Himmafushi Island tour [Our Honeymoon in Maldives, Part 4/4]

Final blog entry on our honeymoon!

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.

Le hubby couldn't sit up front with me cos there were an uneven number of passengers and we had to spread out for weigh-balancing. He came to the front when we were reaching the island.

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!! (╯︵╰,)

Snorkelling & Sunset Dolphin Cruise [Our Honeymoon in Maldives, Part 3/4]

Part 3 of my honeymoon blog series!

There's a lot of activities you can do at Gili Lakanfushi. You can go for sandbank picnics, snorkelling, diving, private island lunch/dinner, go for a relaxing spa, watch a movie in the Jungle Cinema, swim in the beautiful pool, wine & chocolate tasting.. etc etc etc. 

We did a few of those activities but our favourite was going snorkelling & the sunset dolphin cruise!

Considering how much I loathe the sun because it makes me tan, it's surprising that I spend time outside the air-con room. Well, I guess it's really stupid to be paying so much money to go and hide in the room and read books on my Kindle right? 

I finished an entire bottle of sunblock during our stay but I still got tanned by the "Maldavian Sun". Le hubby loved the tan, I hated it.. thankfully it has already disappeared now.

On one of the days we booked a snorkelling excursion and went swimming with the sharks! We took the boat out to another island with a nicer coral reef. We sat on the roof of the boat which is made of soft waterproof material. Super comfortable and fun to sit on the top while the boat speeds along! This is also the same boat which will bring us for our Dolphin watching cruise! More on that later..

Since I am seldom out in the sun, must take more pictures for keepsake! Haha!

Le hubby jumping off the boat! *whoosh*

Le hubby floating around...

He's actually not a very good swimmer and I had to drag him along. Haha!

Le hubby didn't even managed to see any fishes properly! Why? He couldn't wear his specs with the googles and the silly boy refused to wear contact lenses. So all the time when we were in the water, everything was just a blur.. He only managed to see what I saw when I played back the videos on the camera which I used to record the fishes.

So that's the one and only time we went snorkelling cos I didn't wanna go alone and I think it's pointless for Le hubby to be seeing blurred blue stuff. It's our honeymoon! Both of us should enjoy doing things together. He went along with me cos he knows I like fishes even though he can't see anything clearly nor swim very well. (´∀｀)♡

Well, during one of the days I did to swim out from our villa to attempt to reach the hammock in the middle of the sea.. which looks quite near our villa but is actually a 800m swim away. I swam barely 100m from the villa and my googles suddenly broke! Damn suay TTM! But I took it as a sign from God not to go swimming alone because during that 5mins, I had this nagging feeling that I should turn back and it's a bad idea to swim alone in the open sea and the waves were quite strong....Well, I ignored the nagging feeling then my perfectly working + good quality googles broke. Immediate sign or what? Le hubby was sitting at the veranda of the villa so he can keep an eye on me if I needed any help. When I swam back he was so worried cos I stomped back up the stairs with a super upset face. Heh!

On the 3rd day we went for a sunset dolphin cruise. The boat went out quite far before we managed to see a pod of dolphins. They are quite shy cos there are several boats from different hotels around the area looking for them.. but we managed to catch a glimpse of them. Didn't manage to get any good shots because the water was really rough as there's a storm coming. It rained super heavily halfway and we had to leave early because the winds and waves were really scary.

The water is so blue and so deep out there.. mixed feelings of wonder, awe and fear. There's so many beautiful creatures living in the ocean. There's so much water around but they cannot be drank. What if humans can drink sea-water? Will the ocean be depleted for our own selfish needs? #sidetrack

Can you spot the "One Palm Island" behind us? 

It's a man made island for private picnics and meals.

Had a glass of fruit punch which were actually meant for children.. haha! Both of us don't like to drink alcohol. I don't like the smell & taste, and Le hubby only drinks when he has to during social events. We declined the champagne but the Caucasians were drinking like fish. 

Beautiful sunset behind us!

My Sony camera can't capture the beauty that my eyes could see..

Didn't bring my DSLR (which is rotting in the cupboard by the way.. It's been unused for 2yrs+!) cos it was too bulky. Kinda regretted because we could have taken nice pictures, but Le hubby's new waterproof Fuji camera he bought from Tokyo last July was a safer & more convenient choice.

Looking at my honeymoon pictures made me kinda sad and wistful. I enjoyed my time there tremendously just chilling without the need to stress where to go next and how to get to the next location. Best of all, I was at one of my skinniest weight in recent years! Well, I was sick then that's why I lost weight.. I've gained back so much weight since moving in with Le hubby and his family and not working for 5 months! 3 meals a day, ample sleep & rest, little activity makes me a fatty bom bom wife. I've started work at a new company but I am not losing weight cos there's access to so much yummy food around my office!!!!! I've gained at least 8kg since my wedding day. Sigh. I think I will be ultra fat next time when I have a baby cos I have all sorts of weird food cravings & food binges my entire life.. imagine what will happen when I am pregnant? 2 buckets of KFC a day!?!  #summertimesadness

Meera Spa @ Gili Lankanfushi [Our Honeymoon in Maldives Part 2/4]

Here's part 2 of my honeymoon blog series!

I am the kind of person who plans out the itinerary of her holiday trips way beforehand. Where to go, what to see, what to do, what to eat.. I can't stand going to a destination and not knowing what to do there. I will get very frustrated and feel that it's a huge waste of time. Every moment I spent overseas should be used to enjoy the place, not wasting it on my phone or google trying to plan the day. 

Le hubby is the exact opposite. He is the ultimate chillax king who doesn't plan ahead and likes to "see how" when he's there. The only time I did not take over the planning on a holiday trip is when I tagged along on a trip with him, his cousin + girlfriend to UK & Paris. They planned the trip 6 months prior we both got together so I felt it was very rude to just cut in and take over the itinerary just like that. I just went along with them and nearly burst a blood vessel... 

(((╹д╹;)))

Well, I had lots of fun with them during the trip but they had zero plans except to visit the Manchester United Stadium! 10 days and no plans!! OMG! Every night before we go to bed, the two guys will sit at their laptops and plan the next day's itinerary. We drove 3.5hrs down from Manchester to London and back up to Manchester in the same day, then drive back down again to take the train to Paris and then drive back up again to Manchester for the flight home! I would have booked the flights in-Manchester, out-Paris and plan the accommodation along the way. Then again their initial plan was to stay in Manchester for 10 days (to do what!?!?!??!) and not travel to London or Paris. 

Anyway, the very nature of my job is to plan for holidays & business trips for my customers so it comes to me easily. (And I am also a control freak in some ways lah).

So from now until forever I will be the one in charge of planning for all our holiday trips! He is happy because I won't be angsty and snap at him for being so blur or not planning things properly.

Spot the porcupine duster! ヽ(´･ω･`)､

On the first day when we arrived in Gili Lakanfushi, we had a spa appointment at 4.30pm-6.30pm, just nice for us to relax after our flight and before our dinner!

We enjoyed the spa so much that we went back again the next day for another spa session (different treatments). We contemplated on going back for a 3rd time but decided not to because it's quite excessive (not cheap leh!!) and we wanted to do other stuff around the resort.

This is the reception area where we will be welcomed.

Relaxing while waiting for our spa therapists

Filling in our preferences for the massage

First up.. foot scrub & bath! (~‾⌣‾)~

The couple spa treatment room!

You can choose between 3 different aromatic oils. I usually choose lemongrass.

Wooden box to put our valuables (rings, watches), disposable underwear and a instrument thingy for you to hit when you are ready. Ding! Please come and massage us! Hahahaha!

When lying facedown, we can see fishes swimming around underneath the spa room!

Le hubby in a blissed out mode. Σ(￣。￣ノ)ノ

After our body scrub & massage, it's time for a couple bath! First time soaking in the bath-tub with Le hubby! Teeheehee! It's super big and has lots of space for the two of us.

Our therapist preparing the drinks & munchies..

Champagne (which we didn't drink.. kuakuakua), chocolate fondue & fruits

Two very happy people after their spa session!

(Ɔ ˘⌣˘)♥(˘⌣˘ C)

There's a quiet area on level 2 just about the reception counter where you can just chill and see the waves rolling. The therapist will bring up tea, nuts & fruits for you to much on and there's also magazines around to read if you can pull yourself away from the gorgeous views.

Spa sessions may be expensive (especially in somewhere like a 5* resort in Maldives), but they can really soothe the mind, body & soul of a person. I would go for weekly spa sessions if I am a rich tai-tai! :)