Why the Maldives again?

Above: My ride from the airport to Male on the dhoni.

Travel begins in earnest

It was a very quick 5 night but 4 full days in Kuching.  The time was spent sorting some land title issues, seeing family and going to the gym everyday!

Today my travel begins in earnest, flying from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur and onwards to Male in the Maldives.

This trip could be considered a holiday, more so than some of my other adventure-filled ones.  It consists Maldives, Mindanao and Taiwan, split somewhat evenly between them.

Why Maldives (and the strange itinerary) again?

It came about from having earned Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer miles during the pandemic when I had to fly with them.  They expire next year but I already had to come to Asia anyway to use up a staff ticket that was expiring, so now’s a good time to use them up too!

Their programme disadvantages people doing roundtrips from Singapore, eg. Singapore – Maldives (or the Subcontinent) return, or Singapore – Davao (or South East Asia) return.  That would require 20,000 x 2 points whereas a flight from the Subcontinent to Singapore to South East Asia would only cost 20,000 points (and be subjected to lower airport taxes).

So, I chose to fly from Male to Singapore to Davao.  That would require me to get from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur to Male today, on AirAsia.  This isn’t a route they discount heavily but it was still reasonable.  It wasn’t quite throwing good money after bad.

Besides, both Maldives and Mindanao are good in April in terms of their season.  Fingers crossed, as weather is not always predictable. The former is heavenly beautiful and worth repeating.  The latter will be a new experience.

Flying to Male

I got to Kuching airport about 2.5h before my 1445 departure to Kuala Lumpur.  I ran into a friend David who lives in Kota Kinabalu, part of his family and a pilot friend.  Chengbeng (Chinese Tomb Sweeping Festival) is a good time to see the Kuching diaspora back in town.

My inbound aircraft arrived about 10 mins late.  The crew-in-charge was still vaccuming as I got to the aircraft for boarding.  We ended up being about 30 mins late by the time we landed in Kuala Lumpur.

With a scheduled 2h35 min between flights, I was still good.  It took me 15 mins of walking to get from my domestic gate to my international gate with no queueing at immigration and security.

My gate was next to a new lounge available to me on my Priority Pass card.  In fact, it wasn’t even in the directory yet.  Together with the one in Kuching, which had just made it into the directory, I had two pleasant surprises with lounge access today.  It’s a pity though that I had ordered meals for both flights in anticipation of not having lounges or perhaps time to find food.

The AirAsia A320neo departing for Male at 1955 was pretty full flight.  All the hot food was sold out to the first half of the plane, with even instant noodles and filled buns sold out too by the time the trolley got to me in Row 18.  Just as well I had pre-ordered my meal.

Arrival in Male

Our aircraft landed on time at 2015 and was parked close enough to walk into the terminal building.  Immigration took about 15 mins despite the queues.

Once landside, I was surprised there were no queues for the two ATMs that I had found.  It probably reflects the all-inclusive nature of many passengers.  Another giveaway is the rows and rows of welcome counters for various tour companies and resorts.

There was hardly a wait to get on the dhoni (boat) to the city for MVR10 (about NZD/SGD1).  Departing at 2100, we got in about 8 mins later.  It was another 8 mins or so walk to the Tour Inn.

The Bangladeshi staff were lovely and gave me a late check-out for 1300 tomorrow when I told them I expected to take the 1500 ferry to Gulhi.

The room was very nice and they had cooled it down for me in advance with the air-con.  However, the bedding was still warm from having been locked up for a few days, perhaps.