THE WAY OF THE WATER

Happy, luxurious, chic, good times are the only way to roll on a vacation. AMBIKA MUTTOO has found her new favourite spot in the Indian Ocean, and is letting you in on the secret

- AMBIKA MUTTOO

What defines a beautiful experience for you? For a proudly middle-class kid (well, adult), international travel will always be a sort of internal victory. Perhaps it links back to when, as children, aunts and uncles would visit from America or Canada, bearing suitcases full of exotic goods, eliciting responses of envy and longing. Today, while we're spoilt for choice, and social media dictates so much of what we do, there are certain places in the world that will make you feel that big emotional palette of the little person you used to be. The awe, the wonder, the joy...but, this time, without the envy. Because you made it to the Maldives, one of the most incredible places on Earth.

This time, it was the extraordinary InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort that lured me over the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is an archipelago broken up into atolls - districts, of sorts - that are a collection of islands. You access these from Male's Velana International Airport by either seaplane, domestic flight, or speed boat, and, often, a combination of at least twoa 45-minute seaplane ride for this stint.