Our magical journey begins on a 30 minutes speadboat ride. It was trilling and yet altogether mysterious at the same time. Lights from the fishing boat and many islands of Maldives dot the Indian ocean! A walk on the jetty flanked by clear waters and schools of little fish led to the island. No words can express the magical feeling of stepping onto the soft and white powdery sand - My holiday has started! I’m miles away from the hectic city life in Shanghai, I’m on this idyllic island!

Maldives, known as “the last paradise on earth”, with palm trees swaying, pristine white beaches and their brilliant lagoons all in an unspoiled tropical island. For beach resort, no place on earth can compare to Maldives… too bad her life cycle will last another 100 years!

We were greated by a team of friendly Club Med staffs who served us refreshing towels and ice tea with a traditional Maldivian music performance. Club med is a garden island emerging from the Indian Ocean. A village just breaking the surface of the water alongside a white sandy beach. This heavenly island resort is an unforgetable destination for romantic honeymoon and diving fanatics!

Happy honeymooning…

We are now transiting in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and enjoying our honeymoon cake that was provided by Malaysia Airline. It was a pleasant surprise for us when the air stewardess presented us with the cake.

After our inflight meal, one of the stewardess suddenly approach us:

S: Are you just married?
Us: … ermm, yes… (what’s going on?)
S: We got a honeymoon cake for you, do you want to have it now or take away?
Us: ???… we’ll have it now…
S: Ok…
S: Would you like some Champaign as well?
Us: Yes please!

3 minutes later….

One stewardess bought 2 cup of Champaign, some plates n spoons. A second stewardess bought the box of  cake. We are actually just expecting 2 small pieces of cakes.

The cake was simple but we were pleasantly surprise by this little arrangement. It must have been one of our best moment in-flight. The cake was pretty huge and we couldn’t possibly finish it. We are still wondering what to do with the leftover cake…

Perhaps there will be more surprise at ClubMed Maldives?? LOL…

Sometimes, it takes me ages to make my decision especially when I have to choose from a whole heap of goodies. I can take a very long time to decide what I want. I will consider all the pros and cons, consider the consequences for each choice, think and rethink. Sometimes, Ron will get frustrated and ask “WHY CAN’T YOU HAVE BOTH…” But now, we can’t have both destinations for our honeymoon planning.

Egypt, New Zealand and Moscow… We finally decided to go to Egypt and Turkey for our honeymoon. The great Pyramids of Giza would have been a great spectacle and we could imagine ourselves enjoying the beautiful night scene from the decks of a cruise on the River Nile. We were full of anticipation and counting down to the departure date.

Then the travel agency recommended Mauritius. According to them, Mauritius was a relatively new route and customers who have been there were full of praise. We looked at the brochure and were captivated by the undersea walk and sailing on the catamaran. Torn between these 2 destinations, we debated the pros and cons. Finally, it seemed that Mauritius was a more suitable place for our Honeymoon. However, it really bugged me to hear that the package was only available in Oct. Feeling disappointed as my family will be visiting me in China, we told the agency to book our tour to Egypt and Turkey.

We looked at the itinerary and did some research on the keys sights hoping that it will enable us to appreciate the wisdom of ancient Egyptians. 2 weeks before leaving, the agency called us up to inform us that the trip was cancelled. Apparently 8 people had backed out at the same time. The rest was not enough to form a tour group. It was such a huge let down! We considered the options available to us given the short notice and choose to go with the sun, sand and sea of Maldives!! It was as if fate was guiding us to beautiful Maldives. What better way to have our honeymoon relaxing in the shade, looking out at the clear blue sea and feeling the sea breeze through our hair.

A week before our trip, which is 3 days before, the agency called up and said they miscalculated the package amount. As we will be staying at the water suite, we needed to pay additional RMB2,000 per person. As there wasn’t much time to change destinations, we decided to go ahead and book anyway. However, we did some checking ourselves and found that they really did miscalculated. Perhaps the tour agency should be more careful in the future with what they quote!

Maldives… HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!