No sooner said than done, my draft of the recent “Haven’t Seen” post (#21) included the popular summertime game of corn hole. Only for it to pop up at our visit to the The Standard. Sandbags on the sand!
No sooner said than done, my draft of the recent “Haven’t Seen” post (#21) included the popular summertime game of corn hole. Only for it to pop up at our visit to the The Standard. Sandbags on the sand!
Most luxury resorts in the Maldives provide a creative welcome and they will always have several staff at your departure to wave goodbye as you ride away. But Heritance Aarah is the first resort we have come to with a creative departure ritual. Your host performs a farewell blessing for you and your journey ahead (see video above).
The trademark of this blog has been identifying distinctive features at Maldives resorts. Things I have never seen in my 20+ years of visiting over 120 properties there. In my online research and other world travels, I sometimes I also come across distinctive things I also haven’t seen in the Maldives. This particular item at The Standard, I have not seen in the Maldives, not come across elsewhere in the world, and in fact, didn’t even know such a thing existed. In fact, if you told me that it did exist, I still would have trouble conceiving it. But not as much trouble as I had playing it! In fact, as the video above demonstrates, it seems near impossible to play. And I’ve played a fair amount of table tennis in my time having a table in our basement growing up and in our adult home. Playing it for a little while, I think the objective of the game is not really competitive and getting the ball past your “opponent”, but rather collaborative in terms of striving to see how long a rally can continue before the crazy, three-dimensional randomness prevails.
The Maldives resorts are renowned for their abundant hospitality which starts the moment you step off the boat onto the island jetty. These welcomes are often amped up a bit more for repeaters with some extra treats or gestures. I’ve seen dozens of these greetings and goodies, but none nearly as extravagant at Sun Siyam Vilu Reef ‘s.
Now this repeater welcome was a bit exceptional in its own right as it was honouring a guest, nicknamed “Mama”, who was arriving for her 41st visit! The extravaganza included:
Now this might seem perhaps an anomaly for this exceptional visitor, but Lori and I also received much of this treatment ourselves and we saw many other guests receive various samplings of the above.
Fresh fruit abounds on the Maldives breakfast buffets, but sometimes you want something a little sweeter and spreadable. There are jams and marmalades a plenty as well, but a compote is that happy medium between fruit and conserves. You can add it to your toast, pancakes, waffles, cereal, etc. My favourite is adding compote to my morning yogurt (“breakfast dessert”). And the widest selection of compotes I have come across is Sun Siyam Iru Veli whose buffet selection included:
Joali is the artistic epicentre of the Maldives with its art-themed resort, and now it is training the next generation of artists who might someday grace the property with their own works:
A world beyond the plastic gimp bracelets and Flintstone-like clay ashtrays I made at camp!
Amilla Maldives is a veritable catalogue of the ideal accessibility for a tropical resort. I’ve already highlighted a number of prominent accessibility initiatives and features at Amilla, but I’ve decided to add this post to cover all of the smaller (but just as helpful) touches that they just keep adding:
In the Maldives, some hard surface badminton courts are indoor, and there a many outdoor courts in the sand, but Meeru offers the professional court outdoors for those who want a bit of al fresco competition.
The healthiest “shots” I have ever done were at Sun Siyam Vilu Reef ‘s “The Spice” restaurant. Instead of mind-tingling liquor, the shots we tongue-tingling Indian delicacies. Instead of shot a gin, a shot of cumin…
Why climb steps when you could climb a rope obstacle course and be rewarded with a thrilling pool dunk at Joali’s Muramas kids club?