Maldives - Day 1

What a hectic few days it was, packing for our trip to the Maldives. Had some work in the office to clear up. Was suppose to take leave on the day of departure but had a meeting to attend in the morning, which dragged on a bit till almost 2pm. Left some final instructions and by 4pm I was off home to change and head out.

Did some final last minute packing as usual, rush rush rush .... called a cab to take us to the airport which cost $25 !! with all the surcharges added. The missus recently came back from a business trip and she got really pissed off with the cabin crew from SIA on their service quality which was really surprising, where she asked for a fruit spritzer but due to turbulence the cabin crew told her to hold. After that passed her request was forgotten and finally when she got the attention of the stewardess was told there was no more apple juice, she kicked up a little fuss and some how the apple juice appeared ! She sent in a complain to SIA and there was an automated reply from them. It's still early just 2/3 days ago, wonder if SIA will reply back on ? Anyways so here we are at the airport checking in and I was telling the missus, hey probably they have your details down and know you as 'complain number 5589' :)

Checking in was smooth, as we already did an internet check-in. Had a bit of dinner before we boarded our flight. There was a delay as some people's luggage had to be taken off due to no-show. But after about 20 mins we were off... woo hoooo .... HOLIDAY !!

We landed at Male International Airport at around slightly before 11pm. There was no linked bridge to the terminal building, we had to climb down and take a bus to the terminal building. Immigration clearance was rather slow, lots of holiday makers around, a fair number of surfers as well with their surf boards. Found the hotel representative and after the 5 families cleared customs, we all boarded a jet board, actually I'm not sure how to call it but it's a boat - 2 levels the top can take about 10 people with the bottom about 20. We were given a refreshing towel to freshen up and a bottle of water which in the Maldives was important we actually brought along 6 1l bottles of water with us in our luggage. The ride was about 30 minutes to get to the resort. A little bit choppy. When we arrived the guest relations knew our names and address us as we got off the boat. Found that rather surprising. We were offered a drink of honey / lemon / ginger, some local drink which the name escapes me. Checked in and we were taken to our water bungalow.

It's almost 1am which is island time at the Four Season's. Now the timing is something you need to get used to. Male time is 3 hrs behind Singapore while Island time is 2 hrs behind. Rather comfusing isn't it. The room was beautiful with the 4 post king size bed, the bath was open air, we went to the balconey to look at the fishes and the first fish to swim by was a baby Shark ! Anyways we settled in as it was like 4am Singapore time before we went to bed.

It's a new morning and just in time to type this in before we go off for breakfast. The missus saw a squid this morning and with the sun up we finally got a view of our surroundings. More on that later as it's now time to have breakfast.