Flew out on FCA142 from Manchester at five to seven in the evening. Bang on time. Really good flight - First Choice Airways is much better than I imagined with great leg room and comfy seats. Mind you, we did succumb to the offer of extra legroom seats for £35 each on checking in.
There were no window and aisle seats left - all pre-booked, apparently. I think you pay about £20 for the privilege of pre-booking. So we took the middle section bulkhead seats and were lucky to have three seats between the two of us. No neighbours. In fact, my only whinge about the flight (well you knew there had to be one!) was the girl behind me who moved her feet up and down the back of my seat all night.
Arrived in Male just before 9.30am. The weather was beautiful. Having been freezing on the plane, it was lovely to step out into the heat. Male was as small and efficient as I remembered from last time we were here (March 2004). By the time we cleared immigration the cases were coming through and ours were pretty quick out.
Roy had met Mick Durkin on the plane and at the airport (an old friend from Leeds) - he was going to Sun Island to celebrate his wife's 50th birthday.
After we got through bag screening, we found our island - there are little kiosks where you have to go to meet your Rep - and found a seat to wait to be called for our speedboat. What was weird was that Sky News was playing on giant screen. They definitely didn't have that last time!
I had been dreading the boat trip. I am not good on water. The weather was sunny and clear but the sea still looked a tad "rough" to me. At least I wasn't crying and refusing to board the boat like the lady in front of us! We didn't make the first boat leaving for Fihalhohi as it was full up (it was a small catamaran). The next boat docked as soon as the first left and off we went.
Coming past Male the sea did seem quite choppy but as soon as we got out onto open water it smoothed a bit. The journey was pretty good - watching small islands and atolls on the way. We spotted "Fiha" from quite a way out - you can't miss the telephone mast - and as we docked we were so happy to see that beautiful clear lagoon and friendly Maldivian faces.
In reception we were given cool towels and coconut juice, and our room key. We were in room 63, a single story bungalow on the south of the island, near a lovely stretch of beach. The lagoon here is choppier than on the north side, but the plus side is that this means we have a cooling breeze all day. The room is fine - spacious, clean and nice taps outside to wash the sand off your feet before coming in.
We dumped our bags and went straight to lunch. The food is buffet style and actually it is pretty good. The grill chef was cooking fresh tuna and so we ate that with garlic butter sauce (fabulous) and salad. Followed by watermelon. And lovely cold beer.
After lunch we enquired about a water villa upgrade for part of our stay. As luck would have it, one was available for the last 4 nights so we booked it. Then we hit the beach and had a little snorkel. I ended up back in the room sleeping for 2 hours! At sundown we headed for the Blue Lagoon bar for beers and photos.
It started to rain a bit at 8pm. We headed in to dinner at 8.30pm after another drink in the Fisherman's Bar (and that constitutes a pub crawl on Fiha). Dinner was a selection of fish, meat, veggie dishes. I had beef stew and rice with aubergine tomato bake. The wine selection is ok - cheap and cheerful really.
After coffees we had a look off the jetty where we say rays and baby reef sharks. set off back to Blue Lagoon bar for more drinks. I was falling asleep at the table so we went home and were in bed by 11. Slept like logs - in fact, too well.
