What could make a trip to the Maldives even better?…

well, a seaplane ride but of course!

Nothing beats a view of the Maldives from 5,000 feet.

After a 25 minute flight, we were chilling in the lounge at the Conrad Rangali Island enjoying raspberry sorbet.

Our first three nights were in a deluxe, beach-front villa. Why thank you, what a nice welcome.

Between you and I, I could have gone for chocolates but the fruit was appreciated as well.

The centerpiece of the deluxe, beach-front villa is the main living space with a bed as well as a couch.

While the privacy is nice, a direct ocean view would have been great. None-the-less, all the windows let tons of light in.

All deluxe, beach-front villas also have a covered patio and…

a personal plunge pool. True confession, we never used the plunge pool!

Every villa also had…

a sand path that leads from the backyard to…

the Indian ocean and two covered lounge chairs.

The villas also had a courtyard with a bathtub (in the distance, covered) and an outdoor shower.

I gotta say, nothing beats a Maldivian night!

While I did love the deluxe, beach-front villa when someone offers you an upgrade to an over-water villa…

you take the upgrade to the over-water villa. Why? because, well, it’s over the water!

And I didn’t come to the Maldives to have a few of the foliage, no matter how nice it was. Nope, I came for this clear, beautiful blue water!

Cliche I know, but I had to get a snap of it.

Now, this wasn’t just any over-water villa…

nope! This was a spa villa with a separate room just for spa services. Now, it would be irrational of me to have a spa villa and not have a spa service or three, right?

In addition to all the water that the over-water villa is over, you have a little extra water…

in the form of a jacuzzi. Talk about a jacuzzi with a view!

When you literally have nature’s best infinity pool (the ocean) surrounding you, who needs an infinity pool? Having said that, the Conrad Rangali had a pretty impressive infinity pool and the sunset was pretty damn spectacular too!

Now, there is no coming to the Conrad Rangali with visiting…

Ithaa, the world famous undersea restaurant.

As you might imagine, the undersea restaurant is, well, under the sea. While you may not be sleeping with the fishes, you are most definitely dining with them!

Conrad Rangali wouldn’t be a resort if it didn’t have a spa and I wouldn’t be Dr. I if I didn’t hit the spa up in addition to the three in-room spa services I had. Don’t judge! It was all in the name of research.

The Maldives wouldn’t be the Maldives without a Dhoni, the traditional Maldivian fishing boat. And, I wouldn’t be a Maldivian tourist if I didn’t take at least one Dhoni ride.

Now, you know I am not one for water but I couldn’t leave the Maldives without snorkeling. For those that don’t know, the Maldives is renowned for the clear blue waters and the abundant sea life.

Now, let’s be honest folks, a big part of resort-life and vacation-life is stuffing you freaking face. While we were lucky enough to have free breakfast, which was buffet, the remaining meals…

were not free and they were Maldivian expensive. $270 for two people sans alcohol! Needless to say, we were a two meal a day family although we probably did enough middle of the day minibar damage to make up for a third meal.

Now, anybody that came along on our Seychelles adventure no doubt remembers the roach trap we stayed in for the first few nights. Roaches come with the tropics but I don’t want to see them in my room or the restaurant. Thankfully this dead roach was my only sighting (in the gym), at least until our last day. So, overall, I was happy with the almost roach-less nature of the vacation.

Now, I couldn’t put the bow on this little diddy without some pics of Rangali island itself, so here ya go…

Sandy beaches and…

nice blue waters, and…

more sandy beaches with more clear blue water.

Nothing beats the sand and water but…

the nice walking trails and foliage were a nice second.

Okay, back to the beach and my two favorite beach chairs.

And again, cliche but nothing says island paradise like a leaning palm tree.

A view of a dhoni from the outside and last but not least…

the literally crystal clear waters of the Maldives.

Alas, all good things must come to an end as you can no doubt tell from the completely natural look on my face, our trip had come to an end.

And so, we made our way back to the Trans Maldivian Airways seaplane and we were soon…

on our way back to Male to catch our flights (four to be exact) home by way of Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, and Zurich.