Maldives Part 1: Beach Bungalow

At the Conrad Lounge

We caught an early morning flight to Male, the capital of Maldives. When you exit customs, there are a million resorts holding up signs with the name of the resort on it so you can find yours. We located our Conrad representative and he checked our names off on his list then took us to the seaplane check in desk to weigh all of our bags to make sure we were not over our allotted weight. After our bags were checked and our carry on tagged, he put us in a van that took us to the Conrad Lounge where they served some light snacks, drinks, and made Natalie a cappuccino. Once all the people on our seaplane flight had arrived, they took us to the seaplane boarding area and soon we were getting onto our seaplane.

cappuccino at the Conrad Lounge at the airport

Seaplanes lined up

Seaplane pilots preparing to rake off

I have only been in a seaplane once before so I found it quite interesting. We had two pilots up front plus a steward at the back who hops in and out the back door to hook and unhook the plane from the dock. Since the planes have two long pontoons they use to “sit” on the water, he can stand on these as the plane pulls away from the dock before hopping back into the plane. The plane seated 15 passengers, but there were only 10 of us. The view out the window was fascinating. Maldives is made up of several circles in the water. Some of these circles have sandy islands along part of their circle (see pics). They say there are 1200 islands in the Maldives with 280 resorts and 190 that the locals live on so most of the islands are uninhabited.

Boarding our seaplane

In the seaplane

rings in the ocean in Maldives

more circles in Maldives

Landing at Rangali Island

Arriving at Conrad Rangali

View from near the lobby

Our host Masyh greeted us
with coconut drinks

When we landed at Conrad Rangali Island, we were greeted with a coconut drink by our personal host for the week, Masyh. He would handle any reservations or requests that we have, including having a golf cart come pick us up to take us to different parts of the resort (it is a very long way along the bridge between the two islands). Our room was ready so Masyh took us to our beach bungalow and showed us where everything was and how to operate the air conditioner (which turns off automatically when the sliding glass doors are opened) and the remote to close the blinds to the outside beach area and between the bathroom and living area. The place was incredible!

Me drinking me Coconut Welcome Drink

champagne and treats for me as
a diamond member. I love Hilton!

The bedroom was huge with raised ceilings and a small bar, TV, and couch. Natalie’s bed was set up for her on the larger couch with curtains around the area for privacy. The bathroom was indoor/outdoor with the sinks and toilet inside and a large outdoor shower area and giant covered tub. At first you might think an outdoor shower was a negative, but I really liked it. It was completely private, there were no bugs around, and it was always warm outside but never uncomfortably hot. It was also super convenient for rinsing off our snorkeling gear. The other side of the bungalow had a large porch area with a private path leading to the beach where the house reef was.

Greeting spelled out on our bed

wall separating the bedroom area from the bathroom sinks

The bar and tv area

The couch area which has drapes around it and view into the indoor outdoor bathroom area

Toilet area

Our outdoor shower and bath

Our first bungalow which was beachfront with a private pathway to the beach

panorama of the bathroom at our beach bungalow

The bread they served were
wonderful little buns pepper,
mint, red bean, and plain with a
delicious passionfruit sauce

That night for dinner we went to Ufaa, which is their Chinese restaurant and the least expensive of the restaurants with most entrees ranging from $35-$50. They seated us on the beach with a beautiful view of the ocean and two restaurants, the overwater restaurant and Ithaa the Maldives first underwater restaurant. For bread they served us four delicious Chinese buns that did not have filling but were flavored: one pepper, one mint, one red bean, and one plain. They were accompanied by a wonderful passionfruit dipping sauce. We asked for water and when the large bottle of Voss water came I suspected it was going to be expensive and joked that I was taking a picture of my $15 bottle of water, which ended up being exactly what it was…actually with the 12% tax and 10% service charge it was over $18! We ordered the shrimp, scallop, squid stir fry dish for $41 and the seafood fried rice for $29. They were both excellent especially the stir fry.

My $15 bottle of water

Excellent dinner of shrimp scallop squid dish and seafood fried rice

Ufaa Chinese restaurant where we ate dinner on the beach

View from our table of
the overwater restaurant

Afterwards we walked over to look at the reef sharks at the overwater restaurant. A family was also there peering into the water and thus we met our first friends. It turns out they are also from California! Monique used to work in the East Bay and is here celebrating her 62nd birthday. Her son is married to Adrianna and they are also here with their two children who love hanging out with grandma! They told us about the boat that goes from main lobby on main island to the other island (it is a looong walk between islands). The main island we were on is where the house reef is and where the better breakfast buffet is. The other island is where the canapes and cocktail hour is for diamond members and where we would be staying in an overwater bungalow in a couple days (yay!)

View of the other island across the water

The next morning was our first time at the buffet breakfast at the Atoll Market. This is the very best buffet I have eaten at. There was an egg and omelet station that we tried the first day, but the other food there was so good that we never went back to it! Next to the egg station was a large bread section and I got a tortilla the first day and again never went back. There was an American hot food area, a dim sum area, an Asian hot food area, and a noodle/congee area. There was also a whole waffle and pancake area that had 5 different types of honey, a few different syrups, and a ton of different jams. At the end was a coffee bar where they made great coffees. Natalie got her daily cappuccino there.

Egg station with bread station behind

Dim sum section with waffle and pancake section to the left that had 5 different honeys, plus many jams and syrups

That leads me to the star of the buffet for me…the fresh fruit and juice room. They had a variety of wonderful fresh fruits, outstanding juices, and also yogurts, cheeses, and on the other side were salad options with cold cuts and lox. When you walk in, they have a table with four freshly squeezed juices plus a spread of fruits and veggies that you can choose from to have them squeeze (though I did not see carrots).

The outstanding fruit, juice, cheese and yogurt room

yougurts cheeses fruit and some tapioca like items

My first breakfast at the buffet which was a little
ambitious and I could not quite finish it

The first day I also got some hash browns, some grilled steak, a roasted tomato, seafood dim sum, seafood fried rice, fresh mango juice and fresh orange juice. For “dessert” I got watermelon, passionfruit, brie, passionfruit yogurt, and chia seed pudding (see pic). Once I discovered the amazing fresh squeezed orange juice, that was my daily go-to. Hilton Gold and Diamond members still get free breakfast at international locations (they temporarily/permanently? stopped in the US) and this is probably my favorite perk. We had a table on the beach with a great view of the ocean. While there, we met Marilyn, a super friendly outgoing woman from Singapore who is a calligraphy artist. She has done quite a bit of commercial work including an ad for Mont Blanc pens (see pic below). She and her husband Jas lived in DC for a few years, but recently moved back to Singapore.

Example of Marilyns calligraphy and writing. This one is for a Montblanc ad

cocktails and snacks

After breakfast we got two pairs of fins from the dive shop and went snorkeling at the house reef, which was just behind our bungalow. We saw tons of pretty fish. At 4pm we got a ride on a golf cart across to the other island to the Vilu Bar and Restaurant for the free “canapes and cocktails” for Hilton Gold members. We got to choose a cocktail or mocktail and they served each of us 3 canapes that helped tide us over until dinnertime. Here we saw Marilyn and Jas again and also saw Adrianna and her husband. It’s a good place to meet other people and learn the “lay of the land.” For dinner, we stayed in and ate the cup of noodles and other food we had brought from India. After amazing $6 meals in Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka it seemed indecent to spend $75 every night on dinner so instead, two nights we ate some really good instant noodle cups that cost just over $1 each.

Breakfast day 2

The next day we were moving across the water to our overwater bungalow. Our host Masyh would be coming to pick us up at noon to take us over. Everyone I had met were doing the morning “Intro to meditation and yoga” so I signed up for that at 11 and Masyh said he would pick me up on the way. Natalie and I got packed (loosely since we were just moving over we just needed everything in bags and easily movable) and went to breakfast. It was again incredible! The hot food options were mostly different, so I tried a couple new things including some asian greens that were delicious! Also surprisingly good was the Thai chicken meatball

hot entrees at buffet

Marilyn and JS from Singapore and
sometimes Washington DC

Afterwards we stopped to talk to Marilyn and Jas and before we knew it, it was time to go to the meditation. I rushed back to the room then caught a golf cart over, but that took awhile, then the golf cart guy took me to the meditation location, a nice quiet gazebo. No one was there. I explained that it was supposed to be at the over water spa and he called someone to confirm it had moved, then took me over there. So now I’m about 20 minutes late and rushing down this walkway over the water to the spa, which is picture perfect so I have to stop and take a photo. When I got there, the instructor was a bit upset that I was coming in late, but there was nothing I could do about it so I just rolled with it. I did take a couple selfies first though. It was fun and relaxing. Afterwards we all took a picture together on the deck outside

Me late to class and still taking selfies

Intro to yoga and meditation class over the water

Inside the intro to yoga and meditation class

All of us after mediation yoga intro