Arrived Male Airport from Singapore without much fanfare except for the pouring rain at 2200hrs. Although visiting Maldives is visa on arrival, , its quite fuss-free clearing the customs in less than 15 minutes. The single big piece luggage that Judith and myself brought was x-ray and opened (they thought they saw some kind of WMD but was in fact an overhead fishing reel).
The ferry agent for Embudu Village was already waiting for us and we were quickly ushered to the waiting boat. Surprise, surprise – the boat ride via speedboat was 15 minutes (yes, we thought we will be taking the Dhoni which is about 45 minutes ride).
Checked in at 2300hrs and were given Superior room No. 32. Little did we know that this is possibly one of the best superior rooms. It is directly at the corner of the west bank of Embudu island. Right in front of our room, is a 10 steps to the beach where we will see the beautiful sunset every evening. Snorkeling takes place around there too and Im sure many dwellers have some kind of envy that we are in staying at this sweet spot. So happy are we that we decided to change the types of rooms from 02 Nights Superior & 04 Nights Water Bungalow to 04 Nights Superior & 02 Nights Water Bungalow. The Water Bungalows are the ‘luxurious’ types. You pay about 50% more, all in exchange for a timber flooring, better bed, a balcony, a Jacuzzi, a TV, air-con, mini-fridge, tea/coffee making and yes – a see through glass bottom smacked in the center of the room. The staff is accommodating enough to give us a Bungalow (room 203) away from the generators when we request for it. How sweet!
Water is a cool 25 to 30 degrees and got to watch out for the sweeping current and waves sweeping in from the south-west side (it is the south-west monsoon anyway). Baby black-tip sharks and the occasional white tip shark can be seen anywhere around the island and you can see them frolic around playing with the currents. Not forgetting the numerous reef fishes and yes oh yes, the juvenile trevallies (big eye jacks or sakais) numbering in schools of hundreds. Being an avid fisherman, I know how my fishing kakis will drop their jaws and say, “how I wish I’m here”. Alas, Maldives has very strict rules about fishing at the right place and the islands are definitely marine protected. Nevertheless, the clockwork movement of the trevallies gave me an insight of how they travel in schools and protect / look out for each other. If an angler misses a hook, that bugger will surely warn the rest (through motion sensors) and they shift location. I can also spot the slick but brutish Giant Trevallies slicing through the waters either solo or in pairs with a lovely streak of shimmering blue along their fins. Small sea turtles, mantas and spotted eagle rays will also get close to the reefs and no words can describe my feelings of swimming along with these lovely creatures. Being a house reef, you will expect that a lot of corals (nearer to the beach) are dead, but if you’re an experienced enough snorkeler, dive deep down and you will even see anemones with playful Maldivian clown fishes. Overall, Embudu Village, true to reviews, has one of the best house reef, period.
Food nothing to shout about (Yes, they have theme nights such as Italian, Asian, Steak, Eastern-Western, BBQ and additional charges for Grilled prawns / lobsters). On contrary to many rave reviews about the sumptuous food in Emdudu. Being an Asian and quite a foodie, the food is far off from my standard, and more importantly, the Maldivian / Indian Muslim standard. But then again, you are here to enjoy the sand, sea and sun, and not eat like a King or Pig. Meal times are co-sharing with other rooms (to make up 1 table of 4 pax). We are ‘lucky’ enough to dine with this 60 plus German retiree and every meal times, he will repeat whatever he says about his life, his 42 year old girlfriend, his Harley motorbikes, his long blond chest length hair in the 20s, dark hair in the 30s and now proudly blond remaining hair in his 60s in his barely audible English language. My poor wife, he only likes talking to her, maybe because he is afraid of my ‘Mr Mean’ T-shirt. By the time we are about to leave the resort, I actually began to like him!
Speaking about Sun. We know this is the off-peak season, and we will be expecting rain and thunderstorm. Yes, there are periodic rains but because of the fast moving south-west wind, the dark clouds are fast moving and rain stops in no more than 15 mins. The rain comes down hard and fast; imagines you standing in front of a firing squad with thousand of bullets shooting at you at speed of 1 mach. We have to give and take when it comes to off-peak season with huge discounts on room rates.
3 days of diving with boat trips to Mystery Caves and The Wall. Our guide is Risea - a friendly and patience guy. I nearly ran out of air at The Wall and he was kind enough to lend me his Octopus. Mystery Caves has a nice overhang and at least 3 through caves. Lion fish and moray eels are in abundance there, not forgetting the colourful nudibranches. The Wall is better than Mystery Caves, huge wall from 10 meters down to more than 30 meters full of soft and hard corals. You can see moray eels nearly every 10 meters. I had the nerve to stroke a 5 feet honeycomb moray over his head. Gaze off the wall out to the ocean on the outer side, you see GTs and sea turtles. Alas, no manta or eagle rays on both trips.
In nutshell, this 7 days 6 nights vacation is one of the best we ever had, and considering overall costs compared to other more expensive resorts in Maldives, this is money well spent and Embudu certainly lives up to its standard of value for money. This is as good as it gets. If I have regrets, that is we failed to go on any night-fishing or island hopping as the staff claimed bad weather, choppy waters, strong winds etc etc. But at the end of it all; I’m still searching for my Shangri-La.
