A few more days in paradise....

This is the part of the vacation when we realize we have only fifty more pages left in our book....The tanning lotion bottle is low and it is time to make contact with the travel agency at what time the boat will escort us back to the airport to make the flight back to Male. Two more days of leisure then a full 24 hours of travel back to the city of light.....I am ready to see my man and my dog, Spencer.

Boats, Planes, more boats, and a golf cart

It was a long day of travel for both Lyndsey and I. We had to get up early around 7am which disrupted our daily ritual of morning swim and breakfast routine. The boat ride to the Hadahaa atoll took fifty minutes. We thought it was a bit suspicious that we were not offered the customary bottle of water and face cloth cooled in mint water."What no cooled face clothes?" Later, we figured out that Alila Villas resort is the first resort to be environmentally certified in the Maldives. So, no plastic bottles nor toiletries. All shampoo and body lotion was in beautiful ceramic containers. A small step for mankind.......WE were also on a boat full of technology inclined tourists. It was fun to watch them click away.....

On our way to Alila Villas Hadahaa , Maldives

We took a hour boat ride to reach the remote Alila Villas.Alila Villas Hadahaa is the first resort in the Maldives to be environmentally certified for both design and construction. You will not see plastic in any form on this island. The architecture is both natural and very futuristic. The water bungalows remind me of the Paul Verhoeven film, STARSHIP TROOPERS. Somehow these water bungalows conjure up images of ants and bugs. Hmmm. I do have to say they did a great job at bringing a boutique hotel to the inner bowels of the Indian Sea.

One thing that I felt contradicting the architect's 'Natural' philosophy', was that every building had air conditioning. AC is not something I want to sleep, do yoga , nor receive a massage in. Especially in the tropics.

I want to feel the sensuality of the humidity. I want to feel it on my skin, hear the geckos chirp and the palm trees sway. In our villa, there was no ceiling fan to be found which I found a bit too dictatorship in the land of architects. I do not want to sleep with a fan blowing out cold wind on my body. I really do not think that Mr Architect ever came to the Maldives nor swam in its pristine Indian ocean. In the end, this is all about personal taste. I prefer a resort that marries more organically the natural environment and is less about a statement.

Good bye Cocoa Island Resort

We left Cocoa Island at 9am for a long day of island travel to Alila Villa Hadahaa. Lyndsey was a bit under the weather after her Australian red wine experience. At Male International airport we caught a small plane to the southern Atoll of Hadahaa which is a hour away from the Equator. Exiting out of our plane, the air was so much more humid and hot. Seven more days of paradise!

Como Shambala Spa deluxe

It was with great pleasure that Lyndsey and I had several spa services at the Como Shambala spa. All the services are done by Thai women with the most delicate yet powerful hands. I prefer the Asian attitude towards spa excursions. It is easy to abandon ones mind and body to the sensual hands that make me feel like putty.....There was also a complete water therapy pool that we took advantage of after our massage.

Cocoa Resort yoga

I have always wanted to vacation at a Como Shamabala resort because they offer yoga classes, alternative cuisine plus wholesome face and body treatments all under one roof. They have a very big and airy yoga pavilion right off the beach that catches the gentle ocean breezes. We did several classes but ended doing our own practice being the Iyengar divas that we are....

Moving to the hood on Cocoa Island

Our travel agency, Atoll Paradise Travel Agency, did a great job securing our reservation at Cocoa Resort. It is high season so normally all the finer resorts are booked months in advance. The only hitch was that we would have to move rooms half way through our stay. So, we packed up after the second night to Dhoni Loft suite 826 which was one of the original bungalows on water. I asked the resort how they managed during the 2004 tsunami. They said they did not receive a lot of damage due to their reef. The coral reef is what protected most of the Maldivian Islands. It kills me to see places like Bali, destroy these natural protectors with dynamite. I snorkeled in the North Bali waters only to see grey coral that looked like a cemetery.

www.atollparadise.com