COURTESY OF FAIRMONT MALDIVESThe Art of
a Retreat
The recently opened Fairmont Maldives
is not just a luxury property built on a
‘secret water island’. It also offers stark
commentary on the planet’s most pressing
matter. Sumeet Keswani takes a deep dive.kissed by turquoise lagoons and infinite swathes
of rippling azure waters beyond. If you’re a resort
on one of these numerous islands in the middle
of the Indian Ocean, what do you do to stand out
from the crowd? You build an underwater art
installation, of course.
At least that’s what Fairmont Maldives
Sirru Fen Fushi did. The resort, built on a six-
kilometre-long island in Shaviyani Atoll, has
all the usual trappings of a typical Maldivian
retreat: luxe beach villas, Dhonis and jet skis
for watersports, a moored yacht that promises
sunset cruises, and water villas stretching
out into the lagoon for an otherworldly living
experience. But what sets it apart is a peculiarTHE MALDIVES IS A WATER BABY’S dream vacation.
The archipelago is made up of about 1,200 islands,
most of which are blessed with topographical
features that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.
Not on this scale at least. The natural gifts are
so abundant it’s almost an affront to the other
islands of the world. And a seaplane flight is
the best way to witness the cerulean wonders
of the Maldives. As you skim the sea water and
take off with the ocean as your runway, almost
insolent to the laws of nature, you fly over dozens
of islands—some verdant and alive with local
activity, others teeming with sunbathing tourists,
and yet others desolate and virgin, but all of them
exotically beautiful with white-sand beachesFIRST LOOK
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