Maldives — Honeymooning done right!
A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage.
Let me pen down my experience. Rated U/A or PG-13 😉
Backstory
We got married in May ’21 (Lockdown Wedding) when COVID-19 was at its peak in Bengaluru.
Awaiting a long time for restrictions to get eased over international travel and some determination to travel during these mad times(COVID-19 Pandemic), we finally made the plan to travel to the Maldives.
About the Maldives
The Maldives are a group of 1200 small coral islands and sandbanks, grouped in clusters, or atolls. It’s the smallest country in the Asian Subcontinent, one of the smallest Muslim countries by land area, and the second least-populous country in Asia. Also, Male is the capital of the country.
Planning Mode
Once the destination was decided, we started calling up people who recently went to the Maldives, in order to get an idea of the budget, places to explore, and things to do.
After all the intelligence, it’s research time.
Checking out the resorts, looking for the different packages, and understanding everything we came across Coco Bodu Hithi.
There are three kinds of packages provided by the resort:-
1. Full Board - Includes all your meals
2. Coco Fusion All-Inclusive - Includes all meals along with soft beverages, water, house beer, and house wine only.
3. Full Range All-Inclusive with Hard Liquor - Includes everything present in full board and Coco Fusion along with Hard Liquor.
After a lot of debate, we finalized to go with the second option. Once you’ve decided on what kind of package you want to opt for, you can go to the second stage i.e. Selection of Villa.
There are four kinds of Villa present in the vicinity of the island:-
1. Island Villa (with/without private pool)
2. Water Villa (with/without private pool)
3. Escape Water Villa (with/without private pool)
4. Coco Residence
In the above choices, we chose Coco Residence.
Once, all the arrangements are done for our stay, we booked the flight.
Before the Trip
After making all the reservations, it was time to wait for the day.
Meals were all about water activities, food, and other activities which will be there and planning the day to cover all the activities which we could during our stay.
Myntra, Amazon orders were placed and were just waiting for the shipment to arrive, check, and keep/return/replace.
There were just a couple of things to do:-
1. RT-PCR Test (72 hours)
2. Imuga Form - Need to fill 24 hours before your flight.
After completion of all the formalities, we were all set to embark on our journey.
Day - 1 (First Half) = Arrival in the Maldives
We started our journey early in the morning, according to guidelines you need to be 3 hours before your flight, so we reached the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
We were done by Check-in Baggage + Immigration + Security within 30 minutes at the Airport (Achievement Unlocked).
Since we had lots of time to kill before the flight we went to explore the lounge. (Pro Tip: A couple of credit cards have their promotional offer running).
After belting the breakfast and getting my buzz on (Don’t judge, I am on a vacation), it was time to board the flight (Between you and me, I never felt that flight was going to the Maldives).
After 2 hours of a long flight, we finally reached our destination i.e. Velana International Airport at Male, Maldives. It took some time at immigration but once it was done we met our resort representative who was waiting outside the arrival gate, he helped us to get to our speedboat and we were on the way to our resort.
Day - 1 (Second Half) = Arrival at Coco Bodu Hithi
It takes 45 minutes from the airport via speedboat to reach the resort.
As soon as we reached the port, we saw people standing in the guard of honor with a couple of people playing Boduberu (Maldivian Drum) welcoming us to the resort.
We were assigned personnel who showed us around the resort and was helping with the check-in formalities. After which we went to our villa i.e. Coco Residence.
Since we were tired of traveling all day we just chilled at the pool, freshen up, and went around the property to explore white sand beaches, spa/gym/meditation center, water sports office, football, and tennis courts, etc. After a long walk, we had our dinner and crashed for the day.[Fun Fact: Male time is 30 minutes behind India.
(Ex- India 9:30 is Male 9:00), but on the island because of daylight saving they have the time set 30 minutes ahead of IST (Ex- India 9:30 is Island 10:00), everything on the resort work according to Island Timezone, not Male Timezone]
Day - 2 = Water Activities and Spa
It’s a new day in paradise, was up early at 7:00 am (Island Time) in the morning to watch the sunrise from the deck, and it was just mesmerizing.
After seeing a beautiful sunrise we had our breakfast and went to the water activities center to try our hands on the different water activities they cater to.
Started off with Snorkelling, Kayaking, Pedal Board and end it with the Jet Ski Ride, there are a couple of more things that you could try your hands on but it will require you to be a swimmer. You need to reserve the water activity time slot a day before.
A full afternoon of water activities is quite an exerting, so to remove some of the exertions we booked a spa appointment where a spa professional was from Bali, Indonesia. The spa room was absolutely soothing, calming, and fancy with the floor made up of glass so that you can see the corals and fish while you were getting your massage done.
Day - 3 = Valentine’s Day | Floating Breakfast | Scuba Diving | Sunset Cruise
It’s 14th Feb. ’22 and I wanted to surprise my valentine.
So, I woke up early in the morning to see the sunrise and was waiting for the room service for our floating breakfast. Eating in the pool overlooking the Indian Ocean was a mesmerizing experience.
After a filling breakfast, we went to hang out at the shack overlooking the white sand beach and waves, after which I did scuba diving, as my other half wasn’t able to join me.
I will recommend scuba to everybody, it’s the most peaceful place on the entire planet where you can just be with your thoughts and watch a whole different world, being underwater for an hour changed a part of me.
[Tip: If you’re doing it the first time try to go without the camera so that you could enjoy the beauty of it rather than just clicking photography & videography]
After an amazing underwater bath, we went to the residence to get ready for the sunset cruise.
Cruising right in the middle of nowhere, with champagne in hand and watching the sunset is a must-watch. There was a point at which you could see the sun on one side and the moon on the other which just makes you wonder about nature and its beauty.
After being taken aback by mother nature it was time to get some dinner, the staff was very courteous and handed over a rose to give to my valentine. (Happened with all guests I wasn’t the special one)
Day - 4 = Relaxation and Yoga
After two adventure-filled days, we kept the last day as relaxed as possible, waking up at 9 am(Island Time) and jumping out in the ocean from the deck was the activity I did.
After which we went to the shack, where we spend some time together and I got myself buzzed, after the good times we went to the yoga and meditation center to do yoga during the sunset. It was a different experience doing yoga where you can just hear the wave, which is just serene.
Day - 5 = Goodbye Coco Bodu Hithi | Bengaluru Arrival
It’s time to bid farewell to the resort, as our departure plane from paradise awaits us at 12:30 pm (Male Time) to leave.
We got up early, packed, and left the resort at 9 am (Island Time) to reach Male at 9 am (Male Time) as it takes 45 - 50 minutes. (That’s how much timezone is messing with you)
At 12:30 pm, we boarded the flight and say our goodbye to the Maldives.
Conclusion
While traveling back to India from the Maldives please make sure the following things are with you:-
1. RT-PCR Test (72 hours)- Resort people will do it and give you the test result.
2. Imuga Form - Need to fill 24 hours before your flight.
3. Air Suvidha Form - Need to fill 24 hours before your flight.
It was a great time I spend with my other half, where we knew each other emotionally and how the other person thought process worked which make the understanding between each other clear and helped in building a partnership that will go on for a long time.
