Visiting Maldives like stepping into a new life (4)

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All the devices in the suite, including the lights, the TV stereo and the massage tub are controlled by an iPad. Also, the room is equipped with the newest version of an iMac computer, the most popular single-serve coffee machine and a mini bar full of high-end surprises.

The TV in the bedroom is hidden in a suitcase-like box in front of the bed, and when you touch your iPad, the TV emerges and provides you hundreds of the latest films, including a few not yet seen in cinemas.

The shower and spa are important at a resort where you’re exposed to the sun and sea all day. Two shower walls in the bathroom provide an amazing experience, and a spa treatment is available for relaxation at any time of day.

Of course, the whole villa faces the ocean. It is difficult to decide where to lay down and enjoy the superb view through the wall of sliding-glass doors. There are too many choices: on the terrace, in the outdoor bathing tub, crashed on the couch, or just lying on the ultra-comfortable bed all day. Other villas on the island are different in size, but all are equipped with the same devices and wooden furniture that reflects a tropical feel.

This destination in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with its absolute privacy, tailor-made services and all the indulgences has attracted many high-profile guests such as royal families from the Middle East and Europe.

A special sandbank picnic highlights the whole journey. The next morning after we woke up with birds singing and the fresh smell of the ocean, our butler prepared a special trip for us. After sailing for 30 minutes, we encounter surprises including dolphins, seabirds, and the wonderful, colorful and vast ocean. You felt the greatness of nature.

That’s not all. Before sailing out, I thought we’d have a happy picnic lunch on the sandbank of an island. But when we arrived at our destination, it turned out that the island is just a sandbank. A flock of seabirds rest on the sandbank, and we need to take a small boat to get there.

Under the tent that the hotel staff just set up, we had a delicately prepared lunch box next to wild seabirds and the bright blue expanse of sky and ocean. There are no other sounds except those of nature, no other views that are not natural. It is the experience of a lifetime.

“Want to snorkel? We may see turtles today,” the guide told us.

We followed him into the ocean, so pristine as to appear unreal, and swam between clownfish and other colorful species. The undersea world looked like a vast forest, and the coral reef was bigger than I imagined, like submerged mountains. It is like a scene in a cartoon movie.

As I lost myself admiring the wonders under the surface, the guide suddenly dived deeply in front of us and swam to a big coral outcropping and pointed to a “rock.”

“Oh, my god, it’s a big turtle,” I thought.

The creature noticed us but seemed very calm. It seemed he liked us, or at least is very curious.

After he’s been spotted, the big turtle slowly swam upward to us, and made a little show.

It’s just like British poet William Blake said:

“To see the world in a grain of sand,

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