Maldives Honeymoon trip - Day 3

Woke up at 6am to catch the sunrise. Took photos.

Saw 3 sharks right in front of our bungalow. Took more sunrise photos at the beach.

Snorkeling around our water bungalow area. Called off joining the snorkeling trip organized by the resort & hung out at the balcony reading “The Gift” from Cecilia Ahern from the library. Short nap in the room.

Woke up for lunch, had Club Sandwich and Chocolate Milkshake at the Village. Very hot weather, walked around and played table tennis. More reading in the room and afternoon nap.

Woke up for sunset cruise. We were served champagne on the boat. Took pictures of sunset.

Dinner at Thai Restaurant again. Disappointing ginger crab dish and lotus tea. Chilled out at the lounge again listening to a live band.

** Read about Day 1 adventures **

** Read about Day 2 adventures **

Maldives Honeymoon trip - Day 2

We were woken up by the morning prayers from the mosque nearby the hotel. It was not even 7am local time, but the skies were bright already.

We went to the sixth floor for the breakfast. The place was small and no other guests were around yet. We chose a seat with a nice view overlooking the jetty and the sea. We were expecting a buffet breakfast, but were glad when the waiter served us toast, fruit juice, sausages, omelet, grilled mushrooms, fruits and coffee while we enjoyed the nice view and busy taking photos. I must say the breakfast was good.

Around 8:30am, a tour agent met us at the hotel lobby and guided us to the jetty. We took at short ferry ride to the airport island and waited at the airport for the speed boat transfer to the resort. To give you an idea how costly the food/drinks are at the airport, we bought a 500ml bottled mineral water and 300ml bottled Coke, and we were charged USD7.

There were about 7 couples in the speedboat, including ourselves. The ride was about 75 minutes. It was blue colour everywhere you look, the skies, the water… and few specks of white and green in the faraway islands. It gets boring after awhile, and most of us on the speedboat were soon snoozing away.

The room was ready for us when we arrived. We were briefed about the resort amenities, the activities and where to get food. As I had stated that we are honeymooners, our room had some flower decorations and a complimentary fruit basket. The view from the room was wonderful. You could enjoy the breeze look out to the horizon from the balcony . And when you look down, you could see corals & fishes swimming in the shallow clear water.

Initially we wanted to join the shopping trip to a nearby island in the afternoon. But the hot weather and after a long ride to the resort, we decided to have lunch and nap in the comfy room :P When we woke up, it was already late evening, and we managed to get a few glimpses of the sunset view and took some photos with the tripod. It was such a serene view, as you listen to the sound of waves beating the shores.

We decided to try out the Thai restaurant for dinner. The food was quite delicious. We tried something new that we don’t get in the usual Thai restaurants in Malaysia - fried marinated pork slices with bread crumbs (I can’t remember the name). The food preparation was a bit long, but we had too much time on our hands. So we whiled away time snapping photos as the table (again). We spent about USD50 for the meal.

There wasn’t much entertainment at night. We sipped cocktails at the lounge area while listening to live singing. And that was the second day.

** Read about Day 1 adventures **

** Read about Day 3 adventures **

Maldives Honeymoon trip - Day 1

Our honeymoon trip started the day after our wedding banquet. It was a late evening flight to Maldives, lucky it was a direct flight with MAS. I must admit it was a shock to find that there were so many Indians on board with us. Do not get me wrong here, I've nothing against Indians. I'm just not used to boarding flights with so many Indians onboard, and almost all of them are males! I'm guessing they are foreign labours who are just flying back to their hometown, as our flight was a connecting flight to Colombo, after stopping at Male (capital of Maldives).

The flight started off nicely, until there was this white guy sitting beside who took off his shoes, and all of a sudden, a whiff of "ikan masin kering" smell permeated our section of the cabin. We're lucky to get another 2 adjoining seats in other section of the cabin. We guessed the air stewardess knew why we requested to change seats.

The in flight food was a new experience too, as it served either vegetarian or curry chicken meal only. This was probably because a large number of the passengers are Indians and vegetarians. We guess the most surprising part of the meal was having fragrant spices as aftermints! The small packet consists of various spices that looks like cumin seeds or what-ever-spices-that-I-don't-recognise. You chew on them and they emit and leave behind a nice smell (if you ask me, nothing in it that smelled like mint to me).

It was about four hours flight, and we reached there 9:15pm local time. Male is 3 hours behind Malaysian time. We were greeted by a tour agent who escorted us to board the ferry to Male island. Male airport is on another island, which is only 10 minutes ferry ride away from Male island. We checked in to Hotel Relax Inn (RM497++/night for one double bed standard room inclusive of ferry transfer from/to airport) which was less than 5 minutes' walk from the jetty. This was an overnight hotel before the transfer to the resort on the next day.

The hotel staff served us a concoction of pineapple and orange juice as welcome drink. The room was appallingly small! I've booked a double bed, but frankly it looked like a super single bed to me. Lucky both of us could still squeeze in the bed without either of us falling off the bed.

Accomodation booking:

https://www.mal-dives.com/

Flight with MAS:

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com.my/

** Read about Day 2 adventures **

** Read about Day 3 adventures **