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Published: June 11th 2008
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With hasty goodbyes to Gail’s dad, the taxi took us to Gatwick Airport for the start of our journey to the Maldives. We were flying with Monarch Airlines and after some research online we discovered they were just a glorified sardine tin, so we spent a little extra and upgraded to Premium Class for more legroom and better service. After checking in we hastened to the executive waiting lounge, following our perfume purchases, so we could catch the beginning of the Canadian Grand Prix. Hamilton was in the lead when we had to move along to board the plane, where we overheard a man on his mobile in stunned disappointment - the gist of the conversation was that Hamilton was out of the race! How disappointing!
Our flight was uneventful, the food good, the seats narrow, plenty of legroom and nice complimentary goodie bag. As we flew over the Black Sea and by Turkey at night we could see a huge electrical storm in the near distance. Luckily we weren’t flying through it. We both tried to sleep but the stewards spent the flight banging in the galley and chatting, you would think they would be a bit more considerate.
Ten hours later we had our first glimpse of the Islands of the Maldives. The weather wasn’t too great, too many clouds to get a nice view of them, but still it was beautiful. Sped through immigration to get our bags and then through customs. We were met by the travel rep who took us to the desk were we were given a present, before being pointed to the desk for our Island and then being taken around to the Maldivian Air Taxi desk. They weighed our entire luggage including hand luggage and then stamped the card “overweight.” Yikes! A short bus journey later we arrived at the air taxi terminal and had to pay $26 fee for being overweight with our luggage. Killing time we read some information about the Islands, and noted one particular section entitled “Local Wildlife.” This I found amusing as cockroaches were listed as wildlife! After an hour wait watching the air taxis coming and going, we were told our flight was ready. We arrived at the boarding area first and as we made our way to the plane two girls cut in front of us and jumped on the plane and picked the
best seats! What a cheek!
The air taxi flight was fun - so loud you couldn’t hear yourself speak let along think. As it was still fairly cloudy, each time we went through a big cloud we had drastic roller coaster turbulence which would buck us around like we were on a rodeo bull! They were kind enough to provide little air sickness bags should one feel the need to use it. We were too busy enjoying the views, both of the islands and the pilots, to take much notice of turbulence though. Forty-five minutes later we landed at Palm Beach Resort and were waved off by one of our pilots. The pilots must have an ideal life, fly over superb scenery, fly barefoot, and stay at the resorts - what a life! They come from all over the world to work here and I can see why.
We were greeted by a Japanese lady who is the tourist rep, who showed us to the bar for a delicious coconut cocktail while we checked in. Following that the golf cart drove us to our bungalow. It’s lovely! The rest of the day was spent having a very long
sleep as we were both feeling sleep deprived and then we headed to dinner before coming back to the bungalow to unpack and realise we had forgotten to pack the deodorant! Horror of horrors! The on thing you don’t want to forget in a hot and humid country. Hopefully they sell some in the shop. And with that, it’s time to say goodbye!
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