adventure – Hooked On Points

Dhigurah Island – fun in the sun, diving and relaxation

June 14, 2025June 14, 2025Tagged adventure, asia, beach, nature, travelLeave a comment

A far cry from the luxurious resort trips that are typical of the Maldives – no meet and greet at the airport, no seaplane transfer, no luxury dining, no butler. As mentioned in the intro, a friend organized group dive trips multiple times throughout the year. This included the hotel, daily meals, airport boat transfer, dives and excursions.

Once all the members of our group arrived through various flights, we jumped on the boat transfer to take us to Dhigurah island.

Very cozy with 3 and 3 seating arrangement. The crew were very particular about filling the seats from back to front in order to balance to boat.

After a 90 minute ride, we arrived at Dhigurah. Once bags were offloaded, the hotel crew collected everything and we were bused to the hotel.

Our ride. 😀

Definitely not in Kansas anymore … not that I’ve been to Kansas but you know what I mean.

Our hotel

Entrance

Lobby

A most welcome cold towel

Delicious mango drink

The room which was located in the Beach House building of the hotel – I was given the upgraded suite. 😀

Yes, very luxurious.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all buffet style. Usually there were 5 to 6 selections with breakfast always having the same items like roti, cold tuna, eggs, beans and sausage. For lunch and dinner, it was white rice, pasta in a white or red sauce, chicken or fish, a veggie and daal (lentils). There was also a salad, soup and bread station.

No alcohol but they did make fresh juices and had shisha selections. Fizzy drinks and ice cream were available at an extra charge.

Dining area

Sunrise at 6:15am

Sunset around 6:30pm

Walking around town – groups of us would usually do evening walks when the weather was pleasant

A local

Dive centre

With the exception of arrival and departure days, we had 2 dives everyday. We would set out at 8am and be back by 1:30pm. After that, we were left to do whatever we wanted. We did have one night dive and 2 excursions to two different sandbanks.

Dive boat

Dive briefing

Recovery time before the 2nd dive

Now you see me …

Now you dont …

One of our dive days was a long one and the hotel catered lunch for us.

Attempting to get a nice picture of the night sky after the night dive but failed miserably 😀

Dhigurah Island is the longest island in the Maldives. One half of the island is modernized while the rest of it is just jungle and a dirt road. The other side of the island has a long sandbar connected to it and this is where we went for our first excursion.

Travelling down the dusty road.

We were dropped at the end of the road after 20 minutes and walked through this path to get to the beach

After another 15 minutes of walking, we finally came to the sandbar. The island off in the distance is the LUX resort.

Looking back towards Dhigurah island

Enjoying an evening swim and the sunset

Walking back to the pickup point

Second excursion to another sandbar on our last night. The boat ride took around 20 minutes.

Tide was coming in and that was our queue to leave.

One last look

Beach BBQ on our last night

Last one breakfast before departure. Roti and tuna. 🤤

Sausage and cheese sammiches.

7:30am boat departure

See you in a few months – IYKYK wink wink.

Moxy Frankfurt Hotel and a few hours of exploring

June 3, 2025Tagged adventure, europe, frankfurt, germany, travelLeave a comment

Fairly busy on the S8/S9 train to the Moxy hotel which was one stop away.

The hotel was an easy 5 minute walk when exiting the Garden Gateway station and quite easy to follow Google Map instructions. I was not keen on sleeping or lounging airside in FRA and was not keen on dragging my backpack and roller around in the city. Spooled up the Dayuse app, found a bunch of hotels available and ultimately chose the Moxy since close to the airport and there was a 10am-6pm timeslot available. This was perfect as I landed shortly after 10am and my outbound flight was after 9pm. I debated making an actual reservation through the Marriot app but I decided against it as I was not sure if they would allow an early check in.

Check in process was fairly straightforward. Initially, the agent said “Sir, there is no room available at this time for early check in” but then I said I booked through Dayuse and voila!, a room became instantly available.

I asked the agent if its possible to add my Bonvoy number to the stay to get the EQN and she indicated that she can but didnt know if it would count. Well, happy to say that it did add the EQN when I checked my account the next day! 🙂

Solid room for a short 8 hour stay, dumped my stuff, quick shower and back out again.

Back on the S8/S9.

Got off at Konstablerwache and followed directions towards the old town. Was lucky that the sun was out as the weather forecast showing rainy days before and after I arrived but to be honest, does anyone really trust the weather people?

As I walked towards old town, I passed by Frankfurt Cathedral and decided to quickly pop in. There was a service happening, so just sat in a pew to enjoy the calm before heading off again.

I came, I saw, I conquered? … and kept walking. Came to the river, crossed the bridge, took some photos. I had a restaurant in mind to have lunch but then found out if was closed on Tuesdays (all of the bad luck) and then said “F it, I’m going back to the room to sleep”. 😀

More bad luck followed and the trains were delayed due to a fire at one of the stations but I eventually made it back to the room and had a few hours of nappy nap time.

Singapore Airlines First Class – New York to Frankfurt

May 30, 2025Tagged adventure, airline, blog, business-class, travelLeave a comment

Even with rush hour traffic on the Van Wyck, the ride to JFK took 30 minutes. I was 4 hours early but still able to check in.

An agent was able to help me at a different counter and checked my bag all the way to CGK.

The TSA pre check line took 15 minutes to get through but it was still much better compared to the regular TSA line. Once past, I had to kill time before entering any lounge as I could only enter 3 hours before departure.

First lounge – AMEX Centurion

Found the speak easy at the back and got a drink. After killing an hour or so, headed down to the VA lounge.

Yup, definitely not heading to the Air India lounge. 😀

Access to the VA lounge granted for SQ F passengers only and it was definitely better than the AMEX lounge.

Didnt take pics of the lounge itself but feel free to check the IG story link for a video walkthrough.

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODUxNDIzNzA3NDQwODg2?story_media_id=3612187795156072115&igsh=MW1wdDZlOGUya2sxcw==

It was empty in the lounge and one of the staff members came by and said I could have my pick of where I wanted to sit. She was very friendly and was nice having conversations with her about food and other things.

Nice view from where I was sitting.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54548052682_f7801894ed_c.jpg
Food menu

Lychee martini and jerk chicken wings. I did also try Roast Atlantic Salmon but it was overcooked and picked at it.

Bread and butter pudding as a sweet finale

An hour before departure, an announcement was made that boarding would begin soon and I headed down to the gate. As I arrived, boarding for F passengers just started.

Down the hatch

As I stepped on board, I was welcome by the ISM: “Mr JP, welcome back, you know the way” and pointed me towards my seat.

As I walked to my seat, I heard him call out to the LSS and indicate I was onboard: “Mr. JP from 1A is here”. The LSS and another male cabin crew came by to welcome me and introduce themselves.

The holiest of all seats – 1A

Since alcohol could not be served on the ground, I just went with water for PDB.

The flight continues from FRA to SIN after a 1.5 hour layover. The menu also includes selections for the FRA-SIN leg.

Shortly after, the LSS came by with PJs, an amenity kit and slippers.

Boarding was completed on time and pushback shortly thereafter. SQ’s boarding has always been consistent with starting on time and completing quickly.

The safety demo as we taxi-ed out.