Once upon a time, there was a land. And the land decided to travel. It went north. On the way, it left big volcanic fires as signposts. When the fires died down, water fairies created colourful fantasy hamlets and organised them into a ‘garland of islands’ (mala-dvipa) so as to welcome future visitors. One day, humans began roaming the seas, and these isles gave them fresh water and coconut. When money was needed to trade, they provided cowry shells. Merchants, Buddhists and Muslims left their mark on the islands. Portuguese Christians tried too, but could bequeath only some genes. When the age of science dawned, its votaries conceived improbable myths like continental shifts, volcanic eruptions and coral colonies to account for this amazing land-water-scape. The children of the 1970s found them ideal for their sun worship, but after a decade, gave way to a richer version of the same, adding diving, snorkelling, spas, gourmet food and privacy to the mix.
Today, you first experience the beauty of the Maldives from the air. Flying over this archipelago, they say, can’t be replicated anywhere else. You see a lot of sea, of course. In between, there are small patches of vegetation — the islands. Around each of them are the sensational rings of white sand, then green waters, then green-blue deeper waters and then still-deeper turquoise blue. Ringed reefs are a Maldivian speciality.
The Maldives is a place with no rivers and hills, and actually very little land, but whatever precious little land there is — in its almost 1,200 islands, on 26 atolls organised in a double chain, all part of a coral reef — makes you forget all else. About two hundred islands are inhabited by local residents and more than a hundred of the once-uninhabited islands are now luxury resorts.
Here, when they say ‘luxury island resort’, they don’t say it lightly. Each resort has an island to itself. And on the island, the business of luxury is carried on in full earnest. Constance, a Mauritius-based group, runs two island resorts in the Maldives — Moofushi and Halaveli. In all, the group has seven resorts, all in the Indian Ocean — in Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and the Maldives.
Moofushi and Halaveli — like most islands in the Maldives — are small, very small. You can walk the periphery leisurely in less than half an hour. Moofushi has space enough to carry two restaurants, two bars, a gym, a spa, a swimming pool, a dive centre, two beaches and beach villas. Long limb-like appendages extend from the island: on concrete stilts, wooden walkways lead to rows of water villas on the open sea. Halaveli accommodates, besides two restaurants and a bar, a tennis court on land. Its spa and the fine-dining Asian restaurant are out on the sea among the water villas.
The beach villas, especially the double-storeyed ones at Halaveli, hide behind tropical trees their gardens-with-pools, their open-air bathrooms and their air of Mediterranean lightness. But for me, the place to stay is the water villa. The Indian Ocean rolls beneath you, the room opens out to a deck and an endless expanse of blue. You wear a life jacket and a snorkel and walk down the steps to say hello to the coral and the visiting fish. The sky changes all day and there’s a wine bottle at hand.
At Constance, they have the paraphernalia in place for you to put your feet up and get thoroughly spoiled. You book your stay here, reach Malé airport and give up all worries. They receive you, take you to their airport lounge, refresh you, feed you, transfer you by seaplane, welcome you at the resort, give you your daily bread (and seafood and cheese and salad and fruit) and wine (and beer and whisky and cocktails), put the Maldivian sea and sand and sun at your disposal, and let you be — to gaze open-mouthed at the immensity of the beauty on offer. The view from the seaplane is magnificent, as is the sand on the beach, the colour of the lagoon, the proximity to the water, snorkelling and diving in the coral, chilled piña colada before noon, the variety of cuisine, getting a massage while looking out to the open sea, oodles of private space…
Even with all these similarities, Moofushi and Halaveli offer different experiences. As you enter Moofushi, it asks you to leave your footwear and your world behind and offers an all-inclusive package that has transfer by seaplane from Malé airport, all meals and snacks and drinks, including a variety of drinks and cocktails and some wines, minibar, a boating excursion, an off-shore snorkelling trip and more. Halaveli, in Constance group’s lingo, is an ‘Ultimate’ experience, more upmarket (for some, more uptight too). No all-inclusive package here. More private space — bigger villas, private plunge pools in all villas, a-la-carte meals, fine-dining restaurant, room service, tennis court…
I went to Moofushi and Halaveli, got bewitched and, with a heron sitting next to me on the deck, wrote chat messages from my wi-fi-enabled water villa:
“…this is a mad, maddening place. I can walk out into my balcony and take a few steps down into the Indian Ocean! With a glass of wine if I so wished…”
“…for about 200m the water is green because of the coral, and beyond it is greyish blue. If the sun is out it becomes a deep turquoise blue…”
“…yesterday, for about three hours, there was a school, of more than 100 fish — long, 3ft, blue — under my room. Manta rays — those broad elephant-ear type fish — are common; day before yesterday fed them fish from a jetty!”
“Went snorkelling in the open sea, next to a steeply descending coral reef, saw hundreds of fish, swam with clown fish and then the instructor said ‘Shark! Shark!’ A 6-ft grey reef shark was circling on its own below us!”
The information
Constance Moofushi
Where: South Ari Atoll, Maldives. 45min from Malé by seaplane
Accommodation: 24 beach villas, 56 water villas and 30 senior water villas
Tariff: From $1,300 for a double beach villa on all-inclusive basis
Contact: +960-6681010, moofushiresort.com
Constance Halaveli
Where: Alifu Alifu Atoll, Maldives. 25min from Malé by seaplane, 1hr15min by speedboat
Accommodation: 8 beach villas, 8 double-storey beach villas, 1 presidential beach villa and 57 water villas
Tariff: from $1,400 for a double water villa with private pool on bed and breakfast basis
Contact: +960-6667000, halaveli.com