Maldives - This is what dreams are made of
This is a real bucket list adventure. We saw an ad earlier in the year by Luxury Escapes for on-water villas in the Maldives. Sounded great so bookings were made and confirmations came through. We booked our own airfares, taking advantage of Singapore Airlines connecting Canberra to the world through one of the world’s greatest airports, Changi. Hang on, the confirmation from Finolhu, our resort mentioned a beachfront villa. Emails were sent, apologies made, we did mention the purpose of the trip was to celebrate our wedding anniversary and the Resort did promise we wouldn’t be disappointed. One other slight glitch arose when we got an email from Singapore Airlines that our connecting Silk Air flight from Singapore to Male would be rescheduled that day for 3 hours later, making our transit time closer to 7 hours. Changi airport offers free city tours to Transit passengers with 5 hours or more transit times but alas, none of those tours leave early enough in the morning.
Fast forward to December. Australia is in drought; November has seen unseasonably hot weather and some of the worst bush-fires up and down the entire east coast. The fires burning between Canberra and the coast are barely under control and a wind shift brings acrid smoke to smother Canberra in an eerie smog. Good time for us to escape.
The flight out of Canberra departs at 23:55. It originates in Sydney and by the time it leaves Canberra, I think it is 97% full. The new international lounge at Canberra isn’t bad with a bar and a duty-free shop but most items in the shop don’t have prices. My cunning plan is, once wheels are up, recline the seat a tad and try to get some sleep. Singapore Airlines weren’t having a bar of that! We had noticed a previous time on Singapore Airlines that they are ruthless in enforcing that all seats are upright at meal times so as to make eating a little more ergonomic. Knowing this, I had only reclined my seat an inch but no, GruppenFuhruerer Hostie barks out her command to make my seat upright. Oh well, that changes my plan and I also tuck into some dinner. Take note Qantas, you can feed Economy Class passengers with tasty servings that fill up the tray table. A glass of wine and then I again try to sleep. The chairs are quite supportive but leg room is poor (B777-300ER) and I struggle to get any sleep. Tried to watch one film but it failed to grab me. A nice breakfast is served before landing and we touch down at 4:40 Singapore time.
Research had shown that Changi has a number of pay-per-use transit lounges, some offering better deals than others. We chose Plaza Premium Lounge that didn’t penalise us for the longer stay (some charge by 3 hour blocks). It was pretty good, chef was cooking Laksa at that early hour and there were plenty of other nice food stuffs. Showers were hot and clean, chairs were comfortable and the coffee machine pumped out some good brown stuff. The bar opened at 06:00 but alcohol wasn’t free but we weren’t really in the market for booze at that early hour. The connecting Silk Air (subsidiary of Singapore Airlines) was also quite comfortable and also quite packed. If we wanted to watch (and more importantly listen) to the inflight entertainment, we would have needed to have downloaded the Silk Air App prior to boarding and listened via our own devices. Would have been nice to know beforehand. We were a bit late in landing at Male due to congestion in the skies. The one runway at the airport also serves as the taxi way to planes can’t land until the plane in front has landed, turned around on runway and scampered up to the terminal.
This last little delay meant we missed our scheduled connecting flight. Original plan was for a 20-minute seaplane transfer followed by 30 minutes in a speed boat. However, Finolhu Resort has access to a VIP lounge and we were scheduled for a later flight that would bring us directly to Finolhu. The lounge was also comfortable with nice snacks and refreshments. Our first ever seaplane flight. Got love it when both pilot and copilot are both bare-footed. Sat right behind the cockpit so got great views of them in action but also great views out the window. A bit of rain along the way so the pilot brought us down to 500 feet. Soon had our atoll in sight and in for a smooth landing.
Met with the customary refreshing towels and check in was completed. Our guide was Mansoor, who turns out will be our butler during our stay. Had a quick tour via electronic cart of the main parts of the resort before being introduced to our villa. Ahem, due to earlier stuff ups with our booking, looks like we have been upgraded to the best villa on the island, “The Rockstar”. It is massive, 2 huge master bedrooms with ginormous beds, ensuites with open air showers (with the option of a covered shower, huge bath tub, massive deck with an infinity pool, our own ladder down to the sea, a kitchen with walk in pantry, huge ceilings, electronic bracelets that we wear when swimming for door unlocking purposes. It is simply gorgeous. Our views are to the west so sunsets are perfect. We don’t particularly like aircon so we switched it off and opened all the doors – much more pleasant and with the sea-breeze, the temperature was perfect. No Mossies at Finolhu apparently.
Now, our deal includes all meals and standard drinks but we are allowed one meal in each of the signature restaurants. The remaining meals are in the Baa-Baa Diner, which features themed buffets as well as breakfast. I have never seen nor tasted such a well-presented buffet meal. Tonight’s theme was seafood. My joke today was they will need a bigger seaplane to get us out of here. The food is brilliant. Now, the observant amongst you might remember that last year in Fiji, on our first walk to a meal, my sandals absolutely disintegrated. Guess what, on our first walk to a meal, my sandals absolutely disintegrated, much to Krysia’s amusement as last year’s ex-sandals were her choice and this year they were mine.
We had our first swim off the villa, a bit of a large swell and no fish spotted but the water is warm and friendly. During our first afternoon, we spotted a pod of dolphins swimming across the nearby channel. Just how good is this place? Our second night in the Baa-Baa Diner featured a Latino theme. Exceptional. I had a tasty Argentinian Malbec in honor of the Latino theme. There is lots of later night music entertainment but way too late for us.
Getting into the routine now. Breakfast is served from 7:30. We notice most people eat later but we aren’t about to change our habits. We are recognized by young Katrina, wait staff from Russia, she remembers our names and where we like to sit. Breakfast is brilliant. Afterwards, we come back to the villa and venture down the ladder into the sea. It’s high tide, very strong winds so there is a bit of a beating by the waves. I haven’t seen any fish whilst snorkeling but later, when we were back on the deck, we saw a number of good-sized fish swim underneath the villa. Lunch today was out at the end of the spit at the Crab Shack. We had a motor launch transfer out there as the walk along the sand was in full sun. Another memorable meal and the plan to walk back was dowsed by the arrival of the motor launch. Besides, in the morning we had walked out to the tip of the pier of overwater villas and had earned our gold star for exercise this day.
I went for a walk in the afternoon, armed with the DSLR. The afternoon seaplane was due to arrive so took some shots of it landing. Thought I would stay for the subsequent take-off but the fiddling around with the unloading of luggage took forever. I walked off the jetty and the engines started up. How the hell had they loaded the luggage so quickly? I ran to a nearby vantage point to video the take off and I soon learned the answer, the plane turned around and redocked at the jetty so that they could load the luggage.
The theme for the dinner tonight was Maldivian. Very similar to what we experienced in Mauritius all those years ago, a little Creole based. Very tasty and a little spicy. Again, ate too much and dessert should have been avoided. There was a bit of a floor errrrr beach show tonight. Firstly some didgeridoo music fired up and a fire dancing troupe let rip. Very spectacular. This was followed by a number of wait staff marching through the restaurant, armed with their bongos and singers and dancers. They seemed to really enjoy themselves so it was hard to get anyone to let us sign off on our account for the night (our package includes all meals and drinks).
On our anniversary morning, after breakfast with overcast skies, we did walk out to the tip of the spit, collecting washed up plastics along the way. There were a number of bins along the way and we collected enough to easily fill a hessian sack with lots of bottle tops, straws, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes. The lightest winds of our stay and maybe we will get some warm tropical rain. At the end of the main spit, there is Dome available for special overnight stays with a butler on hand to assist with stuff. The Dome looked like it would be pretty hot during the day. The Buffet lunches are as good as the dinners and we continued our regular routine by having an afternoon swim when the tide is out and the swell is lessened.
Tonight’s dinner was in the Hanusan restaurant, Finolhu’s signature dining establishment. Described as Asian but I thought it was slightly more Japanese. It was on its own set of stilts above the ocean and was warmly decorated. As with all things Finolhu, the food was delicious and the presentation was sublime. We staggered back to our room (we always walked, not taking advantage of the electric carts scurrying back and forth between the villas and the eateries), staggering due to our weight, not over-alcoholic consumption.
Our last full day on this magnificent island. The winds had died down which made for a better swimming experience. As we were walking to lunch, we saw a crowd people on the beach pointing excitingly into the water. As we got closer, we could see a number of small black-tipped reef sharks swimming in the wash off the beach. After lunch, whilst admiring the water off our deck, I noticed some strange shapes that I mistakenly thought were rays. Strange movements, I was hesitant about going for a snorkel for a closer look (ok, I had just washed my hair in anticipation of dinner) and whilst I stared, a metre-long ray glided by. Seconds later, I was in the water with my GoPro but no ray to be seen. Those strange shaped objects turned out to be pieces of cardboard. I set about collecting them, under the careful direction of Krysia standing on the deck. The next moment, Krysia yells “Shark!”. Let’s let that sink in for a moment! Whilst I pondered the meaning of life and whether there was a supreme tooth-fairy and whether I was about to meet her, I understand what Krysia meant to yell was “Baby black-tipped reef shark like the ones we saw at lunch-time!”. Laugh, I did after a quick wardrobe change. The last buffet was a “Taste of Asia” and it did not disappoint. A spectacular full moon as we walked back to our villa (somebody had mentioned it was the last full moon of the decade).
Departure Day – very sad. Our seaplane was departing at 6:00 pm ( I never mentioned that Finolhu time-zone is an hour later than Male which made life a bit confusing- it’s only 100k away and with there being no phone coverage for our phones, via Wi-Fi our phones were always an hour early). Due to our upgraded lodging and it being booked, we were put into a beach-side villa for the day which was very nice of the resort to do. We swam in the lagoon some more (I did find and kill a Mossie) and had a last lunch at the Diner.
The seaplane was very full. We arrived at Male at 17:30 local time, our Departure to Singapore wasn’t until 23:25 and check in wasn’t open until 20:25. A Finolhu staff member who helped transition us at Male warned us that the airport had very little in the way of shops and food to entertain us but he could gain us access to a pay per use lounge but we still wouldn’t gain access to that until after check-in. There was a nearby Geocache which I recognized from a spoiler picture so now my stats reflect a find in another country. Despite the earlier warning, after checking in, the departure lounge had plenty of shops, possibly a little limited in its eatery options (one of the travelers couldn’t help herself and had to visit the Burger King).
Our Singapore Airlines flight was on one of its latest B787-10 Dream-liners. It was certainly quieter, the air quality is meant to be better, bigger windows but I found the configuration meant the seats were less comfortable than the B777-300. Less width, less leg-room and just not as supportive. Just over 4 hours to Singapore where it was pouring – oh to have some of that rain back home. Our transit was just over 2 hours – we went to visit the Butterfly gardens but because of the rain, it was closed. The flight home goes through Sydney and about 30 minutes out from landing, I could see fires burning. Very sad ! We had just over an hour in Sydney then the short flight home. They did manage to throw a bottle of water and a couple of biscuits in our direction prior to landing. Finally home and alas, the air is still very smoky. What great memories!
This is a real bucket list adventure. We saw an ad earlier in the year by Luxury Escapes for on-water villas in the Maldives. Sounded great so bookings were made and confirmations came through. We booked our own airfares, taking advantage of Singapore Airlines connecting Canberra to the world through one of the world’s greatest airports, Changi. Hang on, the confirmation from Finolhu, our resort mentioned a beachfront villa. Emails were sent, apologies made, we did mention the purpose of the trip was to celebrate our wedding anniversary and the Resort did promise we wouldn’t be disappointed. One other slight glitch arose when we got an email from Singapore Airlines that our connecting Silk Air flight from Singapore to Male would be rescheduled that day for 3 hours later, making our transit time closer to 7 hours. Changi airport offers free city tours to Transit passengers with 5 hours or more transit times but alas, none of those tours leave early enough in the morning.
Fast forward to December. Australia is in drought; November has seen unseasonably hot weather and some of the worst bush-fires up and down the entire east coast. The fires burning between Canberra and the coast are barely under control and a wind shift brings acrid smoke to smother Canberra in an eerie smog. Good time for us to escape.
The flight out of Canberra departs at 23:55. It originates in Sydney and by the time it leaves Canberra, I think it is 97% full. The new international lounge at Canberra isn’t bad with a bar and a duty-free shop but most items in the shop don’t have prices. My cunning plan is, once wheels are up, recline the seat a tad and try to get some sleep. Singapore Airlines weren’t having a bar of that! We had noticed a previous time on Singapore Airlines that they are ruthless in enforcing that all seats are upright at meal times so as to make eating a little more ergonomic. Knowing this, I had only reclined my seat an inch but no, GruppenFuhruerer Hostie barks out her command to make my seat upright. Oh well, that changes my plan and I also tuck into some dinner. Take note Qantas, you can feed Economy Class passengers with tasty servings that fill up the tray table. A glass of wine and then I again try to sleep. The chairs are quite supportive but leg room is poor (B777-300ER) and I struggle to get any sleep. Tried to watch one film but it failed to grab me. A nice breakfast is served before landing and we touch down at 4:40 Singapore time.
Research had shown that Changi has a number of pay-per-use transit lounges, some offering better deals than others. We chose Plaza Premium Lounge that didn’t penalise us for the longer stay (some charge by 3 hour blocks). It was pretty good, chef was cooking Laksa at that early hour and there were plenty of other nice food stuffs. Showers were hot and clean, chairs were comfortable and the coffee machine pumped out some good brown stuff. The bar opened at 06:00 but alcohol wasn’t free but we weren’t really in the market for booze at that early hour. The connecting Silk Air (subsidiary of Singapore Airlines) was also quite comfortable and also quite packed. If we wanted to watch (and more importantly listen) to the inflight entertainment, we would have needed to have downloaded the Silk Air App prior to boarding and listened via our own devices. Would have been nice to know beforehand. We were a bit late in landing at Male due to congestion in the skies. The one runway at the airport also serves as the taxi way to planes can’t land until the plane in front has landed, turned around on runway and scampered up to the terminal.
This last little delay meant we missed our scheduled connecting flight. Original plan was for a 20-minute seaplane transfer followed by 30 minutes in a speed boat. However, Finolhu Resort has access to a VIP lounge and we were scheduled for a later flight that would bring us directly to Finolhu. The lounge was also comfortable with nice snacks and refreshments. Our first ever seaplane flight. Got love it when both pilot and copilot are both bare-footed. Sat right behind the cockpit so got great views of them in action but also great views out the window. A bit of rain along the way so the pilot brought us down to 500 feet. Soon had our atoll in sight and in for a smooth landing.
Met with the customary refreshing towels and check in was completed. Our guide was Mansoor, who turns out will be our butler during our stay. Had a quick tour via electronic cart of the main parts of the resort before being introduced to our villa. Ahem, due to earlier stuff ups with our booking, looks like we have been upgraded to the best villa on the island, “The Rockstar”. It is massive, 2 huge master bedrooms with ginormous beds, ensuites with open air showers (with the option of a covered shower, huge bath tub, massive deck with an infinity pool, our own ladder down to the sea, a kitchen with walk in pantry, huge ceilings, electronic bracelets that we wear when swimming for door unlocking purposes. It is simply gorgeous. Our views are to the west so sunsets are perfect. We don’t particularly like aircon so we switched it off and opened all the doors – much more pleasant and with the sea-breeze, the temperature was perfect. No Mossies at Finolhu apparently.
Now, our deal includes all meals and standard drinks but we are allowed one meal in each of the signature restaurants. The remaining meals are in the Baa-Baa Diner, which features themed buffets as well as breakfast. I have never seen nor tasted such a well-presented buffet meal. Tonight’s theme was seafood. My joke today was they will need a bigger seaplane to get us out of here. The food is brilliant. Now, the observant amongst you might remember that last year in Fiji, on our first walk to a meal, my sandals absolutely disintegrated. Guess what, on our first walk to a meal, my sandals absolutely disintegrated, much to Krysia’s amusement as last year’s ex-sandals were her choice and this year they were mine.
We had our first swim off the villa, a bit of a large swell and no fish spotted but the water is warm and friendly. During our first afternoon, we spotted a pod of dolphins swimming across the nearby channel. Just how good is this place? Our second night in the Baa-Baa Diner featured a Latino theme. Exceptional. I had a tasty Argentinian Malbec in honor of the Latino theme. There is lots of later night music entertainment but way too late for us.
Getting into the routine now. Breakfast is served from 7:30. We notice most people eat later but we aren’t about to change our habits. We are recognized by young Katrina, wait staff from Russia, she remembers our names and where we like to sit. Breakfast is brilliant. Afterwards, we come back to the villa and venture down the ladder into the sea. It’s high tide, very strong winds so there is a bit of a beating by the waves. I haven’t seen any fish whilst snorkeling but later, when we were back on the deck, we saw a number of good-sized fish swim underneath the villa. Lunch today was out at the end of the spit at the Crab Shack. We had a motor launch transfer out there as the walk along the sand was in full sun. Another memorable meal and the plan to walk back was dowsed by the arrival of the motor launch. Besides, in the morning we had walked out to the tip of the pier of overwater villas and had earned our gold star for exercise this day.
I went for a walk in the afternoon, armed with the DSLR. The afternoon seaplane was due to arrive so took some shots of it landing. Thought I would stay for the subsequent take-off but the fiddling around with the unloading of luggage took forever. I walked off the jetty and the engines started up. How the hell had they loaded the luggage so quickly? I ran to a nearby vantage point to video the take off and I soon learned the answer, the plane turned around and redocked at the jetty so that they could load the luggage.
The theme for the dinner tonight was Maldivian. Very similar to what we experienced in Mauritius all those years ago, a little Creole based. Very tasty and a little spicy. Again, ate too much and dessert should have been avoided. There was a bit of a floor errrrr beach show tonight. Firstly some didgeridoo music fired up and a fire dancing troupe let rip. Very spectacular. This was followed by a number of wait staff marching through the restaurant, armed with their bongos and singers and dancers. They seemed to really enjoy themselves so it was hard to get anyone to let us sign off on our account for the night (our package includes all meals and drinks).
On our anniversary morning, after breakfast with overcast skies, we did walk out to the tip of the spit, collecting washed up plastics along the way. There were a number of bins along the way and we collected enough to easily fill a hessian sack with lots of bottle tops, straws, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes. The lightest winds of our stay and maybe we will get some warm tropical rain. At the end of the main spit, there is Dome available for special overnight stays with a butler on hand to assist with stuff. The Dome looked like it would be pretty hot during the day. The Buffet lunches are as good as the dinners and we continued our regular routine by having an afternoon swim when the tide is out and the swell is lessened.
Tonight’s dinner was in the Hanusan restaurant, Finolhu’s signature dining establishment. Described as Asian but I thought it was slightly more Japanese. It was on its own set of stilts above the ocean and was warmly decorated. As with all things Finolhu, the food was delicious and the presentation was sublime. We staggered back to our room (we always walked, not taking advantage of the electric carts scurrying back and forth between the villas and the eateries), staggering due to our weight, not over-alcoholic consumption.
Our last full day on this magnificent island. The winds had died down which made for a better swimming experience. As we were walking to lunch, we saw a crowd people on the beach pointing excitingly into the water. As we got closer, we could see a number of small black-tipped reef sharks swimming in the wash off the beach. After lunch, whilst admiring the water off our deck, I noticed some strange shapes that I mistakenly thought were rays. Strange movements, I was hesitant about going for a snorkel for a closer look (ok, I had just washed my hair in anticipation of dinner) and whilst I stared, a metre-long ray glided by. Seconds later, I was in the water with my GoPro but no ray to be seen. Those strange shaped objects turned out to be pieces of cardboard. I set about collecting them, under the careful direction of Krysia standing on the deck. The next moment, Krysia yells “Shark!”. Let’s let that sink in for a moment! Whilst I pondered the meaning of life and whether there was a supreme tooth-fairy and whether I was about to meet her, I understand what Krysia meant to yell was “Baby black-tipped reef shark like the ones we saw at lunch-time!”. Laugh, I did after a quick wardrobe change. The last buffet was a “Taste of Asia” and it did not disappoint. A spectacular full moon as we walked back to our villa (somebody had mentioned it was the last full moon of the decade).
Departure Day – very sad. Our seaplane was departing at 6:00 pm ( I never mentioned that Finolhu time-zone is an hour later than Male which made life a bit confusing- it’s only 100k away and with there being no phone coverage for our phones, via Wi-Fi our phones were always an hour early). Due to our upgraded lodging and it being booked, we were put into a beach-side villa for the day which was very nice of the resort to do. We swam in the lagoon some more (I did find and kill a Mossie) and had a last lunch at the Diner.
The seaplane was very full. We arrived at Male at 17:30 local time, our Departure to Singapore wasn’t until 23:25 and check in wasn’t open until 20:25. A Finolhu staff member who helped transition us at Male warned us that the airport had very little in the way of shops and food to entertain us but he could gain us access to a pay per use lounge but we still wouldn’t gain access to that until after check-in. There was a nearby Geocache which I recognized from a spoiler picture so now my stats reflect a find in another country. Despite the earlier warning, after checking in, the departure lounge had plenty of shops, possibly a little limited in its eatery options (one of the travelers couldn’t help herself and had to visit the Burger King).
Our Singapore Airlines flight was on one of its latest B787-10 Dream-liners. It was certainly quieter, the air quality is meant to be better, bigger windows but I found the configuration meant the seats were less comfortable than the B777-300. Less width, less leg-room and just not as supportive. Just over 4 hours to Singapore where it was pouring – oh to have some of that rain back home. Our transit was just over 2 hours – we went to visit the Butterfly gardens but because of the rain, it was closed. The flight home goes through Sydney and about 30 minutes out from landing, I could see fires burning. Very sad ! We had just over an hour in Sydney then the short flight home. They did manage to throw a bottle of water and a couple of biscuits in our direction prior to landing. Finally home and alas, the air is still very smoky. What great memories!
