Day 10 (March 18, 2023): Farewell to Sun Island Resort and the Start of the Journey Home


And so, our last day in Maldives is here.  Heavy sigh.  It’s all good, really, as we have had an amazing seven days in this country, filled with cultural experiences and interactions with nature beyond our expectations.  

We woke quite early, as we have been falling asleep quite early most evenings on this trip.  Some early morning blogging and packing were followed by our last wonderful breakfast (sure gonna miss that omelet station!), and then we set out to take in a few last sights on the island before returning our bikes.

There is an agricultural side of the island and the resort’s operation that we were able to burrow into this morning, thanks to the bikes.  And then there were a few last “nice to look at” features of the resort we had missed.  

With all those items behind us, we then did one last snorkel on the house reef and one last swim at the main beach.  

Our luggage was to be collected at 11:15AM, so everything on the above check-list was accomplished in good time.  Just before noon, we called for a golf cart to take us back to the hotel lobby (it would have been a sweaty walk with our knapsacks at midday).  Then we had one last lunch at the Coffee Shop Restaurant.

At 2:45PM, we joined a group of other ‘sad-to-leavers’ for the short ride back to Maamigili, where a bus took us to the airport.  Our FlyMe flight left at 4:45PM and provided one last look at some Maldivian islands before landing in Male, where we checked in for our Qatar Airways flight to Doha.  The flight left on time at 8PMand arrived in Doha at 11PM. We took an Uber to the same hotel where we stayed on the way over for a few hours of shut-eye.  I’ll pick things up with one last, short entry to detail the rest of the trip home.



The resort has a small banana plantation to supply its needs.  I’ve known it before, but somehow, I always forget that bananas grow upward, not downward.  We usually peel bananas from the stem, which we think of as the top.  But that’s really the bottom!  :-)


The island is covered in palm trees.  It’s easy to forget that every one of those trees produces coconuts.  And, in the topics, falling coconuts can damage cars, cause concussions, or even death.  So dealing with all those coconuts is actually a lot of work.  We stumbled on the island’s coconut dump, which served as a good reminder of just how many coconuts grow on an island like this.



The resort has its own hydroponics greenhouse to help with the required vegetable production.

We also stumbled on a huge bird facility.  From pea hens to peacocks to black swans and ducks, there was an incredible bird population at the facility.  Since we didn’t see any of these birds on the resort’s menu, we speculate that the company that owns the resort simply uses some of the island’s land to produce birds for sale via another part of their enterprise.


Black swans.


A treehouse at the resort’s 100% organic salad restaurant.


The resort also boasts a small botanical garden, the entrance to which has a mini-coconut shell pathway.


What a sweet woman!  The best travel companion a fellow could ask for!


A sculpture paying homage to the ornate design of the traditional Maldivian dhoani.



Unit #463 was ours during our stay.  It was wonderful!


Ahmed, the “house boy” assigned to clean our room, did this farewell greeting for us on the floor of the unit, near the door. 

Our last meal at Sun Island — curried reef fish for me, blueberry pancakes for Pam.  Our server was a wonderful woman from Nepal.  The restaurant was empty, so she chatted with us forever.  So sweet!


A typical golf cart used to transport guests all over the island.  There I am, preparing to head to the jetty for the ride to Maamigili.


One last look back, down the walkway from the jetty towards the hotel lobby.


The transfer speedboat to Maamigili.


A farewell from some staff.  They waved and waved and waved, til we our speedboat was out of sight.


Smiling, but sad to leave.


About to board the same FlyMe ATR-72-600 plane that we took from Male to Maamigili three days ago.


And a couple of last views of some islands that are part of South Male Atoll.



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