Long gone are the days when a palm-thatched hut by the beach with brackish water in the bathroom and fish for meals were the highlights of a holiday. Maldives Resorts have changed immensely. The visitor's first glimpse is usually from the air - a breathtaking kaleidoscope of a rhapsody in blue, from the dark turquoise of the Indian Ocean to the crystal azure of lagoons lapping golden rings of sand and clumps of coconut palms. There are over 1,200 islands in the Maldives stretching for 511 miles from north to south and as the arriving jet zooms low to find the runway protruding into a lagoon, every one of them looks priceless.