Maldives – Meerufenfushi
After the Tsunami

by Brian Rayner

This write-up is basically an up-date to Stuart Walls very detailed report a few months ago on Meeru, and more importantly since the tsunami.

We spent a very enjoyable two weeks on the island during February, booking through Hayes and Jarvis taking a First Choice B767 flight with a seaplane transfer.

It was hard to see any real visible damage on the island except for the rebuilding of the main jetty area which we noticed on arrival, and later some minor work here and there. Only two of the water villas sustained any real damage and had to be removed, the water villas being on the east side of the island. Actually it seemed strange to us how these particular two got hit and yet all the others faired ok apart from some of the lower balcony sections having to be replaced.

Apparently the water level rose as high as the Dhoni Bar central serving area (that's about two metres). At the other end of the island the Maalan Restaurant had half a metre of flood-water through it, which had the staff running around first thing as it hit early morning during the breakfast period.

Divers that were in the water at the time didn't experience anything I was told by Richard, one of the dive centre staff. It was only when they got back to the island at midday that they noticed the damage, with the jetty area being completely underwater and had to sit in the boat for two hours before they could get ashore! Due to the fact that builders were already on the island completing the new Jacuzzi water bungalows that repairs were effected so quickly.

Some members of staff on the island expressed an over-reaction by tour operators and other media to the situation on Meeru' and the Maldives generally. In the case of Meeru' all guests were evacuated within twenty-four hours after the tsunami, leaving forty staff twiddling their thumbs during the following two weeks with no guests to look after. That said, I suppose it's easy to comment after the event, but at the time tour operators made guests safety a priority not knowing what the immediate future held, a difficult call but hard to fault at the time.

It wasn't until the 29th that staff were told what had caused the freak tidal waves. One commented that during that time only one meal was served cold and that all services were very quickly back up and running only hours later, infact while guests were still leaving.

We stayed in one of the 27 water villas, although there are several types of accommodation on offer mostly being Land Villas of varying styles. The 'standard' accommodation which is a row of brick built apartments are presently under-going full refurbishment as a result of flood damage and are not being used @ this time. As nearly all the accommodation on the island is now built in wood these earlier apartments look strangely out of place.

One thing we liked about staying in the water villas was watching the juvenile Sting Rays and Black Tip Reef Sharks swimming past our balcony steps on their regular afternoon patrols while we looked-on sipping our cooled drinks before dinner.

During our stay the dive centre was operating normally with more-or-less a full complement of guides and instructors, with only one or two away helping out at other Ocean-Pro dive centres. (Maaike spent some time helping out on Lily Beach and Richard gave a hand with dive centre repairs on Velavaru for a few days during our first week there.)

The diving was typical Maldivian drift diving mostly, HP Reef being a typical example which was always good for an adrenaline-pumping start to the diving day. 'Bodu Hithi Thila' was also very popular for those with a 'manta fixation'...we saw some couples going back there time and again.

Ingrid, as Stuart points out was always helpful and quite a laugh too..as are most of the dive centre staff, with plenty of characters among them to keep you amused, especially Richard with wild tales of his worldly adventures! We dived with all the guides during our two weeks, and they all gave very detailed briefings on all aspects of the dive sites we visited.

The only 'regimentation' we experienced regarding the diving was against the clock. As we were staying @ the other end of the island in the 'Meeru Village' as it is called, breakfast was a bit of rush before the 8.15am speedboat departure for the two morning dives...then having to rush back to the Maalan restaurant again to catch lunch on our return @ around 1.15pm, lunch finishes @ 2pm...but @ least it kept us fit! This is obviously not a problem if you're using the main facilities nearer the school.

Note: according to your accommodation package that's where you'll be dining, although the bars are open to all. Meal times are 7.30-9.30am / 12.30-2pm / 7.30- 9.30pm, except on Fridays when they vary slightly (for the Maldivians to worship).

Nitrox being free for those qualified was a good ploy as it encouraged others to take the basic nitrox course, which a few did. The compressor room was very tidy and efficient with two membrane type units set for Nx32 and Nx36 (Nx32 being the most popular mix). All nitrox cylinders had DIN style pillar valves, with inserts available for those with International fit regs. These steel cylinders are approx' 11.3 litres made of double-skinned steel.

A general word on costs:

The diving here is not particularly cheap, but hey you're in paradise right? For those with their own kit a dive is US$30.00. There is no shore diving here due to the very shallow house reef, so all sites are accessed by boat.

A dhoni dive is usually a single tank dive and is around US$10.00. For Dhoni dives you'll need to be at the d/centre @ 8.45am or 2.15pm.

The speedboat is for dives farther afield inside the Atoll, but mainly s/w of Meeru' usually around the 'Paradise Island' Resort area for the channel drift diving. The speedboat cost is US$30.00 but this is for the two morning dives, and the main advantage of this is that you're done and dusted and back at the resort by around 1.15pm, to get lunch and chill-out, or join the afternoon crowd for another dive on one of the dhonis.

Typically twenty dives would amount to about US$870.00 (a mixture of speedboat and dhoni diving).

I'll not go into dive sites as that's already been covered by Stuart and they're on the Ocean-Pro website, although I'll just mention that night dives are available, usually twice a week to sites such as 'West Rock' where a fishing boat has been purposely sunk in 23m next to the reef, this site is particularly good for macro photography.

As far as FB or AI is concerned that's largely dependant on whether you like a drink or not. Jackie and I were on the full board tariff and found that it was the ideal package for us considering the diving. If you're not a drinker or wouldn't have more than four or five drinks a day then FB would be the better option.

Typically drinks were $3.50 for a small beer: Heineken/ San Miguel/ Tiger. Branded spirits and cocktails between $6/ $7. 'Happy-hour' is between 6 and 7pm with a 30% discount.

It seemed to us that guests were a 50/50 mix, although some that were on all-inclusive did express some dismay at what was and was not included in their package. Not included: branded spirits, and non 'house' wines along with apartment mini bars, also some trips and activities were excluded. But that's another story..something to thrash-out with your tour operator when booking. A very good trip is the 'Love Boat' (wrong name really) which is a whole day out on a sail boat (under power) with a max' of 12 guests from 9am 'till 6pm. All food and drink are included (though not spirits). Cost: US$90.00, this trip is extra.

As there are two tariffs operated here you are required to sign for everything you have, but you can settle your bill as many times as you wish during your stay, we did. Their computer system went down once and as a result found that drinks and other items had been mistakenly added to our bill, so always check before signing or paying for any services...honest mistakes do happen even in paradise.

Conclusions:

Chatting to staff I generally got the impression that they want things back to normal asap as business is down by around 25%..not good when considering it's their high season at the moment. They also expressed concern that media hype as been largely to blame in keeping tourists away, similar stories probably abound at destinations all over Asia.

Overall we had a great holiday and would visit again.

A word of caution: although their motto is: 'No news - no shoes' take care when bare-foot on beaches and sandy paths as you can appreciate the tsunami clean up is still on-going and debris is still being washing-up along the coasts everyday and will be for some time. We found everything from broken coral, wood, carpentry nails and other building debris scattered around, some visible some not.

Quite clearly the message from Meeru' and the Maldives in general is:

'Get yourselves out here..it's business as usual!'

For further information check-out: Oceanpro, Meeru

As with Stuart Wall if anyone would like to get in touch: brian-rayner@oceanridge.fsnet.co.uk
Brian Rayner
(BSAC DL A676945/0958 / TDI SCR and OC/CCR AD' TMX )

Pictures shown:
1/ Checking-out your slice of paradise (seaplane transfer).

2/ The new Jacuzzi water bungalows.
3/ Eagle ray at Himmafushi Kandu
4/ The water villas, with the new Jacuzzi w/bungalows in the background.
5/ A Honeycomb moray having a wash and brush-up by cleaner wrasse.


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