I think I am mostly a frugal person.
I rarely spend money on things that I don't use or need.
I don't have to have brand name stuffs and I don't need to have the newest iphone (I don't even own a tablet). However, when it comes to travel, I am willing to spoil myself a little.
But I have never thought that I could go to my top 2 dream destinations on my long list in one trip!
This is how it all started...
Thus I started planning for this big trip, and all still seemed so unreal.
While looking for flights, we found out that there was no direct flights from Los Angeles to Maldives, and one of the connecting city was Dubai. My husband Andy suggested: Why not visit Dubai as well? We can transfer our flights there and stay for 2-3 days.
At that moment I was both excited and worrying that the expenses would go over our budget. After carefully considering this option, it is a reasonable course of action, since it'd be like spending the same amount of money on flights but we get to go to 2 places.
So it's decided! We booked our flights directly on Emirates Airline, and will be staying in Maldives for 8 nights and on our return trip, 3 nights in Dubai.
Let's familiarize with Maldives a little:
Maldives,officially the Republic of Maldives; also known as the The Maldives, is a sovereign island country and archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is located southwest of India and Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea. The chain of twenty six atolls stretches from Minicoy Island to the Chagos Archipelago. The capital and largest city is Malé, traditionally called the "King's Island". [source: Wikipedia]
There are approximately 1200 islands, and amongst the 200 islands that people live on, 106 are resort islands. Vacationing in Maldives is so easy, since all the resorts own their own islands, all you need to do is picking out the one that fits the budget. Or of course you can also choose to stay at a hotel or B&B on one of the local resident islands.
Kurumba Maldives -
This was the resort and island that we picked, with a shape of an egg lol.
Transportation from the airport to the island was hassle-free, because everything is basically arranged by the resort. Most places were reachable via speedboats, some others could get fancy and take you there on a small water plane. Oh yeah, I said "hassle-free" but these services didn't come free, they were not included in the room rate and require extra fees. Therefore most travelers just stay on one island the entire trip, unless they are willing to spend more money and time.
So in my next post I would share with you the overall look and feel of this resort and its facilities
In the next posts that follow, let's check out our rooms.
Yes I said rooms haha. We took advantage of the promotions at the time of making the reservation and booked a standard room for the first 4 nights, and upgraded ourselves to a more luxurious room type.
Unless you own a private charter, and can drive to anywhere else at will, my suggestion is to have all meals on the island. Only breakfast was included in the room rate, all other meals and drinks were extra spending but they do offer different tiers of meal plan. On Kurumba there were quite a few dining choices, and food was actually pretty good, I will show you each restaurants that we went to and how we saved some money on food.
Here is another reason why I said that vacationing here was so easy:
No need to spend time on what to do, there were different activities everyday, as you may have already guessed, most of them were not free...
Our first activity was sailing with dolphins, that was the first time I ever got so close to wild dolphin! 100x better than the trained dolphin show at Sea World. BTW I don't remember when's the last time I was there and definitely not going back...
Second one was picnic on a sandbank
The sandbank was absolutely beautiful! Being there was like being in heaven...
As heavenly as this place could be, there still lay hidden dangers, we had experienced something very scary that would never be forgotten. I will share that horror story with you later.
Wondering what kind of clothing to bring if you go there in the month of May?
I will also show you what worked for me :)
Maldives is an Islamic country, travelers should be respectful of their religion.
No drinking alcohol outside the resort area, and no nudity.
After leaving Maldives and arriving in Dubai, I will take you straight to a nearby desert resort, not the city. I spent nearly one month to plan our 3 days in Dubai. Because it's such a long flight there, I felt that it would be very unlikely to visit there again, just picking hotels alone took me a lot of time.
Bab Al Shams - I decided to stay 1 night at this desert resort to fulfill my imagination for a magical Arabian night haha!
Dinner buffet was awesome!
This was the resort's signature dinner show.
All those food and performances were surely something to remember this magical night by.
It's like attending a king's feast, also I had some brief moments of embarrassment, want to know what happened? Please wait for my posts:P
The rest 2 nights at Dubai we stayed at Raffles Dubai
I definitely would recommend this hotel, both room and service were top-notch.
Shopping centers are big in Dubai, ever want to skii in a mall?
Dubai Mall - the world's largest shopping mall.
We went to the aquarium and that was totally worth the time and money.
All these will be shared in my future posts.
We almost lost our sense of time inside this aquarium, were almost late for our next stop...
which was going to world's tallest building - Burj Khalifa
Oh yeah there was also a huge musical fountain just outside of the Dubai mall, it's bigger than the one in Las Vegas
An reservation had long been made at the AT.MOSPHERE lounge on top of the tower.
Sipping on tasty cocktails and watching the sunset.
Third day, the day that I had been looking forward to the most, was the day that we set foot in this iconic ship hotel - Burj Al Arab!
We went up to the 27th floor Skyview Bar for afternoon tea.
(Reservation was also made 1 month in advance)
Expensive but IMO worth it.
All those will come in my future posts so please bookmark my blog and check back!
Lastly let's talk about a few things to take notice if you are traveling to Dubai for the first time.
Duer bai - the financial centin the Middle Eastern area,
It's the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates that make up the country. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature. [Source: Wikipedia]
If time allows, I would totally consider spend a day or 2 to visit Abu Dhabi.
This is where I book hotel rooms
Syb's Blah:
www.facebook.com/Sybsblah
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