New destination - Maldives

The quest for a holiday started after I delivered my son. We couldn't go on our birthday holiday, since my son was too young. Post new year we decided we could go on a family holiday with my MIL as well. Our initial plan was to go to Singapore & Bali and made plans around my MIL's birthday. We decided to surprise her and changed the destination to Maldives (She had been wanting to visit Maldives for a long time). For hubby and I, it would be a similar experience as Bora Bora and there is bound to be comparison in our head.

While I was making the plan for Singapore & Bali, I had contacted makemytrip.com. I later informed them about changing the destination to Maldives. There was so much confusion in our head between Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa and Mirihi Island. Since we were taking my MIL to an exotic location, we thought we'll take her to Four Seasons. The makemytrip agent was giving me very good deal. Upon confirmation, she would say it is not available. I would have hardly taken couple of hours to confirm. I was fuming mad as to how it could not be available. She answered saying this was the quotation and upon confirmation from my side, she would check for availability. That seemed absolutely absurd. I did post a complaint at their website. The makemytrip team did apologise but I guess it didn't really matter then.

I had three flight options. A direct flight from Chennai to Male provided by Maldivian airline. The flight timing was inconvenient, so we had to let go of this option. The other one was Sri lankan airline and Spice Jet. I remember Sri lankan airline to be much more expensive than Spice Jet. So we went ahead with Spice Jet (Later when I did check, Sri Lankan airline was cheaper). Anyways I had booked and I didn't want to worry about the difference.

I contacted Four Seasons, Kuda Huraa for reservation. I informed that we would be 3 adults and an infant travelling and I would require the Sunrise Water Bungalow. The price quoted by the team was pretty expensive and I made the reservation for 3 night. It was just a Bed & Breakfast deal and I didn't get any deal that I got at Bora Bora. I was going to be charged close to $5300 for just 3 nights!!! The tax is a killer here, where in you are paying 18.8%+GST. I personally feel, Maldives is much more expensive than Bora Bora. But when you are in a holiday mood, I don't mind splurging once in a while.

All booking made and we were waiting for April 15th to come. During the course of time, my MIL got to know about we travelling to Maldives and the whole surprise got spoilt. A week before we were leaving, I pinged my friend, who is a travel consultant and owns a company called Fernweh. I had completely forgotten about her while making the booking. I casually asked her what is the best rate that can be offered to me and she gave me a quotation of 300$ lesser than that was offered by Four Seasons and an extra night. Now that was a bonanza and I immediately accepted the deal.

Now the painful process was shifting my confirmation from Four Seasons to them, but Four Seasons did do the needful and my plan was changed accordingly. In the last minute I had to change my flight detail and we were geared up for the much awaited holiday :)