nature – Hooked On Points

After an uneventful 40-osh minute ride, we pulled up to the front of the hotel. Staff were on hand and immediately handled luggage and I was escorted to the elevator that would take me to the 15th floor where check-in was located. I was handed off to the check-in staff who swiftly processed me through the formalities.

Exterior of the hotel

Entrance

Ground floor lobby

Elevators

Check in area

Welcome drink

Base category room

Welcome treat

Room with turn down service

Bed side screen

Lighting buttons

Bathroom area

As a welcome amenity, I had a choice of points or breakfast. Went with the latter.

Choices included a buffet or a la carte

Breakfast – chilli egg with dried shrimp chili paste, chicken floss and crispy bacon

Bakery section

Good mix of Western and Asian food options

Lots of seating

Exploring the rest of the hotel. Bar area behind the reception area.

View

Cracks on the window from the earthquake in April

Went up to the roof top pool for a quick visit to catch the sunset.

Explored the Ratchamdari area. Walked into one of the malls and go figure the first thing I see is a reminder of home. 😀

Just like how all North American fast food joints serve better quality food out of North America, the same applies for Tim Hortons. The selection of pastries and other sweet treats was way better compared to what we get back home.

Crossing over the street via the overpass walkway

Walked around the Central World mall. People were taking pictures of some boy band group.

Temple outside the mall

Small lunch at Mickey D’s – omg, the fried chicken was so good.

After 2 days, checked out for the long journey back home.

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.