Maldives 2014: (Day 1) Singapore to Maldives (Centara Ras Fushi)

Our original plan was actually to go Bali, where we can "nuah" (laze around) for most of the trip since the hubby has been really stressed out lately. 

But since this is also a trip to celebrate my birthday as well as an early celebration for our 10th Anniversary together, so I "somehow" managed to convince him to go Maldives instead of Bali. :)

So, anyway, here are some of our main expenses for this 5D4N trip to Maldives between 3 Sep to 7 Sep 2014.

Flight: 

- S$821 for return airfare via Tiger Airways (about 4hrs 30mins flight duration) for 2 pax.
(total fares for 2 pax, inclusive taxes and surcharges, 15kg checked in luggage for the both of us, and travel insurance with Tiger Air)

Resort: Centara Ras Fushi resort

- 3 nights at Water Villa at SGD1977 (inclusive tax, breakfast, dinner) via Agoda
- 1 night at Oceanfront room at SGD495 (inclusive tax, breakfast, dinner) via Agoda

Speedboat return transfer (between airport and resort at Maldives):
- USD98.56 per pax (20mins journey) 

*this is actually 1 of the cheapest, since this resort is pretty near the airport. Usually this will cost more than USD100+ for speedboat to further resorts, or USD300 to 400+ for seaplane transfers for those resorts situated even further away from the airport.

Links to other posts for this Maldives trip:

Day 1: here
Day 2: here

Day 3: here

Day 4 & 5: here

Since our flight departs from Singapore early in the morning, so we took 1 of the first trains of the day from our home (in Western Singapore) all the way to Changi Airport (in extreme Eastern Singapore). I think I didn't really slept at all the night before, because both of us were still trying to pack our luggages, convert videos for my tablet (which we ended up didn't even watched much since we were either swimming or eating or sleeping most of the time there). 

During the train ride to the airport, I realised that we forgot to buy some bottled drinks for the trip (although we brought with us ALOT of snacks). Luckily, we saw a Cheers convenience store just in front of Tiger Air's check in counter at Terminal 2, so we went in and bought about 5 bottled drinks and hurriedly stashed them into our checked-in luggage before we joined the long queue at the TigerAir counters.

The flight from Singapore to Maldives' Male' airport took about 4hr 30mins and we were lucky that the seat next to me was empty, so we had 3 seats for the 2 of us so we could stretch abit. (we were lucky that the same thing happened for our return flight as well! ) :)

The flight was slightly bumpy with the occasional turbulence (not as bumpy as our return flight though) and we landed at Male' airport 20mins ahead of schedule, around 11am plus (can't recall exact time) local time.  Maldives' local time is 3 hours behind Singapore, which means that 11am in Maldives is 2pm at Singapore.

Upon alighting from the plane at the Maldives airport, we had to take a short bus ride to get to the airport terminal building.

After clearing the immigration and collecting our luggage, we headed out and were met by staffs from the resort who informed us that we had to wait awhile since there were still a couple of people whom have yet to arrive. 

we waited here for the other resort guests to arrive.

We were brought to a small food court area to wait for the other resort guests to arrive. Think we waited for about 25mins here. We couldn't find any convenience stores at the airport (and I did walked around to try to look for 1) and there were only 1 Swenson's shop selling ice cream, 1 noodle shop, 1 Burger Kings, 1 Thai Express selling Thai food, and 1 Coffee Club selling some pastries and coffee. They charge USD so you don't really need to bring the local Maldives currency if you are not planning to visit Male' town. The both of us only brought USD cash, and it was enough for us to use it for light meals at the airport, and some tips for the resort staff.

I bought a bottle of Fanta Orange (USD2) and mineral water (USD1) from the Coffee Club shop.

Prices listed are in USD.

 Ok, finally, it is time for us to board the speedboat to the resort. The boarding area for the speedboat is located just opposite the airport.

Centara Ras Fushi resort's speedboat.

 While we were wearing our lifevests, the resort staffs helped us all to load our luggages onto the speedboat. As you can also see from this pic, the sky was really cloudy.

Inside of the speedboat. 

 The speedboat ride took about 20mins since our resort was pretty near the airport. Not long after we boarded the speedboat, it started to rain, heavily.  Even so, the ride wasn't as choppy as I expected it to be, which was good.

Upon arrival at the resort, we didn't had to wait long for the notification that our room is ready for checking-in. We will be staying the first 3 nights in a Water Villa, and then the last night at a Oceanfront room. We were allocated room 224, and it faces the open ocean, with a really good view.

Water Villas.

Our room's toilet. 

Toothbrushes and toothpastes are not included, so luckily I've already read reviews from tripadvisor and have brought our own. We also brought our own room slippers since I knew that they don't provide those as well.

Our water villa, facing the deck and sea.

Yes, she went with us too. :)

View of the deck from our bed.

 With Centara Ras Fushi's close proximity to the Male's industrial island, many people are concerned whether the view from the resort will be ugly. The industrial island is only facing the ferry terminal and the resort reception area on the island, and as you can see from this above pic, our room doesn't face the industrial island.

 By the time we checked in to our room, took (lots of) photos, enjoyed the view...lunchtime was nearly over. So we decided to skip lunch (since our package only includes breakfast and dinner) and just walked around the island to explore abit, and went back to our room to eat some of the junk food (i.e. potato chips) which we brought with us for the trip.

Oceanfront rooms 

Pool area

Pool

Upon returning back to our room, we were surprised to find a "visitor" at our deck.

 Although the rain has already stopped by now, but there were still some winds, so we presumed that the bird was just taking a break until the wind dies down.

Looking down into the water from our deck.

At 5pm daily, there is a fish feeding session at the resort near Viu Bar.

Viu Bar

Buffet restaurant. Will be back later in the evening at 7pm for our buffet dinner.

Different buffet themes 

Reception area

Gift shop. 

 We ventured into the resort's gift shop, and we didn't see any snacks/drinks on sale. Only souvenirs, hats, sunblocks... So it was really lucky that we brought our snacks and drinks with us from Singapore.

USD20 for a sunblock. Remember to bring your own.

Fishes...

Ok, 7pm. Time for us to walk over to the buffet restaurant for dinner.

It was Mediterranean themed night. 

pork

fish with dill sauce

Fits both 2 pin and 3 pin plugs.

Links to other posts for this Maldives trip:

Day 1: here
Day 2: here

Day 3: here

Day 4 & 5: here