A small boat drops you on an island you could cross in a few minutes, and the sand under your feet is pale and warm. Water in every shade of blue surrounds you, fishermen sort the morning catch, and the horizon sits so level that the whole country seems to float.

The weather is tropical monsoon, warm all year, with a drier season of calm seas and a wetter stretch of passing showers. A Local Friend keeps the plan flexible, so when the sky changes, a beach morning becomes a long lunch, a swim or a walk through the island streets.