The first night in KL we caught up with Shane and Liyan at the Prince Hotel. Along with their entourage (family and friends) we went to a Chinese restaurant at the new Pavillion Shopping Mall.

On Wednesday, we went to the KLCC Aquaria to remind ourselves of the fishes we left in the Maldives. This aquarium had some interesting fishes and even reptiles and creepy crawlies.

On Thursday, we did the KL Hop-on Hop-off city bus tour. This was good value and despite the 22 stops, we only got off once for the Central Markets. As the bus continued around town, Jenesse slept for most of the way. That afternoon we went for High Tea at Carcosa Seri Negara, a very fancy pants hotel where the famous (Presidents, Royalty, celebrities and CEO’s) stay. After our three courses of cucumber sandwiches, tarts, apple crumble, scones with cream and jam, and strawberries and cookies we had a private tour of the hotel suites. This was quite impressive, both the tour and the rooms. For 1500++ ringits a night, you have your own butler and driver as part of the B&B package.

That night Donny and Mitzy joined us for some dinner and drinks at the Rainforest Sports Bar. There was a birthday party at the next table, where we saw the birthday boy drink two flaming lamborghinis, four tequila shots and copious amounts of beer. He held up quite well but alas the alcohol caught up to him and he rocked his way to sleep on the table.

We did well ourselves and downed two Calsberg Beer Towers and a bucket too. Responsible binge drinking? Especially when happy “hours” runs from 11am til 9pm!

Unfortunately by Friday, Jenesse had caught the KL Belly bug. At 5am we rushed to the Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, where the doc gave Jenesse a cocktail of prescriptions to settle her tummy. We were supposed to go on a bus tour with the wedding entourage but Jenesse has been ordered to rest and take it easy on Dr Mellican’s orders.

KL photos are on Picasa Web.

The weather was a bit unstable this morning, but has fined up again. We spent the day strolling around the island and then enjoying the view from the Rangali Bar. We are now packed and ready for a late afternoon sea plane flight out to Male, where at 10:20pm we will then fly to Kuala Lumpar. Despite being sad to leave this awesome resort and making promises to come back real soon, we are looking forward to the sea plane flight over the atolls.

Last photos of Conrad Maldives are on Picasa Web.

Our last night on Conrad Maldives was celebrated with a Candle Light Beach Dinner. The setting was very romantic, table and chairs setup on the edge of Rangali island, with our own butler and chef. We chose a seafood menu which had five courses, champagne and a bottle of Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc (Cullen, Margaret River). This was a feast, so much food no one could possibly eat everything.

This was the menu:

Glass of Champagne
Canapes
Warm Garlic Bread

Grilled Tiger Prawns
Marinated Vegetables Salad, Feta Cheese, Sun Dried Tomatoes

Seafood chowder

Whole Baby (Rainbow Runner) Reef Fish
Black & Green Olives, Garlic and Herb Butter
Baked Potato and Wok Fried Vegetables

Tiger prawns, Indian Ocean Lobster & Squid Rings
Steamed Rice

Plate of Tropical Fruits with Creme Fraiche

The experience was very special and ended our last night on the resort on another high. It was almost not to happen, with the late afternoon monsoon showers threatening the event. But we got a few hours repreive from the weather to go ahead with the dinner. Afterwards, we had a cocktail at the Rangali Bar and talked to the bar staff about their resort and famous guests who sometimes can spend up to 6 months staying in the US$4000 a night Sunset Villa! By midnight, the monsoons came and it poured all night with fierce winds and lightning.

When we arrived back to our Beach Villa, we discovered a letter from the resort telling us they had extended our check out time til the last seaplane out, 4:15pm tomorrow afternoon. Sweet! One more day to soak up the resort luxuries before our late flight out to Kuala Lumpar at 10:20pm that night.

Check out today’s pics on Picasa Web.

Throughout the channel the reef fishes are spectacular, but until you hit the house reef you will see large schools of fish, colourful coral and if your lucky like us, a White Tip reef shark.

After our early morning snorkel we had earned out breakfast at the Atoll Market. The rest of the day was spent hanging out in front of our Beach Villa.

Later that night, we had dinner at the Mandhoo Spa restaurant. This was a third visit, and everytime we are astounded by the food and service. Once again, Ostrich was ordered along with a Crab salad and a Rainbow runner (fish) dish. On all three visits, we always ordered three entree size dishes to share instead of the usual entree and main each. We found three entree’s was enough to satisfy us.

Afterwards, we had a cocktail each during happy hour at the Rangali Bar and then stumbled our way back to our Beach Villa. When we arrived, we found a very pleasant surprise on our bed. Idrees our room cleaner had created a heart shape out of the bed sheet and outlined it with bougainvillea, frangipani and hibiscus flowers! It actually took us 5 minutes to realise the decorations on the bed, since we just rushed inside the villa and busied ourselves getting ready for bed.

Only two photos today, of the flower decorations on the bed: Picasa Web.

The rest of the day was spent lazying around our Beach Villa and a little siesta in the afternoon. By late afternoon, the monsoon rains had arrived very suddenly. Perfect one minute, then very windy and showery the next. Our planned dinner at the Koko Grill outdoor teppanyaki restaurant was cancelled due to the uncertain conditions. We didn’t mind at all, since our alternate plan was to go back to the Mandhoo Restaurant. Besides it saved us US$400!

The Mandhoo lived up to its reputation. Once again we had Ostrich (with Thai green risoto), but also ordered tiger prawns and lobster medallion dishes.

See the pics of Ithaa on our Picasa web album.

The weather has really fined up and now its so hot. By midday we decided to walk across the foot bridge and take out a peddle boat to frollick in the lagoon. The foot bridge was so hot it was like walking on hot coals. We got some relief by walking the thin shadow line from the the rails and at the half way spot we cooled our feet on the jetty.

The peddle boat was a bit of a work out! Despite no wind, the waves made our progress slow on the way back to the beach. That’s our exercise for the week. Glad we pulled out of the Kokoda Challenge this year. We reckon we have eaten and drunk so much that any training beforehand would have been for nothing.

Thankfully we hitched a ride back on a golf cart to avoid the hot bridge again.

Later that night we went for “dinner” at the Wine Bar where we had a course on Wine versus Chocolate. The host presented three different wines, chocolate and pastries in a sunken room full of wine bottles on all four walls. The menu was:

Dominican Republic chocolate with 2005 Muscat De Beaumes De Venise (Domaine De Durban, Rohan, France) and a pastry chocolate and pear consome. The Muscat and chocolate was a fantastic combination, but wasn’t fussed on the pastry.

Cuba chocolate with 2005 Torbreck “Juvenilles” (Borrossa Valley, South Australia) and a pastry chocolate praline mille-feuille. This was all good and I took my time savouring the taste and combinations.

Tanzanian chocolate with a Sherry Pedro Ximénez (Bodegas de Idalgo “Napoleon”, Jeres, Spain) and a pastry parfait opera. The Sherry was nice with the rich dark Tanzanian chocolate and the parfait was also very rich. This was Jenesse’s favourite.

We walked out of the wine bar and strolled around the island to watch the moon rise over the atoll. The richness of the chocolate, wine and pastry was taking its toll on our empty bellies. A quick dash for happy hour at the Rangali Bar to finish off our dinner with a Mojito and then some food. We did dinner backwards tonight: dessert, drinks and food.

Today’s pics on Picasa Web.

Unfortunately the day before, my Olympus 1030SW underwater camera decided to break on me. Typical, the day I really need to use it, Murphy’s Law is invoked. Not sure whats wrong with the camera, I can use all the functions except take photos, which means its pretty much useless.

So you’ll have to take my word, and Jenesse can back me up with what we saw on the reefs. Besides lots of colourful tropical reef fish we saw a White Tip Reef Shark, a Moray Eel, a Manta Ray, a Green Turtle, Trumpet fish and the Clown fish made famous by the movie, Finding Nemo.

Tonight we ate at the Mandhoo Spa restaurant where they serve only healthy foods which is divided in 4 categories: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. We assumed Fire will be a hot and spicey dish! Luckily there was no Jungle Curry on the menu We ordered Ostrich, Salmon and Duck dishes and a bottle of Adobe Merlot (Chiliean) to wash it down. This restaurant is the best on the island, the food is fanatastic.

Afterwards, the resort was showing a movie (The Unforgiven) on the beach in front of the bar. Free popcorn with our Lion Lager (Sri Lankan) beer.

Pictures are now on Picasa Web.

We took a walk across the 500m foot bridge connecting the two islands to Rangali island, where at the western end two Sunset Water Villas sit over the lagoon. These types of accommodation cost over US$4000 a night. Today one of them was to be occupied by a Japanese couple who got married on the island.

Later that night we ended up at the Rangali bar where we were entertained by a live band til midnight.

Today’s pics have been uploaded to Picasa Web.

By 8:30am we were taken by speed boat to a small island 15 minutes away. The two man boat crew setup our romantic picnic area on the beach. The picnic consisted of an esky full of drinks (non-alcholic), lunch, fruit, thermos of coffee and hot water, beach umbrella, pillows, mattresses and a first aid kit. Once setup, the crew left us and said they would return in 4 hours.

The snorkeling off the beach was fantastic with lots of fishes and colourful coral. My underwater camera skills still require more practice, with shots out of focus or subjects not entirely in the frame.

This deserted island trip was fantastic and definitely will be a highlight of our trip despite it only being day two. I scored major points for organising this bit of romance

The rest of the day we relaxed more in our Beach Villa as the sun beamed brightly through blue skies. We thought the light was good enough for an afternoon snorkel at the house reef, but were disappointed as the high tide had kicked a lot of sand up making visibility very poor.

At dinner time we went to the Atoll Market restaurant where they had a Maldivian food theme. Mostly seafood type curries were on offer in buffet style. Wouldn’t recommended the food here, for dinner at least. Nothing like my Mum’s curries.

To end the night we had a couple of cocktails during happy hour at the bar. If only Monday’s could be like this all the time!

Day 3 photos are on Picassaweb.

Our flight was now at 7am and we waited at a special Conrad Maldives lounge at the Maldivian Air Taxi terminal. I treated myself to a quick complimentary massage before we boarded the seaplane. Today we got the golden Twin Otter seaplane which is exclusively for Conrad guests. The 35 minute flight over the atolls was amazing. Lots of reefs and nice over water bungalow resorts could be seen.

We were greeted by our resort host, Ahmed Ashyd who organised our Beach Villa (#104) on Rangalifinolhu Island and activities and dinner reservations for the rest of the week. Rangalifinolhu Island is the main island where most of the resort facilities are housed. The other island, Rangali has over water bungalows.

Because we missed breakfast in Male, we ate at the Atoll Market restaurant which had a huge buffet on. The food was excellent and the enormous variety of different breakfast food types was overwhelming.

After breakfast, Jenesse and I orientated ourselves and walked around Rangali which only took 20 minutes. The first fish we encountered was a 30cm black tip reef shark swimming right up in the shallows, in ankle deep water! We saw three more later. Unfortunately I was too slow to capture the shark with my new underwater camera. Ah well, we’ll have lots of opportunities when we snorkel at the house reef during the week.

By 12:30pm we had checked in to our Beach Villa room. This room is huge. It has all the mod cons: free wireless internet, espresso machine, a/c, remote control blinds, jacuzzi, outdoor shower, flat screen TV, stereo, and in the front a deck with a 5 metre path to the beach.

The resort “infinity” pool overlooks the lagoon that when viewed at water level seems to blend into the horizon, hence the name. Unfortunately, from tomorrow it will be closed for the rest of the week for maintenance. So we took the opportunity and went for a dip and hung around the Rangali bar.

The rest of the day we just lazed around, had a jacuzzi, a couple of beers and explored the islands facilities. Tonight we will watch the sunset, maybe grab a bite to eat despite grazing through out the day and have a cocktail during the Rangali Bar happy hour. Somehow we don’t think we will be dreading any Monday blue’s the next day

Check out today’s pics on http://picasaweb.google.com/meltaxa/ConradMaldivesDay1.