Huvafenfushi has its own bathing with multiple heads, but of a more reclined style. Its bathroom’s Jacuzzi bath has not one but 4 places to rest one’s head. Head rests on bath tubs are a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The Calgon-take-me-away moments are all about blissful floating and yet invariably your head is uncomfortably pushing on some ceramic-hard surface.
Huvafenfushi take me away!
I’m always intrigued by the ever-moving goal posts of scoring luxury. They seem to move the farthest on the playing fields of opulence that is the resorts of the Maldives.
Years ago, a massage shower was the height of bathroom cleansing sophistication. Then, added nozzles and jets provided an extra degree of soaking sumptuousness. Today, the current gold standard for super-premium bathrooms is the ceiling mounted rain shower.
Ayada has taken all of these hedonistic innovations and amalgamated them into the uber-shower. A multi-nozzle rain-drench massage shower! Featured in its select water villas, one can start to understand how Ayada snared the award for “Leading Water Villa Resort” at the World Travel Market this week.
While Maldives Complete is my virtual world outlet for experiencing a bit of paradise when sequestered in the damp and dank boroughs of Britain, but once a year I get to inject a bit of real-world Maldives into my life. That is the annual World Travel Market where the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation comes to town with its marquee stand.
I always visit to saw hello to a few MMPRC and resort friends. But this year brought the added bonus of a “meetup” with some of the TripAdvisor Maldives Forum digital comrades. Pictured above is the TA and Maldives veteran Katherine Anthony holding the two awards won by her resort Ayada – “Leading Resort in the Maldives” and “Leading Water Villa Resort in the Maldives” (big congrats “KatfromAyada” and Ayada).
Joining us were Christine Aldridge of No Shoes No News Travel and Amit Patel of Simply Maldives. We all went out for a post-show nosh-and-natter catching up on all things Maldivian. Going around the table for the resorts sharing our perspectives – between us we had visited over 130 resorts (with obviously a lot of overlap). We whipped round sharing our superlatives like which resorts surprised us the most (in a good way) – Gili Lankanfushi, Soneva Fushi, Bathala, KATH, Komandoo.
The big news of WTM was the Thumburi guest house island project. It looks like an inspired initiative to have your cake and eat it too for both guests and Maldives entrepreneurs. It provides an island and infrastructure to reduce the costs of development and required investment so smaller businesses can investi in Maldives tourism. It also provides scale, diversity and competition to provide high-quality, but value-priced properties for the middle market aspiring to enjoy Maldives paradise.
I got to connect with some new resorts – Embudhoo, Equator Village, Summer island, Sun Siyam Iru Fushi, Diamonds Athuruga and Thudufushi, Barefoot, Centara, and Ayada (obviously).
A little virtual sunshine in my week. Maybe not the palm trees and pina coladas, but I still got to bask in wonderful smiles and gregarious warmth endemic to the Maldives at least for a day.
This post has a new category tags to the blog for “WTM” as this is now the 4th instalment of Maldives presence here.
Huvafenfushi’s sensory “pad” takes a more old school approach to image, light, colour, sound and cradle stimulation. Its open air pad operates by gentle ocean breezes wafting across you while you float like a cloud.
The right lighting can not only help you rising, but also falling to sleep. Velaa’s “spa pod” employs soft lighting, among other sensory stimulation, in the Maldives’ first ever “Cloud 9” spa system…
The Viennese artist and perception researcher sha. has now developed a holistic spa treatment concept to counter these daily stresses and strains: WOLKE 7 CLOUD 9. You enter a world where boundaries disappear, embed yourself on clouds and begin a journey which ends in deep relaxation. With the inspiring concept of WOLKE 7 CLOUD 9 by sha. KLAFS introduces and celebrates a holistic-artistic vision, based on the harmonious spa ambience, which turns the spa area into a creative awareness lab during the Interbad 2010. The origin is the reclining pod, which, in its three dimensional version, transports the visitor into a cloud scenery. Previously, ergonomic studies determined that a diversity of body forms would easily find space in the WOLKE 7 CLOUD 9. The gentle swaying motion of the WOLKE 7 CLOUD 9 further enhances the floating sensation to the visitor and cradles him or her softly towards the horizon. A second pod – as a revolved mirror image of the pod below – floats above the visitor completing the spacial cloud-sky composition of this spa highlight.”
The “cloud” concept is actually a composite of a number of clouds…
Also, possibly the winner of the most expensive spa feature (or any feature) with a reported cost of $10,000,000. Certainly, the most welcome clouds in all of the Maldives.
“Goulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and other things that go bump in the night.” Like my toe or knee clamouring around in an unfamiliar pitch black room on holiday.
Maybe most guests don’t wake up in a different resort every night, but the accommodation will nonetheless be unfamiliar and for a while that is always a bit disorienting in the fog of a night time call of nature.
But Jumeirah Dhevanafushi provides a motion-sensitive night light. A small light under the bed stand comes on (on the side of the bed of the person who gets up…one for each side) to gently illuminate a small bit of the floor (and to provide a beacon back to the bed on your return).
Definitely a treat of a trick. Happy Halloween!
What’s your ride getting dressed up as for Halloween? The prize for best seaplane costume definitely goes to FlyMe’s “SEEPLANE” had its maiden flight this week.
It is appropriately based at the epicentre of everything whale shark in Maldives near the bottom of the South Ari atoll, the Villa International Airport Maamigili. In fact, the whale shark marine sanctuary goes right by the airport.
The amphibian Cessna C208 holds up to 7 passengers (plus 2 pilots). It serves all the resorts in the area for 20 minute (or longer) privately booked and scheduled excursions with a minimum of 4 people.
Seaplanes have always been a distinctive way to experience the unique, other-worldly geography of the Maldives. And if you don’t spy a whale shark swimming below, you can always have a photo-op with this aeronautic imposter.
Pimp my seaplane!
Happy Turkey Day. No, not yet Thanksgiving, but Turkey’s national Republic Day. This is the resort Ayada’s day. Ayada takes is style and motif inspiration from that vibrant Bosphorus link where east meets west.
One eponymous way to celebrate could be in Ayada’s own glittering Turkish bath. You can have an authentic Turkish massage on the central stone slab. Or just melt away in the resplendent sauna which goes up to 50 degrees.
In Turkey, they say “Hamama giren terler.” (“he who enters the sauna, sweats”…sort of a version of ‘reaping what you sow’) but sweating has never been so sweet!
Daylight Savings Time today in the UK and a bonus hour for every one as the clocks go back. In the Maldives, time just seems to evaporate into the sun-drenched ether. But for making transfers, measuring dive time and getting to activities, if you need a chronometer as luxurious as your destination, Cheval Blanc Randheli introduces the Hublot King Power 48MM Oceanographic 4000 (thanks again Francisco)…
“By TLex Hublot have unveiled this, the latest edition of the King Power 48MM Oceanographic 4000, the Cheval Blanc Randheli Special Edition paying tribute to the unspoiled beauty of the Noonu Atoll in the Maldives, where it is exclusively available from Cheval Blanc Randheli. This is at least the 11th iteration of the 4000; in all honesty they aren’t getting any better looking. There’re a couple that I like, such as the Caribbean and of course the original version. Still there’s no denying the hardware itself, this is one of the most technologically advanced divers watches available today. It is water-resistant to 4000 metres and meets with the exacting specifications of the NIHS, international standards of Swiss Watchmaking. Its seal was tested by Hublot in a ROXER tank, submerged and pressurized to the equivalent of 5000 meters. To ensure the water-tightness of the watch and to resist this extreme pressure, its Sapphire crystal is 6.5mm thick and its caseback engraved with the ‘Cheval Blanc’ motif and ‘Randheli’ text in yellow is made of grade 2 Titanium. Further features include luminescent markers in Cheval Blanc Randheli yellow emitting a yellow hue allowing legibility from a distance of 25cm in the dark, an NIHS requirement that all 4000 watches meet. The watch comes with a white rubber strap with a buckle straps.”
Pressure tested to “5000 meters”! The “deep sea” is considered anything deeper than 1800 metres.
As impressive as its specs are, my favourite super decadent Maldives-spirit watch has always been the Choppard Happy Sport (see below). In fact, I first saw it on a billboard at the Male airport. The jewel encrusted fish which float about capture the main event at the Maldives and the option for a simple rubber band captures the laid-back casual ambience of the islands.
Instead of a yoga matt, Laamu introduces the yoga hammock. How Maldives!
“Aerial yoga is fast becoming the hottest trend in the world of yoga, bringing together stretching, breathing and meditation with gymnastics and aerial arts. Now available at Six Senses Laamu, it uses a hammock, made of a soft and supple parachute-silk fabric, which is suspended from the ceiling and used to support the body weight during a sequence of postures. Aerial yoga shares the mind-body connection principles of the traditional yoga practice, while the weightlessness helps remove compression from the spine and opens up joints, leading to stress and tension release. Additional benefits include muscle strengthening and lengthening, low impact cardiovascular conditioning, increased mobility, deeper body awareness and self-esteem…Performed in a sequential flow to music…classes incorporate levitating meditation, zero-compression inversions, sun salutations, floating savasana and joint opening moves…Certified by Ay Fly Training, the resort’s Yoga Teacher Elle Fernandes is a pro when it comes to tailoring classes to individual needs.”
This description includes one of the most lyrical phrases I have come across (in a world where mellifluous rhapsody is commonplace): “levitating meditation, zero-compression inversions, sun salutations, floating savasana.” Yes, I’ll have some of that, please.
Group classes are $35 per person while private classes are $85 per person.
Popular poses, I would imagine, include the Crane, the Eagle, the Feathered Peacock, the Heron, and the King Pigeon.