We went to Maldives for 6 days 5 nights last October and had lots of fun there!
Initially I wanted to go for an extended honeymoon (4 weeks!) but I did not have enough annual leave last year so we had to settle for somewhere nearby with a shorter flying time. Maldives is only 4hours away by flight and it is one of my dream honeymoon destination.
As fate would have it, I was hospitalized a week before our wedding, and had to go back for 2 more hospital stays afterwards cos the doctor had to let me out to get married before I have to go back again since we can't postpone the wedding. I ended up with hospitalization leave all the way till December! That's plenty of time to go anywhere we wanted for a honeymoon! No need to take leave! But.... we decided to stick to our original plan to go to Maldives because the tickets & hotels were booked long ago and we can't change it. I wanted to have a part 2 honeymoon, but after calculating our expenses and seeing how much we spent for our wedding..... I had to give up that idea.
Le sigh. (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞
On the second last day of our honeymoon, we went to the nearby Himmafushi Island for a half day island tour. Initially I thought we were going to Male City for the tour and was surprised when we ended up at Himmafushi which was sorta ulu and deserted. Oh wells.
Covered my arms with my shawl because of the sun!
Triple layer of sunblock on my face + big sunglasses.
First glimpse of the island! Where are all the people?!
The very empty "main street"
The most prominent is the Mango Shop! It's like the 7-11 on the island because there's a few of them around! Why open so many branch when there's no tourists? The only tourists on the island that day were the 6 of us from Gili Lankanfushi. Two of us, an Australia couple & a Japanese couple.
I spotted some signs written in Mandarin and was literally LOL.
It says "China citizens are good, please buy our stuff!".
Even a small island like Himmafushi has Mandarin signs..
China is overtaking over the world. ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ
I saw these along the streets and was wondering what are they for..
It is actually used as hammocks! I thought they are fishing nets!
We visited the local hospital. The nurse sitting at the reception was happily lazing in the hammock (see previous picture) until we stepped in and she bobian need to go and sit at the counter. Hahahahahaha!
Charges for foreigners!
Reminds me of makeshift hospitals during wartimes in the movies.
Our guide is our Ms Friday! Momoko-san!
She showed us a half finished boat which was left out to rot cos the builders ran out of money.
Advertisement for the Mango Shop on a deserted warehouse
The island look really deserted & run-down.
Comparing it with the many 5 star resorts nearby.. it's really heaven and earth. I asked our guide where are all the residents and she said most of them are working in the resorts and they seldom come back to their house cos the resorts offer lodging and food.. so people who stay on the island are usually really young or old.
We visited a local school!
Questions on the whiteboard
Drug rehabilitation centre
Apparently there's many youngsters who take drugs because they feel bored and drugs are cheap & easily obtainable. Well, seeing there's no entertainment on the island and nowhere they can go.. I can sort of understand why. There's also a prison on the island somewhere... the more our guide shared with us, the more I am worried about the security of the place because I don't see any policeman!
Oh wait.. there is a police station! But it's closed.. -___-
Le hubby is too tall to fit into the door. Hahahahah!
Local minimart! So pink! ^_^
We didn't buy anything from the souvenir shops except for a wooden bowl from this guy called Ali. He is the only non-pushy and non-dodgy guy we saw on the island and we sorta pity him cos his shop looks really run down and he's seems like a friendly guy. We paid USD7 for the wooden bowl with dolphin carvings. The price tag says USD10 but he gave us a discount cos "I am Ali and you are my friend". Yes he said that many times. Hahahahaha!
After spending 4hours on the island, we left and went back to the villa to chillax and order room service.
Left the next day with a heavy heart to fly back to Singapore because I know I will not go back again. Both of us decided that it's not worth the money to go to Maldives because it is so ridiculously overpriced (USD150++ per person for a buffet dinner!).. and even if we do go back again one day, we will definitely want to try to stay at other resorts so we can have a different experience.
Bye bye Gili Lankanfushi!! (╯︵╰,)
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