Last semester was nerve-wracking… clinical cases deadlines, final defense of our thesis, final requirements for each subject, and my writing jobs in between school stuff. It was a very toxic semester which ended too late on April 25 and has left me a month of summer vacation.

Weeks have passed, and John was a bit busy and so am I in writing; plus, we attended a wedding in Balesin. Also, something happened which prevented us from planning a summer getaway. However, during the last week of May, I asked John if we can go back to Kahuna –our favorite resort in Pangasinan to unwind before resuming to a stressful trimester.

I was surprised when John told me he’d be booking a trip for us to Maldives. I wasn’t paying attention until he showed me that he really did book a 5-day trip and we’ll be leaving the NEXT DAY! We just selected a random, nice resort from hotels.com –Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort. Since we need to book a room ASAP, we haven’t done our research on what place to stay, how to get there, etc.; and were surprised that we must pay extra for a domestic flight since it was so far away from the main city.

Good thing we booked to Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort because it is the only resort island with its own domestic airport; so, we don’t need any seaplane or speedboat transfers. Some people on board with us needed a speedboat transfer of 30-45mins from Kooddoo domestic airport to go to their resort.

In the future, this is something people who plan to go there should search on properly because sometimes seaplane and speedboat transfers get canceled due to bad weather. During our scheduled domestic flight, a lot of seaplanes flights were canceled because of thunderstorms. And if you’re prone to seasickness, like me, you may opt for a resort that doesn’t need speedboat transfers because it tends to be a jerky ride!

It was a whole tiring day of travel going to Maldives.

1. 4-hour flight MNL – KUL (Manila to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
2. 6 hours layover at Kuala Lumpur Airport (super tagal! IKR!)
   

   

   
3. 4-hour flight KUL-MLE (Malaysia to Male, Maldives)
4. 2 hours layover at Male Airport (with free buffet)
   

   

   
5. 1 hour Male Airport to Kooddoo Domestic Airport
6. 2 mins Kooddoo Domestic Airport to Resort (by golf cart)

After a total of 19-22 hours of travel, we arrived in Mercure at 12:48 am (Maldivian time)!

Here’s a sneak peek of our Maldives’ home:

Bedroom

Bathroom

Yes, we wasted one day of our reservation because we were traveling the whole day. We should have opted for a cheaper hotel in Male for an overnight stay before flying to Mercure Kooddoo Resort, but it’s okay… we woke up to this amazing view the next day!

Our day 2 started off with breakfast photoshoots! LOL!

Actually, we woke up late and missed the breakfast buffet; so we went straight to Vistas for our lunch. There are 2 restaurants on Kooddoo island, Vistas and Alita’s. Vistas restaurant serves ala carte meals only while Alita’s has an option of buffet or ala carte menu. During our stay in Maldives, we ate alternately between the two.

VISTAS RESTAURANT

We ate our first and last meal in this island at Vistas. On our day 2, we woke up late, we weren’t able to have our breakfast at Alita’s, so we ate an early lunch at Vistas. Ala carte meals in Alita’s are served during buffet time only.

At Vistas, we met Chef Kewal and Nalin –who became our friends on this island. Chef Kewal prepares outstanding gourmet food! I, in particular, love the Crispy Chicken (crispy strips of chicken with veggies & bell pepper), Black Pepper Beef (noodles with beef and veggies, and the Kiev chicken!

(L) Crispy Chicken Strips with Veggies & Pepper; (R) Fish of the Day & Fries

Desert: Mango Sticky Rice with Ice Cream

(L) Black Pepper Beef Noodles; (R) Noodles with Shrimp & Scallops

Kiev Chicken with Fries

Crispy Chicken with Pepper

Breaded Fish Fillet

Nalin is very friendly. He helped us choose food to order and made us delicious drinks. He always makes sure we don’t leave Vistas with even the smallest space in our stomach. We enjoyed talking to him while playing pool as well. He’s very friendly, and we loved staying at Vistas.

ALITA’s RESTAURANT

Alita’s Restaurant is the island’s main restaurant. It is the location for breakfast buffet and offers lunch & dinner buffet too. During buffet times, you also have the option to order ala carte. But unlike in Vistas, you can only order snacks after buffet time.

The food in Alita’s is as scrumptious as that of Vistas. Steaks are always perfectly cooked! And the staff are very approachable and friendly.

http://www.accorhotels.com/9923

BREAKFAST IN ALITA’S

Lunch/Dinner at Alita’s

SWIMMING / SNORKELING

In between meals, we are either taking photos or swimming and snorkeling! Although during our first few days, we weren’t able to stay longer than an hour swimming in the sea due to big waves and thunderstorms. Good thing we have our own private pool at our villa! And luckily on our last 2 days, the water was so calm and so clear!

SCUBA DIVING EXPERIENCE

It’s my first time to dive, and I knew it would be really hard. We had short training with the dive master, Mohammed, the day before our dive and it’s a bit frustrating. I can’t breathe with the gear… I’m not comfortable breathing through the mouth… I’m used to breathing with my nose underwater as I do in swimming events.

On the day of the dive, I was excited and NERVOUS. But what made me felt more nervous is the big waves!!! Here comes SEA SICK. 🙁 Before I jumped, I felt the urge to vomit and felt really dizzy, but Mohammed said I’ll be fine underwater. During the dive, I was a bit okay and I enjoyed seeing different species of fish, turtle, and so much more. After the dive, I felt really sick and started vomiting. Thank you to the staff who make sure I was taken care of. I slept the whole day after the dive :(. The dive was okay, excluding the seasickness.

MASSAGE

And because I was feeling sick the whole day after our dive, John decided for us to have a massage. We just had a USD 315 worth of massage!!! 😏

SPECTACULAR SUNSET

The sunset was fiery with a mix of different colors: orange, pink, purple, yellow. Maldives’ sunset is really one of the best! No need to edit or put filters on the photos!

HOSPITABLE STAFF

The staff is extremely hospitable. Even if you’re walking around the island, the staff will say “hi” and smile at you. They always ask how was our stay and if they can help with anything.

Aside from Nalin of Vistas, we love HOODH. Hoodh is full of energy! He welcomed us upon our arrival with a lot of energy at 12:48. He also drives us from one point to another whenever we’re too lazy to walk around the island. I requested for a late checkout since our domestic flight is still at 5pm; and because the water was so calm that day, I wanted to swim one last time. Thanks to Hoodh for making sure my late checkout request will be processed and was approved!! Yay! Also, he was the one who assisted us at the checkout and drove us to the domestic airport.

ANYWHERE IS INSTAGRAMMABLE

We’ve got around 390-400+ photos of our Maldives trip which won’t fit on this blog! So I’m sharing a few great shots we had! 😉

Don’t forget your #bloggerjowa

Thank you to my fiance for all the amazing shots, from bringing the umbrella the to tripod! Presenting, the man behind all my Instagram photos. Hahaha!

It was an amazing 5 days in this paradise! Seriously, a place away from all the hustle and bustle of Manila life. I, for once, have been sharing these viral Maldives post and wishing to go there! And after a few years, I was in this paradise for 5 days with the person I love to travel every country with.

And now I’m ready to get stressed again! 😂 If you have any questions about our Maldives trip, let me know by commenting down or send me a DM in Instagram (@athleyyy).