A fabulous small hotel on a lovely island: a great introduction to Maldevian life for us. Access by speedboat from Male Airport is straightforward, although strong winds made the crossing rough in the 17 seater Coral Speed Boat: better to travel in the 60 seater, although I think that they decide which boats are used each day. Sheena met us off the boat at Ukulhas and it was a short buggy ride to Sea La Vie. A lovely entrance way leads to an informal reception area where a welcome coconut drink was gratefully received. We were in room 104; a good size with a large bed and a decent en suite. Two open racks serve as adequate wardrobe space, good for hanging not-quite-dry-yet beach wear, although outside drying rails proved very useful for this as well. Limited shelf space and no drawers meant other clothes enjoyed an "al fresco" few days! We were on a B&B basis and we opted for the Maldivian breakfast every day. Very nice tuna (spicy or not spicy ; your choice) with roshi, plus fruit and a fruit drink. It is best to order black tea and a separate serving of cold mild if you want English breakfast tea. The hotel is ideally placed towards the south east coast, with easy access to Bikini Beach, which wraps around the southern end of the island. The beach is excellent and the snorkeling even better. The western side generally provides calmer waters with easy access to the sea. A sandy start leads to 1m to 2m deep rocky areas, before the reef edge appears around 40m from the shore. The numbers and variety of fish are spectacular, and we also saw three different types of eel along with regular glimpses of small sharks. The southern tip of the island has the most impressive beach but the stronger currents make swimming and snorkeling less appealing. The eastern side generally has larger waves and a deeper sea leading up to the reef. Fish are equally abundant on both sides of the island. Fazeel at the hotel organised an early morning (7am) manta ray trip. Just the two of us on a small boat with two crew members for $130. We were lucky to snorkel with a large manta ray, with three close encounters before it got bored of us and swam away. Sitings are not guaranteed and so we were quite fortunate. Fazeel was also extremely helpful in organising a private speedboat to take us south to our next island (Fenfushi), but the weather again proved too windy and rough and he later cancelled this and arranged seats at the last minute on the usual 65 seater speedboat back to Male. We made our way from there on another large speedboat to Fenfushi. Ukulhas is a vibrant local island which is rapidly becoming more touristy. On the plus side, there are already 20 or more restaurants to choose from. The four that we ate at all provided good, simple meals and we generally chose grilled reef fish which can be ordered in differing sizes according to hunger levels! On the negative side, there is a lot of construction work ongoing, but most of it is to the north, away fr
