Paradise Found? Escaping reality with a trip to the Maldives amid the pandemic
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Paradise Institute? Escaping reality with a trip to the Maldives amid the pandemic
Hong Kong-based writer Chris Dwyer, who recently journeyed to the Maldives, explains the reality of leisure travel in boggling times and reveals how ancient Chinese wisdom has influenced one of the world'due south most sectional resorts.
How's this for fun? The 2 Bedroom Water Retreat with Slide at Soneva Fushi comes with a private pool and a slide that lets you plunge into the Indian Ocean. (Photo: Soneva)
22 Mar 2022 06:30AM (Updated: ten Jul 2022 04:52AM)
Such is the surreal nature of travel these days that our checklist for a unproblematic trip from Hong Kong to the Maldives ran to three pages.
We used to jump on planes like buses, hopping away for a weekend without thinking. But now a trip takes weeks of planning, scanning the headlines daily for changes in protocol, policy, quarantine details and case numbers, and checking with airlines and hotels, ensuring that everything is in place – simply to get on a plane and finish upwardly in a unlike land a few hours afterwards.
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A certificate confirming that you are COVID-19-costless is mandatory for whatever company inbound the Maldives, part of the quid-pro-quo which has seen them open their doors to any and all global visitors, regardless of their passport. Every bit a result, the archipelago nation has become a magnet for high-end travellers seeking to escape the grim day-to-twenty-four hours elsewhere.
The PCR test needed to be taken no less than 72 hours before our flight, so US$180 (S$240) poorer and a couple of gargles of saliva downwards, nosotros finally had the key dark-green calorie-free.
Hong Kong airport was and then deserted that information technology felt like the set of 28 Days Afterward, for those that retrieve the cult British mail service-apocalyptic movie from 2002. Literally no ane else was at the driblet-off for departures, while check-in, security and the one Cathay Pacific lounge were almost equally empty.
Under a visor and a mask, both mandatory upon boarding our flying, we chop-chop realised nosotros were just two of five passengers in 44 business class seats, while Economic system was even less populated. Social distancing had never been then easy.
Subsequently a short finish in the Gulf – there are currently no directly flights from Hong Kong to the Maldives, nor indeed from Singapore – in our second leg we found ourselves glued to the airplane windows, broad-eyed at the aquamarine waters of the Indian Sea below.
To see a completely dissimilar horizon after almost a year of lockdown was pretty emotional.
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SMOOTH LANDING
On landing in the Republic of the maldives, the arrival procedure couldn't have been smoother or easier. Afterwards immigration and a check on our documents, we were met past a representative from luxury resort group Soneva and taken to their private lounge to await our brusque flight to Soneva Fushi with Trans Maldivian Airways.
As the seaplane gently skimmed the waves on landing, with flying fish following our wake, the resort slowly revealed itself through the jungle-covered isle. Our welcome at the deck came from 1 of the only people at Soneva Fushi wearing a mask, namely our "Miss Friday" – the proper noun Soneva gives to its staff who take intendance of guests' needs. She drove a golf buggy to our villa where we were to have our PCR test, the 2nd in our 72 hour-window.
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It was a remarkable decision for Sonu Shivdasani, Soneva'due south co-founder, to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a COVID-19 testing machine from Roche. Everyone visiting the Soneva islands, staff and guests alike, are tested.
Equally he revealed later, "I asked 100 industry people what they idea about purchasing a car and testing all our guests and staff – only i person said information technology wasn't a good idea."
Vindication came quickly in the form of record bookings at Soneva properties for November and Dec 2020, an extraordinary feat in a yr of carnage for the travel industry. Indeed, Soneva Fushi didn't shut for a single twenty-four hours in 2020, while the general manager told me that he had been on the property since November 2019.
Once checked in to the world'due south largest overwater villa, which Soneva calls a Water Retreat, we realised that in that location could hardly be a better place to quarantine on the planet, peculiarly with the Indian Ocean, room service and a vast private puddle at our disposal.
The in-villa PCR test from a nurse – the only other person wearing a mask – took all of v seconds, before we were then left to relax and endeavour and believe where we had really arrived, exploring the vast 9,200 sq ft two-bedroom property like giddy kids.
The negative results were returned under the door by 6am the post-obit forenoon – 16 hours later, a quicker turnaround fourth dimension than our Hong Kong infirmary – leaving us gratis to pack away our masks and mingle freely with staff and guests alike, revelling in the freedom of being in paradise, free from the stresses of urban life in lockdown.
PRIVACY ENSURED
Set along a jetty, the new overwater villas clearly target family travel from Asian markets like People's republic of china, Hong Kong and Singapore, every bit Shivdasani explained: "In that location are just viii low-density water retreats, which are totally individual. The design is also based on feng shui, as if you looked at the island earlier, it looked like a fish – at present nosotros've added a tail to the fish."
Indeed, when I asked him to look back on a tumultuous year for travel, he once more focused on China: "There's a lot of great wisdom from China. I like the wisdom of Lao Tzu who said that adept fortune has its roots in disaster. That's certainly been my experience with my health crisis two years ago (Shivdasani was diagnosed with stage four cancer).
"If i approaches a crisis with the correct solution-oriented frame of mind, then at that place are opportunities to grow and evolve. The Chinese character for crunch combines two symbols, ane for danger but also one for opportunity and change."
Dorsum at villa 88, clearly an auspicious number in Chinese culture, the nigh pressing question every twenty-four hours was how to relax in sustainable luxury.
Having celebrated their 25th ceremony in 2020, Soneva Fushi'southward sustainable credentials are still frankly unmatched in super-luxury resorts: There'southward no plastic to be seen anywhere, every wooden plank and slice of piece of furniture is made on the island, while any metallic used comes from drinkable cans melted on the isle. Throughout the villa there are glass panels – upcycled in their drinking glass workshop, naturally – which let you lot spotter the mantas and baby sharks swimming below.
Speaking of marine life, nosotros observed dolphins frolicking on the reef just metres away. Information technology'southward called a Water Retreat with good reason, and so at that place's your personal snorkelling deck for easy access to the sea, multiple other ladder entry points, but most of all an insanely fun 19m water slide that heads in a spiral from the villa's 2nd floor direct into the warm water beneath. But brand sure that you lot check the tide level first.
Rivalling the slide in the fun factor is the roof higher up your bed which retracts at the touch of a push, letting you sunbathe or sleep nether the stars. Just if you actually desire to rub it in to those back domicile – when y'all're not constantly posting on Instagram, that is – then the villa's workspace has a desk with drawers facing the bounding main. Why? So that when you lot're on a Zoom call you have the real waters of the Indian Ocean equally your backdrop.
Your kitchen and huge SMEG fridge are filled with epicurean treats that somehow largely remain healthy, while a coconut-rich Maldivian tuna curry with hot chapati is there at the press of a button, part of a tempting and all-encompassing in-villa dining card. But then you as well have a option of globe-class restaurants but a few minutes ride abroad on your personalised bicycles – made from bamboo, naturally.
As you cycle the sandy tracks criss-crossing the island, avoiding the occasional iguana running across your path, you as well notice a distinct lack of something: Mosquitoes.
That's cheers to withal another remarkable idea which became reality, namely a 95 per cent reduction in mosquito numbers on the island. Fugitive chemical-filled fogging and sprays that are typically used elsewhere, Soneva worked with world-renowned musquito skillful Dr Bart Knols to prepare pioneering chemic-gratis traps across the resort.
The result has been a far safer and even more pleasant environment, the regeneration of native bees and butterflies, as well as the genuinely viable vision of extending the method to destinations all over the earth that are plagued past mosquitoes – and with it, potentially massively impacting diseases similar malaria and dengue.
It'south a reminder that life in the Maldives, especially in the pinnacle of high-terminate resorts, can feel a long, long way from reality. Just that's arguably the beauty – and the point – of travelling there in the first identify.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/a-trip-to-the-maldives-amid-the-pandemic-252016
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