Soneva Secret is one of the world’s most-awaited luxury resorts

So, India and the Maldives are making up.

The Foreign Minister went to Male, the Maldivian capital last week on an official visit. And the President of the Maldives attended the swearing-in of the Indian cabinet a few months ago. It’s a welcome return to normal.

 

Ever since a new China-supporting government took office in the island-nation, relations between India and the Maldives lost the warmth that had characterised our ties for decades.

 

   Some of this was entirely the fault of a few Maldivian politicians who made needlessly provocative remarks about India. Though these remarks were later disowned by their leaders, the bitterness had set in. And some Maldivian politicians tried to play Beijing and Delhi off against each other.

 

   This is a slightly foolish game to play. India and China have been around long enough to know that relations with a tiny South Asian country don’t count for very much in a geopolitical context. And both major powers know that no government in the Maldives lasts forever: in a few years, the parties that support India will be back in power.

 

   Unfortunately, the chill in relations between India and the Maldives has had some impact in the one area that most of us associate with the Maldives: tourism.

 

   Tourism is crucial to the Maldives. Without foreign tourists, the country’s economy would collapse. While the country’s tourism boom had very little to do with India, this changed after the Pandemic, when Indian tourists came to play a larger role in the country’s largely unheralded budget sector.

 

   One angry Indian response to the provocative remarks from the island’s politicians when the war of words first broke out was to predict that if Indians stopped going to the Maldives their tourism sector would collapse. And we Indians could go to our own Lakshadweep.

 

   Ah, if things were only that simple!

 

   For a start, Lakshadweep does not have Maldives-style resorts. Successive Indian governments have always refused to allow the commercialisation of Lakshadweep for environmental reasons. But even if this policy is now overturned, it will still take several years for new hotels to be built and for infrastructure to be developed before Lakshadweep emerges as a challenger to the Maldives. And frankly, our record at developing resort destinations is hardly exemplary: Goa is a mess and the Andamans, long touted as The Next Big Thing, have still to realise their potential. Besides, by the time we have developed Lakshadweep, a new India-friendly government will probably have been elected in the Maldives.

 

   Nor is it clear how much the lack of Indian budget tourists would hurt the Maldives in the medium term: a rush of Chinese tourists could easily fill the vacuum.  But, in the short run, it might hurt some Maldivian resorts, which is why the Maldives government is now back-peddling and ministers are making statements inviting Indian tourists to visit the islands. The sensible thing to do, both governments suggest, is to keep tourism out of temporary political conflicts.

 

   Certainly, many Indian visitors seem to think so. I went back to the Maldives after nearly two years and was delighted to discover that there was no shortage of Indian tourists.

 

"In keeping with the general theme of return-to-nature, Secret is small: just 14 wooden villas, some of them on the natural beach with its powdery sand and some in the blue waters of the lagoon."

   Nor did there seem to be any change in attitude when we landed in the Maldives. The locals were just as welcoming as they had always been. They seemed to recognise that governments would come and go but the ties between the Maldives and Indians (so many of whom are employed by Maldivian resorts) would endure, away from the rhetoric of politicians.

 

   I was in the Maldives to check out Soneva Secret, probably one of the world’s most-awaited luxury resorts, which had finally opened three weeks or so before I got there. Most travellers have heard of Soneva, the group run by Indian-origin Sonu Shivdasani and his Swedish wife Eva. A few months ago Sonu and Soneva won many awards at the first edition of the World’s 50 Best Hotels. Soneva Fushi, the original Soneva, the hotel that launched Maldives as a luxury destination (there are now four Sonevas) was voted the best beach hotel in the world, the 7th Best hotel (overall) in the world and Sonu won the ceremony’s only individual award for his outstanding contribution to the global hoteliering scene.

 

   The 50 Best Awards were the latest in a seemingly endless series of honours for Soneva so when whispers began that Sonu was opening a new hotel, there was massive global interest. Rumours about what kind of hotel it would be peaked some months ago because Sonu refused to talk about it. All that was revealed was that it would be called Soneva Secret. And secret it remained.

 

   Well, the hotel has opened, a little behind schedule, and the secret is out. In many ways, it is a throwback to Sonu and Eva’s original version for Soneva Fushi, which was launched as an environmentally-conscious resort inspired by the spirit of Robinson Crusoe, where nature and luxury co-existed in harmony.

 

   Soneva Secret is near the very edge of the Maldives (about an hour from Male airport by seaplane) in a beautiful atoll with few inhabited islands. If you have been to the Maldives recently you will know that so many resorts have opened (some on reclaimed islands) that the only view you get from your villa often is of another resort a little further away. At Secret, on the other hand, all you can see are the sea and sky.

 

   In keeping with the general theme of return-to-nature, Secret is small: just 14 wooden villas, some of them on the natural beach with its powdery sand and some in the blue waters of the lagoon. It is not very spread out or far flung so you can walk around (ideally, on the sands of the beach) and there is no need for the golf carts that characterise most Maldivian resorts.

 

   The emphasis is on personalised bespoke luxury. Each villa has two butlers to look after guests and an open-air dining area with its own kitchen. Though the resort has two very good restaurants and offers evening dining under the stars on the beach, its central conceit is that you don’t have to go anywhere: everything comes to you. There are around 15 speciality chefs (plus more people to run the restaurants), each of whom specializes in a particular kind of cuisine. So, if you wake up in the morning and decide you want an Indian breakfast, an Italian pasta lunch and complicated dishes from Venezuela and Peru for dinner, three different chefs will come to your kitchen to cook each cuisine for you and the butlers will serve it in your private dining area.

 

   Almost everything else operates on the same bespoke principle. If you want a massage you don’t have to go to the spa. A therapist will come to your villa, take you to your own private spa, in a charming building in your courtyard and give you a personal massage while you can stare out at the gently rippling waters of the lagoon. It is the same with water sports and activities. You tell the butlers that you want to go snorkeling or scuba diving or whatever and they will bring the gear to your room and then escort you to the sea or deliver you to an expert instructor.

 

   The restaurants exist, I suspect, because we all like a change sometimes. The main dining area overlooks the lagoon. I got off my seaplane, famished and ate lunch there, looking at the beach and the sea while a Sri Lankan chef served warm egg hoppers, their yolks glistering in the sunlight with an array of curries and sambals.

 

   The other restaurant is at a height. You can either eat at the counter or on a table but the food will be made by a Peruvian chef who has worked at Central (which was the world’s Best Restaurant last year according to the 50 Best) and whose highly individualistic style combines local ingredients with cutting edge techniques.

 

   It is hard to build anything different in the Maldives which already has some of the world’s best resorts. But Sonu and Eva have managed it. Because it is so tiny and exclusive, Secret is booked up months in advance. I can see why. It’s nice to sit on the sand, look out at miles of ocean and leave the world and its petty politics behind.