Our Honeymoon In Maldives

Where people usually go for honeymoon, I recalled asking myself? I browse  Google plus communities page, see if anyone go to any exciting places for their honeymoon, check the suggested picture then I hopped to Trip Advisor, did the same and try to find where we can go for this important chapter of our life. My research took the entire day since we are not only looking for place which suited us but also one place that we can afford. Flight, location, activities, duration and cost all took into consideration.

I took pen and paper and starting jotting down all possibilities. Istanbul, Bora-Bora, Island in Greece and even France included. I am married to French guy, honeymoon in Europe doesn’t seem appealing to me since we at least going back to France once a year and took that opportunity to travel to nearby country.  So I have to erase Europe from my list. We discussed about my very short list of possible honeymoon location, my husband said Istanbul is far for one week trip and we need to wait for another few months for summer in Greece and Bora-Bora is way too expensive. My full day work being trashed in less than 5 minute of discussion, I was gag. 

Another round of brainstorming took place which this time including my husband and not only my own mind. Deep down we knew that we love island and beaches so much. We don’t mind getting sun burn, leaving as an outcast with no phone and internet connection for a week and absorb as much sun as we can.

So another list surface with Bora-Bora makes a comeback to an addition to Mauritius, Seychelles, Bora cay and Maldives. I wasn’t so excited about Bora cay because it’s near to Malaysia and we can always go anytime we want. We then focused to Mauritius, Seychelles and Maldives and once again Bora-Bora been erased from our list.

I was then I remembered that Airasia announced that they flew to Maldives but then getting upset that it’s suspended. Our research continue to the next day and its fruitless, all three places is expensive. Nico then told me to check Airasia again, at least check on the hotels deal and maybe there’s something that we can afford and then voila, we found it.

26^th May 2014, we finally flew to Maldives for a week and I can finally update my Facebook status that we go honeymoon after 8 months into marriage life. We flew to Maldives from Singapore and it took us 5 hours to reach there. I felt giddy when we saw a huge island in the middle of nowhere, with pristine blue water surround it and no monsoon seems to threaten our honeymoon plan.The view was simply amazing from inside our airplane. 

(Male airport) 

(Male city)

So far everything seems good until we were transported to Trans Maldivian terminal for our next 45 min flight to Medhufushi Island resort. We knew from start that we have to take either seaplane or boat transfer to any resort of our choice. I was so tired, excited and at the same time scared since I never took small plane before, not to mention a sea plane. I always scared of flying and pray that it won’t be as scary as taking big commercial plane.

 (Seaplane)

(Ready for boarding)

We were surprised to find out that taking off and landing with seaplane was not as scary as we thought or maybe we actually too excited seeing the amazing postcard perfect view from our window. 10 minutes after launching into the air, our eyes been feasted with more island with pristine blue water. We lost count on how many islands that we saw from both side of the window and 45 min trip was finally felt like 15.

I’ve been looking for Medhufushi Island Resort picture so many times and I was so happy to see the same view from above. We booked water villa room from Airasia and were so happy we found something that we can afford.

(Medhufushi Island Resort)

We were greeted by friendly staff and refreshing kiwi juice before they bring us around the island for introduction and send us to our room. The island was so clean with white sandy beach and pristine blue water, which is amazingly beautiful.

(Bar and restaurant which act as a reception area)

The first day when we arrived, we took our time and explore the island we staying. There entire island consist of water villa, honeymoon suite, beach villa, spa and restaurant, swimming pool, bar, library and staff quarters. We could take a swim directly from our own deck and we also got a room which is facing the sunset. It was amazingly beautiful.

 (room)

 (own deck)

 (swing)

We also took a walk to the other end of the island and were glad that we’ve been greeted by at least 3 small baby sharks. They swim so close to water line and we believe we could catch it if they weren’t swimming so fast.

 (seaplane landing)

 (Baby Shark)

 (Resort Staff)

 (Water Villa)

We dedicated our 5 days trip to Maldives to love each other and relax as much as we could. Our day to day activities was focusing in getting tanned, swimming, read, chasing baby shark, canoeing, snorkeling, trip to spa and star gazing. It’s amazing how quiet the island can be at night and looking at the star never been so appealing until Maldives.

 (Afternoon kayaking)

We really hope everybody can make a trip to Maldives before it’s disappear and see how beautiful it is. 5 days life without hand phone and internet was indeed a good choice and most relaxing trip we ever had.

Mabul Island

Island life, crystal clear water, cheap seafood, zillion star fish, memorable sunset and definitely gorgeous coral. That is what i can summarize about Mabul Island. The journey was unfortunately long, we took an hour car ride to LCCT airport, 3 hours flight to Tawau airport, another hour by car to Semporna and finally one hour boat ride to Mabul Island. Every minute was worth it after we arrived in Mabul Island and everybody was so excited to jump from chalet deck into the sea. 

We stay at http://scubajeffsipadan.com/ which is located in between so many other budget chalet in Mabul Island. What is good about this chalet is not only you can jump into the sea from it deck but you can also watch beautiful sunset from this side of the island. If you are a morning person, wake up between 6am to 7am and you will get a chance to see turtle which just under your deck every morning. We didn't see any because we woke up at 10. aahahahahha

(isnt that gorgeous?)

 (snorkeling right in front chalet)

 (they spend all afternoon in the water)

(waiting for our snorkeling trip)

Mabul and Sipadan Island famous for diving but if you are not a diver alternatively you can do snorkeling as we did. This is also the place where we all get excited for starfish, there are zillion of them, varies size and color all over the place.

We went snorkeling to 2 area, which is one near to Sipadan water bungalow and another one was called lobster wall. Since our waterproof camera have problem we didn't get a chance to take any underwater picture. Coral here was definitely gorgeous, lot of fish, you also can see eel and turtle if you lucky. 

Bajau laut kids like to come to this chalet, you can ask them to take you in their small boat around for as cheap as RM10. You have to negotiate with them for the price. These kids also like to ask you for money. If you see everyday life, RM1 to each kid already make them extremely happy. 

If you not here for diving, nothing much you can do except swimming and snorkeling. Alternatively, you also can pay a visit to Sea Gypsy Village which is accommodate bajau laut people. There's a lot of kids here and its fun to see how they go on their everyday life. Me and my girlfriend was so addicted to goreng pisang aka banana fritters here, first of all it was cheap, RM1 for 10 pieces and it was so good to eat after all those swim we did. Sadly, when you visit the village you can see rubbish everywhere. There's few villagers who try to have clean and nice environment but most of them simply didn't care. Plastic bag was everywhere and at some small beach there's even broken glass and bottles. 

 (they have fun jumping and i have fun taking picture, priceless)

(they don't have tablet to play games so they invent their own game)

 (kids clothes, seriously a lot of kids here :D )

(gov. should help and educate this people)

Sipadan water bungalow was at the other side of the island. We stay at scuba jeff so its mean we have to crossed the village to get there. It wasn't far, maybe 10 mins walk. If you not a guest at this resort, its not a problem, you still can come and visit for free. This resort built and surrounded by beautiful corals. Its nice that you can simply go down and already can find nice and unique sea creatures there. 

 (Observation deck view)

 (during low tide)

(Sipadan water village)

(small blue color fish)

Our vacation been blessed with a fresh seafood, right after bajau laut people back from fishing. They usually come to our chalet around 10am taking live crab, lobster and udang selipar(really dun know what this called in english) with them. We really regret for not taking blue lobster for RM180, when we went to Kota Kinabalu normal lobster already cost us RM200. Udang selipar however taste a bit like lobster and they sell it for RM10 each, RM20 in KK. We love crab so much and for 2 days during lunch we had crab. They sell crab RM20 for 6 nos. We then asked chalet cooker to cook for us and we simply love "ketam masak pedas" or crab in spicy sauce. 

(Bought it right from the boat)

 (otw to kitchen) 

(thats was udang selipar)

(masak pedas...nyummmmyyyy)

We are lucky to be able to see such gorgeous sunset on our second day in Mabul Island. Every body just sit by the deck, with drinks in hand and friends to hangout with and looking at the sun finish its duty for that day.  Mabul island is a place to relax, to forget everything and a place to have a humble life even for a short weekend.