FIRST IMPRESSIONS

On her maiden momcation, PALLAVI PHUKAN checks into the eco-conscious LUX* South Ari Atoll in the Maldives and comes back with renewed love and responsibility towards nature and ideas for her next family vacation.

- PALLAVI PHUKAN

WHILE SITTING AT the airport waiting for my flight to the Maldives, I open my Instagram and quietly write #momguiltisreal. For a beach person who has spent the last two years of the pandemic in the mountains, Maldives was an exciting start. Only in this case, the feeling was diluted with the guilt of leaving behind a two-year-old at home for the first time. After I get back, I should take her somewhere, I think to myself.

After a two-hour flight delay, I land in the Maldives and head straight to the LUX* South Ari Atoll lounge to board the seaplane. My social media-loving brain does a somersault. I was finally going to have my Maldivian moments and in about 30 minutes my phone was filled with spellbinding pictures of the Indian Ocean. Maldives is anything but overrated. I look around at my fellow co-passengers, everyone is mesmerised.

We land at the paradisiacal LUX* South Ari Atoll resort on the Dhidhoofinolhu Island just before sunset. Out of the 193 villas, that are either dotted across four kilometres of sugar-white sands or perched above crystal-clear blue lagoons, my home for the next three nights was a cosy beach villa with a thatched roof and direct access to the beach. The guilt subsided a little, and the prospect of ‘me’ time had this mother grinning ear to ear!