ROOM AT THE TOP

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Annabel and Ali have been coming to this island paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean for many years. There are two small beaches and no hotels such as one would imagine a hotel to be. In fact there are more dive kiosks on the beaches than hotels. We are staying on the incredibly beautiful Coral Beach, so named because once upon a time it was all coral and no beach. In fact no one even came here unless it was to dive amongst the coral. Everyone went to Long Beach on the other side of the island. The something terrible happened in another part of the area which created Coral Beach by dumping tons of sand from the ocean floor on top of the coral. The 2006 Tsunami.
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Our hotel, one of only two, is built entirely of wood. Our room is accessed by a flight of winding stairs which climb precariously up the hillside. Each stair is different to the one before and by the time the last flight is reached, the builders must have run short of wood, because where there should be two steps there is only one, leaving a rather large gap for the careless climber to fall down. You need to imagine an adventure trail walkway at a children's activity camp. By the time Ali and I had reached our room with our suitcases a stiff drink was needed.

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Our rooms at altitude

And that's the second strange thing about The Senya Bay Hotel, no booze. Run by the Malaysian branch of Islam, the demon drink is forbidden. Well I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration, it's just that they don't sell it. Ali's advice to purchase as much booze as we could duty free was sound .So on our first night we were to be found on the balcony of our tree top residence knocking back Absolut Vodka and orange courtesy of Air Asia and wondering whether installing a zip line would be a good idea for the guest at our altitude to gain access to the restaurant and beach!

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But the view is worth it!