Athanas Asia Adventures: March 2019

Sunset on our last evening in the Maldives.

Peter was headed to Thailand for a school trip and Joe was in London for work. Stella and Joe decided to meet in the middle and have a nice vacation while Peter was in Thailand. Halfway between Hong Kong and London is Kazakhstan. That didn’t sound very relaxing, so we looked south, way south, and found the Maldives, a group of islands 620 miles south of India in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives were inhabited for at least 2,000 years before Europeans arrived on the scene. For 1,400 years, the Maldives were Buddhist. Then, around the 12^th century, the Maldives converted to Islam. The Portuguese arrived and took over in 1558. Their attempts to convert the Maldives to Christianity were met with a violent revolt. Then the Dutch ruled from about 1650 to 1796, when the British took over. This brief history lesson explains why there are direct flights from London and Singapore to Male, Maldives.

The flight from London to Male is 11 hours and the flight from Hong Kong to Male via Singapore is about 9 hours. The first thing you notice about the Maldives when you land in Male is that it is an Islamic country. All of the women (other than the many tourists in shorts and t-shirts) are dressed very conservatively wearing hijabs. The second thing you notice is the incredible light blue ocean, which comes right up to the Male airport.

Our resort was not on Male island. Once we arrived in Male, we had to fly in a small propeller plane about 1.5 hours to Addu, the southernmost island in the Maldives. At the Addu airport, we were met by a golf cart, which took us to a dock. We then got on a boat and rode the waves to the Shangri-La resort on very nearby Villingili island.

This is the Shangri-La dock.

When you arrive on Villingili island, the conservative dress disappears. The friendly staff, which live on the island with their families, greet you at the dock with a cold drink and drive you to your villa in a golf cart.

Joe reading on our tree-top
ocean villa deck.

Shangri-La owns the whole 3.5km long jungle island on which the resort is situated. Our villa was on stilts overlooking the Indian Ocean on the southwest side of the island and consisted of two buildings connected by a giant deck with a private pool in the middle. The villa was surrounded by jungle on all sides and, despite having an open view to the ocean, was completely secluded and private. It was absolutely amazing.

Joe riding his bike through
the jungle path.

The resort gave us bicycles to get around. Bike paths had been cut through the jungle in the middle of the island so that the guests could get from place to place.

The spa was just a short walk from our villa. There was a town in the middle of the island about 2 km from our villa with shops and three restaurants. There was a dive shop there where you could pick up free snorkeling gear and drop it off at the end of your stay. And, of course, a bar on the beach with nice bartenders and a croquet court.

Before a morning round of golf.

On the northeast side of the island was a beautiful nine hole golf course. The course was short (par 30), but the greens were tiny and every hole had jungle on the left and ocean on the right. Thus, it was extremely challenging.

Stella was a dominant force in croquet, winning six games to four. In golf, however, Joe was victorious, shooting par one day and getting an eagle another day.

Stella's lunch.

The restaurants were all outstanding. The food was a yummy fusion of Indian, Asian and Middle-Eastern.

The quality of the villa, the friendliness of the people at the resort, the enjoyment of biking everywhere through the shady jungle, the relaxation of great massages, the deliciousness of the food, the competition of golf and croquet, and the refreshment of jumping in our private pool whenever we got too hot was absolutely perfect.

We returned to Hong Kong happy and relaxed.