Actually not feeling too tired after a day at home before the drive back down to Abu Dhabi for holiday number 2 of the summer break. This time around the parking seems as though it's about to be paid at Etihad Plaza so it will be a case of parking over the other side of Sheikh Zayed road for the third trip i think just in case.
Airport as always quiet and this time around we didn't need to wait at check in desk just straight over to security and duty free, only now we are super early so breakfast in Jones the Grocer and an obligatory pint before we boarded.

It's monsoon season in Maldives so hoping that we don't have silly amounts of rain and the visibility is good for diving. I guess the turbulence coming over in the plane told us that we were in monsoon season and expecting some sort of storm and rain at a point.

We got to the airport and this time around prepared, completing the arrival visa before we landed so no need to hang around and try and do it in the airport, straight to the currency exchange point and then waited for our bus out on the benches. I found a chinese woman's passport on the floor but handed it in after I wasn't successful in locating her, problem is they all look the same haha. I do think a porter came back to look as he was looking around the floor and had a hotel top on, we were sat by the five star resort boats also.

Spotted a few cuttlefish, angel fish and crabs in the water whilst waiting for the boat bus. Eventually they came around 07:30 and we headed off in the dark bouncing around. A new one for Annie as she has done Maldives before but plush and by internal plane to get to her water villa, she is going to have a shock this time around. haha.

First thing we see as we pull up to the port of Thulsudhoo, a Palestinian flag flying in the port. :) Although a little strange that they have a Coca Cola Factory on the island with it being one of the biggest and oldest for transporting and making the stuff there. Wasn't going in to see it or have a tour thats for sure!

We got off and our hotel had a plush tuck tuck waiting for us to take us over to the hotel, very welcoming to check us in. We were shattered so got to the room and went to sleep. Breakfast the next morning was decent, Annie was expecting her 5 star stuff I think, not getting that here haha. I did complain about the smell of smoke in the room and around the corridor, which got us a free upgrade on a corridor where they weren't smoking and the room was much bigger And the TV worked! Graaaand. Our view looked out onto the hotel sand area and little beach there, fairly nice!

Its a damn good job we had the bigger room with a TV that worked because on night two it monsoon the hell out of the island and we were actually at a restaurant (the restaurants there had a surfer / Bali / Australian vibe to them, unexpectedly mostly owned by expats that live and surf there for a living. Not too shabby!)

Fist day of being there we decided it was time to chill by the pool and I needed to walk around the other side of the island to check my diving kit and check in with them. Tried to get Annie to book an excursion but she was blahzay about it so I think she is heading on the boat with me and going to do snorkelling whilst I dive into the beautiful aquarium that is the Maldivian Sea! EXCITED!

The weather was hot but the strength of the sun is so much better this time around unlike in February when I burnt to a crisp! So that was a benefit of monsoon season clearly. The view from our pool on the roof was epic and especially when the sun was shining down on the water it was aqua blue that you couldn't take your eyes off of. Then there was a pod of dolphins that would go up and down the channel outside of our hotel each morning and afternoon which was also epic to watch!

Fast forward to diving… how epic is this place to dive! It is so relaxing and fun to just be under the water with fish EVERYWHERE and we had such a great first dive, we saw so much life and mission accomplished on dive 3 we saw MANTA RAYS! I was so much more relaxed this time swell with there being less people about which was good because there is usually more life around the reefs as not disturbed by loads of people in the way. Thought we may have been lucky enough to see a whales shark but we weren't. Never mind….. next time! haha.

Our last night we thought to splash out and go out on the boat bar with Coco's excursions, they have an old yacht parked off the coast of the island, then coco takes you in his little boat tender for 5$ each return and we expected a lot of expense booze but we were pleasantly surprised that the booze was cheap and their measures were of course half and half haha. Music on and we sat up on the roof terrace, a shower was incoming so we did have to go inside and watch it from the inside bar deck with the neon lights but apart from that such a good idea and fun! And of course cheap and cheerful!

Again, another epic adventure on the cheap side for a short Maldivian experience! I love it here, I think this is where I would like to retire 6 months of the year not Spain like the rest of the UK's dream haha.