As we drove, our thakuru, Rustam, told us that he originally came from Uzbekistan and that he really was missing his 2-year-old daughter. And that during his entire 15-year long career, the hotel was the best of all places he had ever worked because on the island the entire staff behaved like one big family. And, of course, he managed to tell us about everything awaiting us on the island.

Per Aquum Niyama is settled on two islands connected by a wooden bridge over the lagoon. The first island, Chill, met its guests two years ago, and the second one, Play, just six months ago. The names of the Islands speak for themselves. Honeymoon couples prefer the accommodation on Chill, where they can stay at the secluded water villas and enjoy complete relaxation in the Lime Spa; and Play is more suitable for families with children. On this island, there is the biggest Children’s Club in the Maldives with a free non-stop programme for children from three years old and a gaming centre with huge lot of simulators for teenagers and adults.

But, of course, such partition is quite vague, and guests have no problems moving around both islands by buggies or personal bikes.

The hotel offers 11 types of villas. Arab Princes and sheikhs, in particular, accompanied by their entourage like to dwell at the separate complex of 5 water villas with a private dock for airplanes and a beach. But we suggest you to choose the Beach Villa with a pool. It is very spacious and its bathroom under the open sky in a tropical garden is an incomparable pleasure.

The main concept of this luxury hotel is to be unlike any other. Here they try to create as many unique things as possible. And whereas the second Maldivian Per Aquum chain hotel, Uvafen Fushi, has an underwater SPA, Per Aquum Niyama decided to surprise its guests by its own underwater restaurant. Subsix is a special capsule that was placed under water in 500 metres from the shore. Around the restaurant, there was a coral reef formed specifically so that guests could have the opportunity to enjoy the view with a lot of marine life.

Restaurants are the highlight of this hotel. There are as many as 8 restaurants here. In addition to the underwater gastronomic pleasure, where the hotel boat will take you during a couple of minutes, there is another particularly interesting place - the only African restaurant in the Maldives, where they serve absolutely terrific boboties cooked from ostrich meat, and real Maasai of Kenya could not be more polite serving guests. We also highly recommend you Nest – a restaurant in the trees. There they offer 5 Asian cuisines, each of which is cooked by a special chef. Japanese cuisine is of special interest - they serve tapan′âki here. It is a fashionable gastronomic pleasure during which Japanese cooks, with the appearance of severe Samurai, will cook right in front of you (there is a special built-in stove in the table), juggling with their knives and cutting food in an incredibly fast manner.

Moreover, the gastronomic delights of this Hotel don't end there in the restaurants. Every night, having returned from dinner, during which we felt lots of regrets that the size of our stomachs was so limited, on our beds we found a freshly prepared box of chocolates and a note informing that a new piece of branded ice cream Niyama had been put into the fridge. This is it - the sweet life ‘a la Maldives’ ...