A lot of people will think why I’m doing this right now, but please let me write this for my memories. So, I am going to write about my 2019 Summer vacation. My family always goes on summer vacation for about a week every year. Because of COVID-19, we haven’t had a chance in 2020 and 2021 to travel, so I would like to travel somewhere this year. To start we went to the Maldives and Thailand in 2019. This week I’m going to share with you the first half of the trip to the Maldives.
Decision-making
Firstly, I’m going to introduce you to how we decide on where we’re going. We start in the springtime during dinner on the weekends, talking about where we would like to go that year. When we go is dependent on my father’s job, so after the date is decided we start really discussing where we want to go. Usually, it is me and my mom saying dream destinations and we decide from there. However, recently I have been able to go where I wanted to and this time too since I was the one who wanted to go to the Maldives. Then my father decided to add Thailand to it and that is how 2019 was decided. We go to various places so we try not to go on the same kind of vacation two years in a row. By the way, 2018 was Kenya and Dubai and 2017 was Paris and Rome.
The Schedule
This trip was from the 20th to the 29th of July in 2019. And the 20th to the 24th was the time in the Maldives. The hotel we stayed at was the “Conrad Maldives Rangali Island” but I have no idea why this hotel was chosen since my dad chose it. However, I will recommend it to many people and I was so satisfied with my stay. I just strongly insisted on staying in a water villa and my request went through. We normally have a list of restaurants and activities to do before leaving Japan, but this time there was none for the Maldives. This is a feature of the Maldives but everything is completed in the hotel, so even if you don’t have any plans you will still get the full experience. It turned out that we had a trip full of activities.
Flight
I’m not going as deep as I did in my Japanese blog here since it was a flight from Japan to the Maldives. There are a few different places where you can transfer to get to the Maldives from Tokyo but we decided on Bangkok because we were going to stay there afterward. We went out via Haneda Airport at 0:40 on the 20th and landed in Bangkok at 5:00. From there we took another flight to the capital of Maldives but I totally don’t remember. From there it is totally different regarding the hotel you are going to stay at. For Conrad, there was a waiting area for the sea airplane and it was very comfortable. I think a lot of people will get car sick on the sea airplane, so I think you should be ready for it. I got car sick because of the smell of gasoline.
First Day (7/20)
The first day was very long due to the time difference and the time of the flight. If you are someone that can sleep on the plane, I don’t think you will get jet-lagged. I think we checked in at the hotel and came to our room at around 14:00. During the check-in, we were told that the hotel had closed one of the two islands due to the number of guests. We got an upgrade due to that since we were supposed to be staying on the other island. After we unpacked and settled down in the room, we went out for a walk around the island before dinner. During that time we went to the activity center and booked some activities.
Second Day (7/21)
We got up pretty late on the second morning and went out for breakfast and went around the island thoroughly. The characteristic of Maldives hotels is that the hotel is on the whole island and you are allowed to go anywhere you want. The water was so clear and beautiful and we found harmful sharks in the shallow. After that, we went back to our room and laid back around our own pool. We had a very activity full trip this time, but I think one of the good things in the Maldives is that you can just enjoy doing nothing. However, I recommend you bring something so that you don’t get bored. We brought some card games and plenty of books. In the late afternoon, my dad and I went out fishing and had dinner with the fish we caught.
Third Day (7/22)
This was the day we had activities all day. In the morning, we went out on a snorkeling tour and in the afternoon we went on a dolphins cruise. During the snorkeling tour, I got to meet a turtle. Other than that, there were so many fishes and beautiful corals and it was so much fun. To everyone coming to the Maldives, if you can snorkel, I highly recommend you to go on a snorkel tour. Our tour was with other families, but there was a plan where you can make your own one. The afternoon was a dolphin cruise, but we were unlucky and couldn’t encounter one. However, the boat was crowded at the front but no one was there on the backside of the boat other than us. So we enjoyed a very elegant sunset cruise and a talk with the crew.
Fourth Day (7/23)
On this day we had an activity in the morning. We went on a pretty long snorkeling tour and snorkeled at many spots during the tour. It was supposed to be one where we can encounter a whale shark, but we couldn’t. However, I was able to see a huge stingray and I got to swim with it. I ended up getting seasick and getting a sunburn on my left arm which was left out in the sun. I fought with this sunburn for about a year until it got back to normal. I am normally good at reapplying sun cream and don’t get sunburnt. After that, we went back to our room and laid back around the hotel pool and room. We went back to the room and got ready for dinner early, and went out to take some pictures.
Fifth Day (7/24)
This was our last day. I thought it was a very fast trip but I think this is because we packed a lot of activities. We had breakfast and went back to our room to do our final packing and left Conrad via seaplane. We arrived at the main island of the Maldives and took a plane back to Bangkok, Thailand, and started the latter half of our summer vacation.
This is the end of our first half of the 2019 summer vacation. It was a very relaxing resort trip and very different from the latter half in Bangkok. If you have small children, probably looking into the activities the hotel provides is a good thing to do. If you are going to the Maldives, looking into the hotel is very recommended since the hotel is everything. This is a destination I recommend to everyone and somewhere I would love to revisit in the future. The ocean is just beautiful and clear, and you get to see a lot of fish and above all, it is so relaxing. Please be ready for next week’s Bangkok.