The Magic of Mirihi
Just over two years ago on a dark winter’s day I flew out of the UK and 12 hours later found myself in this place. I bet that right now, as millions around the globe fear another Christmas will be spoilt somewhat by Covid, that a great many would love to be transported to Mirihi Island on a magic carpet this very minute. Here is the article I wrote at the time…
Every now and again - or maybe just once or twice in a lifetime - you get to go somewhere that causes you pinch yourself so you can check you’re not dreaming. There are plenty of earthly paradise zones if you know how to find them, but some have more tick-boxes than the rest.
Arriving at Mirihi where you take your shoes off straight away
The Maldives would be one such place, especially for those of us from a wintry Northern Europe. White sandy palm-strewn beaches? Tick. Crystal clear warm seas? Tick. Colourful, bountiful, coral reefs (for the most part, shark-free)? Tick. Fabulous weather? Tick. Fabulous local food? Tick. Friendly people? Tick.
What more can you say? Not a lot, really. Not when you’ve spent the best part of a week on a paradise island that is only 200 metres long. Not when you’ve spent 15 minutes walking right around it one way six times - and doubled that number by circumnavigating it in the other direction.
Which brings me to the one big question that people ask time and again about the Maldives… After a day or two on a tiny atoll, what are you going to do?
Well, I know there are people who get bored easily, even when they’re in paradise - but I am not one of them. Actually, I found a great deal to occupy my mind during my stay at the amazing Mirihi Island Resort and would very gladly have doubled or tripled my time there.
For a start, a resort like Mirihi offers the ultimate chill-out zone. There are no cars - no traffic at all. There’s no noise, save for the occasional visiting seaplane upon which you will have arrived having enjoyed a 45-minute scenic flight from the Maldivian capital of Maale.
Preparing to leave Maale aboard the seaplane
Describing an arrival at Mirihi is well worth the column-space. The Twin Otter seaplane will have banked hard allowing you a seagull’s eye view of the tiny palm-covered islet and its surrounding azure sea and the pilot will have throttled back to allow for an ultra-smooth landing on the mirror-like water. The island boat will come out to the pontoon and staff will take your luggage and politely call you by your christian name, even though they’ve never met you before.
Mirihi Island
The people who work at Mirihi are an intelligent bunch (they probably search for an image of you on the internet so that they can recognise you when you arrive) - and they are extremely friendly and polite. One of them will suggest you take off your shoes as the boat pulls away from the plane and heads towards the jetty.
She is saying: “You might like to take off your shoes now - we will take them with your luggage to your rooms. The thing is, you won’t be needing them until you leave…”
As she is saying the words and you are slipping off your footwear, so you are beginning to realise that you are having one of those “pinch-yourself” moments. The wooden jetty, the white sand beach, the tiny islet with its palms beyond… Surely this is a place where movie-stars and prime ministers go on holiday? It’s not the kind of place a chap raised in a West Country council house has any right to be in…
But here you are. And they are all smiling, calling you Martin and taking you on a sandy path through the palms and out over another jetty across another beach to a series of thatched villas built on stilts above the reef. One of them is yours - and it is huge and airy and luxurious. You open the sliding glass doors and walk out onto your private balcony and look down the steps that will take you straight into a vast endless tropical fish-tank.
And you think: “This will do me very nicely indeed. In fact, cancel the return flight.”
You are hot and sweaty after the long flight from the UK and the connection at the busy airport - so you grab the facemark, snorkel and fins the staff have given you for your stay and you go down into that cooling, fabulous, underwater world beneath your suite. Just for a few minutes, just to cool off and relax…
And one hour later you realise you’re still out there exploring the reef and will be late for lunch. Not that there is such a thing as “late” in the Maldives. It is one of the most relaxed places in the world. In fact, at the Mirihi Island Resort they have even set the time to be being one hour later than anywhere else in the watery nation so that guests can make the very best of the daylight hours.
Mirihi is out on the western fringes of the Maldivian archipelago, so this makes sense. Not that you will need a clock, unless you have arranged to meet your pals or fellow guests for lunch or dinner.
Talking of which, the food is superb. In fact, it is the best resort food I have eaten in over 40 years of travel writing. Maldivian cuisine is a fat-free, super-healthy, delicious sensation - and there’s plenty of Sri Lankan and Southern India food to go with it. Executive chef Felix Bamert makes sure there are more than 20 different curries on show each afternoon and evening, and there will be a new main theme to dinner day after day.
There is a high-end waiter-service restaurant at one end of the isle (great place for cocktails and sunsets) but the main buffet-style dining centre is massive and airy - and the range of salads, cold cuts, mains, sweets and goodness knows what else is bigger than any other resort offering I’ve ever seen. And everything is freshly made.
So, apart from eating and drinking, what to do in paradise?
Not surprisingly, a lot of it is water-based. There’s an excellent diving centre at Mirihi - so excellent they taught me the rudiments of scuba-diving and had me down there enjoying the non-snorkel-ish bits of the reef in an impressively short time. I’ve had diving lessons before, but these guys were somehow more instructive, more caring and better at it than the folk who’ve given me underwater experiences elsewhere.
Or how about a sunset cruise out to the edge of the atoll so that you can sip cocktails while watching dolphins leap around on the bow wave? That certainly ticked a box for me.
But the ultimate boredom-in-paradise busting treat was an all-day cruise aboard Mirihi’s own elegant yacht… Again we went out to the edge of the atoll and into the Indian Ocean proper so that we could cruise in a place where giant whale sharks lurk in a tidal zone, allowing the currents to bring them quantities of plankton and goodness knows what other microbial stuff they eat.
There were several other boats in the area from other resorts, all full of tourists armed with face-masks and snorkels, all desperate to swim with the whale sharks. It is one of the “must-do” thrills of the Maldives - and there are places where ecologists say it’s gone too far and all the attention is harming those gentle giants.
But out here on the remote western fringe of the archipelago that’s not so much the case - and I have to say the local crew aboard our yacht seemed to have the edge on all the rest so we were soon swimming close to the gargantuan creatures when the other boats weren’t.
At one point I was just ten feet from a whale shark that must have been more than 20 feet long. It swam slowly and gracefully below me for minutes, before accelerating effortlessly away. To be so close to something so huge and so wild - and thankfully, so vegetarian - was a thing I shall never forget.
Later that day we were able to swim among manta rays. And later still we were back on Mirihi for a huge banquet laid out for us on the beach, followed by an extensive rum-and-chocolate-tasting session which went on until the early hours.
Bored in paradise? Not me. In fact, I was so busy, I was exhausted and could have done with another week in my private reef villa just to chill-out.
FACT FILE
Nightly rates at Mirihi Island start from $600 (£479*) per villa, on a B&B basis, based on two people sharing. Prices are subject to 10% service charge and 12% GST. For more information or to make a reservation visit www.mirihi.com or call +960 668 0500 or email info@mirihi.com
