of the portholes, Titan Trigger fish stare at your face from the shadows, and tiny, colorful coral grow on the deck.

The shipwreck was 20 meters to the ocean floor, and as soon as it came into view, I headed for the white-tipped baby shark I saw nestling in the rocks.

The corals in the Maldivian waters are laid out like a garden. The effect of El Nino has left some of the corals bleached, yet it holds in its bosom myriad life forms, from manta rays to sting rays to baby sharks, eels, sea cucumbers, and clown fish.

During our dive, we came upon a school of jacks as they spiralled like a whirlpool. They are silvery white, and against the blue ocean waters, it was a breathtaking sight to see 300 of them in a pack.

It is common lore in the Maldives that "what you see in the ocean is the luck of the dive leader who takes you down." In the most exotically populated dive sites, you may see nothing because your dive leader hasn't the good luck to invite the ocean to open up her treasures. My Swiss dive leader took us to Madivaru Beru, which was nearly 27 meters deep. We saw about 15 eagle rays gliding in a ballet, their great wing-like arms swaying in the deep gray shadows. In their midst was the only female, spotted with what looked like tiny diamonds. A French deep-sea photographer, with equipment about five feet long, strobes and robot arms for the zoom lens, tried hard to get close to the eagle rays but they keep swimming away. The immense effort to protect the female from the intruder was obvious.

Travel is usually by boats called dhonis, which would take us 45 minutes away from the island every morning to dive. The return journey is spent in complete silence, enthralled and excited by the sights in the ocean.

The diving circuit has to make numerous stops at the Maldives to see even a quarter of what the islands have to offer. We also dived off the islands of Giraa Veru and Curedu, which had some amazing baby sharks nestling in the reefs.

A trip in a glass-bottomed boat into the deep ocean is a must for non-divers. Lather yourself with sun block and go on a "safari" in a glass-bottomed boat. You'll wonder why you didn't have gills and fins to join the fish down there.

At most resorts there is a ritual of feeding the fish. Every evening between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., the sting rays would wander onto the beach at the Taj and a bin of food would be laid out from the kitchen. The sting rays are almost two feet in width and have swooping arms, feel leathery to the touch, but so pretty! Imagine having tamed stingrays.

Each time one comes up from an ocean dive, one feels like a mighty warrior, back from a conquest. That's what it feels like when you are underwater. The whole world around you is unending, almost eternal, and you've had a glimpse of it on your own terms. But there is a lot of humility, too. You realize how everything we do up on land leaves a mark everywhere, like the bleaching of the corals the world over.

From the sky, the island looks like a teardrop of deep, azurite green set amidst waters of cobalt blue.

The unspoilt beaches of the Maldives are some of the best in the world.