Review — My descent to Amilla Fushi was almost unbearably poetic, as the seaplane landed right by the island to the sight of the setting sun painting a kaleidoscope of color unto the largely white architectural canvas of My Island Home.
Review — Hotel Jen officially opened Jen’s Kitchen On-The-Go On Thursday with live music, mascots, dancing waiters and free tastings.
Review — When James Hilton described his fictive paradise of exotic earthly bliss by that name in 1933 in his seminal novel Lost Horizon, few people would have known how to identify Maldives on a map, let alone Villingili island in heart shaped Addu atoll. Today several scheduled daily flights take you to Gan International Airport at the southernmost tip of Maldives, just below the equator. Taking a 70 minute domestic flight after your international flight might seem a stretch, but if it weren’t out of this world, it wouldn’t be Shangri-La, right?
Review — “May I help you unpack Madam?” asks Mahon my handsome private butler from Chennai, India. I hold up my daypack and flippers, that’s all I’ve brought. “Should I open the champagne for you?” he says pointing to a bottle of Taittinger chilling in an ice bucket in the living room of my overwater residence. I check my watch. It’s 11:30 am, but hey why not, I’ve got nothing else to do other than cool down in my private infinity plunge pool on the spacious split-level deck or maybe slip on the flippers and check out the fine house reef right outside my villa. But before I do anything that adventurous I check out the villa itself, which is the size of a small house. There’s an extensive pillow menu on my bedside table, yes, a pillow menu, the curtains in front of my oversized bed can be controlled by remote control and, on request, Mahon will fill the massive bathtub that overlooks the turquoise lagoon with a luxurious bath, to go with the French bubbles I am about to taste.
Review — The thick grove of over 500 palm trees, gives little hint of the 5 star, 180 room luxury resort hidden in its shade. Kurumba is Dhivehi for coconut and synonymous with the birthplace of the multi million dollar tourist industry of Maldives.