A wonderful vacation after a hard year was just the thing! A little peace and serenity in one of the world's most paradisiacal place. To get out of the city and see a clear sky and the wide ocean. Not only the dawn and sunset were spectacular, also the night sky showed us that we’re only a small part of our nature. We had a spectacular starry sky – stars that you can no longer see in the city thanks to all the lights. But most of all I was thrilled by the full moon shining so brightly in the sky that it almost looked like the sun. And the sea reflects this as well. The ocean is also ideal for swimming and snorkeling. You want to relax your soul in peaceful togetherness? This is the perfect place!
We flew in December, in the middle of the German winter, with Condor. (TIP: Find another airline, even if this one offers a direct flight from Germany. The service of the ground and flight crew is between acceptable and very bad.)
Our mood improved as soon as we arrived in Male, when we saw how relaxed life can be. This is already recognizable at the airport, baggage handlers or even pilots wearing flip flops are unthinkable in Germany (where are the safety shoes??).
We changed to a small plane after 1-2 hours of transit, which brought us to our hotel island.
We chose Safari Island. Who doesn’t know it: Since the islands are usually small, an island makes out the hotel complex. We wanted to have a semi-water bungalow and therefore had already written to the hotel beforehand.
This went great, we got what we wanted, a semi-water bungalow (almost) at the very corner of the island. Usually, the first thing I did in the morning was to jump in the water to fully wake up. Also, the bungalow furniture have nothing to sneeze at: a coffee table with a view of the flowing water underneath, furniture made of rattan, a canopy bed with curtains against the mosquitoes and the window curtains are operated by the touch of a button. It’s wonderful to wake up in the morning and open the curtains while you are still in bed.
There is only one small drawback, however, which occurs in every tropical country: we had ants in the bathroom, sometimes it even looked like a whole colony. But since they were small ants, we just washed them away with water. And we don’t give negative points for this.
The terraces of the semi-water bungalows are shielded, which means you can lie on the deck chairs under the parasol completely relaxed and unobserved.
The facilities, service and food were excellent, we were completely satisfied.
There are 1 main restaurant and some bars, some of which also serve food. The main restaurant serves breakfast and dinner buffet. We found it interesting being assigned to a specific table with
its own waiter. Our waiter was not only accommodating, but also very humorous. The food was excellent! However, you must like fish and seafood, because the meat dishes aren’t quite as good. The
buffet is always varied with a wide selection. Asian food is also served since many Asian tourists spend their 2-3 days’ vacation there.
Next to the restaurant is an a-la-carte restaurant including bar, where we can recommend the fish and chips. You can really taste the freshness of the fish and the preparation is also great.
There we also tasted lobster, again a great culinary experience.
If you don't like a semi-water bungalow, you can also opt for a normal bungalow on the beach or a water bungalow. There is another bar at the water bungalows and the Spa house. As these were, from our place, on the other end of the island, we always had to pass all the beach bungalows, which would have disturbed us personally, because every passerby can look at the terrace.
This time we both went to the spa together. We booked a couple massage which included an aroma therapy bath for two and a full body massage. It was just heavenly relaxing. All over the island you can see only male staff, except for the spa area. This area is run by Thai women who usually move as a group on the island.
When you visit the Maldives, you find not only a very calm sea, but also white beaches with sand that almost reminds one of powdered sugar. The motto of this holiday was: QUIETNESS, therefore there were no water sports except snorkeling and kayaking.
A German couple has opened a diving school there, which also lends various equipment and kayaks.
Along the island you can explore the coral reefs and watch fish swarms flee synchronously when people swim too close. However, you shouldn’t move too far away from the island, because suddenly it goes downhill very steeply. While snorkeling, we felt the cold and light undertow of the deeper areas of the sea.
One can take a very good swim there, as there is almost no swell. However, you shouldn’t underestimate the stream, even very close to the island.
As a special treat, the hotel offers a boat trip with one of the traditional Maldivian ships beginning of a stay of 7 nights. Under deck the ships are equipped like a hotel room and the guests are cared for only by a captain and his assistant, which supports the romance. On the excursion we were looking for giant rays and our boatman a.k.a snorkel-guide accompanied us at our snorkeling trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the rays, it was the wrong time of year, but we had a visit from a baby-ray in front of our bungalow door the next morning :) But more on this below.
As you can read in our report from Istanbul, I am a true Galatasaray fan. That means I try to watch EVERY game, even on vacation. Which led to the fact that this time Jennifer went alone for the evening buffet. Here, however, it was shown that our waiter was worth gold. He was wondering that Jennifer came alone and asked for me. After receiving the info that I was watching football, he had to laugh, but offered a great service. Jennifer was able to put as much food on the plate as she could from the buffet, the waiter then packed everything, so she could carry it to the room safely. Not even the cutlery was missing. That's what we call service and flexibility, we were both thrilled.
We also thought about booking a nice romantic dinner on the beach, but my wife decided against it because it’s very windy and she didn’t want to risk any sand in the food. But we saw how the hotel had built a romantic dinner: a single table on the beach that stood in the middle of a sand-heart, it looked very pretty. So, this possibility is always open.
Marriage Proposal
Then came a little trip that I had started planning a year earlier to surprise Jennifer. Since I am very concerned about this issue, I will report it in more detail. From planning to implementation.
Planning: About 1 year and 2 months before, I decided to make Jennifer a marriage proposal. We understood each other splendidly, she was faithful to me through very difficult situations and stood by me during this time. I had already introduced her to my mother and knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her! I had already decided 2 years beforehand that I wanted to have a spectacular holiday that winter. I kept talking about the Maldives, Seychelles and Cancun. I am basically someone who doesn’t want to leave things that are important to him to chance. Since we had talked about merging our accounts, I decided to give my mother the money I would need later for the ring. I wanted to surprise Jennifer by all means necessary.
As it is my way, I did a long research before I finally decided on this variant of a marriage proposal. I played a lot of different variations in my head, but at some point, you must decide. So, I settled for Safari Island and the romantic lunch on a secluded sandbank, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, which is only surfacing during the low tide. In my head I played the scene over and over again and tried to calculate all eventualities by reading the travelogues of others too. I thought it would fit nicely into the picture when I was dressed completely in white, the only problem was that Jennifer usually wears dark clothes. So, I had to figure out something. Therefore, a discussion started about her needing white beach clothes. At first, she didn’t understand, only the argument that white clothes will look great on the pictures, with the sun and the white beaches, was able to convince her slowly. Next problem: to convince her of a white bikini. It was not until I showed her the white beach clothes that I had chosen online, when she realized that a black bikini underneath is probably not such a good idea. What a relief for me that she went looking for the bikini herself, which she can also use to swim carefreely.
The ring search was more difficult than I thought. I have my own taste, so of course I searched for the ring I had in my imagination. In a department store I have received an offer to make a ring according to my wishes, but that didn’t work out because the workshop hadn’t the templates available. On the Frankfurt Zeil and at the main station area I have visited jewelers again and again for weeks and let me show their offer, using the excuse that I would have to work longer or go to a control gear. Who seeks shall find, so, luckily, I did at Christ. Sometimes they also have Engagement-Rings-Offers. I had literally found the kind of ring I had imagined. It is a classic variant that is rather simple than extravagant but see for yourself.
All my close friends and family members knew what I was planning for the trip. The girlfriend of a buddy once made a dangerous comment, which Jennifer, however, didn’t really noticed at that moment.
Implementation: My little sister, accompanied by her husband brought us to the airport, in the end she couldn’t keep her tears, which I explained to Jennifer with my sister’s fear of flying.
Putting the ring in our hand luggage was easy. Since I always take care about the technical equipment during our trips, I placed the ring in a box which I hid behind a Bluetooth box. The only tricky time was when we went through the hand luggage check and I saw Jennifer watching attentively the monitor on which our baggage was just being screened. So, a distraction had to be made: pointing to something in the distance with a long-stretched arm, I asked "What is that?". Mission completed, she was confused, but distracted.
As mentioned above, for a 7-night stay the hotel offers a boat-trip with a stop on a secluded sandbank. The crew then prepares a small snack on the sandbank, in the middle of the ocean. After the ship took sail, I went to the captain and told him what I had planned to do and asked him to shoot as many pictures as possible. For our captain and his assistant, of course, we weren’t the first tourists on board with a marriage proposal in their pocket. So, they were both informed and extremely nice, humorous and very accommodating.
On my phone I had loaded some romantic songs to hide my proposal song (When a Man Loves a Woman). When we sat at the table, Jennifer wanted to start eating right away since she was very hungry. But the captain and his assistant stood there with the camera and waited for us to pose for the pictures. So, I let him take some normal photos while I tried to connect the phone to the Bluetooth box. Finally connected, I turned on the song while Jennifer was just wondering why I absolutely must play a song for a photo, "You won't see it in the picture anyway!" – an argument which was more than inconvenient at the time. When the song slowly began, I asked Jennifer to put the box on a vacant area in front of her so that she would definitely notice the song. While she was busy with the music box, I picked up the box with the ring in it from my bum bag. I got up to go around the table. Jennifer, who at that moment only thought about eating, and finally wanted to start, changed the song while carelessly handling the box. When I went down on a painful knee fall, which of course I didn’t let myself to show (!) and pulled out the ring, Jennifer didn’t really understand what was happening. With a text, that actually matched the lyrics of "When a Man Loves a Woman", I asked Jennifer to marry me!
I really didn’t see that answer coming: with tears in her eyes, bright red cheeks and a trembling voice, she just brought out an "uh-huh". I didn’t want to spoil the mood with a sarcastic comment and simply took it as a "yes". Still, I tease her with it ever since 😊
The scenery was perfect, just as you can see it on the pictures of the hotel’s website. When we look at the photos, we can hardly believe that we’ve really experienced it. Even within my family, I wasn’t allowed to show the pictures freely, because the men suspected trouble with their wives. Besides that, it also showed that we are simply not a normal couple. The one plans and organizes, the other has no clue and in the end, there wasn’t even a decent "yes". As it is so beautifully said in a movie: her crazy matches my crazy. In the end, I am very satisfied with my proposal, because I was able to cover everything that was important to me.
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