This is a picture heavy, very very heavy post.
Every last moment of 2012 was spent all the way in sunny Maldives. To be entirely honest, I never thought I would ever, ever, ever get the chance to go to Maldives. It's way too expensive and I wouldn't spend so much to get toasted in the sun or being on a secluded island surrounded by the sea. It's just so unlike me. Number 1, I'm such a winter person and number 2, phobia of fish. But since Dad won a free trip for two, (he couldn't go because of work, he gave it to little sis and I) we were practically forced to go.
It was so last minute too, we only confirmed our flights and accommodation 2 days before departure and barely had time to pack, think or to even get excited.
29th December 2012,
The only flight to Male, Maldives was in the morning at 9:45, so you guessed it, once again, I didn't sleep (I spent the whole night packing). I was happy on the flight though, they had Glee Season 4 so I could watch Blaine sing "It's Time" again. I know I've never mentioned this but I really love Glee and I love Kurt and Blaine. Little sis is a Gleek, so she's always blasting songs from Glee in her room. Yeah, I got hooked on. I love Darren Criss's version of "It's Time" better than the original, by Imagine Dragons.
On top of it, there was also Rurouni Kenshin on board! :D I was so happy, I didn't even care about sleeping and watched Kenshin too. Such a fangirl.
The view of Maldives was breathtaking, you can see all the shades of blue of the Ocean, little islands and huts from the plane. I was just in awe.
We landed in Maldives at 11:30am (Male time, it's 3 hours behind Singapore). Once we got out of immigrations, there was already someone from the tour agency waiting for us. Basically, everything was nicely planned out and they brought us to our first hotel, it was a transit hotel called Hulhule Island Hotel. The hotel wasn't particularly luxurious or anything. You could tell it was really used for transit.
We checked in a little after noon and went to walk around. There was a swimming pool, beach, tennis court and two restaurants but little sis and I couldn't really be bothered to do anything. I was still tired and the sun was really bright and rays were really really strong. We only checked out the beach and was amazed at how clear the water was.
Little sis showing off her Tsumori Chisato cat sunnies.
The water was so clear that you could see all the fishes swimming around. There were many different types of fish, a lot of them which I hadn't seen before. There were also crabs on the rocks and to my surprise stingrays! I didn't expect to see stingrays in the shallow water. I'm not that scared to look at fish on the surface of the water, just don't place them next to me and I'm fine.
Not long after, we had lunch at one of the restaurants and we went back to our room. I fell asleep at almost 3pm and only got up at 8pm. Called room service and had soup for dinner then fell back to sleep till 2am and read 1Q84 till the sun came up. I fail at sleeping normally.
30th December 2012,
We went for breakfast on the 4th floor. I really liked the Maldivian fried noodles, normally, I hate having fried food in the early morning, but this was an exception. They also had Japanese breakfast (sigh, how I miss it every damn day) but I didn't want to try, I'll just wait till I get back to Japan.
After breakfast, little sis and I went for a walk to digest our fully fed tummies. We went to look at fishes again because there was nothing else to do.
Until now, I'm still amazed at how clear and crystal blue the water is over at Maldives. Also, the number of sea creatures you can see is astonishing. I read up online that it's the Top 5 places in the world to go to for scuba diving, snorkelling, dolphin and whale watching. It's really a stunning place.
Not long after, we checked out of the hotel and took the bus to the ferry terminal where we took a speedboat to the next resort that we were going to stay in. It took about 45 minutes to get to Olhuveli Resort, the boat ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I would get sea sick and vomit or something.
We passed by other resorts and some islands.
I only managed to take this picture, haha.
When we arrived at the resort, the sun was so bright that I thought my eyes were going to burn out of their sockets but thankfully, they didn't. We were given cold towels and drinks and was asked to fill up some form about allergies and time of departure. After that, the resort staff showed us to our villa. I was so amazed with the villa. Seriously, it's like one of those huts on water you always see in commercials when they advertise on resorts or beach getaways. Never in a million years would I thought I would come to such a place.
So little sis and I put down our luggage, rested up for a bit and went to roam around the island.
Little sis looks so amazed.
Our villa view.
Just outside our villa.
The water is UNREAL. I'm walking to the dock and scuba diving area.
Boat we took in the evening for dolphin watching and sunset cruise!
While walking back to our villa, there was a baby shark swimming in the shallow water! I was so amazed to see a freakin' baby shark!!! It was cute :3 Though I really really am scared of sharks, haha.
Our bed!
Back at the villa, we sat around and waited till 5 in the evening for our dolphin watching and sunset crusise. We were watching Glee Season 2 the entire time. To my surprise, they had cable all the way here. We ordered lunch and I went around our balcony. Until today I am still amazed that I could just dive into the sea from my room.
And we could actually sun tan in the comfort of out own villa, the stairs is the way down to the sea.
Little sis ordered the Reef Fish Burger, the staff told us that they catch the fish by themselves. :O It was so fresh! Duh... obviously.
I had the club sandwich!
Me enjoying the sea while drinking coke. I don't even like coke to be honest.
Soon, it was already coming to 5. We left our villa for the dolphin watching and sunset cruise. There wasn't much people on the cruise. Maybe only 10? They drove out to the middle of the ocean for about half an hour until they stopped and we waited for the dolphins.
Both of us camwhoring.
Soon, there were several dolphins swimming our way and I got so excited! I really love dolphins and wanted to see them in the wild. So we walked to the front of the boat to get a better view of them. They were so cute! They would come up to the surface of the water to get air, and when they're in the water again, you could actually see them turning their little cute faces at you and they look like they were smiling. Also, it seems like they synchronised the way they come up to get air. It was really breathtaking and we were lucky, we saw pods of dolphins.
I think we saw about 20. I've never seen so many dolphins in my life! They were all surrounding the boat. I was even more amazed to see a whale in the distance. It was so huge, it was hard to miss it. It came out of the water so fast that I couldn't even get a picture of it. We only saw the whale once though, once is good enough for me.
These were the best photos I could take of them up close.
I really enjoyed dolphin watching. It was something that I thought I would never get the chance to do in this life, or at least, only get to see them like this when I'm about 30+ or on my honeymoon (which is highly impossible either because I'm don't even have a boyfriend yet). After that, we just enjoyed the sunset, the color of the sky was so beautiful. It was yellow, then orange than purple, then all those colors together. They served champagne and some sandwiches on the boat.
I didn't drink because champagne would make me a very drunk person and I would probably be with the dolphins now if I did.
And now, the beautiful sunset...
The bad thing is that my camera couldn't capture the purple. -_- We arrived back at the resort at about 7, just in time for dinner! We had the buffet dinner because it was complimentary (we're not that rich to call room service all the time). The food was meh, I thought it would be good because it's a luxury resort but meh. Or maybe I'm too spoiled when it comes to food because my dad is an amazing chef?
We chose to sit outdoors which was a bad idea. We wanted to enjoy the sunset yes, but when it was already nightfall, we could hardly see anything in the dark. I didn't even know if I put scooped up enough rice on my spoon. Which, I really love the basmati rice over in Maldives. I'm so Asian, no rice no life!
We went straight back to the villa after dinner. I was so tired and ready to crash.
This is how creepy the sea looks at night.
31st December 2012 ;
I got up really early because we fell asleep at 9, told you I was really really tired. Since little sis was still sleeping, I walked out to the balcony to enjoy the morning sun. I actually love the sun when it's before 10am, after that is just murder.
She looks so happy?
We ordered 1 set of American breakfast. Initially, we thought of ordering two but looking at the amount of food they give. We decided to stick to 1. Here, we have pancakes, fruits, donuts, crossants, cereal, milk, juice, scrambled eggs, hashbrown, salad and toast. Even when we did share, we still couldn't finish it. I usually skip breakfast so... my stomach can't handle too much food when I just get up of bed.
After breakfast, we decided to walk around the beaches and check out if there were any water sports we could do. [Totally not adventurous person here]
Little sis likes this photo a lot because she said I look so happy like ponyo. -_-
To my surprise, the resort also had 2 swimming pools, a playground, a spa, a tennis court, a badminton court and place to play table tennis. There's actually a good number of things to do here.
So, after playing on the swing for a good bit, little sis and I went to check out the water sports section. It was on the other side of the island. Little sis jumped at the chance when she saw we could actually ride a jetski on our own. I always wanted to try but not really at the same time? I'm too scared I would drown or the jetski would be jammed in the middle of nowhere.
So she signed up for it and not long after that, I found myself on the jetski dragged out to sea.
I don't know what kind of bird that is, but it sure wasn't afraid of humans.
Schools of fish, I've never seen fish like this. When you walk towards them, they would actually move as a school, away from you. Quite funny, I actually went to chase the fish to see it happen again and again. Lame, I know. -__-
So on the jetski, there was an instructor to teach us how to operate it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Basically, it's only two buttons. One for moving and one for accelerating and just steering. It was easy but little sis was the driver. Soon after that, she drove so fast away from the resort which kind of freaked me out. It was fun as she was turning because you would feel like you were really going to fall into the water until, we REALLY DID FALL INTO THE FUCKING WATER.
I panicked and swallowed so much sea water. Luckily, we had life jackets on, so it made it easier to swim back to the jetski. Still not that easy to swim though and climbing back onto it was difficult too. T_T I wanted to cry, I basically went into survival mode and swam as fast as I could back to the damn jetski. I don't know how to swim. My sister was BRUTAL.
After that, she didn't do anymore turns but drove faster -.- Seriously scared the shit out of me. It was a good experience though, if we ever get the chance to ride one again, I'm gonna drive it myself. SO I WILL NOT FALL INTO THE FUCKING WATER.
After that, we went to walk round the other side of the island and played some table tennis. We were getting bored so we went back to our villa. She wanted to suntan. I just went into the water again and she joined me not long after.
I look so happy? Haha
Afte being in the water for awhile, I came back onto our villa because there were too many fishes swimming and jumping around. I don't know what they were doing but I just didn't want a fish to jump out of the water and hit my face. -_- Also, luckily I came out of the water, there was a stingray gliding around. If you didn't know, they are dangerous.
Little sis and I got bored in the villa so we went back to the water sports section to see if there was anything else we could do. In the end, we rented a water bicycle for an hour. It was quite fun, at least I know I won't drown because we were only allowed to pedal in shallow water.
We pedalled to this little island. There was nothing much on it but sea shells and a little hut but still, it was nice to feel like we achieved something.
Also, we "drove" by some villas. This is the most expensive one, it comes with jacuzzi.
Jetski we rode!
Soon, it was 4 and we made our way to the spa. Both of us booked an hour of massage. Heaven.
After spa, we went back to our villa again to freshen up for the 2012 countdown Gala dinner. We didn't really dress up, we just wore beach dresses and slippers to the dinner. The sunset on New Year's eve was even more beautiful than the day before.
The sun set so quickly too, just after 5 minutes, this orange/purple hue of the sky was gone.
Getting ready to countdown to 2013!
We waited around for dinner to be ready, there were so many people waiting to get into the restaurant. When we finally got in, little sis and I sat outdoors again (why, I also don't know, we can't see what we're having in the dark!). I thought they did an excellent job on the displays. It was so pretty but overall, the food was pretty alright.
As you can tell, there was a lot of food to choose from. There was pizza, spagetti, steak, beef, Indian cuisine, lots of seafood, Japanese, Asian, dumplings, a ton. And for dessert they had all sorts of cakes and ice cream and even creme brulee! My favourite <3 I was so full by the end of the meal because little sis kept taking and taking more food.
I thought they would have a countdown in the restaurant itself or at the bar nearby, but they didn't. A live band only played some music, so we got bored again and went back to our villa. And guess what, we were watching Twilight : Breaking Dawn Part 1 because there was nothing else on tv. Also, I thought it was so cute that they gave us a 2013 present!
It was Jasmine incense.
We went out of the villa at 11:30pm again to check if there was anything going on because we heard some loud music playing. The moon was so bright that night too. My camera couldn't capture how many stars and how pretty the nightsky was.
So we walked to the bar, and still nothing, we figured we'll just wait around until midnight. When it was close to midnight, they started lighting up the signs they were putting in the water earlier. It was quite nice to watch and since I never ever celebrate or countdown to the new year, it was a good change. And for once, I was actually happy counting down! I really loved 2012 but I welcomed 2013 with open arms.
Soon, they started counting down and the usual, 5... 4.... 3... 2...1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We didn't stay around for long, we went straight back to the villa and just fell asleep.
1st January 2013 ;
Both of us got up at the same time, we ordered the same breakfast and went outside to take in as much of the beauty of Maldives as it was our last day here. The sky was so beautiful that morning.
I really love the formation of the clouds that morning and the tide was so low, another small island appeared out of nowhere.
Soon, breakfast arrived!
After breakfast, we didn't know what else to do, so we went to the beach and we walked the whole stretch just to see if we could cross over to the island nearby but we really couldn't. Luckily, we rented that water bicycle the day before, I think that's the only way to get on that small piece of land.
These were actually hermit crabs. They were so cute! They will hide in their shells when someone comes by. All of them will. I picked it up but it didn't crawl out, haha.
The other side of the beach.
Those little huts are where our villa is.
It began to get too hot so we returned back to the villa again. Maldive's sun is really, really, really strong. I felt like my skin was burning and I didn't want to be tanned so I ran back to shelter but you know what, in the end I am still very tanned because we ran out of sun block in the middle of the day. -__-
Back at the villa, both of us went to dip in the sea once again. This time, we stayed in there for over an hour and camwhored. There was this little fish that actually swam in between us. Little sis tried to catch it but it swam away too quickly. Haha.
After an hour or two, little sis and I finally got out of the water. We decided to go to the souvenir shop to get something for mom. She's such a sucker for fridge magnets. I never fancied souvenirs... I just think they're so tacky. But first, we still camwhored in the villa.
I found an umbrella in the closet, so this is my attempt to stay fair without sunblock. Failed.
Then, we went to walk to the other side of the island again because we had so much time to kill. Yes, I brought the umbrella with me. Seriously, I still hate the sun and it was so hot and bright this day I thought I was going to get roasted.
That's actually a squid! And it's so cute :3
So here we are at the souvenir shop. Most of the things on sale where hand painted with acrylic. I thought it was cool, this little area looked like the studios back in college. They even hand painted on t-shirts and coconuts which was quite interesting but I didn't get anything but a lousy fridge magnet. Not a fan of souvenirs, like I already said.
After getting mom her little present, we went to the spa again to book for a facial, we didn't know what else to do to kill the time because every activity at the water sports section was occupied. So, we decided to play some ping pong to kill the time.
Little sis used to be a table tennis player back in elementary school, she was on the school's team too, the youngest player. It somehow brought me back to days when we were little where I would be at the side of her and dad having "training". Dad is really good at it, so he would practice and teach her "special" moves every weekend. Yes, I am the black sheep of the family, all I know is how to draw and paint. -_- Somehow, I still think that dad was so, so supportive of her during those inter-school tournaments. He would be at every match cheering her on and he would also be with her during training in school.
We played... and I obviously lost to her. We went back to the villa once again, she just jumped right into the water because we still couldn't figure what else to do already. I was too scared of the heat to go under the sun anymore.
That little head is hers.
Her funny feet.
Okay... so spa time again.
I really like how the spa looks and all the privacy. We had facial for an hour. It was sooooooo nice, after that our faces were so clean and smooth. I wish I could go all the time. ;___; It was almost time for check out so we went back to pack and clean up.
Time for us to go! So we went to the reception to settle our bill and walked to the end of the island for dinner. There's a small restaurant there, we didn't want anymore buffet food.
All the water bicycles and canoes!
This is a swimming pool facing the sea.
The most expensive villas!
"The Four Spices" restaurant, where we had our dinner.
We chose to sit outdoors because we wanted to enjoy the sunset. Little sis ordered tandoori chicken and I got the Maldivian curry. Maldivian curry is different from normal curry, it's cooked with tuna and coconuts and it's sweet and savoury at the same time.
Complimentary appetizers. I really love the green dip! It's mint!
The sunset that day.
Our table was next to the water so we could still see fishes swimming around, somewhere through our meal, these fishes suddenly began swimming frantically because apparently, as the waiter told us, it was dinner time for them too. So you could see the bigger fish chasing the smaller fishes and the big fishes were really really big! They are jet fishes if I'm not wrong they can grow up to 6 inches. Also, there were even more baby sharks swimming around during this time!
I couldn't get any pictures because it was too dark and with fishes swimming that fast, how am I going to get a good picture?
Soon, it was almost 8 and time for us to get on our boat to the airport.
Not a good picture, we were walking so fast!
So at about 8.30pm, we got on the boat that would take us to the airport. It was also about 45 minutes back. Honestly, I think taking the boat at night is even scarier because the water's even choppier and it's so dark in the middle of the ocean. I kept looking at the time and wishing time would past faster.
Finally, we got to the airport.
Also not a good picture because I was in a rush. This tiny boat was our ride to the airport.
The airport was so crowded. I forgot to add that the funniest thing about Maldives is that most of it's tourists are Japanese and French. I thought I could getaway from Japanese for a while but apparently I can't. -_- Anyways, we checked in and went straight to the transit area.
I didn't bother taking anymore photos because I was so tired but I was so amazed that they had a spices shop in the airport! We bought some apple and honey tea and lemon grass from it! There were different types of curry powder sold there as well. We were both so tired, we just decided to get some ice-cream and sit and wait for our flight to be called.
We had to walk to the plane on ground level. Haha, it was nice. The last time I did it was in Krabi. Once we got on the plane, the both of us knocked out and jut slept throughout the flight. I even had to shake little sis a few times to wake her up when we arrived in Singapore.
Maldives was breathtaking and really made me think differently of beach getaways. I really enjoyed it but wished my parents could have come as well. The end of another wonderful adventure.
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