Maldives & MSE - not your usual combination!

jtr2803

Thanks for the confirmation Choc! Must say though, over the last 6-8 months I have certainly started to feel my age . I need to develop a mans way of thinking, they all seem to be like Peter blinking Pan :rotfl:

Well, one is not amused. Went to Tesco tonight to pick up my Wii and despite the website and confirmation email saying I could collect it after 4pm, IT WASN'T THERE!!!! :mad:. The customer services lady said they seemed to be having some major delivery issues and it 'might' turn up tomorrow....needless to say I shall be having a whinge by email to Tesco!

The worst part wa that while I was there I did food shopping, again! I bought lots of fruit and veg, low fat yoghurt etc ready for the new year

WASHER

The title "Maldives" caught my eye. My OH and I went there in 2004 with Kuoni to the Full Moon island, it was fantastic, its a very romantic place, stepping out of your water bunglow into the Indian Ocean.

Are you going fully inclusive? It can be worthwhile cause it was very expensive to purchase food from the islands restaurants, the couple next to us spend a small fortune on drinks and food. (Top tip, if you are offered bottled water at meal times, then take it with you, we were fully inclusive and had available lots of alcoholic drinks for free but we just wanted water, which wasn't free/included).

The speedboat transfer was one of the highlights of the holiday, as was the night fishing (I caught lots, the OH caught none:D, the resort even cooked the fish and presented it the next evening for dinner).

If you go to the main land "Male" for shopping, make sure you are covered up, long cotton trousers, long sleeved top etc,and pay for a guide to escort you round, it cost us $20 for the afternoon, but very worthwhile, it can be a little daunting being in a place where there are no woman in the streets or markets, the guide was lovely, spoke excellent English, and took us to a gift shop type place where we offered cold drinks etc.

Are you stopping over in Dubai or heading straight to the Maldives, when we enquired with Kuoni, it wasn't much more to stay in Dubai for 3 nights.

Enjoy your holiday, you are very fortunate to have the opportunity to fullfill your dream, never mind about the proposal, your OH was probably caught off guard and didn't mean how he said it, men at times can be plonkers!

mummytogirls

Boo to the Wii not being there. Are you going to try again tomorrow?
Im not a fan of Tescos had many a run in with them :mad:!!! x

jtr2803

WASHER wrote: »

The title "Maldives" caught my eye. My OH and I went there in 2004 with Kuoni to the Full Moon island, it was fantastic, its a very romantic place, stepping out of your water bunglow into the Indian Ocean.

Are you going fully inclusive? It can be worthwhile cause it was very expensive to purchase food from the islands restaurants, the couple next to us spend a small fortune on drinks and food. (Top tip, if you are offered bottled water at meal times, then take it with you, we were fully inclusive and had available lots of alcoholic drinks for free but we just wanted water, which wasn't free/included).

The speedboat transfer was one of the highlights of the holiday, as was the night fishing (I caught lots, the OH caught none:D, the resort even cooked the fish and presented it the next evening for dinner).

If you go to the main land "Male" for shopping, make sure you are covered up, long cotton trousers, long sleeved top etc,and pay for a guide to escort you round, it cost us $20 for the afternoon, but very worthwhile, it can be a little daunting being in a place where there are no woman in the streets or markets, the guide was lovely, spoke excellent English, and took us to a gift shop type place where we offered cold drinks etc.

Are you stopping over in Dubai or heading straight to the Maldives, when we enquired with Kuoni, it wasn't much more to stay in Dubai for 3 nights.

Enjoy your holiday, you are very fortunate to have the opportunity to fullfill your dream, never mind about the proposal, your OH was probably caught off guard and didn't mean how he said it, men at times can be plonkers!

Hi Washer! Lucky you to have already been to what I think could be the most amazing place in the world! We are also booked through Kuoni but used an agent who undercuts them, I am a member of MSE after all . Unfortunately no water villa for us as it just would have been too expensive, we are going in what is classed as 'wet season' which helped cut the price down dramatically but obviously it is still a lot!

When I was looking at where to go, one of the pre-requisites was that the Island either was, or offered all inclusive, we are both quite big eaters and I didn't want to be mentally totting up my food and drink bill each meal time, that wouldn't have been a holiday! We are doing a speedboat transfer to the first Island where we are FB but with a free upgrade to AI for our first week and then we are going to the second island on a seaplane (which I am so excited about). We have a beach villa there and that's also AI and even includes the mini bar . It has just re-opened after a complete refurb and the first reviews back are that it is fantastic. Both islands have very good house reefs too which is very important to me as a fish lover so I am looking forward to doing a lot of snorkelling!

We are flying Emirates via Dubai but are only stopping off for a few hours. Neither of us can really do more than 2 weeks holiday in one go and we really wanted to do 2 different islands but we may incorporate Dubai if we ever go again .

mummytogirls wrote: »

Boo to the Wii not being there. Are you going to try again tomorrow?
Im not a fan of Tescos had many a run in with them :mad:!!! x

I normally find Tesco quite good but am quite disappointed , have already fired off an email to them! The lady did give me the direct desk phone number tomorrow so I can call and see if it has arrived. I hope it does!

x

WASHER

If you are going in the wet season, make sure you have mosquito spray/cream. They do spray the islands but once it rains the nippy bugg*rs can surface.

The only thing I was a bit surprised by in the Maldives was I couldn't loan an iron from reception, they insisted all clothes were laundered and ironed by the resort (quite expensive), so make sure you take a travel iron if you need one and an adaptor. (may be different on your island, but if you can fit an iron in, it may save you money...MSE:D).

The mini bar in the bungalow was also very expensive, be wary of helping yourself to a late night tipple.

I do hope you and your OH enjoy your holiday, its a place we are going back to after the children have flown the nest, its not really a holiday for children in my opinion.

I've subscribed to your thread, I want to know all the details once you return (well most of them:D).

WASHER.x.

Woowoo

Happy New Year Hun xxx

kavics17

Happy New Year J, hope you will have a good one!
xxx

jtr2803

I will make sure I take about a million pictures, that's probably not an exaggeration, I'm worse than a Japanese tourist (no offence intended to Japanese tourists btw). Have already decided to ask for money for my birthday in March as I have my eye on another underwater camera , that would then mean I have 3 :rotfl:. One rubbish one, one with housing in case I dive and the 3rd would do absolutely everything.....thats my resoning anyway!

Have been a busy bee....already done two workouts on my Wii Fit and resisted a bacon sarnie this morning even though it smelt *so* good!

And I have to admit to my latest stage of naughtiness, it hasn't cost anything yet but I am planning my 30th birthday holiday . It's March 2012 so a little way off yet but it doesn't hurt to look and make plans, all in the aim of budgeting of course . My first choice would have been to head back to the Maldives but as March is peak season it's just TOO expensive. For 2 weeks on a nice island it would be about £4.5k........I just couldn't commit to that after next years holiday! So......thinking caps on, discussion with OH leads us to........drum roll...


THAILAND! :T

It's somewhere we have both talked about going before and even though March is high season there too it is still miles cheaper than the Maldives. Already have OH's agreement in principle so have set about finding the best places to stay, how to get around etc. I might start up a scrapbook to keep me occupied. Current plan is to fly into Bangkok and do either 2 or 3 nights there, then head to Koh Samui (probably fly) and catch a ferry to Koh Tao for 3 nights, then ferry to neighbouring Island Koh Phangan for another 3 nights. The two Kohs have fantastic beaches, good snorkelling and aren't too 'touristy' like Phuket. Then over to Surat Thani to head to the Kaho Sok National Park where we will have a treehouse and go jungle trekking/elephant riding :cool:.

I found a lovely little resort in Koh Phangan with bungalows over looking the bay, the price is £10 per night :eek:, I think that would fit inside my budget :rotfl:. Wont do much else until after the Maldives but it's still a nice planning process!

jtr2803

And happy new year to you girls too, I hope 2011 bring you health, wealth and happiness - emphasis on the wealth part

Choc-addict

jtr2803 wrote: »

And happy new year to you girls too, I hope 2011 bring you health, wealth and happiness - emphasis on the wealth part

Happy new year to you lovely!!!

Great ideas re Thailand....it's an amazing place. My little sis travels a lot and has been their loads so I will grill her and give you any great tips etc....funny I always have pic in my head of her (she's tiny) loaded up with this huge backpack twice the size of her :rotfl:

It's sooooooo cheap (or as expensive as you want it to be) but I think to really experience it beach huts etc are the way forward

Happy planning

P.S - i'm jealous as would love to go there for the climbing....hmmm....perhaps my honeymoon???