Best of the Maldives: Reef Friendly Sunscreens – Gili Lankanfushi

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Gili Lankanfushi - sun screen

Environment Day today to celebrate appreciating, respecting and care for the environment around us. Sometimes the smallest of things can have big impacts over enough people and time. On example is sunscreen which we slather on to protect us from the tropical sun. But when we take a dip in the ocean to cool off, the salty water washes a lot of its chemicals off our body and onto the coral reefs we swim amongst.

Gili Lankanfushi is now only selling reef-friendly sunscreen in its boutique for its guests to remove this extra burden on our coral friends:

  • “A key ingredient in more than 3,500 sun protection products is oxybenzone…Annually four to six thousand tonnes of these chemicals enter our ocean through wastewater effluent, and by swimmers slathered up with sunscreen. Acting like an oil slick, the chemicals settle on marine life and the reefs become suffocated.”

Also, Grand Park Koddhipparu have made a similar announcement, but I was unable to get additional details.

Gili Lankanfushi - sunscreen 2

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Best of the Maldives: Edible Spa Menu – Coco Palm Bodu Hith / Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu

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Coco - edible spa

For a taste sensation you can literally feel, check out the “Edible Spa Menu” at Coco Bodu Hithi and Coco Dhuni Kholu:

  • “Coco Collection is excited to announce an exclusive Edible Spa Menu, created in collaboration with UK-based Chloé Morris, the Creative Experience Director and founder of Edible Stories…All treatments in this menu use homemade spa products created entirely using edible ingredients such as coconut, papaya, kiwi, turmeric, avocado, honey, and yoghurt, to name a few. With treatments such as Chocolate Cake Scrub, Papaya Panna Cotta Mask, Banana Ice Cream Wrap, and Coco Rice Pudding Scrub, this menu offers a truly unique and tempting experience.”

Coco treatments put the “cure” into “epicurean”!

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Best of the Maldives: VR Scuba Dive – Six Senses Laamu

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Since it will be a while before most of us can go explore the Maldivian reefs, Six Senses Laamu is bringing their reef to us with a virtual reality 360 degree view of one of the local manta ray cleaning stations:

  • · “We’re in Week 5 of our online Junior Marine Biology program with amazing work sent in to us from kids all over the world…Or that manta rays “dance” because … well tune in to find out! Particularly special is the recent remote underwater video footage captured in the waters around Laamu as well as the chance to meet a manta ray in virtual reality. The video works on your computer, tablet or smartphone, but we recommend a tablet or smartphone for the most immersive experience.”

Back at the resort, they also have a set of VR glasses to bring the experience to guests with even more realism (see below).

Underwater immersion without being immersed in water!

Six Sense Laamu - VR

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Best of the Maldives: Diving Sculpture Feature – Joali

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Misha Kahn Underwater Coral Sculpture Garden from No LaB on Vimeo.

Joali not only features art immersion at its museum quality property, but it also features immersion art. Creative commissions are found not only in every nook and cranny of the island, but also deep under the water of the resort house reef. A number of resorts have installed underwater sculptures and other items of visual interest in the lagoon for snorkeling exploration, Joali is the first diver-oriented installation. Visitors can descend 12 metres to enjoy Misha Kahn’s subaquatic art:

  • Misha Kahn couldn’t hold himself back to create his biggest scale work for Joali Maldives. He has worked in the island with his team and the locals to create the under the water coral sculpture garden using mosaic combinations of vibrant and pale colored tiles in order to reflect the coral bleaching occurring in the oceans.

Joali - underwater sculpture

Joali - underwater sculpture 2

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Best of the Maldives: Staff Quarters – LUX North Male Atoll

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LUX North Male Atoll - staff quarters

International Workers Day today. Lately, we’ve been celebrating a lot of unsung front line and key workers keeping the cogs of society going during these difficult times. As it happens, many resorts still have guests stranded at their properties which means that the workers have to keep going despite limitations on their travel, supplies and other essentials to a smooth operation (LUX North Male still has a number of guests from before the lockdown).

In the past, staff quarters were secondary considerations with typically steerage class standards. Often these quarters were tucked away hidden from the guests. All of the working environment of the resorts’ staff has steadily improved over the years, but I was particularly struck by the high standard of LUX North Male Atoll’s staff facilities.

First of all, they were quite out in the open. Not in the centre of the island hidden, but quite central to daily activity of the resort. And while segregated by some walls, the main entrance (see photo above) is quite open. As a result, you can see that the staff facility is a handsome, modern construction with the clean lines echoing the design aesthetic of the luxury accommodation just yards away.

Great to see quality of staff accommodation rising as the quality of the properties do in the Maldives.

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Best of the Maldives: Coconut Design Spa – Faarufushi

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Faarufushi - coconut design spa

Also nestled up in the trees is Faarufushi’s coconut-inspired treatment rooms:

  • While in the spa, the treatments rooms are giant coconuts; hard shell on the outside and soft white interiors on the inside, set within a coconuts grove…We wanted to evoke a sense of protection and well-being, simple natural luxury, for the Spa experience.  The treatment rooms are further rise off the ground at the level of the coconut trees, to further enforce the concept of treatment rooms as coconuts, while a wink to tree house, link to the fun and easiness of childhood.

  

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Tree of Wishes – LUX North Male Atoll

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LUX North Male Atoll - wishing tree

A by LUX North Male Atoll double with another striking wooden feature but today apropos of Arbor Day celebrating all trees. I love these wish trees (Lori and I had one at our wedding). At LUX, your wish not only gets wafted into the ocean breezes of this tropical paradise, but also provides a donation to the local Thalescemia (low hemoglobin) charity.

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Best of the Maldives: Curvy Sink – LUX North Male Atoll

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LUX North Male Atoll - curvy sink

World Sculpture Day today. In the Maldives, one of the most common places for sculptural aesthetic are the luxurious bathrooms in the super premium properties. I’m a bit of a sink aficionado, so I was immediately enchanted by LUX North Male Atoll’s sink which combined a long, sinewy faucet over an elegantly carved wooden basin.

Slinky sink.

 

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