Best of the Maldives: Ocean View Office –Hideaway Beach

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Hideaway Beach - water villa deck office

A bit belated Labor Day post as I myself was on holiday yesterday (not the Maldives sadly). With remote working becoming the new default, high powered professionals (the work-hard-play-hard set who have always been a big market segment in the Maldives) can now extend their stay by keeping just enough tabs on the work back home. I’ve actually taken that approach for years. People wonder why I would want to interrupt paradise with thinking about work. I just see it as an investment…by doing 5% work during my stay, I can often extend my stay at least 50% (at 10x return of parardise time).

If I was heading out to the Maldives during a particularly busy time, I would consider Hideaway Beach where their water villa features a desk right by the water. Now that’s a corner office! Note: do be careful though (especially if you are mixing work with pina coladas) not drop your computer in the water. You might laugh, but I actually did this in the Maldives at our water villa a few years back. I picked up my backpack that I carried it in and hadn’t zipped it properly and it popped out, bounced on the deck and plunged into the water (fortunately, I was insured, backed up and had brought a spare with me).

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Best of the Maldives: Star Gazing Lounger – Anantara Kihavah

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Anantara Kihavah - roof deck

Spy the friendly skies.

We have been spending many an evening recently lying flat on our backs star-gazing especially watching the always dramatic mid-August Perseids meteor shower (the biggest meteor shower of the year). It is such a special occasion that we blow up our air mattress and put it out on the lawn with pillows and a duvet so we will be comfy in the cool English night. We recently returned from a camping stay-cation with friends on the south coast of the UK (the closest we could come to a seaside surrogate to our annual Maldives visit) and introduced them to the super supine approach to contemplating the celestial firmament.

In the spirit of “everything is better in the Maldives”, Anantara Kihavah has installed the ultimate star gazing loungers atop their suitably named “Sky” lounge (also suitable for sunsets and ocean vistas). If only I could find someone to serve me tropical cocktails in my backyard.

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Best of the Maldives: Accessibility Aesthetic – Joali

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Joali - accessibility 1

Both Lori and I work with disabled individuals and we are sensitised to the accessibility that is provided for them. Fortunately, we live in an age where accessibility is the norm. Not just to help those with disabilities, but helping a range of people facing their own mobility issues like the elderly or parents with prams and so on. There is something to be said for this norm just being integrated into the infrastructure in a pedestrian manner. Still, I was impressed that the aesthetic obsessives at Joali applied some of their style sense to the accessibility features as well. A few examples shown here are the marble accessibility ramp leading into the main bar (below) and the funky restroom symbols (above).

Joali - accessibility 2

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Best of the Maldives: TV Easel – Faarufushi

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Faarufushi - TV easel

Not a lot of people want to take time away from gazing at paradise to stare at the boob tube (some Maldive purists even object to having TVs in villas as all though they are handy when the rainstorms occasionally hit), but they are often cleverly dual purposed as displays to bring a collection of videos from around the island into your room. Faarufushi provides an extra aesthetic touch to its artistic videos displaying them on a stylish easel which highlights the allure of the scenes of paradise.

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Best of the Maldives: Light Therapy Shower – LUX North Male Atoll

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LUX North Male Atoll - light therapy 2

Fourth of July and the day to paint the town Red, White and Blue (for American Independence Day). Or you can simply bathe in red, white and blue (and purple and green) light therapy at LUX North Male Atoll’s “Me” spa’s light therapy shower. A stream of different combinations of different coloured lights illuminate under the stream of water. And if the different wavelengths don’t do it for you, then maybe the disco vibe will at least put you in a good mood.

  

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Best of the Maldives: Towel Folding Video – Coco Palm

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Coco Collection - turtle making video

World Oceans Day today. While travelling to the ocean to see turtles might still be limited, the Coco Collection has shared a way to bring them right into your own home during lockdown.

I’ve regularly featured striking towel creations, but now Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu and Coco Bodu Hithi have shared an instructional video so you can create these creatures yourself. They’ve started with a quite elaborate turtle construction.

Happy home schooling!

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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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