From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine Dec, 2007, issue

Rangali Island, Maldives

Diving is nine parts struggle (sweating in wetsuits, and dragging oxygen tanks around) for one part reward: an unforgettable kaleidoscope of sealife. Now there’s a far easier alternative – and it takes the phrase ‘sea view’ to new depths. Rangali Island’s Ithaa restaurant is actually underwater.

It’s an extraordinary architectural feat – constructed in Singapore, freighted by barge to its Indian Ocean location and sunk with a generous ballast of sand onto its supporting steel piles. But its lifespan is reckoned to be only about 20 years – so don’t leave it too long to come.

The Sunday Times Travel Magazine - December

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A meal here is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the slothful sybarite: you dine five metres under the sky-blue sea, encased in an arc of acrylic that affords you practically panoramic views of coral with your meal. Perhaps seared tuna followed by rib-eye steak with a (visual) side order of turtle. If you happen to drink like a fish, the resort also has a fine underground wine cellar accommodating an impressive selection of vintages.

Above ground, creamily cool beach villas have been fitted with lush, palm-filled garden bathrooms: they’re your invitation to laze and gaze at Rangali’s nothing-but-blue-sea panoramas. Splash your cash on a Sunset Water Villa and you get a glass-floored lounge (above) as well as circular beds that rotate 180º. So: maximum impact for minimum effort.

* Rangali Island has villas from £288, B&B

The Datai, Langkawi, Malaysia

Sure, The Datai is expensive – but it’s also priceless. Not least for the view from its pristine white-sand beach on Langkawi island, on the far northwestern tip of Malaysia, where the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean come together. Before you unravels a procession of limestone karsts that mark the coast of Thailand.

Jutting out from the emerald Andaman Sea, these iconic, jungle-covered outcrops are as instantly calming as beta-blockers. So are the 112 rooms and suites: expect a designer masterclass in teak, black granite and white marble understatement, positioned among the rainforest canopy so sensitively it’s as if they’d always been there, just hacked from the undergrowth by some explorer.

They’re resplendent with generous bathrooms and oversized daybeds, and they come with a cast of mischievous monkeys. Consider these the regional equivalent of Rod Hull’s Emu: you’ll spot them popping up on balconies, or sneaking into bedrooms through open doors and windows. For budding David Attenboroughs, resident conservationists conduct superbly informative nature walks along discreet rainforest footpaths in search of birds, bats, frogs and geckos.

For more jaded urban refugees there’s an acclaimed spa peddling excellent body scrubs, flower baths and facials. Add to that a major room renovation, and you’d be daft not to hop aboard the next 747 to Kuala Lumpur.

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