Makunudu Island -Maldives

The airport is one long island on its own and we were meet by the Island reps and taken by boat to Makunudu, a 45 minute speedboat ride. We watched little and big atolls go passed. One had the bungalows out in the water. When we arrived at Makunudu we were met by the local hotel concierge and a timid German called Josephine who had the job of looking after guests for a week. I had asked for one of the first four bungalows as, on the web, Steve had read that they had the best beaches and snorkeling and we got number five to that was cool.

It’s a nice room with a sort of outside bathroom and a comfy bed and little seating area. Best of all you walk out to you own little beach area with loungers, deck chair, shade or sun, sparkling white sand and clear blue sea. I could feel the tension leaving me. As you will guess I pulled my lounger into the shade and watched the water before having my first swim and trial snorkel on the waves.

First photo looking into our room. It also had a cool bathroom that was sort of open at the top.

This second photo is from the door (if you have your back to the view in the first photo, looking out towards the beach. You can see the bush, which included coconut trees, and you can see my lounger and deck chair nestled into shady area. It was then just a short stroll to the sea which as well as being crystal clear was a lovely temperature. Just bliss.

Leaving Doha for our Eid holiday

Well we got to the airport in plenty of time as it was the Eid holiday I thought it might be busier, luckily it had settled down from the hectic place on Thursday 25 when loads of people left the country for the 10 day holiday. It was just as well we got there early as the hassles began!

I had booked on-line some months ago, I think in April or May and paid by credit card. All that was good I had checked on-line during the week and the booking was there still. I had downloaded the confirmation and was feeling confident when we arrived. The seating was a bit stuffed up and Steve and I were sitting in separate seats for the 4 ½ hour flight. I wasn’t that happy but they won’t/couldn’t change it. Then came the crunch,”Have you got the credit card you booked this with?” I was asked, well not I hadn’t. I had seen it on my credit card bill and knew it had gone through and I had paid off the credit card. As bad luck would have it I had taken a different credit card with and left the one I needed at home. I hadn’t taken two cards as hey we were going to be on an island for a week.

Well they weren’t going to let us fly as I couldn’t tell them my other card number. So I had to go and see the main airline desk and leave Steve at check in. As you can imagine I was not very happy. The upshot was I had to pay for the tickets again with another card so we could leave!!!!! Yes it defies logic but there you have it..

Airlines have you by the short and curlies so no amount of this is “madness or other airlines don’t do this” worked. They reckon that they only do this in Doha, as there is a lot of credit card fraud. I had to reply with, “So what you are saying is that I might have fraudulently use my on credit card, in my own name, to pay for a flight I am travelling on, in my own name with my own passport and Qatar ID card which I have with me?” This was meet with blank stares. I paid again.

So things could only get better and they did. After a fairly average flight on which we were offered the choice of “chicken or mutt-ton”, on inquiring what “mutt-ton was” my Italian travelling companions were told it is like beef, Steve’s fellow passenger was told it was like a little goat that had grown into a big one (I had chicken) we arrived in the beautiful Maldives.

PS When I got back I hot footed down to the airline with the original card they did refund the extra payment