LHR to MLE ( Maldives ) Jan26




 Our Journey starts mid afternoon on a cold January Sunday, leaving home and arriving after around 45minute journey on the M25 , we had booked Pod Parking as it so much easier and had a good deal , we would have arrived in the 5 minute journey, if it wasn't for me leaving my phone in the car, so back to pod parking and return after retrieving my phone !!

Today we're flying business class LHR (19.20hrs) to Male and onto our destination island in the Maldives, with a short stop in Doha.

We checked in at the first class check in area, as I hate doing the self serve bag drop, the check in lady was as ever really friendly and efficient as you would expect, then through fast track security which is undergoing a bit of a change at LHR but still really fast and efficient.



The gate is not shown yet, so we go to the north club lounge - it's busy, but the food and drink is still on lunch/ tea menu so we fill up, as the meal on board would be another 4 hrs probably.

Gate A10 comes up, which means a bus transfer to a remote stand just off B gate, as we're in group 2 we board quickly and get to settle into our seats for the first 7 hours of our flight to Doha, the obligatory champagne to start and the menus are delivered - some nice choices on there for me...apple and parsnip soup followed by Thai red curry then of course ...cheese, washed down with the obligatory Brewdog.











I settle into the new naked gun film (not as good as the first one !) and once that's finished, it's time to make use of that layflat bed, as its now  10.30 UK time. I get a good few hours sleep, and we're soon descending into Doha, where we will change to Qatar Airways for the last international leg.




A short walk and through the business class transfer lane sees us in Doha terminal, which is massive, we decide to visit the lounge, for a light breakfast  , so a hop on the internal transit to the lounge.











The flight is called and we board our Qatar Airways flight again via a bus, to a remote area of this massive airport.









Settling into 16 A (window) and immediately offered a drink (obligatory signature lime and mint for me)




Swiftly followed by a menu choice from the multitude of Qatar flight attendants who introduce them selves. The service on Qatar is second to none in my opinion. The seat is as ever,  comfy with well laid out controls for both seat and TV







We take off in the early morning sun for just over 4 flight to Male,  a light snack and a quick snooze later we begin our descent into Male flying over stunning small islands with a tease of what was to come








We make our through the newly opened terminal (everything looks very bright and pristine) 

Security is fairly quick - not for some who hadn't got their electronic entry codes - I'm always surprised that even after waiting in a line for some time, some Wombles don't have all their information to hand!

The luggage arrives quickly (priority tagged) and we make our way out of the terminal to look for our Hotel rep, who will navigate us through the next internal flight and speedboat before we reach our final destination.

It's now some 17 hours since we left home and I'm starting to flag a bit ! Even with some power naps !!

I'll cover the next internal Maldivian journeys in a separate blog.


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