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Travels - Maldives 2006
Arrival
date: 23 June 2006
Trips done: South Male Atoll
Visa: 30+30+30+120 days
Preview: I cannot find the right words to explain my happiness
when a Philippine friend (who will be working in an Hotel's atoll for
the summer season) invited me to spend some time in that paradise. This
is one of the world's marvels I've always wanted to see...It's heaven on
earth. You could additionally check on
Google Earth to view some
pictures by satellite.
08 Jan 07: I am now an Emergency First
Responder and an international certified Rescue Diver! As you can see by
the
picture , I am celebrating the end of the course with
a mini bottle of Wisky and a christmas hat (yes I also dove during the
christmas days 25, 26 and even the 1st Jannuary 07 in the early morning)... Special Thanks
to my dive buddies Max, Vale and of course all the instructors who
brought me up to this pro level : Roby , Dario, Miki. Next level :
dive-master...
November 06:
Incredible , spent over 4 months in Maldives on an island of 1
square kilometer and I'm still very happy every single day to wake up and take a
look at the crystal water in the lagoon...I
have never been tired so far , never , and this is a place where I would
definitely live all my life.
01/08/06 Taste a small
piece of my current paradise! The video of Maldives is now out! download
it here
[In the left picture , Me and Majeed , working at a quick
screenplay of the movie , planning and setting up the scene]
[Right pic: Photograper: Majeed , costumes tests for the movie]
09/07/06
What scary experience while diving today! Another time I was so close to
a fatal accident! I prefix that Jennifer almost forced me to take the
open water diving course because she's already a professional diver
so she would like to bring me to Philippines and have some dives together.
I am a professional swimmer so I love the marine environment and I am
very attracted by the underwater world, but at the same time I consider
exploring it very unnatural and dangerous. If I think about using a tank
, always watch at those gauges , and cannot go up and down too fast , it
gives me the idea of being so powerless... Anyway I wanted to challenge
myself again and as usual I pushed myself over the limits so here it
comes my scary experience: I am on my second dive of the day, the
nitrogen level in my blood accumulated during the first dive is maybe
still high, we are a group of 4 people and I am the last one, we are
about 18-19 meters, the view is marvelous , the coral barrel and its
inhabitants is amazing , at some point I see a huge sting-ray passing
very close to me and descending slowly: she looks friendly so I cannot
resist the idea of swimming and touching her, so I start to follow her
, but forgetting to inform the other divers about my intentions. So I
descend a few meters more
but when I get close to the sting-ray ,she
accelerate her swim, after few minutes of chasing, I loose the animal
and suddenly I feel disorientated, I feel my head heavy and my brain
turning upside down, I try to give a look at my watch which is
indicating I'm on a 23-24 meters, quite far from the beginners limit
so I get worried, my
residual air is around 90 bar, but anyway I try to take a look up to
search my other buddies, but I'm unable to locate them; after few
seconds I also start to feel weak and my heart is beating so fast , I'm
scared to fall unconscious...I feel cold...I want to
run up and finish my dive but I'm so scared to have a lung
overexpansion if I ascend to fast.
My only way out is to
inflate my buoyancy control device to a few bar in this way I will be
pushed up without moving my body. After ascending 4-5 meters I feel my
pulse was lowering , and I see the dive instructor right on top of me ,
so I am about to touch him to ask for assistance but all my faintnesses
are slowly disappearing so I decide to wait a minute before giving the
alarm , I'm not feeling well , I feel a very strong head
hake and
pressure on my ears. I try to re-equalize,
forcing a bit , and it seems it's going better. I start
to think what I did wrong , it could be nitrogen narcosis or Co2
toxicity ?? I dont have a clue , I'm just a beginner
at his 5th dive, anyway I do my 5 minutes of safety decompression stop at 5
meters , still scared to be taken by an embolism attack at the last
second, I cannot believe, I'm out of the water safe and breathing. Later
the diving instructor told me my accident might have been brought by a
missed step on equalizing the pressure in my ears
while descending...
07/07/06
I still believe in paradise! I'm not
so willed to work on a computer since I'm arrived here . Many things to
do during the day and so many other things to dream
about during the night. It
was just a poster seen in almost every travel agency brochures , and now
it is so real.
[In the picture, a baby shark following a group of
small fishes]
03/07/06
Learning windsurf!
28/06/06 Still cannot find the right words for
describing this paradise...
I still believe in paradise
(dedicated page)
