We Found Our Paradise in the Maldives

We had heard from our friends Stan and Mary Goodenough that the Maldives islands were a little-known jewel. This was an understatement. The Maldives is a country with hundreds of small islands near the southwest coast of India. With input from Stan and Mary, Frances found Malahini a resort that was only a 10 minute boat ride from the airport island and Male the major city, but galaxies away from the usual hustle and bustle one normally encounters in daily life. The resort encompasses the entire island that only takes 7 minutes to walk around. There are no motorized vehicles on the island and everything from the service, facilities and food is first rate. There are no cash or credit card transactions, everything gets signed to your room account which gets settled in US dollars when checking out. Neither Frances nor I have felt more welcome and blissful in any of our travels. The resort is only two years old and the attention to simplicity and detail was most impressive.

The entire island is white sand and the beaches are a joy to behold and walk on. The crystal blue water, clean air and sunshine were much appreciated by city dwellers. The staff could not be more welcoming. Frances loves the beach and water and spent most of her time there. I enjoyed the beach but did a lot of relaxing after a hectic week of teaching in Durban.

On the last day of our five day stay, we connected with staff members who were musicians and they invited me to enter the crew area’s music room to jam. They played some hauntingly beautiful Maldvian melodies and allowed me to play with them. I taught them to play the Miles Davis tune “So What”. This was a lot of fun and demonstrated that music is a universal language.

When we were leaving several employees gathered at the dock to bid us goodbye. It was truly heavenly. We definitely want to visit the Maldives again.