The service has been great so far; the room is beautiful. This is shaping up to be a memorable stay.

The St. Regis is an hour ahead of Mal� (a neat trick to put the sunset closer to dinner time). Our few hours before dinner were spent eating lunch at Crust and Craft and then relaxing at the beach and at the beach bar.



We then went to Whale Bar for the sunset (which was obscured by clouds) before going to dinner at Orientale, the "pan Asian" restaurant. By the end of dinner, I was seriously zonked and neglected to take pictures. The food was good.


This will more or less be the plan for the rest of the stay, with varying activities during the day. There are five primary restaurants for dinner, plus the Whale Bar (which also serves dinner) and Crust and Craft (open for lunch). So, it works out perfectly for us to try a different one each night. Edited to add: there is a Michelin-star chef from La Parolina in Italy, Iside de Cesare, visiting this week, so our dinner tomorrow will be a tasting menu prepared by her.

Cocktails here are expensive ($26 plus tax and service charge) but are of good quality. I will only have a few a day. If you were looking to really drink, prices for beer and shots are more in line with NYC prices (~$12-$15).

I started today with a tennis lesson. The instructor was good and gave me some helpful pointers to correct the bad habits I've picked up since I stopped playing regularly 24 years ago.


I'd read about the breakfast here but was still not prepared. The amount of options was overwhelming. Everything I had was delicious. The photos below don't do it justice but will give you an idea of the range of choices.
The plan for the rest of today is to relax at the room and use the snorkeling gear we picked up after breakfast.

The past few days have been supremely relaxing. So far, I have only snorkeled on our (sunrise) villa side; the reef is on the other side. Still, on this side, there are patches of coral teeming with marine life. I've seen at least a dozen types of fish.

Yesterday, they informed us that they would move us to a villa on the other side for the last two nights. So, I'll have easy access to the reef this afternoon and tomorrow.

Other than that

-We have eaten lunch at the beach bar, with a DJ providing a soundtrack.


-We had our best massage yet at the spa, which began with the masseuses singing.

-We circled the island aloft on a parasail.

-I've done two morning workouts in the yoga space (core and TRX). Tomorrow, we've signed up for the pool bike class, which will be nice because I won't have to worry about slipping on my sweat--I am not used to exercising outside!

-And we have had some great food and drinks. I will highlight the Iside de Cesare dinner in a separate post.


Lamb with saffron paratha at Alba

Butter chicken at Alba

Egg white "Maldivian omelette" with moringa leaves, onion, and chili

As mentioned above, Iside de Cesare, the chef/owner of La Parolina in Trevinano, is putting on a series of dinners. I discovered this when I was browsing the Marriott Moments site, where you can bid on experiences with Bonvoy points. One item was a five-night stay here with a private dinner prepared by her. I figured that couldn't be the only reason she was coming and inquired. She is doing two other dinners: the one we attended last night and Friday at the Whale Bar.

Last night's dinner took place in the resort's wine cellar. There were eleven guests, plus the property's food and beverage director, who led the experience.

(As an aside, the fact that all eleven guests who attended this dinner at a resort with an international clientele were from the United States made me reflect on the marketing and economics of "fine dining." And in this installment of "it's a small world," we used the same wedding planner as the couple sitting next to my wife, nine years later.)

The dinner was not cheap, but it was almost a good (relative) value considering the high duties imposed on alcohol in the Maldives. The food was outstanding, and the wine kept flowing--I had multiple pours during most courses. The memory of the 1996 La Montrachet chardonnay (one of the "mystery wines") will stay with me, as will the passionfruit and mango dessert.

One other note: on the preferences questionnaire before I arrived, I noted that I tend to avoid seafood but do not have an allergy or aversion. Although I fully expected to have seafood for this meal, they modified it for me by replacing the cod with an egg and removing the prawns. I ate some of my wife's cod; it was really good.


Champagne as we waited for other guests.


The panzanella gelato was wildly inventive and was accented wonderfully by the watermelon.








The two "mystery wines"

Look who just popped in for a visit!

That is as nice a tennis court as ever I've seen! Great food, beverage and property photos of the St. Regis as well. Ah, the lives some of you lead... Thanks for a fine report so far

Thanks! It was a wonderful court to play on. And I feel the same way reading your reports!

I just saw the news about the earthquake that has led to a tragic loss of life in Mandalay, Bangkok, and likely elsewhere. While obviously our plans are a tertiary concern at this time, this may lead us to change them.

We ended our stay in the Maldives on a high note, packing a ton of activities into our final day.

After breakfast, we did a fun pool bike exercise class, where we were the only two participants.

Then, I hydrated with a coconut and rum at the Beach Bar.

After that, we did a 30-minute jet ski excursion. I was unashamedly a passenger princess for this one.

From there, we recovered at the hydrotherapy pool, known as the Blue Hole. This is like a superpowered jacuzzi (except with salt water and not hot). The high pressure jets are positioned to massage different body parts.



Dinner tonight was at T-Pan, which, as you can probably guess, is a teppanyaki restaurant. While it is always an intimate experience, tonight we somehow had the restaurant to ourselves. What a magnificent meal with a talented and interesting chef.




Snapper cooked in broth in a bag



Wagyu and caviar appetizer

Osaka Nights, gin-based cocktail

Fresh wasabi

A5 wagyu


Fried rice

Squid ink soup

Miso caramel lava cake

What a great report. The food looks amazing. I am a big fan of St Regis and am heading to Bali next month to stay...

When I was young and foolish a group of FT'ers used to do mileage runs to MLE

Our seaplane was due to depart for MLE shortly, but we have just learned that there is a one-hour delay. From there, it's onward to KUL.


Our upgrade bid for this leg was accepted at the 72-hour mark. I think 183 USD and $70 extra in taxes is a good value for a 4.5 hour flight.

Malaysia Airlines' IT is not great. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 13:25. I received an email announcing that it was retimed to 15:00 and then retimed back to 13:25 in the span of 40 minutes, and the app offers no insights. I could look at a flight tracking site, but it doesn't really matter, and we are still deciding what to do next (i.e., continue on to BKK tomorrow or spend an extra night in Kuala Lumpur and fly directly to Phuket from there).

We were underway at 11:00 AM and with a 45 minute flight time, arrived at MLE before we left.


We have decided to stay an extra night in Kuala Lumpur, go from there to Phuket, and perhaps head to Bangkok on the back end. Luckily, I think most of our bookings are flexible.

The St. Regis team met us at the seaplane terminal and are taking us to the departures area. I will work on changing our flights from the lounge.

The airport is very busy. The fastrack lanes were much appreciated, as lines at immigration and security were long. The St. Regis attendant took us through the initial security and check-in process. We then went through immigration and departures security.



The Leeli Lounge is located just past security in the duty free area. It is very crowded and has a very basic buffet. The seats are comfortable.



There are at least two other contract lounges in the airport (shown on the One World website). Based on the boarding announcements, this is also the contract lounge for Air India, Singapore, and FlyDubai, among others.

The check-in agent informed us of a 40-minute delay and a new boarding time of 1:05 pm, so we left the lounge a bit after that to head to the gate. The gate setup reminded me of Turks and Caicos, with too many people to fit through gates directly next to each other. A bunch of flights boarded at the same time, so it was relatively clear when we boarded an additional 50 minutes late.

The benefit of the wait was that MLE has a Dairy Queen, the first one I've seen outside the US, and the employee even did the Blizzard cup flip.


We boarded at 1:55 pm. No boarding groups were called, and none was needed because we all got on the same bus for the short drive to the plane.


The Malaysia Airlines shorthaul business seat is comfortable. It affords a good amount of leg room, similar to US airlines, but also offers a leg rest, wings on the head rest, and what I consider to be a superior flip out cup holder and tablet holder (not pictured).

There are 12 business class seats spread across 3 rows; 11 were occupied.

Service began with an offer of water or juice and a cool towel. While boarding completed quickly, for whatever reason we did not take off until nearly 3 pm, an hour and a half behind schedule.

Once airborne, the cabin crew quickly began the food and beverage service. There was no alcohol list, so I just ordered a beer.

The most unique aspect of the food service was the satay appetizer. The satay are loaded on a cart, and the crewmember offered chicken, beef, or a mix. I went with a mix, which was delicious.

The chicken curry and noodles and dessert were very good, too.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. I really appreciated that the crewmember doing the announcements prefaced all English-language announcements with "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls..."

We made up some time and landed at KUL about an hour late.