Check in to our hut wasn’t supposed to be until 3pm, so I was pleasant surprised when our Butler, Meera let us know our room was already ready for us.
Even better we had been upgraded to room 519, which is a St Regis Overwater Villa. Instead of being massive, we got an even more massive bungalow with 2 bathrooms, a giant infinity pool, and 5 hammocks!
I wasted no time getting situated. Living room sofa feels pretty comfy. They had fruit and chocolate greetings for me.
Next, I went outside to check out the view. Not too shabby at all.
The sun is really strong here, so I knew not to sit out too long. In fact my bud made that mistake. Even though he slept outside in the shade, he got a pretty bad sunburn, so I went back inside.
“Peep” comes a sound. WHAT???
I haven’t seen that bunny in months but it seems he has chosen to crash my trip. He really doesn’t deserve to be here at all. It’s not fair. Completely nonplussed, he just ignores my protests and settles in just where he feels like.
Sigh. Good thing they gave me some complimentary champagne.
Back when my bud and Pokin decided to get married, they also had to choose where to get married. While they eventually settled on Bora Bora, the Maldives was a strong contender. The political instability in the Maldives broke the tie. “Chance of uprising” were not among the risk factors my bud wanted to deal with. So they booked Bora Bora.
Now 7 years later, they decided it was time to see what the other option looked like. That decision was in no small part helped by some expiring use-or-lose credits they had with Emirates. I’m not complaining!
There are a lot of different options of places to go in the Maldives. At the current count, there are 172 resorts in the Maldives, all spread across different some 26 different atolls and 1,192 islands. Pokin had her sights on some place called Anantara because they had a cool underwater restaurant and an observatory, but because we did the St Regis Bora Bora, it only made sense to check out the parallel resort in the Maldives. Also our friends have been here and loved it and wanted to come back. So to St Regis!
Last time around, we got an upgrade due to planning our wedding there. And back then, St Regis was still part of Starwood. Since then, St Regis became part of the Marriott family. And since then, Pokin learned how to level up her travel booking optimization game. She booked the trip personally as a travel advisor, used the STARS program, and additionally got herself Platinum status through the Bonvoy Brilliant credit card. So we were hoping for some sweet upgrades here too.
The journey to the Maldives is long, especially from Vegas.
We left Tuesday morning a 8:00AM for our 10:00 flight to SFO. It was promptly delayed so we got in at 1pm. We wanted to leave a lot of buffer before we caught our 5:05pm flight to Dubai. We arrived in Dubai at 7:36PM on Wednesday, and then at 2:45 AM Thursday morning, hopped on a 4 hour flight to Male, Maldives (with the time zone change, arriving around 8:00AM).
On arrival, our St Regis host greeted us, transported us to the Maldivian Airways counter where they promptly weight all our luggage (30KG limit per person). Then we hopped on a shuttle to the float plane terminal where we waited in the St Regis lounge. This terminal was just a square building full of lounges.
flight was scheduled only the night before, and fortunately they had us booked for a 9:30 AM departure.
Shortly before it was time, we were escorted to a holding area, before we got on a flight plane over to St Regis.
The flight plane trip was a noisy 40 minutes, but we were lucky to have good visibility over all the atolls. I had fun looking out the window, and then we started descending towards Vommuli island where the resort is situated within the Dhaalu Atoll.
On arrival, just like in Bora Bora, we were greeted by a line of hotel staff. Then it was over to the outdoor waiting area where branded coconuts awaited us.
It was surprisingly not that hot and stuffy for how hot and stuffy we would feel later! I guess that spot is well situated with a persistent breeze.
Hot off my trip back from Mexico City I’m outward bound again. To Dubai!
We are taking Emirates for the first time via SFO, so we are checking out the lounge.
Starting our journey with a delayed flight so let’s see how this all goes. My bud’s loving this already.
Emirates lounge was super spacious. Which felt all the more awkward given we were one of the only people in the lounge. Lounge is nice. They had a good spread of middle eastern food.
Even nicer is you board directly from the lounge into the plane. Didn’t have to worry about going back outside. I could get used to this! They called for boarding and we got on.
As a splurge, Pokin booked us business class flights using her Chase points. From there, there was an option to upgrade to first class (the way to go versus paying full fare), but we figured this was enough of an indulgence!
Emirates business class is pretty nice. Not only do they have lie flat seats, they also give you pyjamas. Really soft ones. As always they didn’t have anything in my size but I was able to appreciate it on my bud’s behalf. There they are with their matching PJs.
There’s also this lounge in the back where you can help yourself to snacks and order additional drinks, which made the flight go pretty smooth.
Some 14+ hours later, we landed to Dubai, pretty well rested given we were on a flight.
Because our friends were flying first class, we had an escort help us get through security on god mode. Passed all the lines and were escorted over to the lounge.
The Emirates lounge in Dubai is the biggest lounge I’ve ever seen. I feel like it practically stretched the whole airport terminal. Again when we arrived it was pretty empty (we got in around 8pm), but I guess most of the flights are red eyes because by the time we left at 2:00 AM it was really really full.
We passed our 7 hours there doing calls. And then it was onwards to the Maldives!
The next day, we met up with our group to head towards Amomoxtli, Tepoztlan. This is a resort located about 1.5 hours south of Mexico City, which our host describes as one of their favourite resorts in Mexico. I approved.
The grounds were immaculate, and I had a relaxing few days here where my bud and Pokin just worked, and I chilled.
Then it was back to Mexico City, where I went to Teotihuacán, known as one of the most significant Mesoamerican Pyramid sites. The bus ride was long! I’m glad I went though. We had some pretty special experiences.
This week, we are off to Mexico City for a couples retreat organized by some business group Pokin is part of. Naturally, I came along too.
The recommended flight was an early morning flight requiring a 4:00AM wake up time. No way. So we decided to head out the night before and stay in the Sheraton Reforma.
Flight was pretty uneventful, other than Delta changing the flight time on us a few times leading up to the departure. Everything took off smoothly and next thing we know we’ve arrived at the terminal.
Just in time for a pretty long customs line.
Well our bags aren’t here either so I guess it’s no big deal. It’s a wait either way.
Eventually, or something like a couple hours later, we made it through customs, in time to hear that our friend’s flight was arriving.
We suggest meeting up to carpool —
Only to realize they had landed at a different terminal….
…and that in Mexico City the terminals are not at all connected. In fact they are something like a 10 minute drive apart with no traffic.
Which then become the other thing I learned. Mexico City has a lot of traffic. A lot.
So although we arrived at like 7pm. We eventually made it to our hotel at like 10pm.
Well we made it. And they greeted me with some candies. That’s cool.
So naturally the one time Pokin goes to see it without my bud is the time we get the most epic Aurora Borealis viewing. She was on a forum trip so my bud couldn’t go.
It’s Chinese New Year. There are a few times of the year Pokin loves to use as an excuse to have too much food, and apparently this is one of them. Even though none of us are year of the Dragon, dragons seem cool, and Pokin said we can all use some luck, so she went a little bit all out. I do love me some dragons, so I approved.
What started as a small celebration quickly got out of control. Lion dancers, you ask? Sure, why not? For a donation to the school, you can hire the local karate school to come perform. And despite the fact we had this on actual Chinese New Year, they were available! So my bud and Pokin invited way too many people, and we had them all over.
Technically my tag does say “Made in China”, and while I don’t consider this a large part of my identity it is sometimes nice to celebrate. And so celebrate we did!
SpaceX Starship launch 2 is happening, and Nicholas was lucky enough to have a friend invite him along to see it from the beaches of Boca Chica, TX. Which means I’m invited along. I snagged a VIP tag (don’t ask how). The only thing I’m disappointed about is that they didn’t have dedicated VIB tags.
The launch was amazing, we got to hear and feel starship successfully take off from the pad, and then witness an exciting RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) a few minutes later. Couldn’t have been better! I love space! Life is good.
