The dhoni is the boat the Maldives was built on. Wooden hull, single mast, palm-fibre rope, hundreds of years old in design and largely unchanged.
Most resorts will take you somewhere on one — a sandbank, a snorkel spot, a sunset cocktail. Our advice: ask if you can just go out, with no destination. An hour, maybe two. The captain steers; you lie down on the cushions; the wood creaks; the spray is cold.
It is the most Maldivian thing you can do. And nothing about it photographs well, which is the whole point.
