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TRAVEL
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July14
Birthday moment
How better to celebrate your birthday, your love or just life in general? An
hour-long sunset cruise on a traditional Maldivian
dhoni
came complete with
two charming boatmen to attend to the sail and pour the champagne. Later,
of course, came the cake, the candles and the singing.
*A
Dom Pedro
, available in every South African bar or restaurant, is vanilla ice cream blended
with a dash of whole cream and a good shot of whiskey (or brandy, Kahlua or whatever your
poison happens to be). Plenty of calories.
What about children?
Until some years ago, Banyan Tree did
not take children under 12. Now they do –
partly, we’re told, because of pressure from
loyal guests who’d honeymooned at their
resorts and were now parents.
Our neighbours in the next-door villa
had their five-month-old son with them; no
surprise then that they caught the 6.45am
sunrise from the beach every day. With no
kids’ club, baby-sitting, public pool or other
family-friendly facilities, I’d recommend
leaving little ones at home until they’re old
enough to entertain themselves.
On the other hand, the English mother of
an eight-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy
told me that her two were perfectly happy
with beach-play, snorkelling, the odd game
of table tennis and the books she’d loaded
onto their iPads. We’re so lucky to be here,
she said. “If they told me they were bored,”
she added, “I’d have to kill them.”
Getting There
We took the 9.35am direct Tigerair flight
from Singapore to Malé, paying a bit more
for leg-room and extra baggage allowance
(for the shoes I didn’t wear). As it’s just
a 4½-hour plane trip followed by a mere
25-minute speedboat connection, andMalé
is three hours behind Singapore, we arrived
at Ihuru in good time for lunch. The same
plane leaves Malé each day at 12.10pm
and should get to Singapore before 8pm,
if it’s on time.
banyantree.com
tigerair.com
Food
Each island has only one restaurant,
but with fare this good and varied it’s
all you need. A highlight for me was
the array of freshly picked lettuces
and herbs grown hydroponically
on site. Another nice touch was the
array of gourmet salts.
Our first dinner at Angsana Ihuru
was a barbecue buffet; the next, a
set menu with options – my fresh
seafood salad, ginger and carrot
soup, tempura-fried wahoo and
chocolate brûlée with coconut
sorbet was outstanding. (Full board
is an additional US$90 or so per
person. Taking at least half-board,
meaning breakfast and dinner, can
save you quite a bit.)
Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru, on the
other hand, is a full-board resort.
Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style, as is dinner on Fridays and Sundays.
Otherwise, you choose from a multi-course menu or opt for a somewhat lighter
“spa dinner”, for example: salmon sushi, cream of parsnip soup with crisp
almond slivers, sea bass on pureed peas. There was some sort of fruity dessert
too, but we swapped that for a couple of Dom Pedros*, kindly whipped up for
us by the South African executive chef Neil Firman.
On both islands, we’re assured, the bar stays open until the last guest leaves.
I’ll take their word for it; after days of sun, snorkelling and spa, we couldn’t keep
our eyes open much past 10.30pm.