Paradise island
yes! that's another good one... Paradise Island (real name Lankan Finolhu) is the very island whose house reef hosts the famous Manta Point!
so you can actually swim from the beach out to the reef and freedive manta point. there are 2 cleaning stations where the mantas frequent, depth 12-20metres. believe it or not though, it's best on scuba... i have stayed on that cleaning station on scuba for one hour... watching mantas overhead.
below is a video that i took last year on with my P10... on scuba... (as you can hear). Goes to show that you don't necessarily have to freedive to get close to these animals.
on the same dive site there are loads of white tip sharks, stone fish, snappers (different kinds), turtle, and also sometimes you can see mobula rays (small little mantas). there are some coral heads with great overhangs full of soft coral. The reef top is about 3-8 m and during manta season you will have mantas coming really close.
the only downside for me being so close to male is being able to see the city in the distance and also the planes fly overhead as it's so close to the airport. Paradise is about 20min speedboat ride from the airport. other dive sites close to Paradise (by boat only) are Okobe Thila, Furana Thila, Paradise Rock, and the channel, and the famous Banana Reef. Next to the airport you have the Victory wreck (scuba only) which lies in 30m of water and has a shot line because the currents get up to about 4-5 knots in that channel.
So for relax, sun and drinking, Paradise is great. The snorkelling should be ok too. It doesn't have the greatest dive sites close (except for Manta Point, which is spectacular if there are mantas around) but if you're not going on a diving holiday it's a nice choice.
if you decide to do the Male' shopping day trip thing during your stay, visit some mosques and also the local residential areas. Male is very interesting, you can walk the length of it in about 30 mins and 75000 people live there. There are loads of places to buy sarongs, sharks teeth :head , souvenirs etc and also a great place called the Seagull Cafe where you can buy fresh fruit juices, sit outside and enjoy a nice moment. Male' is very hot and sweaty! just potting around (visit the park and the museum, there is also a small art gallery) is great, some people live in the shabbiest of houses yet there is a huge satellite dish on their roof. the lifestyle is very interesting and the maldivians are very nice people, quiet and calm.
It's recommended that women don't wear strappy tops when they go to male or short skirts etc. Remember that its a Muslim country albeit quite modern. A sarong and t-shirt is great. you'll need a sarong to go into the mosque (its ok for men to wear shorts in Male' :head :head ) but to enter the mosque you must wear long trousers or a sarong.
You can get quite cheap diving gear in Male, and especially the digital camera market is quite competitively priced. the sony p10 with housing is going for 750USD now, (i bought mine last year for 900). with loads of bargaining and arguing you can get some good deals.
The airport in male is the most expensive i have known. in the restaurant inside it cost me 8USD for a coffee and croissant.
The tap water in the hotels is desalinated and normally it's ok to drink. bottled water on the islands is around 3-4 USd per bottle. beers are around 4-8USD.
Paradise puts on a good spread apparently and you can always request seafood in Maldives, the Indian Ocean lobster is really good!
anything else you need to know... ask me.
here is the vid... you can see some of the photos i took of the mantas in this same forum, a few months back.
manta point
manta thread