Many resorts now offer the in-sand dining experience, but Kihaa Maldives has installed a bit more elaborate and permanent seating in the beach making it easier to set up such special meals.
Best of the Maldives: Reception Large Chair – SAii Lagoon
While you’ve got a whole holiday of stretching out and lounging, too often reception area have pretty basic seating, I guess, to prepare you for the shock of sitting in a confined seat for hours on the plane. But SAii Lagoon has the biggest reception chairs we’ve ever gotten swallowed up in (photo above). It reminded me of the feature item in Copenhagen’s renowned Design Museum which itself jumbo sized (photo below with Lori as well). Great for bringing out the kid in you (or at least looking like it on Instagram…and it makes those holiday extra pounds look less prominent).
Best of the Maldives: Largest Private Island – Ithaafushi
The Maldives pioneered the concept of “one island, one resort”, and now it is also leading the notion of “one island, one guest” (well, one guest group/party). The notion of a “private island” (one guest rents out the entire resort island) is getting bigger, and the biggest to date is Waldorf Astoria Ithaafushi’s entrée. At 32,000 sqm, it is bigger than 20 other full resort islands.
The island booking includes a dedicate chef and concierge as well as…
- “Mix a slow-paced island getaway with action-packed adventures. The island features a private entertainment clubhouse, spa, gym, watersports, and playground. This is an unrivalled Maldivian experience.”
Best of the Maldives: Herons – LUX North Ari Atoll
Every resort island seems to have a few resident herons who have staked out their territory in the shallows patiently waiting for the wayward bait fish to nab and otherwise strolling with an uncommon deliberation. But, if you wonder where they come from, LUX North Male Atoll actually has a heron nesting site. The construction of the property preserved the site where at least 10 resident herons come to birth their chicks on a secluded part of the island that is cordoned off from guests (a little privacy in the marine maternity ward).
Best of the Maldives: Maldivian Veg – Amilla
While the Maldives destination is known for its distinctive blues, at Amilla’s “Mystique Garden” also features a cornucopia of Maldivian greens. And initiative of Sustainability Manager Victoria Kruse (see above) who has collected an extensive range of local produce to grow and feature in all the resort’s cuisine including:
- Moringa Drumstick – A ‘super food’ with leaves like spinash, roots like horseradish and use to make curry.
- Kullhafilafai – Like Maldivian dandelion (see photo directly below)
- Maldivian tea tree
- Loofa – While best known for its scrubbing, it is also produces a healthy veg.
Best of the Maldives: Underwater TV – Conrad Rangali
Under water no one can hear you scream. Or sing “Sweet Caroline” at the top of your lungs. And so you can at Conrad Maldives Rangali for today’s big match:
- “Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, a luxury five-star resort, is allowing two people the opportunity to watch the match from its Muraka villa, which is more than 16 feet beneath the Indian Ocean, and the world’s first underwater hotel residence. The package includes a two-night stay, during which the UEFA European Football Championship final will be beamed onto a screen that sits in front of a glass wall looking out onto the ocean’s abundant marine life.”
Also, perhaps most versatile underwater room in the Maldives as Ithaa serves as a restaurant and has served as a bedroom (mind you, with kick off at 1:00 am and if England play their characteristic “control” game, the subaquatic spectators mind find themselves nodding off).
Best of the Maldives: Terraforming – SAii Lagoon / Hard Rock
The Maldives may not be moving the heavens, but they are moving the earth to provide more opportunities to welcome visitors. For some environmental activists, “terraforming” is as dirty a word as the mounds of dirt it involves. But I am more supportive of the Maldives’ use of terraforming. For a country that is nearly 1000 kilometres long, to reclaim a few kilometres for living or economic purposes seems quite a reasonable trade-off. Especially, if the aquatic regions chosen are more barren sandy lagoon than vibrant reef (and even then, work done with as eco-friendly protocols as possible). The entire Crossroad complex which currently includes Hard Rock and SAii Lagoon were constructed in this manner and eventually 7 more resort “islands” will be developed in the general area. The environmental study that was performed to prepare for this dramatic transformation of the ocean was extensive but nonetheless controversial among sceptics. For those who are accepting of this strategy to building their economy, the engineering scale and sophistication is quite impressive. The YouTube video above provides a taste of what is involved, but actually the History Channel (Asia) did a fully documentary programme on the project (see trailer below) to look out for if you get a chance to watch it.
Best of the Maldives: Solar Tracker – LUX South Ari Atoll
Solar power is moving from innovation to the new normal especially at higher end resorts. Thanks to their Swimsol power generation, LUX South Ari Atoll can get identify how much clean energy they are consuming:
- “Guests can follow a live ‘solar tracker’ on their in-villas IPTV that will indicate the energy produced, diesel saved as well as the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions savings to offset the number of long-haul flights.“
Best of the Maldives Online: Fish Identification – Name That Fish
Not purely a “Maldives” site, but ever so perfect for it. “Name That Fish” couldn’t be better named itself. Here’s the concept – load your snorkeling or diving videos up their website, they run it through their AI algorithm, and al the prominent fish in the video get prominently tagged with a box identifying their species. Lori and I love our piscatorial treasure hunts in the Maldives and can’t wait to get back to the room to go through our collection of fish identification cards and books to figure out the new things we’ve seen. Now we can just let the computer do the work while we go and sip our pina coladas.
The project is the work of Jake Easterling, co-founder of Scubotics, and features over 11,000 fish in its algorithm. The technology is especially interesting to me because it is the core of my day job. I run a company which uses machine learning algorithms to detect variations in brain health on MRI images of multiple sclerosis patients.
Before reviewing it here on Maldives Complete I thought that I should test it myself so I uploaded one of our fish soup heave vids from a recent trip. There is no formal charge for the service, but the site requests a donation and suggest $5 which seemed reasonable to me. I uploaded it and a few days later I received an email with a link to the new video in a Dropbox location (see above as I’ve loaded on my YouTube channel). It came out superbly capturing most of the main fish visible and no errors of identification that I could spot.
Best of the Maldives: Aesthetician – Vakkaru
Many top Maldivian resort spas host visiting yoga instructors and others who run special classes, but visiting practitioners are less common and I’ve not yet come across a resident aesthetician like Vakkaru’s Merana Spa is featuring:
- “Vakkaru Maldives welcomed UK-based aesthetic practitioner Daisy Whitear to the resort for a short-term beauty residency. With over 30 years of experience within the medical aesthetic and beauty industry, the founder of Wilbury Clinic has a lifelong professional mission to help people feel beautiful both inside and out.”
You’ve come all this way for the perfect selfie backdrop so it makes sense to have yourself just as striking. Why use Instagram filters when you can refresh the real thing?