Blogs from Maldives, Asia - page 8

If there is one place I could travel over and over again to, then its the Maldives. Some people don't like the Islands much, but for me the combination of beach, reef, water, palms, sun and the friendly Maldivien people could get hardly any better. One of the things I like most here is the calmness. The Islands really slow you down and coming from a rather hectic european work environment myself, i know for sure there could be nothing better. We are here for work again and so I have to get up early and grumpy. Its part of any work environment. But not for long. As soon your feet walk on that white sand and the sea breeze touches my face the mood changes and I feel just fine. This time around we had ... read more

Well, I MADE IT!!! After the incessant spending in Europe and the weakened dollar, I almost bagged my side trip to Maldives....but then I remembered that my desire to go there was the inspiration for this entire trip, so I had to do it! I made the mistake of booking through a travel agency instead of on my own on the internet, and she had me go through the crappiest of intineraries to get to Paradise! After leaving my hotel in Goa at 5am, hanging around the airport in Mumbai for 6 hours, a flight cancelling, getting rerouted through Chennai, then Sri Lanka, and the fourth flight of the day being delayed, I finally got to the Maldives 24 hours later! (ALso insert one minor meltdown at the end of that when my watch flew off ... read more

It's public holidays for a week one more time in China, and time to escape to great destinations. China is moving fast, very fast, and the best proof of it is the shift of population in the planes. It used to be westerners escaping...well, most of them cannot afford a ticket anymore, and the local chinese have been more than happy to replace them. So this week, the first group of guests in the resort are by far the chinese..and somewhere, this is great news, even if it means I will have to continue booking tickets way ahead! The weather this week has been a mix bag of sun, wind, clouds and rain, but in paradise, who really care? We met my parents at Singapore airport. They are 64 and 61, and on their first round-the-world ... read more

Having spent the previous night in the park at Colombo's international airport I was fairly exhausted when I arrived in the Maldives. Although I was looking forward to my stay in the Maldives I felt a slight sense of trepidation as I was travelling alone. The Maldives is marketed as a romantic destination for couples on their honeymoon and I felt that this could end up being a fairly depressing holiday. I'd been to the Maldives before, but I'd been travelling with someone so it had been different. Thankfully my fears turned out to be unfounded. Although there were plenty of couples, there were also families and even the odd independent traveller. At the immigration desk I was told that I would not be allowed to enter the Maldives without a hotel reservation. I explained ... read more

Expecting to land in tropical paradise, we instead stepped foot into a $270/night shithole hotel room in Male for an overnight stay, before departing by sea plane to our Maldivian resort the next morning. Gene was fit to be tied when he discovered that the Internet would be down for the rest of the evening. As though putting a child down to sleep, I had to convince Gene that the sooner we went to bed, the sooner our day in paradise would present itself. The following morning, all hotel guests were bused out to the seaplane port. As Gene sat over a cup of coffee and I at an open computer, I listened to him babble to another couple nearby, cursing to myself at the thought of having to socialize on our island of respite. Little ... read more