Our seaplane skims along, smooth and low over an ocean of pure, sparkling, translucent blue stretching to the horizon.
Below, to left and right, behind and forward, the aquamarine expanse is broken only by a sprinkling of small islands separated as if by some supreme architect at discreet distances apart, each existing in its own private space.
Each, too, is marked around its edge by white beaches slipping into clear, gentle shallows and dipping down to the deep, the centres lush with exotic shrubs, trees and palms.
Without exception, thatched roofs dotted here and there peek through to the sky and sleek jetties reach out their arms like daddy longlegs, hosting on this side and that a string of uniform, over-water timber bungalows, complementing nature. Lagoons, and waves breaking over coral reefs, are distinguishing markers.
Water is the leitmotif of the Maldives more so than anywhere else on earth, except perhaps Antarctica. As ice is to the polar sea, so this nation is comprised of nothing but some 1200 tiny atolls scattered across the Indian Ocean to Australia's north-north-west. Even the international airport and the Maldives capital of Male are each located on adjacent small islands.
In fact, close to 100 per cent of this country's territory is actually under water: the thousands of individual, small, land masses rise no higher anywhere than a metre or two above sea level.
So, then, Maldivians are adept seafarers. Catch a bus or train in Sydney or Melbourne: catch a plane or boat to commute in the Maldives.
What a thrill to emerge from a dehydrated aircraft cabin to immediately board your speedboat or seaplane at the airport's water's edge, ferried fast to your holiday island.
Water sports are a highlight. Magnificent corals and tropical fish lie at your feet as you wade into the welcoming wetness just steps from your bungalow or villa. Then there's surfing, windsurfing, sailing, parasailing, snorkelling, diving, game fishing and so on. The ocean, of course, is the Maldivians' larder and a seafood feast the hallmark of every table.
But the Maldives has taken its watery trademark to inventive levels. At one resort, I descended by staircase to the ocean floor to dine in a massive sub-marine wine cellar, its walls lined with 6000 premium bottles. (No room for the Grange; it was stacked in crates by the door!)
At another I was soothed by a herbal facial and a pedicure in a submerged aquarium: I was the "goldfish in the bowl" as curious schools of sharks and wrasse cruised by the picture-glass walls around me. [Read More]
