Maldives 14/6/16 – 18/6/16

So we left our hotel in Singapore at 6am and arrived at our hotel in the Maldives at 4pm (local time). The first flight – 4 hours, from Singapore to Sri Lanka and the 2nd – 1h 30 min from Sri Lanka to Maldives with a 2 hour transfer between them. Both went smoothly enough until the pilot said over the tannoy system that the plane was heading into a storm. Luckily enough he managed to swerve around it and apart from some slight turbulence, we managed to miss it. Once at the airport in Male we were straight onto the boat transfer and what a boat ride it was. The sea was fairly rough and the jet boat swung from one side to another, I went green at the gills from the first minute. Tina loved it as we crashed about all over the place. It seemed to last an eternity for me however it was only 20 minutes.
Once off the boat we were greeted by the resort staff (one particularly was very chatty to us – her customer service was brilliant) and we proceeded down the long jetty. The ocean was as clear as, the sun was shining and there were plenty of fish swimming underneath us. We even spotted several sharks, and was in full conversation with the said female staff member and all of a sudden Tina screamed at the top of her voice, “OH MY GOD”. I turned to her and she was in a mess, trembling, almost in tears and running as fast as she could off the jetty. I set off after her quickly as I thought she had seen some creepy insect or something, to find her in the arms of another man, who turned out to be her brother Michael with his partner Jo. What a surprise they had secretly flown out from the UK to be by his sister side at the wedding. Tears galore, not only that but they were hiding in the bushes filming our arrival and Tina’s response. They had flown in early today and were as excited as we were in our arrival.
The next few days were great as we caught up with M&J. They told us how nervous they were as they were keeping up with our blog, and had noticed we had changed our journey several times. Come to think of it in the past couple of months we have had more texts etc between us than ever before. We obviously didn’t know they were coming, but everyone else in the family did and they all made a terrific job not “spilling the beans” to me or Tina.
We were also frantically trying to set up a communal Skype as so many people in the UK, NZ and Australia wanted to be part of our celebrations, but at each stage there were so many hurdles that in the end we were unable to carry it out. Which was a great shame, however our friends, families and ex colleagues kept in touch pre and post the event by text, fb and messenger. Thank you to each and everyone of you.
We spent the days walking, snorkelling, drinking, eating and generally catching up. It was great, and in their favour, they certainly took away our nerves for the wedding.
The wedding itself was amazing to say the least, words cannot truly explain our feelings – (see separate blog The Wedding).
We have taken full advantage of all the restaurants and bars on the island resort, our favourite was the Japanese restaurant named, ( and be very careful how you pronounce this one in public ), the Fukuya restaurant, their tapinyaki is to die for.
Our last 24 hours in paradise was spent with total R&R in mind, relaxing, taking it easy and of course more cocktails. What an amazing place to get married, pure luxurious pampering, the food, drinks, weather, atmosphere, the resort itself and of course the company was spectacular.
A bit about the Maldives –
The Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean, it is made up of a chain of 1,190 small coral islands that are grouped into clusters of atolls covering an area of 90,000 Sq kms. The capital is Male with a population of 300,000 and is the smallest capital in the world. European influences was dominant from 1887 and the islands formally became a British protectorate and achieved independence as a Sultanate in 1965.
The language of the Maldivian is Dhivehi, it’s roots are in Sanskrit, a language which is placed in the indo-asian group of languages. Since the Maldivians embraced Islam in 1153 it has been central to life of Maldivians.
Paradise Island Resort is situated north of Male and is a 20 minute speed boat ride away on Lankanfinolhu island which is only 931 m in length. It has sugar white sand set alongside lush tropical vegetation and a majestic coconut palm plantation. The warm crystal clear waters offers superb under water viability revealing a giant living aquarium teaming with fish coloured from the whole spectrum of the rainbow.
Our room is one of the many water villas. Each one has private access to the Indian Ocean off the terrace which all have a day bed clustered with cushions, a private bath and stairs into the fabulous crystal clear ocean and outdoor dining furniture. Pure luxurious and indulgent.