Monday, February 24, 2014

Maldives Honeymoon - Video

I put together a short video with some music of our honeymoon in the Maldives at the Centara Ras Fushi Resort. Skip to 1min 10 seconds for a cool video of us being driven to our room after check-in. I hope you enjoy it ^^.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Maldives Honeymoon

As they say, better late than never. We finally went on our honeymoon after getting married in November 2013. Our destination? The Maldives ^^, or to be more specific the Centara Ras Fushi Resort which is a short 20 minute boat ride from the Male airport.

Our journey began in Suwon Friday night after visiting the in-laws. We caught a limousine bus to the Incheon international airport. 


Once at the airport, we picked up our travel package from the travel agent.



and spent some time browsing the duty free shops. As you might have guessed, I was bored out of my brain. Luckily I found some fish in a shop to keep me entertained.


We finally made it to the boarding gate, where we had to sit around for about an hour before we could board the aircraft. 



Our chariot. 


I got a little board waiting, so went for a walk and took some photos of the boarding area. 



My wife, waiting patiently...


Finally, at 12:20AM we were on the aircraft and ready to go.



The travel agent told Singapore airlines that we were on our honeymoon. The air crew gave us a cheese cake....


and a card.


We arrived in Singapore for our 4 hour stop over early in the morning. 


After a brief nap, I felt like something to eat. Look what I found!!! A meat pie! My first meat pie in a year. It was pretty decent too (for airport food). 


Nom, nom, nom. No pie for Jihyeon. 


Singapore international airport is huge. It is built of 3 terminal buildings, 2 of which are each over 2km long! There is lots to do in the airport making it a good airport to stop over in (unlike LAX where I once had a 6 hour stop over... boooooring). 


Sponge Bob!





As I said, the airport is huge. The police have the luxury of scooting around on these awesome scooters. 




After walking for about 30 minutes, we finally reached the boarding gate for Maldives. 


Before we knew it, we were back in the air on the final leg to Maldives. 


Almost there. The island is so small you can't even see any land mass on the map. 


First glimpse of the maldives. 


Finally we landed. Oh, the blue sky and warm air. Such a nice change from winter in Korea. 


Immigration.


Waiting for our luggage to the sound of the baggage handlers tossing it without a thought for what might be in people luggage onto the conveyor belt. 


Once through customs, we were greeted by a friendly fellow who took our bags and escorted us to our hotel's booth at the airport. 


Once all the resort passengers from our flight had been gathered, we headed outside to board the boat which would take us to our hotel. 




It was a nice boat. The seats were comfortable and even while jetting across the water at full throttle we didn't get hit by any ocean spray. 



20 minutes later, we arrived. 


We stayed in the deluxe villas off to the right in room 333. 


The resort lobby was cool and comfortable, and like the buffet restaurant had a sand floor. 





I'm going to depart from my normal blog style now since over the next few days there was a lot of time where we just chilled out and relaxed, so I'll just throw up some pictures in no particular order and comment on them when I feel like it.

We stayed in a deluxe water villa which stood on poles over the reef and had a prime view of the crystal clear blue water which along the edge of the reef was teaming with fish. We spent a lot of time relaxing on the desk after going snorkeling every morning.





Look, Fish!





Mr Fish... Where are you going? ^^






Even Gundie got in on the action. 




I love the reflection in the sunglasses. 


Flowers dotted around the island dotted a touch of colour in an other wise very white and blue environment






Though the island was small, there were 4 restaurants to choose from. We normally went to the buffet style restaurant which was free with our package and put on a great spread of food, but for Jihyeon's Birthday we splurged and ate out at one of the island's other restaurants.


It was a 4 course meal, and each course came with a glass of wine that was specially matched to the meal. I'm normally not a fan of wine, but they actually picked some really nice wines that matched the dishes well. All the dishes were great, even the pea and lettuce soup.




The view from our table by the swimming pool.




As I said, we ate in the buffet restaurant most of the time. They had huge variety and friendly staff made sure our drinks were kept full.


Just about everywhere in the Maldives has a view of the ocean.


Breakfast time.






I think this was lunch time.



The resort has 3 different bars you can choose from to relax in when you are not busy snorkeling, wind surfing, paddle boating, kayaking, parasailing, diving, visiting the local islands, getting a massage, or stuffing your face with delicious food. 

This is the first bar and is right next to the hotel lobby, so while you are waiting for an electric golf cart to take you to your villa you can grab a drink and start relaxing. As with everything in the Maldives, it has a view of the crystal clear blue water. 


Sit back, relax, and watch the boats come and go from the island. It was a great spot of chill in the afternoon. 




Ham and pinapple pizza! yum. 


Even the bathroom has a view of the ocean. 


The second bar is by the pool and is awesome to go to just before lunch. 





The third bar is built over the water and is a great place to see fish, watch the sunset, and relax in the evening. 


Every afternoon around 5pm they feed the fish.


It has a great view of the island. 


and the ocean.



and the sunset. 


I was a little disappointed by the sunset in the Maldives. It didn't really light up the sky, but I guess that is because there was no dust in the atmosphere for the light to catch and illuminate. 


A couple had an informal wedding ceremony in the fading sun, and then enjoyed a private meal by the ocean.





Every afternoon these two birds would show up on the beach.



Even at night, the island was beautiful. The full moon let me take some great photos. 










As I mentioned before, there are a load of water sports you can do on the island. Anything activity that doesn't require instruction or involve a petrol motor was free with our package ^^. Today, I would be learning to wind surf, something I have wanted to learn for close to 20 years. 



My wife waiting patiently. 


My instructor giving me a run down on the mechanics of wind surfing. 


A quick beach practice. 


Water demonstration.


And I'm up and sailing ^^.


Wheeeeee~~~~.


Look at me. 






Me and the awesome instructor. 


Two days a week a para-sailing boat from a neighbouring resort pays a visit to the Centra Ras Fushi Resort, so we signed up. 





I love this expression my wife has. lol. 


Ready...


Set....


Go.


Up


up, 


and away~~.




Here are some miscellaneous pictures from around the resort. 


















Checkout day. We checked out around midday, but our flight was not until 11:30pm so the resort let us chill out on the island and arranged for a boat to take us to the airport around 8:30pm. 




That way.


Waiting around at the airport for our flight... which departed late. Thanks to it's delayed departure we would have only 20 minutes to race from one end of Singapore airport to the other to get our connecting flight. 



14 hours later we arrived home, exhausted but relaxed.