The Only Joy in Leaving is When You Return - Our Final Morning in the Maldives
On our final “day” in paradise, we had clear goals: pictures, food, and enjoy the scenery!
Our own paparazzi
Although it was one of the saddest moments of the trip, we decided the previous evening to get up at the crack of dawn and take loads of pictures. Obviously, we had to learn lessons from the previous night’s photo session - which include wearing a darker shirt! Our photographer mentioned that early in the morning was the perfect time for photos as the light was neutral. Therefore, MF and I had to get up really early!
When Mary Frances is determined, she can wake up early! We set our alarms for 6:30am and she was ready to go by 6:45am! It was a Maldivian miracle! Once we stepped outside, it was the perfect lightning! We couldn’t have asked for a better scenario!
At first, we walked along the same scenes as yesterday and recreated the scene. Firstly, we wanted the palm tree hanging over sand and crystal blue water. Obviously, we were one of the only people up in the entire resort so we had the place to ourselves! At first, we struggled since we didnt have a tripod but then we figured out how to jerry rig the cameras (iPhone and Nikon) on towels, chairs, and benches!
We then kept walking to the famous Mandaroo as the sun rises on that side of the island. We found a few more people to be in the background, but still had amazing opportunities! Unfortunately, we could not find any chairs or towels to prop up our camera so we had to limit it to solo shots until a kind runner took our picture. I wish we had done this earlier!
Our Final Breakfast
Since it was our last breakfast and possibly only meal of the day due to the flight times, I loaded up on all the food - mostly carbs. While the tears prevented us from eating quickly, we still managed to eat the very tasty food! I had my usual order of eggs benny and MF had her scrambled eggs.
Time to Go!
On the island, one is assigned a time when they need to leave the villa, arrival at the hotel desk to pay the bill, and then your departing flight. In typical fashion, we waited until the last possible second to leave our precious villa. We were assigned 9:45 and defended against the cleaning crew to allow us every moment. Thus, we left the villa at 9:44…
Once at the hotel desk, it was pretty easy to check in and out. Because we didn’t have a “large” bill, I double checked it against my own guestimation and we came in really well (for a resort!). I’ll have a post later on how we managed to keep it all under $4,000!
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Final bill, part 1 -
Final bill, part 2
Sad in a Seaplane
Thankfully, we had an extra surprise for us - a seaplane delay!! Although we weren’t in our swim suits or allowed to the free buffet, we did get to sit on the beach for an extra few minutes! I believe our original departure time was 10:30, but the plane did not arrive until 11:30! While not much in the long run, it did allow us to enjoy the amazing Rangali resort!
The views from the seaplane were just as amazing as our first flight - if one could see through the tears of sadness! In addition, due to the seaplane delays, harsh reality of “time tables” and “places to be” were back in our lives and I calculated we would have an hour from our seaplane landing before our next flight. Oh ye of little faith for thinking the Maldives airport would be busy….
Maldives Airport
Similar to other small airports, one does not need much time in the International airport. Once the seaplane lands, we were ferried in the Conrad mobile to the terminal. Our luggage is taken care of and also taken to the terminal - which was one less worry!
Thankfully, we had another family of 7 on our same flight so we all had the same “issues.” My detail planning meant that our checked bags was registered with Air Asia - the Asian version of Ryanair - whereas the family of 7 did not realize that you had to pre-book to save money. Ouch… Plus, we had an extra 20 minutes thanks to that!
Pro Tip: If you’ve flying a budget airline, regardless of the continent, double check the rules and book a checked bag if you think you MIGHT go over. (Had we known, we would have carried on our bags as carry-on size and less than the weight limit.)
Onto Thailand
To arrive in Phuket from the Maldives, we needed to connect through Air Asia’s hub of DMK, which is outside Bangkok city. As I mentioned earlier, Air Asia is the European Ryanair. They charge for anything and everything, but we were prepared!
For our flight, it was spectularly boring. There was not any in-flight entertainment as it is a budget airline and I just worked on the pictures and read my book. I almost forgot we were on an airline rather than our villa! (Joking…)
Airport Chillin'
Once in Bangkok, we landed around 7pm and it was pitch dark. Too bad it was dark for our only visit in the capital city! While I was not looking forward to the airport, we now had plenty of time before our Phuket flight. We debated trying to get on an earlier flight, but figured it wasn’t worth the cost…
Our dinner was an expensive McDonalds! We split some chicken fingers, but as you can imagine, it was not worth taking this picture. For our dessert, we spotted a rarity - a Krispy Kreme pop-up shop! Obviously, we had to stop and grab a few donuts for the road…
Onto Phuket, finally
After a long airport layover with no lounges, we finally boarded the last flight to Phuket. I was bored and ready to be there! Once we landed, we were strangely escorted from the domestic luggage terminal to the international one to pick up our bags. I still have no idea how our bags made it to this island!
Thankfully, we pre-booked a taxi to our hotel. Unfortunately, everyone had that idea so it took us a solid 10 minutes plus a phone call to find the taxi people. Because we stayed in NaiHarn, it meant a long, very long taxi from the airport in the north, to the southern tip of Phuket. By the time we arrived, we were dead tired!!