What coronavirus? Island-hopping through the Maldives, while involving many Covid-19 tests, offers a glimpse of what post-pandemic travel could feel like

A negative PCR test, an online health declaration and a hotel booking are all that’s needed to enter the Maldives, which has pandemic travel down to a fine art

Our correspondent spent nearly a month island-hopping to nine Maldivian resorts – from one with villas shaped like boats to a Robinson Crusoe-esque hideaway

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This discreet notice to guests at Gili Lankanfushi in the Maldives is one of the few reminders of the coronavirus pandemic - unless, like our reporter, you go island-hopping and endure multiple Covid-19 tests. Photo: Lee Cobaj

Published: 6:45pm, 8 Aug 2021Updated: 6:45pm, 8 Aug 2021

It’s dark, I can’t feel my left arm and my left hip is throbbing like it’s been kicked by a donkey. My mouth is dry and the foam plugs I’ve wedged deep into my ears to muffle the incessant piped music are making my jaws ache.

Lying on the floor of Gate 28 at Colombo Airport, in Sri Lanka, wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I should have been cosseted inside a Qatar Airways Q Suite being fanned with ostrich feathers and having grapes peeled for me but, four days before my return flight to Hong Kong, the Doha-based airline was given a two-week ban after importing four passengers from Saudi Arabia who tested positive for Covid-19.

I am lucky there is a seat on another flight available and am accepting of my fate. I knew before I departed Hong Kong that there was a strong chance my plans might change and, along with a week in quarantine at the Mira Moon hotel in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, an overnight diversion to Sri Lanka feels a small price to pay for nearly a month in the Maldives.

I decided to take the hosted trip in late June, when the Hong Kong government introduced a reduction in quarantine from 14 to seven nights for residents coming from specific destinations, as long as they had been fully vaccinated and were in possession of a positive antibody test.

A negative PCR test, an online health declaration and a confirmed hotel booking are all that’s required to enter the Maldives (above). Photo: Lee Cobaj

It had been a tough 18 months to be a travel writer and it felt like a tiny window had opened, so I decided to leap through, quickly arranging a flight, an antibody test, a quarantine hotel for my return and visits to nine Maldivian resorts: some new, some revamped and others that have been around long enough to be considered classics.