Maldives - a week in paradise

Malé (Maldives). Arrival on Bandos island.

The journey is the continuation of Sri Lanka...

We take off at 3:30 PM from Colombo and land in the Maldives (not on the island of Male but on a small island next to it used exclusively as an airport) after an hour of travel. We hand him the tickets and vouchers and wait for the arrival of the speedboat that will take us to our paradise: Bandos Island. Once the speed boat arrives, our suitcases are loaded and they kindly help us board. The docking at the small wooden pier, where just 2 other boats are moored, is spectacular. The turquoise colour and the transparency of the water are beautiful: finally, for the first time since I've been travelling, I find a sea worthy of competing with Sardinia.

We step down onto the circular pier where, looking at the centre in the water, you admire a grand spectacle of hundreds of fish circling endlessly around the entire perimeter of the pier itself, probably used to waiting for something to eat from the tourists. The wooden walkway leads directly to the reception and immediately on the right we're led to the Sand Bar, where we wait for another half hour before they assign us the room number with the keys. Quite a few tourists arrived together with us and there's a bit of a crowd and confusion. We from the Azemar group all sit at the same table, and we're only six left (me, Stefania, Ambrogio and Gabriella, Patrizia and Doriana), since not everyone chose the extension from Sri Lanka to the Maldives.

Once we have the keys, Loris leaves us and sets an appointment at 6:30 PM in the reception room to explain how the services at Bandos work and what we can and cannot do. So we head to our lodgings. "Welcome to paradise" is my immediate thought. There's really little to get wrong and no way to get lost: there's only one road that goes all the way around the island in twenty minutes, and a few detours to cut across! More than a road, it's actually a tree-lined avenue, extremely well kept in the smallest details and spotless: wherever you look, you can't see a single candy wrapper on the ground (just to give a silly example). On the right are the bungalows, arranged in rows, white with a little garden in front, very nice and with a modern look.

On the left, instead, are the beach, the sunbeds and the ocean, which you glimpse beyond the beautiful vegetation of palms and various tropical fauna. All told, between the bungalows and the sea there must be twenty metres, beautiful! All of this appears to our eyes as an absolute marvel: is it truly a perfect paradise? We arrive at our room and here too really nothing to say: nice, clean, not very big but with enough space to leave the suitcases open, a nice double bed with sheets decorated for welcome with fresh little flowers, a small table, comfortable wooden chairs, the wardrobe, the mirror, a more than decent bathroom, even the very useful safe with a code to set as the client chooses and, of course, the air conditioning. A large glass window with a curtain gives light to the whole room.

Outside, at the entrance, we have a veranda with two sunbeds, two beach towels, a clothesline for hanging clothes and even a little basin for washing your sandy feet before entering! The porters knock with our suitcases and we leave them a tip, after which we change in an instant and head out to the beach for our first swim. We're just in time to also watch the spectacular sunset that comes at 6:00 PM sharp, with the sun quickly descending below the ocean, on our right. On the horizon in front we can even glimpse the skyscrapers of Male, while on our left Kuda Bandos is clearly visible. The view is magnificent and around us there's a solemn tranquillity and peace. The air temperature is perfect and so is the water, no less than 26 degrees: you can hardly feel any difference going in for a swim or not.

The sand is beautiful too, white and fine, and all around it's full of palms and vegetation that stretch right down to the sea. After all these essential explanations, we set an appointment with our Azemar companions at 7:30 PM for dinner at the Gallery Restaurant, where Stefania and I arrive, just to change things up, last. The room is large and spacious, there are plenty of seats but it seems only half full. All six of us settle at the same table in a circle, wait for the waiter to order drinks and then throw ourselves at the buffet. Immense, succulent, legendary! I had read various comments on the Bandos forum ( that the food is excellent, and I fully confirm this opinion. After dinner we take the opportunity to do a dutiful exploration of the island, following the little path that runs around its perimeter.

The island is beautiful and full of truly unforgettable corners for those, like us, who are visiting the Maldives for the first time. But even Ambrogio and Gabriella, who are veterans having been there already three times at other resorts, confirm that Bandos has unique characteristics of its own: it's bigger than the others and the food is divine. There are several types of bungalows, some more rustic and dated, others newer, but all very nice, with a little garden in front, the little stone path to reach the beach, and the surrounding well-tended vegetation and flowers. Although it's night, the avenue is well lit and you can notice many beautiful shades of the place. There's a mighty silence all around, broken only by all that lives naturally on the island, like the crickets, the rustle of the tree leaves in the wind, the lapping of the small ocean waves on the beach.

All of this makes the atmosphere absolutely magical and charged with emotions, also considering that the human presence seems to be minimal and what you do perceive doesn't disturb at all. As I said before, relaxation and peace here are taken seriously. I also notice another of the most interesting and appreciable aspects of the island: there are no flies or mosquitoes or strange insects! This is another essential factor to be able to call it a paradise! There are however enormous bats, but those fly high among the palms....

the story continues, for reasons of space, on

First encounter with the reef of Bandos island

It's a beautiful clear day and the colours are spectacular. The sand is blinding because of its very white colour, the sky an intense blue and the sea, or rather the ocean, divided into two shades of blue. It's the first time I finally see the coral reef so sharply defined: light and transparent colour for the first 40-50 metres from the shore and then off with the deep blue where the reef plunges. Here the sun beats down hard and there are even people swimming with their shirts on to keep their backs covered during snorkelling. There don't seem to be many tourists, we're the opposite of the concept of the crush and crowd typical for example of a beach back home in Sardinia in August or, worse still, par excellence of the image of Rimini's.

There aren't even beach umbrellas because for coolness you shelter under the palms, just as beach towels on the ground are absent too, since almost everyone uses the sunbeds. And yet, the waiter told us, the resort is 98% full of guests, with about 420 people and more than 400 staff, of whom 25 are cooks! An impressive proportion: there's one person working for every guest on the island.

And where are they all? Doing a rough calculation with Ambrogio on the perimeter of the island and the number of tourists, we discover that it works out to 40 metres of beach per person: also a staggering figure! If everyone were evenly spaced out, I'd have 40 metres of beach all to myself before meeting another person: that's why it seems like there's no one there! As a consequence, wherever you look around, there's a perception of a sense of peace and freedom that turns into relaxation and that makes these islands so famous: now I feel it inside me! The thought of staying here a week and getting bored, which had crossed my mind before leaving, vanishes in the face of this intense feeling of truly being in a heavenly place, mostly natural and a little helped and amplified by man, who has added the comforts to enjoy it.

Now only one fundamental detail remains to be discovered: exploring the coral reef with its marvellous fish! Ambrogio and Gabriella, who are the most experienced and passionate, are the first to put on mask and fins and throw themselves into the adventure, following the passage clearly visible to the naked eye that leads from the diving centre beyond the reef, which Loris mentioned yesterday. Shortly after, Stefania and I follow them, plunging into the calm water at a pleasant ambient temperature. The impact is stunning from the first moment the glass of the mask opens the doors to the underwater world. Already in a few centimetres of water, a great quantity of fish of various kinds swims happily among the strange and intricate shapes of the reef, which we're careful not to touch.

We slip into the passage, characterised by a pool that suddenly opens up for a couple of metres, then the water returns shallow and finally, there it is, the thing I'd heard so much about and was dying to see: the reef, the vertical drop that plunges into the abysses of the ocean! Impossible to describe the emotion, very strong even for someone like me who, despite never having seen one, usually practises snorkelling in the wonderful seas of Sardinia. For Stefania, who is less experienced than me, it's a total shock! The sudden sensation of going from a few centimetres of water to no longer seeing the bottom, on a wall of vivid colours that fades into the deepest blue that seems to swallow everything, is pure adrenaline.

These are the things attention focuses on for the first few minutes, then the second shock arrives: that of the fish! A boundless quantity, an infinite number of tropical fish of various species swimming indifferent to our presence. Even staying still, they arrive from every direction because the passages that cross the reef are not used only by humans, but also by them. The entrance in front of the diving centre thus becomes a meeting point for thousands upon thousands of sea animals of the most varied colours and shapes, observable in their activity by the astonished eyes of the human intruder.

It won't take long for me to understand that the paradise perceived on the Maldivian island is actually nothing compared to what you experience down here, where nature, as documentaries always repeat, has brought to life and created the most complex eco-system, as colourful as it is delicate, on the planet. After so much life and colour, lying in the sun seems like a waste of time. So we go back in again, this time more to our right, covering a short stretch of beach clockwise and arriving at the other passage, the one in front of room 191. The passages are easily distinguished even from the surface and in any case, once in the water, from the buoy lying offshore, to which a long rope is attached that divers use on their return from dives to get back to shore without being tossed about by the tanks in the shallow water, or in case of rough seas.

Here too excitement and emotion merge into the adrenaline of observing so much wonder. Among all the tropical fish, of which I'm totally ignorant since it's my first experience, I start to distinguish some observed in the Lonely Planet such as: the emperor fish; the parrotfish, so funny in its beak and so beautiful in the colours of its livery; several squid; some pufferfish of different colours; a myriad of banner fish, whose Italian translation I don't know. The morning ends with a bit more sun but the weather soon starts to turn bad. The evening passes quickly and at 7:30 PM we're already back at the Gallery Restaurant with a hole in our stomachs, ready for dinner.

Passing by the reception, we see the menus displayed with prices in dollars (here everything is expressed in American currency even though the tourists are 90% European): a good 20 for lunch and 25 for dinner, thank goodness we have full board! After dinner we take a walk among the little souvenir shop, which displays very nice artisanal things, and then go to drink a cocktail with Patrizia and Doriana at the Sand Bar. Tonight is precisely the day of the week when there's live music. The local band is very good but plays famous modern dance songs, not typically Maldivian music. Right after, we take a little walk also along the pier on the just-lit wooden walkway, leaning down where all the tourists watch the impressive quantity of fish that circle endlessly around. It's beautiful to pause for a few minutes to watch them, the atmosphere around is so calm.

After a while, almost by chance, you spot an enormous elongated shape crossing among the other fish: it's a shark! In a few seconds it passes under our feet and vanishes into the dark, giving us a great thrill: who knows if we'll manage to see it during our snorkelling!

Snorkelling and beach

I wake up several times during the night, starting from 4 in the morning, because of the pouring rain: it doesn't bode at all well for a nice day! At 8:30 we go to have breakfast with our companions, and we wait in the hope that a bit of sun comes out. Unfortunately, nothing doing, so instead of going to the beach we settle for a tour of the island in the usual twenty minutes. We stop for a bit mid-morning in Ambrogio and Gabriella's room, number 277: it's a real suite! It's much bigger than ours, it has a living room, a very large bedroom and a fabulous bathroom.

We don't understand why such good fortune, having taken our same travel package, but the suspicion is that it's because they said they were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and, having such a room free, they were probably kind enough to make it available to them! Comfortable on the sofa, Ambrogio and Gabriella tell us about their previous times in the Maldives. The first, in the seventies, they came here when they were just starting to create this type of "exclusive" tourism. The airport was a tiny dirt runway and to get to the islands you took hours and hours of boat. Now you often see seaplanes passing for the longer routes. Moreover, obviously, there were few comforts and the resorts were more spartan, with bungalows more similar to huts than to the apartments of today. It was true Robinson Crusoe tourism: adventurous, intense, a bit wild.

And above all, the reef was truly a marvel in its colours. Ambrogio is quite disappointed by how it looks today, largely dead and grey. Unfortunately, as Loris explained to us, the phenomenon of coral bleaching was caused not so much by man as by El Niño, which passed a few years ago, raising the ocean temperature by a few degrees and causing their death. I find confirmation of this also in the Lonely Planet, which indeed points out the very delicate balance existing between the polyps and the algae they feed on. The rise in temperature makes the algae disappear, which are the main nutritional element of the polyps, which are consequently affected. There are in any case, however evident, also the signs of man's destruction, as regards numerous corals broken and damaged by reckless and clueless people.

Making a comparison, then, Ambrogio confides that as regards the corals, the Red Sea has remained almost intact in the area south of Hurgada and still offers a unique spectacle in its colours. As regards the fauna, instead, it seems that here at Bandos there's much more activity and life. At noon, given the still overcast and threatening sky, we resign ourselves to the possibility of sunbathing, but given the calm sea, not also to that of snorkelling. We thus enter the water without, moreover, finding much difference between sun or not: the temperature is always perfect, the visibility good and the underwater life certainly doesn't stop if the weather is bad outside! In the first metres, just entered from the beach, Ambrogio draws my and Ste's attention to a gigantic moray eel, which pokes out for a good stretch from its den with its enormous head.

I find it in front of me suddenly very close and I almost get a fright, then I stop to observe its unsettling slithering while waiting for the right moment for a photo. I've brought from home a disposable underwater camera with 36 exposures, which only now do I realise is completely insufficient. So I resolve to limit myself as much as possible, trying to immortalise just one photo for each best specimen. Luckily there's Ambrogio, who instead brought his 2-megapixel digital Canon Ixus, complete with underwater housing, which I discover to be magnificent and stunning with sharp resolution and no graininess even with the low light of the underwater world. We leave the moray eel and continue for a while inside the reef.

I dwell on a magnificent, though small, specimen of lion fish (scorpion fish), then notice, despite their transparent colour, some funny cornetfish (or trumpetfish) fluttering up and down in zig-zag. Further on I also notice the oriental sweetlips, characterised by those yellow-black stripes, the oriental banded grunt and the blue surgeonfish with its strong yellow-blue contrast from which it takes its name. Then I exit the reef and this time I try to quickly overcome the emotion of suddenly not seeing the bottom beneath me, concentrating on what's around me and classifying compared to yesterday a greater variety of fish. I clearly distinguish different types of triggerfish, the singular unicornfish with that long long nose, the moon wrasse, the usual banner fish in schools of hundreds at a time, beautiful in their elegance.

But the truly greatest emotion arrives with the biggest and most feared of all: the shark! The excitement of yesterday at seeing it out of the water from the pier vanishes in the face of having one for the first time just a few metres away: impressive, unforgettable. The most feared of marine predators is powerful, agile and quick and passes beneath us silent without even considering us. Still shocked by its suddenly materialising behind us, I remain motionless watching it as it moves away, then chase it for a short stretch. Its speed is decidedly greater than mine and so I see it disappear into the blue of the ocean in a few seconds. Stefania and Ambrogio saw it too, and we immediately surface, taking off our masks to comment on the episode.

Despite it being the biggest and most dangerous fish I've ever seen so far, I must say I didn't feel a sensation of fear, especially because we've been assured that the species existing here in the Maldives are harmless and no accident has ever occurred towards divers. That beast of about a metre and a half however gives quite an adrenaline rush and it takes time to shake it off! Finished snorkelling, we dry off in the room and go to lunch. It keeps raining and so we spend the afternoon between the little shops buying postcards and again in Ambrogio and Gabriella's room having a coffee. Around 5 PM we get mask and fins again and off for another little swim among the fish with wonderful photos. This time we do the stretch that goes from the beach in front of our room, crossing the reef with our bellies almost touching, being careful, until we reach the passage in front of room 191.

A decent route. Our goal is to manage to do the whole tour of the island, one piece at a time, to explore the whole wonderful reef of Bandos. It's also astonishing to realise that every time you enter the water to snorkel you always come out with some new sighting. The Lonely Planet is entirely generic and insufficient in the description and figures of the fish, and even the laminated glossary bought in the souvenir shop that I carry into the water isn't enough to recognise the new species. The underwater world is extremely complex! The evening also passes, we go to dinner (always wonderful and abundant) at the Gallery Restaurant and walk on the pier. I arrange with Ambrogio to get up early and snorkel at the first light of morning, which is the best time to see a great variety of fish.

Before going to bed I go back to the shop to buy a disposable underwater camera, having almost finished the film of mine and in the grip of desperation to want to photograph the magnificent sixth continent. It costs me a good 19 dollars, while at home I paid just 8 euros for it: good grief!

Snorkelling and beach

Ambrogio calls me promptly at 6:45 for our morning snorkelling. Stefania comes with me and we head off with our gear towards room 191. It's beautiful to leave the room with just a swimsuit on, barefoot, a pair of fins in one hand, the mask in the other and the camera on the wrist, strolling through this paradise knowing we're going to see an even more beautiful one underwater. At 7 sharp we enter the water, always warm, at the passage in front of 191 heading right for a long stretch, until exiting after more than an hour near an area with several stone piers, which characterise the north side of Bandos. We've covered a quarter of the island's circumference, not bad! And obviously the emotions followed one after another, starting with the sighting of no fewer than four sharks in succession.

Some came from the front and some from behind, but this time I didn't let myself be caught unprepared and I managed to photograph them! Just as I also photographed the immense schools of banner fish throwing myself in among them with absolute discretion. Swimming with them is like flying in paradise, I can't compare this sensation to anything other than this. What I realise is fundamental is the basic teaching my father gave me from an early age during our underwater fishing trips. We don't belong to the underwater world and so we're outsiders. We're clumsy and slow and the fish see us a mile away with any abrupt gesture we try to make. The only way to get close to them is to swim in the water like an astronaut flies in space: calmly, tranquilly, with slow and linear movements to stir less water and above all make as little foam as possible.

Everything must be done with extreme fluidity and linearity, from diving, to breathing, to finning, to approaching a fish. With these simple precautions you can get to within a few centimetres, photograph and even touch the splendid specimens in front of you without too many problems. Unfortunately, I notice instead other people we meet in the water who are far from having understood these behaviours that are obvious to me, and they make a tremendous racket that scares the surroundings in a radius of tens of metres around them! Maybe they're beginners, maybe they're a bit afraid or impressed, but it's still a disastrous way to take up snorkelling. Fortunately, early in the morning there's almost no one in the water and it seems to me an absurd thing since it turns out to be the propitious hour for sightings.

So much the better for us at this point! The biggest novelty finally, which could not be missing as in the other snorkellings, arrives with the sighting of a sea turtle. Beautiful, peaceful, as big as it is light, it makes its way excellently underwater, seeming to fly like a butterfly. Ambrogio points it out to us at just a few metres of depth right at the edge of the reef, and we stay with it for several minutes photographing and admiring its elegance. Another indescribable sensation. It's by far the sea animal that shows the greatest tranquillity towards the human being, it lets itself be observed without posing any kind of problem at all and at a certain point it comes so close to Ambrogio's face that it seems to want to kiss him! Ambrogio, caught suddenly, shooes it away with a slightly frightened gesture, hoping it hasn't mistaken him for some appetising snack...

Finished this yet another legendary snorkelling, we go to breakfast at half past eight at the Gallery Restaurant. Then we meet at the diving centre to get a bit of sun, but unfortunately what seemed early this morning to be a beautiful day quickly turns, once again, into a rainy one. This time as never before the sky darkens heavily over the sea with a gigantic black cloud, and within a few minutes the mother of all downpours arrives! We take shelter under the roof of the diving centre and observe a bit annoyed the pouring rain: we certainly can't say the weather is being kind to us. We go back to the room a bit to rest and it's lunchtime. In the afternoon we send another email home and stay in the room still. The bad weather persists but at 4:30 PM we dive in again for another snorkelling.

This time we stay between the passage of the diving centre and that of 191, a stretch we're starting to know very well having already done it several times. I notice how the current significantly influences the life of the fish underwater. They almost all always follow the same direction, so clockwise or anticlockwise with respect to the island, at the edge of the reef. It thus happens that following the same direction as the fish, sometimes you see fewer, while going against the current, they all arrive from the front, one school after another: incredible, like going the wrong way on a motorway is the same thing! The peculiarity of this snorkelling turns out to be the batfish, that is, the bat fish, very elegant in their flat and rounded shape, up to half a metre long and above all very curious.

It's they who approach me and follow me! I have fun swimming quite a bit with this school of about ten magnificent specimens, of which I take several photos in absolute tranquillity. I must admit, however, that finding a good framing underwater is not at all easy. Every slightest movement shifts the lens or the subject, and abrupt movements or subjects too far away make the photo blurred or out of focus. The light and colours then are all a gamble. I'm convinced that most of the photos, not having experience in this field, won't come out quite as I conceived them, and perhaps won't come out at all! This evening also flies by quickly and at 7:30 PM we're all already seated at our table to make use of the excellent buffet of the Gallery Restaurant. We take the opportunity for a chat and a photo with one of the managers of the place, a friendly Sri Lankan guy who speaks five languages well.

He's very distinguished and professional in his manners, he doesn't flinch at all except for his cordial smiles. We also capture Loris for a bit, whom we almost always see at meals sitting at a table in the back with his colleagues. He

Visit to the capital Malé

After brief preparations we reach the dock at 9:00 where a dhoni, the typical boat used in the Maldives by fishermen (and today obviously also for tourist purposes), awaits the clients of Bandos who, like us, have booked the trip to the capital Male for 16 dollars each. It's a beautiful day, and this instead of cheering us up makes us a bit sad, appearing in our eyes as a mockery: today of all days, when we are not going to the beach, it decides to bring out the sun! We won't be going home with an enviable tan, that's for sure... We get on the boat and slowly leave the dock, moving away from the island, which with today's colors appears truly spectacular. The crossing lasts about half an hour that passes quickly amid the wonderful Indian Ocean and the islands around. Even the docking at Male is suggestive, with those skyscrapers that seem to end directly on the sea.

It seems the island is bursting: it is a striking contrast between the concrete of civilization and the blue of the ocean around it. There isn't much vegetation and the space is compressed to the maximum for the houses. It seems they now have to build on another island, to expand the urban center that has now reached its maximum extension. As soon as we disembark at the port, we are gathered in a circle and divided by nationality. Each group is assigned a guide, and so it is for me and Ste too, as we turn out to be the only Italians. We begin to walk around the city, crossing the main square, very beautiful and well-kept, and one of the few places of greenery and lawn in Male. The guide explains that the city is cut in two by some main streets, the longest of which is only 2 km. Such, then, is the radius of the island. The sun is really strong and it is terribly hot.

Fortunately the stops are all close together and we walk little. The first is the new Mosque: modern, blindingly white, a well-kept structure. To enter, however, you must be barefoot and you cannot have bare legs: so, having short shorts, I am forced to wear a funny sarong that is given on site. Stefania doesn't think twice about immortalizing me dressed this way! We visit the interior of the Mosque, a totally new experience for me since it is the first time I have seen one. Large, spacious, shiny: these are the adjectives that come to mind to describe it. The floor seems just polished! We continue the itinerary passing in front of the fish market, which opens later, then the fruit market which instead is already in full activity. It is an indoor shed, with brightly colored stalls arranged in special boxes, much more similar to ours than to the Eastern ones.

Likewise the streets appear scrupulously clean and well-kept, a detail that strikes me a lot. Probably the Muslim influence is also visible in these things. There is also quite a bit of traffic, and I wonder what sense it makes to buy a car in the Maldives just to be able to drive exclusively on a flat island two km wide that can be crossed in half an hour on foot! I am not at all surprised, however, to see entire streets covered with parked scooters and bicycles. The next destination is the old mosque and the cemetery, of which our guide explains the difference in the tip of the tombs to be able to recognize men from women.

We also pass a garden where there is a museum of ancient objects, where we are pointed out with no small irony the "highest mountain" of the island: a small mound of earth a little taller than me, about two meters in all!!! This is to emphasize how flat the Maldives are. During the walk we also stop to observe from the street the palace and the offices of the President, after which lastly we are accompanied to a souvenir shop. At this point the guide leaves us, giving us time to make our purchases and saying to come back in about an hour. We observe the items on offer and the prices: there really is a vast choice of anything, many particular and nice objects, but we notice that the starting prices are definitely high. Some things even cost more than at Bandos, where, being in the resort in total monopoly, we took for granted to find prices exaggeratedly less convenient.

We make our purchases anyway, choosing two nice t-shirts with tropical fish, a keychain, some magnets with a surfboard and a turtle drawn on them. At the checkout we then spend a good ten minutes haggling the price down. Here too, bargaining is the usual method of buying and selling for tourists! On leaving the shop we don't see our guide but a guy who invites us to go up into the shop next door. A bit hesitant, in the end we go up and discover that here you buy better than in the other one. We feel a bit cheated and discover at our own expense that evidently the tricks and percentages are firmly established activities here in the Maldives too. The fact that the guide left us in the side shop, strangely more expensive, is certainly not a coincidence. Rather annoyed, we leave the shop and without waiting for the guide we head toward the port, since it's getting to be time to go back.

Walking around Male alone as tourists immediately takes on another look. People of every kind and age approach to leave business cards and ask us to go to their place, which begins to be irritating. Suddenly the relaxation and peace of Bandos vanish and I feel as if I am back on the streets of Sri Lanka! We duck into one last shop of artisanal items, where I buy a small picture that reminds me of the beach in front of our room with a view of Kuda Bandos, and then we flee toward the port. We find our Dhoni waiting to take us back to paradise, to our beloved Bandos! As soon as we leave Male we are told that the small island in front, which looks as beautiful as all the others, is actually the prison. Who would have ever said it? We return just in time for lunch at 13:30 and spend the afternoon at the beach.

The sky is clouding over again, and to think that this morning it was so beautiful! We do another wonderful snorkeling session between the diving center and the 191 passage, which is certainly the shortest and most convenient stretch to enter the water. Among the wonders of this time I am particularly struck by the angelfish, the butterflyfish and again the splendid batfish. We finish our purchases in the Maldives before dinner by buying a beautiful photo album in the Bandos shop, not having found one comparable in Male and at the same price of 25 dollars, and a t-shirt with two magnificent banner fish drawn on it. At this point all that's left for us is the Gallery Restaurant and a nighttime walk to close another day spent in the Maldives in beauty.

Snorkelling and beach

Ambrogio calls me in the room punctually at 6:45. Today we attempt another legendary snorkeling session at the first light of day, starting from the same point where we arrived the day before yesterday, and continuing the tour of the island counterclockwise. We arrange to meet in front of the jetty and to get there I have to cross all of Bandos, being on the opposite side from my bungalow. Stefania is tired and stays to sleep, so Ambrogio and I find ourselves alone, armed with our underwater cameras ready for adventure! It doesn't take long, in fact, for it to arrive. After a few minutes, having barely passed over the coral reef since there is no actual proper passage from the jetties, we catch sight, to our enormous amazement, of the largest sharks ever seen until now.

There are two of them, to be exact, swimming as a pair, about two meters long but above all very large in girth, and in addition another one and a half meters similar to all those seen in the previous days, which in comparison appears a puppy. And maybe it really is one. We remain petrified for several seconds: seeing three sharks all at once and on top of that of these dimensions really doesn't happen every day in the life of people like us who don't practice diving! The most incredible thing is that unlike the others, these stay right around us, passing and repassing several times under our eyes. I thus manage to follow them for long stretches, diving in apnea and getting close to a distance of about two meters, taking beautiful photos. It's a unique and very strong emotion, at a certain point it almost seems to me that I am playing with them, a bit like I did with the turtle.

These, however, are sharks, it's better not to forget it! After about ten minutes we continue our journey always close to the drop-off of the coral reef, leaving the sharks behind us. A few minutes pass, and here they are reappearing! Are they following us or are we going in the same direction? I note with astonishment that they swim calmly in shallow water down to not even a meter deep, and I dive again in pursuit of them for several minutes. Despite being sure of their non-dangerousness, I admit I feel a deep sensation of fear and deep respect for these magnificent predators of the ocean. Seeing them swim underwater is stunning, indescribable: they have an elegance and a power in their movements that is exceptional! Having definitively left the sharks behind, we continue our snorkeling in a unique stretch of the Bandos reef.

The reef here is eerie and frightening: it plunges tremendously beneath some multi-level slabs, creating between one and the other dark enormous cavities, certainly optimal for being used as dens for fish of any size. I observe dumbfounded and charged with adrenaline this unforgettable landscape beneath me while I cross it finning. We reach the end of this fantastic snorkeling session just before the port, where there is the third passage of the island, certainly the least frequented precisely because it is very far from the other two. We have covered a truly remarkable distance in an hour and ten minutes of swimming! I return to the room and together with Stefania we go to have breakfast. I tell her about the sharks and we promise to go back into the water at mid-morning. Around 9:30 we go to the beach with the others.

Stefania, Doriana and Gabriella sunbathe with the deckchairs in the always warm water, a common practice of tourists here in Bandos, while Ambrogio goes to do another snorkeling session with Patrizia, who has learned thanks to him the wonders of swimming underwater with mask and fins. Despite her initial hesitation and fear, once she put on the mask and observed the paradise of tropical fish, she too threw herself into the exploration. At 11:30 it is my and Stefania's turn. We walk to reach the entrance to the diving center where this time, instead of swimming clockwise to reach the nearby passage of room 191, we intend to go counterclockwise toward the port. It is the only stretch I am missing to complete the circumnavigation of Bandos, having already covered all the rest of the island one piece at a time.

We meet Ambrogio and Patrizia, who tell us they did the same route and exited from the jetty before the port, being a bit careful about their bellies because of the shallow water. We begin our snorkeling leaving the diving center behind us. The weather is unstable as on almost all the days we have spent here in the Maldives: there is sun but on the horizon heavy clouds can be seen. The sea is always calm, however. After about three quarters of an hour we witness a radical change. The sky darkens heavily and as soon as the port becomes visible in front of us it starts to pour rain, so hard that I feel discomfort on my back while I have my head underwater looking at the bottom. A sudden wind arrives, the sea becomes noticeably choppy and visibility disappears completely: we can no longer see Kuda Bandos which a moment ago was right in front of us, crystal clear.

Thus in just ten minutes an apocalyptic scenario presents itself to our eyes and fear begins. The first impulse is obviously to head toward the shore, as we would have done on any Mediterranean beach, but both Ste and I know well that here in the Maldives that would mean smashing ourselves against the coral reef! It's crazy, because the beach is less than fifty meters away, it would take us just a few minutes to get there. We discuss in the middle of the storm with our heads out of the water, trying to figure out as quickly as possible what the right thing to do is, before the situation worsens. Going back is out of the question, we are too far from the diving center and tired. Ahead of us is the port with the passage but from there we can see waves several meters high crashing onto the pier.

So we opt to try the exit from the jetty that is near us, which Ambrogio and Patrizia also used just an hour ago. But as we approach the reef, the undertow caused by the breaking waves makes visibility zero and we are tossed from one side to the other. The situation becomes critical and we are about to enter into panic, the worst enemy of man in dangerous situations. I try to calm Stefania who wants to get out at all costs and I convince her that passing through here is too risky! It's incredible to think that I am standing, without fins (due to a blister on my foot from the too many snorkeling sessions these days!) in water a little more than a meter deep with the shore a few dozen meters away and I cannot get out! The whole situation seems to be a gigantic paradox. We return to the deep water beyond the reef because at least here visibility is greater and the waves are not high.

We are exhausted but the best solution, reflecting lucidly, is to remain right here in the water waiting for the storm to pass, which generally does not last more than half an hour. But I also understand Stefania's panic, who absolutely wants to get out and so we decide to go forward to reach the passage beyond the port. With an enormous expenditure of energy, since we are exactly against the current and I am even without fins, after about a quarter of an hour we manage to cover a distance that we would normally have done in a couple of minutes and we reach the entrance of the small Bandos harbor. We go a few meters and here is our salvation: protected by the piers we travel the entire length of the port to our beloved little wooden jetty, where in the evening we come to observe the fish. We are exhausted but safe.

for space reasons, the story continues on

The surgeonfish cut. Kuda Bandos

Stefania, given yesterday's bad experience, prefers to stay sleeping but I cannot withdraw from seeing my beloved tropical fish. I go out and reach Ambrogio at the jetty next to the port, where we should have exited yesterday if the storm hadn't arrived. We have to do exactly the same route in reverse and get to the diving center. As soon as we pass the reef, I set about carefully observing the bottom and I notice what looks like a rock moving at several meters of depth. It takes a few seconds to focus and recognize that magnificent sea turtle that now rises to the surface. I immediately call Ambrogio and we stay around it for quite a while: it is the second one we see, absolutely stunning! At a certain point, during an incursion into a school of banner fish, I feel a blow under my right foot, as if I had violently bumped into a rock.

I am without fins and so I look around worried that I may have touched coral, but it's not possible: I am in very deep water! Another painful blow makes me brusquely pull back my foot and surrounded by hundreds of fish I don't understand where it's coming from. I come out of the school and I see a creature with an ugly face, about half a meter long, which from the bottom heads quickly toward me aiming straight at my feet!!! I shake them once again and it abruptly veers off, at the last moment, dodging away. Then I talk with Ambrogio who saw the whole scene and confirms that it was indeed that creature that came at me. He even starts laughing since in fact the whole situation almost appears like a joke! I look around and I see the fish continuing to follow me on the bottom, and several times, maybe ten, it suddenly rises aiming at me and then dodges at my gesticulating.

At a certain point I even threaten it with the camera, amid Ambrogio's incredulous laughter. It's a comical situation but at the same time irritating, I did nothing to this fish and I don't understand why it has it in for my feet! I look beneath me and I see two long cuts on the sole, deducing that those blows I felt were probably the bites of that wretched being. I observe a diver passing me, also without fins, and the fish also goes after his feet: so it's a habit!!! We exit at the diving center joking and laughing with Ambrogio about this, which will surely become the funniest thing to tell all our friends. Soon, however, I realize that the two cuts are becoming something much more serious than it seemed.

First of all they are very irritating since, running lengthwise along the sole up to the big toe, every step I take on the ground is painful, under the weight of my body! Then they also bleed, so, thinking of the bite of a fish of whose species I am ignorant, I consider it necessary and dutiful to have them seen by a doctor. At 10:00 sharp, the opening time of the medical center, I go with Stefania and Patrizia, who in recent days has gotten allergic blisters on her knee from leaning on the coral. A kind female doctor receives me and has me sit on the cot. I explain the fish attack to her but she seems incredulous: they cannot be bites because they are clean cuts. She asks me several times if I passed over the coral but I keep repeating to her that I am sure it was a fish and that I was in deep water. In any case she medicates me with a very strong disinfectant and bandages the wound.

No swimming today for sure, maybe tomorrow we can try. Then she shows me a poster with the various types of fish and points out the "surgeonfish" to me, asking if that was the one I saw. Yes, it was exactly it!!! She then explains to me that they are not bites, but its particularly sharp dorsal spine, which it uses as a weapon of defense or attack: not by chance, it is called precisely surgeonfish! You never stop learning. And this lesson costs dearly: 40 dollars on the bill, of which 25 for the visit and 15 for the medication. We reach the others at the beach telling them everything. I am a bit annoyed about the amount, but above all about the fact that I can no longer swim and about having to walk painfully limping, right today when finally there is sun. I take advantage anyway to take photos and videos of the girls enjoying the deckchairs in the water chatting.

For the afternoon Ste and I have booked the trip to Kuda Bandos, but this time too our companions did not follow us. At 15:00 we reach the jetty, where a Dhoni loads a few tourists and departs for the small uninhabited island in front of Bandos. The crossing lasts just a quarter of an hour and is very pleasant. The docking at the pier is then spectacular, with stupefying colors of the sea and the beach, even more beautiful than Bandos! It really seems like descending into paradise: an uninhabited tropical island all for us, surrounded by fine blinding white sand and a stupendous crystalline blue that surrounds it. We take a few photos at the rock that welcomes tourists, under tall and magnificent palms, and after a short walk along the beach we stop to sunbathe. It is all absolutely wonderful and perfect, there is not much else to add.

The blue sky and the sunlight finally render those colors that in these days we had not yet managed to see. The sea is like a table and Stefania takes advantage to immediately go for a swim, unfortunately alone: it breaks my heart to have to settle for filming her while I am immobilized with my bandaged foot! The whole situation (apart from the injury) strongly reminds me of the day when in Thailand, exactly a year ago, we went to the deserted island of Koh Phoda: white sand there too, divine peace, many palms and flat sea, though not as crystalline as this one in the Maldives, it must be admitted. I make the acquaintance of an Italian girl, who asks me to take a photo of her with her Greek boyfriend. They are married and on their honeymoon. They are staying at Paradise Island and they too have had a great time.

As soon as I hear the price they paid for a week in half board I get the shivers: practically as much as ours, for the same package of two weeks Sri Lanka-Maldives in full board!!! I am obviously careful not to say it, so as not to ruin their honeymoon... After some relaxation in the sun we take a walk (painful for me!) crossing the island far and wide, discovering that it is indeed much smaller than Bandos. There are tall palms everywhere and several buildings used for the parties and banquets that various resorts on the nearby islands organize, starting with ours which offers fishing and dinner on site. The northern part of Kuda Bandos, from which Bandos can be seen perfectly, turns out to be less attractive anyway than the southern one, where the beach is better and bigger.

It seems there is no one left: the other tourists went away earlier, and we wander around this beautiful paradise completely undisturbed! The sun begins to set quickly, and after taking the last tanning rays before the arrival of the shade of the tall palms, we return to the pier to wait for our dhoni. We thus discover that in reality we were not exactly alone: there was also another couple of tourists. Four people on the whole island! We leave Kuda Bandos with melancholy and return just in time to enjoy our last spectacular sunset in the Maldives, since tomorrow we go home.

We begin to prepare something in the suitcases, go to dinner and then dedicate ourselves to the last (and this time truly the last!) little gifts to bring home: two splendid and colorful pareos for Stefania, and a wooden photo frame with the little tropical fish, plus the legendary poster of Bandos seen from above for me!

Last snorkelling. Return journey

Stefania and I meet at 7:00, punctual as on the other mornings, in front of the diving center with Ambrogio. We opt for a quiet swim to the passage of room 191, to end our time in the Maldives beautifully. Fortunately my foot doesn't hurt in the water and I can swim calmly, in fact, I move much better than on dry land. This morning is a very active day in the underwater world: everything and more passes under our eyes, including numerous sharks. I still can't believe that in a few hours I will have to leave this fantastic submerged paradise, so vital and colorful, which has represented a shattering experience for me. I notice that myvisual ability and concentration in snorkeling has increased considerably, moving from the primordial adrenaline-filled emotions of the sight of the coral reef, to a more attentive and accurate search for details and forms of life.

This time, the absolute novelties are embodied in a magnificent specimen of octopus and the powerful eagle ray. The first I spot perfectly camouflaged among the corals and I remain observing it for quite a while, while it clamorously changes shape and colors in an instant moving slowly along the bottom. The second comes toward me at a depth of about five meters and I manage to follow it only for a short stretch. With a wingspan of a couple of meters, disturbing in its enormous head that easily distinguishes it from other similar species (like ray and manta), its elegance and power in moving make it truly formidable, despite in the end it certainly not being among the most dangerous fish. I reach Ambrogio and Stefania, who were ahead of me, and I discover with pleasure that they saw it too.

Stefania was really shocked by that gigantic being! Finished the snorkeling we go to have breakfast, then we return to the room to finish packing the suitcases. The bad weather, even today when we have to leave, does not spare us and discourages us from going to the beach. At noon we leave the room and go to lunch, then we take a nice tour of the whole island, despite the clothes on us making us quite hot. We cannot leave Bandos without seeing it all at least once! I take my last photos and at 14:00, pitilessly, our boat awaits us to accompany us to the airport. The detachment from the island really seems a tragedy, and it is a near thing that tears don't fall: something that didn't even happen for Sri Lanka.

Many thoughts, as at the end of every trip, pass through the head, but one thing in these cases is always certain: the deep desire and conviction to do everything to be able to return! At 16:45 our flight departs from Male to Milan. The ordeal of another long day of return begins. From the window I observe dumbfounded one of the many islands of the Maldives surrounded by the coral reef, something I could not do on the way there: it's crazy to see them from this height! During the first hours I watch the latest films of the moment: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle", and then I let myself go into a deep sleep. At 21:45 we land at Malpensa, with six hours less time difference. We warmly say goodbye to our close-knit companions, with whom we bonded in a truly unexpected way, with the promise to be in touch soon via email or phone.

At this point we have to move from terminal 2 of the international flights to terminal 1 of the domestic ones, to spend the night there waiting for our flight to Cagliari. The thing turns out to be anything but easy, especially due to the tiredness and nervousness of having returned home. Not seeing the stop of the shuttle that runs between the two terminals, we try in vain to walk a stretch, but realizing the distances are too long and the signs not at all clear we turn back after a while. We thus find the stop and wait for the shuttle, which finally takes us to the infamous terminal 1. It is past midnight and the thought of having to remain here eleven hours is not at all pleasant....

Return to Cagliari

After a night not exactly worth remembering on the armchairs at Malpensa, we have breakfast at the bar a couple of times while waiting for our flight to Cagliari. Finally, at 11:10, we leave Milan too and land after just an hour in our beloved Sardinia. Our moms come to pick us up at the airport, finding us well and tanned as one rightly expects when going on a beach vacation. Another memorable trip is filed away in our photos, in my little videos, and above all in a special place between the heart and the mind, ready to be recalled to give indescribable emotions. Thank you for existing Sri Lanka and Maldives, we hope to see each other again one day!!!