Magical Maldives

Photo: The view of one of the two private pavilions at the main restaurant, this is the one Chris and I had a romantic candle-light dinner-for-two the night of our anniversary.

We left Kabul in a big hurry, always the last-minute crisis at work to deal with, but we were not even airborne when we started relaxing. My flight-enjoyment was seriously elevated when I was allowed to sit in the cockpit for the entire descent and landing into dusty Dubai. I guess it helps when the flight crew (again) are all South African. What an experience. I had been on the flight deck of a Boeing 747 once before while flying over the Swiss Alps in the mid-nineties - a little reward my dad arranged for us when the air steward asked it if was okay if a person behind us (in the non-smoking section of the flight) could smoke, obviously back in the days when flights were still smoke-friendly zones, but I had never descended and definitely never landed on the deck of a jet before.


For the past week Chris and I spent some seriously needed R&R at a small resort and spa named Island Hideaway on the northern most tip of Maldives on the island of Donakhuli. We spent our entire time eating fresh fish and fruit, enjoying amazing dives with turtles, eagle rays, scorpion fish and a thousand other ocean friends. We visited the amazing Mandara Spa for manicures and pedicures, and the highlight was a 2.5 hour session on our anniversary that included a foot ritual, steam bath, milk bath, massage and all-natural facial.

Photo: The bathtub situated on the open deck of the over-water spa treatment room.

Our anniversary was made especially great by our personal butler Baari who arranged a romantic lunch on our private beach, and an even more romantic dinner in one of the two over-water pavilions at the main restaurant, just for the two of us.

Photo: Part of the anniversary table decorations. They also hand-wove a canopy out of palm leaves for our lunch on the beach, filled our tub with flowers and built a similar congratulations on our bed.

With fewer than forty villas on the island, each separated by at least 50m from any neighbors, the emphasis was all on privacy. We stayed in a Donakhuli villa that comes with a private little splash pool right out front the bedroom. It also has a small private beach and gazebo where candle light dinners can be served by your butler.

Photo: Villa #28 "Filadoo" with bedroom to the right, living area on the left and deck upstairs

The weather was great, we each read a novel for the first time in five months, got a little tanned, and most importantly very relaxed. The week went by too fast, but we had a blast and realized that for two busy-bodies like ourselves, it was the absolute perfect amount of time to relax and catch up, and totally worth the eight year wait! Too soon we were back in Dubai and then making our descent into Kabul. As usual, work is still here, and the world did not (as one always worries) come to an end during our vacation. We are back in the full swing of things, but refreshed and filled with amazing memories of a most memorable (very) belated honeymoon.