The next morning we woke up somewhat optimistic and went to the restaurant to enjoy our three course breakfast and decided to rent snorkeling equipment. We had just made it to the safety of our villa, when it began to pour rain. A hotel staff member knocked on the door just after we had returned, and we were told that we had 30 minutes to pack and get ready to leave on a cargo boat. We came to realize that we were being evacuated from the island due to a category 5 tropical cyclone.
We were given raincoats, given seasickness wristbands, a dollop of fresh ginger, and seasickness pills, and were rushed off onto the boat along with other guests and the performers from the night before. Once onboard, we realized the boat was also used to haul garbage from the resort to the bigger island. What ensued was a treacherous ride that was enhanced by the pungent smell of garbage and exhaust fumes. Fortunately, the captain thought the conditions were too rough for the 4-hour journey and aborted the ride within 15 minutes. I came very close to losing my three-course breakfast.
We were returned to Villa 48 in driving winds and rain. The villa was flooded, as the glass doors had leaked, and felt unsafe so we asked to be moved to a land villa. A couple of hours later we were transferred to a land villa and were told that the room and all meals would be complimentary while we were stranded; a bottle of Piper champagne awaited us in the room. We went to look at the beach, on this, much calmer side of the island. We planned to go snorkeling, but were all so exhausted that we decided to take naps. I still had to make flight arrangements, as we would now miss our original flights. What made it more challenging was that we were using miles for these flights so were at the mercy of airlines award inventory.
I had a premonition that something like this might happen, since prior to this trip I had gone to Boston on a business trip and the weather had been extremely nice. “Surely I will be paying for this, since the weather in Boston is never this nice in November,” I had thought to myself. I had just hoped it wouldn’t be on this trip.
I managed to secure return flights but could only find flights on United Airlines, which meant that a less than standard United First Class cabin would now replace the dream trip on ANA.
That evening we were informed that the following morning’s itinerary would be as follows:
6:30 Wake up call
7:00 Breakfast
7:30 Evacuate the island on a bigger 36m fishing boat
We finally made it back to Kaadedhdhoo after a two-hour boat ride complete with another Bodu Beru rain dance by the performers from the other night. At the airport, I ordered a Nasi Goreng from the Tasty Plus Café that was probably the best meal I had in the Maldives. Let’s just say that the food at the resort was a bit underwhelming. After a 2-hour wait and an hour flight we were back in Male with 12 hours to kill until our flight back to Singapore. We were all so exhausted from our ordeal that we opted to wait it out at an airport hotel lobby.
Our flight took off at 11:30pm and we were very happy to arrive in Singapore the next morning. Because we arrived a day later, we missed Kumar’s performance but we managed to enjoy ourselves and eat plenty of delicious food until the next day when we boarded our flights back to the US.
In retrospect, we all agreed that next time we would just go to Hawaii, as it is just as beautiful and only a 5-hour flight away.
Check out my video
300K miles down, 700K to go!
Next stop, Argentina.
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