Day 33 to 36 - September 23 to 26, 2013

September 23, 2013

Praslin, Seychelles to Gen, Maldives ( 1,100 NM)

Today's fly time is approximately 5 hours. In addition, there is 1 hour transfer from Praslin to Seychelles. We got up early and leave Raffles at 6:45 AM. Good weather most of the fly time, with one hour time forward, we arrived Maldives Gan airport around 4:00 pm.

Shangrila Resort has the only other airport besides capital Male in Maldives. We took advantage of the location and fly here directly without the transfer form Male which is the case for most Maldives resorts. The Gen airport was a military airport and was converted to international airport just for Shangrila. When we arrive the private terminal, staff of Shangrila lead by General Manager were there to receive just two of us. It is their strategy to establish Shangrila as the JETSET destination in Maldives very unique concept and only they are qualified to do it.

 

A 5 minutes private boat transfer from Gen island to resort.

At the dock house.

The beach front villa is well appointed and is right at the whitest sanded beach. The decor is personal and comfortable. Strange, it does not feel exssesive at all. I guess the feeling is by personal taste. Expect to do some good diving and snorkeling here.

The small bike is per request of Renee.

There are beach villas and over-water villas. Compare the two, we like beach villa better.

We can definitely feel the powerful Chinese tourism here. Seventy percent of the 86-villa resort are Chinese. Most of them look like newlywed or with young children. This is good, we can have Chinese breakfast and fry rice again.

This island is mix of jungle and beach. Our host arranged a jungle dinner for us. Private dinner under a giant banyan tree and the stars. Something different again.

 

Jeffrey played golf at the only course in Maldives. Really beautiful 9-hole course along the coast line. Scuba diving and snorkeling were good but visibility was affected by morning showers. However, we seem to lost our camera somewhere. All the photos of the golf course and jungle dinner are gone too! Oh, well, things happen. Good thing I still have my small Leica "AND" I backed up all the previously photos.

 

We will fly to Sri Lanka tomorrow.

 

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