A Rhapsody in Blue- Dreaming of Soneva Jani

With the global pandemic confining just about everyone indoors, travel, as we know it, has changed. My wings too, for now, have been clipped but mercifully, my mind is still free to go wherever my heart desires. More often than not, I find myself dreaming of the last time my boys and I were cocooned in a turquoise trance that is Maldives, at the otherworldly- Soneva Jani.

And why would I not dream? When your ridiculously generously sized over-water villa comes with a button to slide open a retractable ceiling that lets you sleep under the stars. And the villa water slide sends you splashing directly into the heart of the Indian Ocean.  Your private pool with catamaran nets lets you sway into the evening or portholes in the villa floor let you peer straight into the eyes of Nemo. Would you ever want to have a regular meal again, after you’ve had one in the company of Soneva’s astronomer showing you Jupiter through a state-of-the-art telescopes that just popped up from a glass floor of an open-air observatory? Watching movies  (the regular way) is another memory you can kiss goodbye, after you’ve seen a movie Jani Style – an open-air floating cinema with a giant screen popping out of the ocean. Given Soneva’s unwavering commitment to the environment, nothing less than Bluetooth headphones would do, so as not to disturb surrounding marine life.

Soneva staples like an all day (and complimentary!) chocolate room, ice cream room and charcuterie are all there in full force. Between looking for crabs along Screw Pine Alley, cycling down to the jetty to catch the boat to the resort’s private Zuhair’s Island, splashing in the turquoise waters of the stunning private lagoon and building sandcastles with a Hollywood star’s kid, no child will have time for a kids’ club, although they have that too.

Enough cannot be said of the joys of treading this piece of heaven barefoot, for another Soneva ethos ‘no news, no shoes’ is followed here and shoes are whisked away by your round-the-clock butler on arrival.  

Heaven on earth has a new address and it is luxe. Very! And soon, this too shall pass and I will return to savor it.

Words by Mandira Rai