My flight arrived at 7:45, and it took less than 15 minutes to go through immigration, pick up my bags, and leave Customs. A group of us then hopped on a bus to the hotel down the road from the airport. It wasn't the best hotel I've ever been to, but it wasn't a bad place to spend the day. $55 got you use of the beach, pool, bar, shower facilities, and a 10-minute massage. After flying and sleeping in an airplane seat, that neck & back massage was the best part of the day.
Finally around 2:15, we all went back to the airport to meet the boat's crew and head out to our home for the next week. The dhoni has more room for divers than most dive boats I've ever been on.
The Carpe Vita
My room for the week. It's only slightly bigger than the bedrooms at ARV.
The main lounge where we had all of our dive briefings. Thanks to a good naval architect, the dining area was up one deck outdoors.
The weather was starting to turn nasty, so rather than do a check dive near the harbor, we all agreed to have the boat make the crossing to Baa Atoll right away. Turned out to be a good choice because the weather in North Male was even worse the next day, meaning we'd have been stuck there for two days, and the diving there isn't nearly as good as in the outer atolls. Even leaving when we did, it was still a pretty miserable crossing, seven hours of pounding into rough seas. A few people skipped dinner because they were feeling nauseous, and a few more popped pills afterwards trying to ward off becoming seasick.
I met Hans, my roommate for the week, just before dinner. First words out of his mouth were "you better not snore. If you do, we're going to have serious problems." I'll give you one guess who snored like a freight train during the whole trip. Needless to say, he's quite a piece of work. German guy, 62, bodybuilder, with earrings, nipple ring, and two old, faded tattoos. He was literally a walking caricature like Hans & Franz from the old SNL skits. Throw in the goofy faces he made all the time, and we had almost endless hours of unintentional comedy to laugh at.
No comments:
Post a Comment