r a n d o m << s c r i b b l i n g s >>: May 2014

Maldives

Day 1

I'd wanted to continue on the blog post on Paris but i realized i've transferred the photos onto my external hard drive. *woes of an amateur photographer with too little disk space*

I promise to blog about Paris once i transfer the photos back onto my Macbook.

For now, i will just blog about Maldives first.

It was such an incredibly fun trip, one that i'll surely miss in years to come. With that said, I realized i do like traveling to more exotic places...*ahem* yes, to me, maldives is rather exotic.

saying bye to Changi Airport and boarding Tiger Airlines to Maldives. It was a 4+ hours journey and Maldives is approximately 3 hours earlier than Singapore (meaning if the time in Singapore is 7pm, it's 4pm in Maldivian time)

Maldives is made up of an archipelago of 1,192 coral islands grouped into 26 coral atolls (200 inhabited islands, plus 80 islands with tourist resorts) in the Indian Ocean. They lie south-southwest of India and are considered part of Southern Asia.

That's Male - the capital of Maldives.

Strangely, the international airport at Maldives, "Male International Airport" is not situated in Male but on Hulhulé Island right next to the capital Male.

The sea is so blue and clear. It's exactly like those seas we used to describe in our essays..."iridescent blue seas"

We hopped onto our ferry to Club Med Kani.

The beautiful island of Kani, in North Male Atoil.

Upon arrival, we were immediately greeted by the friendly GOs and were treated with a welcome drink (chilled lemon tea which was a bit toooo sweet).

We then met Amjay, the island's costume designer. He was a nice chap who accompanied us for lunch and gave us a brief introduction to the island. He told us that he was a local who stayed north of maldives and he used to work in the island's boutique but was recently promoted to costume designer. He'd used to work for a tailor and learnt the craft of sewing at his previous job.

Initally, when he'd told us he was a costume designer, i was kinda chuckling to myself. i mean, why would a club need a costume designer...what kind of retarded title is that. But boy, was i proved wrong as you will later find out. Amjay is actually really talented and he sewed the costumes of the dancers who performed at the highly performances.

Since we had a lot of spare time on our hands, we decided to change into our swimwear and headed out to kayak.

*sheepish* obviously the bf was the one who did most of the paddling.

right from the boy's mouth:

"you are putting more resistance, barely even helping"

lol.

oh well. leave it to the canoe/ kayak captain to say that.

whatever. at least i tried.

taking a selfie.

his turn to take a selfie....while i paddle like mad.

the cocktails in Club Med pretty much sucked. To be on the safe side, please just get a beer or soft drink.

the sunset there is....stunning. gorgeous.

“The first stab of love is like a sunset, a blaze of color -- oranges, pearly pinks, vibrant purples...” - Anna Godberson

Every friday nights, the restaurant staff and basically every staff on the island will help in shifting the buffet tables and chairs out to the beach for a beachside dinner.

It was so beautiful and calming with a guy playing to the tunes of Jason Mraz and other acoustic songs, and the salty sea breeze blowing against your skin.

The beach was adequately litted too with buffet tables lined with international fare, you name it, they've got it. Japanese, Chinese, Indian,Western food, etc.

The fish was huge! but....they weren't for eating. *bummer*

Day 2

we woke up to catch the sunrise...actually, okay, only i got up to catch the sunrise....because i kinda forgot to wake the bf up in the midst of taking pictures of the sunrise.

haha.

i know. In simple hokkien terms "bo sim".

I got up around 5+am and saw that the sun was slowly peeking out. I immediately grabbed my digital cam and started taking as much pictures as i could. Unfortunately, the lens were all fogged up due to the difference in temperature of the room and the outside. I was desperately trying to remove the fog and went to grab my dslr as well. Al these done while forgetting to wake up the bf >.<

I know. I feel guilty up till now.

went for a swim in the pool.

our virgin sail.

the sailing instructor, Lim Meng Seng, gave us a short intro to sailing and off we went.

It was surprisingly much more fun than kayaking.

and because it was too hot and my skin was practically melting under the blazing heat of the sun, i decided to take out my trusty long sleeved shirt for snorkeling.

The performance at night.

"Best of Kani" featured the general manager and the GOs from Club Med in Kani dancing to the tunes of Michael Jackson, ABBA, etc.

It was amazing how much stamina and energy these GOs ("Gentle Organisers") have. In the day time, they would be tending to sailing boats and teaching tourists how to sail. At night, just when you taught they could finally get their break, they would be grooving to dance music and entertaining guests with their fantastic dance moves.

Day 3

We'd booked a snorkeling trip to shark point the day before to catch bigger fishes such as reef sharks, manta rays, etc.

On hindsight, the snorkeling trip was really expensive, it cost us a whopping 178 usd per pax. Notwithstanding that it included a half day picnic on a private island with freshly caught lobster and fish.

the bf requested for the de-flatable life vest so he could have the option of sinking and going up close to the sea creatures and corals.

can you spot the turtle?

Our snorkeling guide went to poke the eye of the innocent manta ray :/ He really shouldn't have done that even though i know he wanted us to make our monies worth.

we had our lunch with a friendly, bubbly and young-at-heart grandparents from Italy (they grew up in Paris though). The old man was a very strong swimmer, he actually jumped into the the bottomless sea without a life vest. I was so worried but he was unperturbed by the waves and all, it looked like he belonged right in the ocean. And mind you...this old man was 60 years old already.

I feel like a old bum beside them. lol.

The lady with the sun hat was a tour agent from Copenhagen. She has travelled to soooo many places, it's amazing. Her job is so wonderful, she gets to travel around the world, sourcing for new destinations to include in their agencies' itinerary. Her tour agency caters for the youths and this time round, she was traveling maldives to look at the potential of setting up a guesthouse in an island near to Kani. She mentioned that they were thinking of bringing young tourists on a budget to this guesthouse and providing them with activities via ClubMed.

it was our lucky day. though we didn't manage to catch the reef sharks, at least we spotted dolphins!

the bf lazing at the beach right behind our beach villa.

if you are wondering, i was sleeping in the villa instead because i was feeling too giddy from the wine they provided for lunch (i puked right after we docked at Club Med, the alcohol was getting to me...i'm such a terrible drinker.)