Beach Bucket List

BEACH BUCKET LIST SEARCHING OUT THAT PERFECT STRAND OF SAND AROUND ASIA DEPENDS AS MUCH UPON YOUR MOOD AS WHAT IT IS YOU WANT TO DO ON THE COASTLINE. HERE’S a small selection of some of the shores we’re most sweet on, WHETHER YOU WANT TO SIMPLY TAKE IN NATURE, EAT YOUR WAY THROUGH THE DAY, WHILE AWAY A NIGHT OR just SEE AND BE SEEN.

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Favorite beach to frolic with new friends Kandolhu Island Maldives

Sunrise swims are one of the great pleasures of travel in the tropics. On my first morning at Kandolhu Island, an opulent micro resort in the Maldives’ North Ari Atoll, I tiptoed out of my overwater bungalow at dawn and sunk silently into the lukewarm lagoon. Then I felt something move behind me. Afraid it could be a shark, I was happy to come face-to-face with a mature green turtle, accompanied by a smaller juvenile, who’d spent the night under my bungalow and had come to say hello. Moments later another turtle floated by—a rare hawksbill with its distinctive curved beak. I felt like I was in the middle of a David Attenborough documentary. When the reptiles moved on I paddled around the bungalow and over the Technicolor reef to the powdery white beach that rings the island. It was there I saw a shark. Actually, an entire school of them: baby whitetip reef sharks that scattered like cockroaches as I made landfall. From then on, morning swims were ruined for me forever. kandolhu.com; overwater villas from US$600 per night.

– Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Favorite beach to eat your heart out Negombo Beach

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Sri Lanka

Twenty minutes north of Colombo’s international airport, the beach town of Negombo offers new arrivals a chance to ease into Sri Lanka instead of crashing head-on.

Negombo’s restaurateurs have risen to the occasion, drawing on the town’s status as one of the Sri Lanka’s oldest fishing ports to create seafood menus writ large. A riot of giant freshwater prawns, lobster and snapper—the platter at Aria, the poolside restaurant at the St. Lachlan hotel (stlachlanhotel.com)— sets the benchmark. However, the garlic prawns at Scandic (4/1/A Eththukala Rd.), an Indian-fusion joint on Browns Corner, are unputdownable, while Tusker (83 Ethukala Rd.) next door serves a mean cashew nut and chili crab.

For Mediterranean flavors with Indian Ocean views, try the cheese straws at Dolce Vita café (27 Poruthota Rd.) or the whitefish pepper stew at Black Coral (above; jetwinghotels.com), at Jetwing Beach resort. Come sunset, make your way to Negombo’s hectic swimming area, where food carts dish out deep-fried seafood and vegetarian snacks drizzled with spicy sauces for a price that far undervalues their succulence and setting.

– I.L.N.

tr av el andleisure asia .com / june 2016

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