The Maldives is not just a place to relax and tan all day as we thought, there is actually more to do in the Maldives than we ever imagined!

 

Our first stop during our trip was Maafushi Island. Maafushi is a local Island known for its excursions and water sports. During our stay at Kaani Grand Hotel, we went on an excursion organized by Kaani Hotels. The full-day excursion included swimming with sharks, feeding stingrays, having lunch at a
sandbank, and shipwreck diving. It was such an adventure, we cross several things off from our bucket list with one single excursion!

 

The excursion started at 8:00 am by meeting at Kaani Grand Lobby. There we meet with the group of people that were going on the same excursion as us and with our guides for the day. The guides gave us our snorkeling equipment, towels, and an introduction to the different places we were going to visit during the day. We took a group picture at the entrance of Kaani Grand Hotel before our 5 minutes walk to the speedboat, which was our transportation for the whole day. On the speedboat, we met a lot of people that were island-hopping in the Maldives; getting to experience the different islands, food, and activities at each place. To our surprise, most of them were young and traveling in groups, not honeymooners as we expected. We were all excited to start our first adventure of the day. It was a sunny day, the water was crystal clear that we just wanted to jump in to the water and swim all day. There was also tropical music playing at the speedboat which made the trip more fun, we sang all the way to our first stop: stingrays feeding.

 

Once we arrive at the first island, the boat was anchored close to the beach. We got off by jumping into the water (oh yeah, be prepared to get wet!), it was shallow water that reached just above our knees. The stingrays were just there, right next to the boat. The tour guides gave us some bread to
feed the stingrays. To be honest, I was a little bit scared at the beginning but there’s nothing to be afraid off, the stingrays were totally harmless. After a while we walk around the island for a bit, there were a couple of local fisher boats close by, and to our surprise a couple of local kids playing around.
Below you can see some nice shots we took of them. The sand at the beach was so white and the water completely crystal clear; a total paradise! After a while, we return back to the boat and went off to our next adventure: shipwreck snorkeling.

From the distance, we could see the top of the shipwreck that is sticking out of the water. As we got closer, we could see how big the ship actually is, but most of it is underwater. A huge shipwreck in the middle of the ocean, the boat anchored right next to the shipwreck, we put our snorkeling equipment
on and off we jumped into the water. It was such an experience, we were snorkeling right on top of the shipwreck, we could see some fish swimming around it and coral growing out from the boat. One of the tour guides could hold his breath for a very long time and even went inside the shipwreck! As for us, as much as we tried going down, we were not experienced enough to hold our breath for so long (lol), but it was still an incredible experience. After almost an hour of snorkeling around the shipwreck, we hopped on to the boat and went off to the next stop: lunch at a sandbank.

 

A sandbank, as it’s name describes it, is a sandbar in the middle of the ocean. There is nothing more than a long stroke of sand surrounded by ocean, total castaway experience. We took our time to walk along the sandbank and take some pictures before it was lunchtime. We didn’t have to bring anything
for lunch, the tour guides from Kaani prepared everything for us. They set up a table with food and some drinks, it was a picnic-buffet type. After we grab our food, we enjoyed it while sitting on the sand watching the gorgeous view of the Maldives water. After lunch, we had a little time to swim and just relax before heading to our last stop: swimming with sharks.

 

By the time we left the sandbank, we were all super tanned and already showing some signs of tiredness, it had been a long day but we were also excited that it wasn’t over yet. Once we arrived at the shark point, we put our snorkeling equipment on and went swimming… with sharks! Yes, totally
nuts! There were so many different fishes and sharks swimming around the boat, the guides were throwing some bread in the ocean so the sharks could come to the surface. Same as the stingrays, the sharks were completely harmless. As long as you don’t try to touch them everything will be fine. It
was the perfect ending to our day full of adventures.

 

After our last stop, we head back to Maafushi, it was already late afternoon when we arrived. We were taking pictures and videos all day, but the nice thing about the trip is that tour guides were also recording everything with a GoPro. So after the excursion, Kaani Grand Hotel can give you the
footage the tour guides recorded during the excursion, which is also really nice for those who want a nice memory of the trip. We totally recommend having an excursion with Kaani Hotels, you will definitely have a memorable day with them.

Share