Doors of Male, Maldives – 15-16 March 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hong Kong to Bangkok to Male, Maldives – 14-16 March 2024

Finally, Thursday 14 March has arrived - time for my holiday! I’m off to the Maldives (via Bangkok) with Susan for 7 nights. Woo hoo!!! For now, though it’s off to work I go.

Mid-afternoon I head home, last minute packing and calls before I take an Uber to the in-town check-in at IFC. It’s still a shell of what it used to be pre covid, only Cathay Pacific is operating from here and it’s all self-service. I feel like you need a degree to be able to check-in and send your bag away (doesn’t help that I’m on a work call while trying to do it all). But it’s better than having to take my bag to the airport and join the long lines at check-in there.

As soon as I walk through immigration, I head straight to the TV screens to see if it shows which gate I’m departing from. Result - it’s gate 65 which is right next to the better First Class lounge. Woo hoo!!! It’s the small things in life.

I head straight to the train then it’s a fast walk to the lounge. I had asked when I was last there (last month on the way to Canberra) if I could enter on my Qantas status if my ticket was a frequent flyer mile ticket. They said yes. Fingers crossed this works.

Bingo, I’m in. Drinks and food ordered…..and now it’s time for more work calls.

At 7.30pm I decide to head to the bar area, more comfortable than the dining room. I order another cosmopolitan and with seconds realize this is the real deal!! Unsure what I was drinking before….

It’s a hop, skip and a jump to the boarding gate where I’m cheeky and use my Qantas status to board. Thankfully no one says anything.

The lady next to me on the plane brings in McDonald’s - ummm ok.

Finally at 8.38pm we are informed we are ready to go. So much for the 8.25pm departure time.

8.44pm and we are still at the gate. Ooh my! If you have time to spare, fly by air is so so true.

8.48pm and the pilot announces there is air traffic flow over Sanya so we’ll be stuck here for another 20 minutes. Fun times…..

9.11pm and we are still at the gate - what a surprise!

9.13pm and we are off. Finally! Bangkok here I come!

30 minutes before landing the pilot announces its 30 degrees in Bangkok. Wowzers! It’s going to be a huge shock to the system after the 16 degrees in Hong Kong.

The heat hits me as I walk down the stairs at Bangkok airport. Something I haven’t felt for a while now.

I manage to sneak onto the business class passengers’ bus to the terminal, phew! Would have been another 10+ minutes waiting otherwise.

No line at the APEC area - best NZD 150 I’ve ever spent!

The rate I’m going I’ll be lucky to be at the hotel by 1am local time (2am HK time), will be a very short night as my plane to Male leaves at 9.15am tomorrow morning.

After what seems like forever I manage to get onto the WiFi and order a Grab, and of course it says it’s 10 minutes away. It’s 12.57am HK time, sleep is needed!!!

Thankfully traffic was quite light and my driver was an F1 driver; we were at the hotel in 35 minutes.

I climb into bed at 1am, my alarm is set to go off in 5.5 hours time. At least I can walk over the sky bridge tomorrow to the Dom Mueang airport. Time to sleep. 💤

My alarm goes off (on Friday 15 March) in what seems like a few minutes after I fall asleep. I’m definitely not ready to get out of bed and want to continue sleeping for hours, but alas no. Country number 58 (based on the Been app) is calling my name!

 

When I get to the lobby, the place is buzzing. I check my watch to make sure I’m not late. No, 7.10am it is. There are people everywhere.

It’s a very short walk over the sky bridge to the terminal. Super handy!

Check-in is very easy - the staff were all super helpful. As soon as I enter the immigration hall I spy the diplomatic / APEC line, yes thanks that’s for me.

There is no escaping the security lines, but thankfully it’s not too painful. I do have time too so no major issue anyway. The man in front of me provided light entertainment - he’s told to take his belt off, instead he takes off his trousers. Thankfully he had long pants underneath!  Ooh my.

Breakfast is Starbucks. I’m hoping the sandwich tastes better than it looks!!!

It’s surprisingly super tasty.

People watching at an airport is always fun, and even more so when all the flights are Air Asia. Such a huge variety of people.

I wait to the last minute to board - no need to rush when my bag will go under the seat in front of me. Plus I know it’s more comfortable here at the gate than it will be onboard.

As soon as the pilot announces we have completed boarding I’m like woo hoo, means no one in the middle seat.

We pushback from the gate 2 minutes early at 9.13am. I’m really hoping to get some sleep on this flight.

The 4.5 hour flight passes quickly - helps to have downloaded shows on Netflix to watch.

As we land into Malè I notice the blue blue water at the sea plane jetty’s.

We exit the plane via staircase - the heat hits me. Woo hoo. Doesn’t feel humid either which is great. We walk to the terminal - so nice have the sun on my back.

The terminal is bigger than I expected but wasn’t overly clear with the instructions. We got there in the end though. The lady immigration officer I had didn’t say one word, ok then.

Before walking through to the baggage carousel area all hand luggage had to go through a security scanner.

Having gained two hours I’m absolutely having another coffee when I get to my hotel.

I get help from a greeter to find my hotel greeter. Super friendly and helpful!

Wow the water colour!!

 

I notice as soon as I get into the taxi there are no seatbelts in the back seat. My driver ensures me it’s safe here and no one ever wears them. It’s very very strange when the first thing I always do once in a car is put my seatbelt on.

It’s a quick less than 10 minutes drive into Male where our hotel is for the night.

My driver tells me restaurants are all closed to 6.20pm due to Ramadan. Of course. As long as the hotel has coffee that is all I care about right now.

As my hotel is super close to the blue mosque, zero idea on the name, there are lot of people out on the street starting to head there for Friday prays.

I’m greeted with a cold towel and apple juice on arriving at the hotel. I’m told check-in isn’t to 2pm, my watch tells me it’s 12.20pm. No problem I say - I can wait. The lady immediately informs me that my room is ready. Great! I have a call in 40 minutes so will be good to be able to do that in my room.

I head up to the 9th floor for a late lunch. The views are amazing!

 

 

 

Mid afternoon I am starting to fade, including feeling like I’m swaying. While I could easily go to sleep I know it will be impossible to wake up. So instead I drag myself out for a walk. See Doors of Male for my door photos.

Walking along the shore front the sea remains the amazing blue! In pockets along the harbour there is rubbish, but even then I can see to the bottom as well as the fishes around. Wow!

I continue to wander, trying where possible to be in the shade.

 

As it gets closer to 5pm the number of people around increase tenfold. Time for me to head towards the hotel.

Sitting here in the park I’m surrounded by locals enjoying their early evening. People on their phones, children playing, groups both standing and sitting chit chatting and the constant hum of the motorbikes and cars behind me. The cool breeze helps to cool me down. Just wish it was more constant!

After a while the cool breeze becomes no more cool breeze and it becomes too much - time for me to go back to the hotel for a dose of a/c.

At 6.20pm reception calls me advising we are booked on the 12.10pm plane tomorrow - means a 10am taxi to the airport. Will be a sleep in for me!! I send Susan a message to let her know.

I head up to the restaurant after the sun has set for dinner. It’s doesn’t disappoint.

 

The roosters wake me at 5.40am on Saturday 16 March. I had previously heard the call to pray but managed to go back to sleep.

After packing up I decide I head out for a short walk around the streets. It’s so nice to have blue sky and sunshine after the bad weather in HK.

Walking out of the lift on the 9th floor the brightness hits me! With the sun blaring down there is no way I’ll be sitting by the window this time!  Susan arrives a few minutes later.

Check-out is relaxed but time consuming as people arrive to check-in, so the receptionist handles them. No worries, I’ll sit and relax.

It’s a quick trip to the airport where we locate counter B4 (as instructed). It’s a lot busier than what it was yesterday!

To say it’s a shit show at check-in is an understatement - now I completely understand why they say you need to be here 2 hours in advance. Because it takes forever to check in!! Our passports are taken off us at some point. We actually aren’t the ones to check-in, the hotel reps do it for us.

Finally we are done standing in this line, we are handed the luggage tags and are told to go and stand in the corner waiting for the others and our boarding passes and more importantly our passports.

We have around 25 minutes sitting in a lounge before being told we need to head to the boarding area. On arrival I’m happy we didn’t come straight here!

We are put onto buses to take us to the plane. We wait to the end before boarding - no need to be rushing to line up when there are so many people.

It’s ridiculously hot on the plane as the a/c isn’t on. WTF. This is soooooooo unpleasant.

Goodbye Male, see you very briefly in a week.