World Food Day today. And the best place in in the world to eat any food was an experience we finally enjoyed at Sun Siyam Iru Veli this summer. We’ve fantasized about dining on a plot of sand ever since we first started visiting the Maldives two and a half decades ago. It epitomised the “plot of sand with a palm tree” isolation caricature. We’ve seen many of (exorbitant) dinners and even lunches such remote venues, but never a breakfast.
A breakfast is actually a great way to enjoy this sandbank location. Unlike a dinner which tends to have courses, the breakfast is more casual with more finger food (eg. pastries, fruit, pots of yogurt) that you can take in hand for a stroll around or wade into the sea to enjoy the sea-life nearby or the dappled azure vista beyond. And the morning has a particularly peaceful vibe to it which suits this indolent sliver of interruption to the gently surrounding waters.
“Garudhiya is a famous soup of the Maldives. It is a clear broth of poached fresh skipjack tuna, perfumed with pandanus (screwpine) heart and curry leaves. For a memorable blend of tropical island flavours, Kiru Garudhiya is one of the best foods in the Maldives. It consists of fresh island coconut milk, poached fish and shellfish in a soup flavoured with island spices and curry leaves.”
I always bring a few books to the Maldives in the perennial aspiration to sit a read for an extended period (on the long-haul flight at least), but my actual reading never quite meets my intentions. This past trip I brought along not only a book for the Maldives, but about the Maldives – “Misadventures in the Real Maldives” by Tom Chesshyre. And it was so engrossing that I actually finished it.
“The Maldives incorporates 26 atolls in what is described by geographers as a ‘double chain’ and the long, thin outline of the islands resembles a garland – ‘malodheep’ in Sanskrit – which is where the name of the country is believed to have originated. From ‘Money Islands’ to ‘Tempest Haunted Islands’ (as some ancient mariners knew them) via garlands and the ‘necklace islands’ (Maala Divaina) in Sinhalese.”
“The Maldivian connection with the sea is closer than anything an outsider can comprehend. Life on the flattest country on the planet requires mental adjustment…Standing on the beach facing inland to one of the long, straight roads on a little island was like looking along the surface of a spirit level. There are no budges, no hills.”
Chessyre tours the country from bottom to top, but in manner completely the opposite to how I and most visitors experience this tropical paradise. While we take an air-conditioned speed boat, he took a cargo ship. While we sleep on king sized beds with high thread count bedding, he sleeps on a mat. He specifically crafted his trip to explore the non-resort local islands and their daily routines in paradise. The account is a colourful and extensive perspective into local island life and guesthouses.
Despite him exploring such a non-commercial side of this luxury destination, I still identified reading his book with the sentiment he articulated about another travel book that he was reading: “His descriptions gave me that sense of déjà vu that sometimes hits you when you read about a place you’re visiting.”
Published in 2015, it is already a bit dated on some of its references, especially political, as the country is changing so very rapidly. In particular, he delves beyond the palm trees and pina coladas that are the staples of celebrity travelogues and explores such areas as:
Tsunami stories
Economic development in recent years
Logistics of local travel
Local cuisine
Political perspectives among the population
His summary provides a captivating depiction of the Maldives and his distinctive glimpse behind the resort curtains:
“I was in one of the most established places of beauty on Earth (why else would all the 5-star resorts have been built?) and yet no one was about [on the local islands]. From the ground up, I could get a feel for the rich culture of an ancient maritime nation as well as a strong sense of a community of a people living in the middle of a mighty ocean…Other than Bangladeshi workers, few foreigners managed to gatecrash paradise…With the blazing sunsets on the South Equatorial Channel, gyrating currents in deserted lagoons, kaleidoscopes of coral, cascades of fish, crescents of perfect white sand, peaceful coral-stone villages, colourful birds, emerald jungle…there is no doubt about it, the Maldives has to be one of the most beautiful, colourful – and sometimes complicated – places on Earth.”
After reading the book, I reach out to Tom to see if he would do an interview reflecting on his adventures and he kindly obliged with some bonus gems:
What did you pack that you didn’t use? On my very first visit to the Maldives, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin, which was confiscated on arrival as I hadn’t known the rules (but should have).
What didn’t you pack that you wish you had? War and Peace by Tolstoy or Ulysses by James Joyce – a long book I’d always meant to read.
What did you pack that you used the most? My backpack, every day, hopping on and off ferries.
What did you break or lose? A pair of flip-flops, but easy to buy another.
What most exceeded your expectations? The calm on board the cargo ship from Male to Addu – and the camaraderie with fellow passengers and crew.
What most disappointed you? Getting ferry timetable information was sometimes tricky when I went, about a decade ago.
What food did you most enjoy? Garudiya tuna broth, served with chili, lime and rice.
What food did you least enjoy? A boring hamburger at a resort hotel.
When did you laugh the hardest? During a neighbourhood party on the remote island of Makunudhoo.
When were you the most nervous/anxious? When visiting certain politicians on Male.
What surprised you most about the destination? The great distance between north and south, 500 plus miles (and the rumbling political unrest).
What was your favourite day? It was an evening, night and morning when I joined a commercial tuna fishing boat on Hulhumeedhoo on Addu Atoll.
What was your favourite photo? Passengers clambering on and off the ferry by the beach at Utheemu on Haa Alif Atoll (see below)
What item (smaller than a bed) that you saw would you most want to take home with you? No item… just memories.
Name a word you learned in Dhivehi? In Dhivehi, ‘minivan’, which means ‘independent’. Each day I would read the then ‘Minivan News’ online bulletin.
Name a fun fact you learned about the place? The highest natural point in the Maldives is 2.4 metres above sea level (I went there and ‘climbed’ it).
What tip would you give someone about to embark on a trip like yours? Pack light.
What would you do (if money and logistics were no object), if you had an additional day to spend at the destination? Sit on a jolie – a simple string mesh seat – in the shade of a palm tree by the beach on Makunudhoo, sipping lime juice, watching the waves.
Planet wellness is more about low-carbon than low carbs, and The Patina features a range of low carbon concoctions for your Earth-friendly enjoyment:
“Every cocktail and spirit served at Patina Maldives, including the Fari Beach Club, will eliminate 30 grams of carbon emissions in comparison to drinks crafted at beverage outlets with conventional labels. This is thanks to the world’s first low carbon, low waste spirits distribution technology.”
We’ve long joked in our family about the “medicinal” benefits of various alcoholic beverages, but Amilla Maldives has seriously concocted a range of “wellness cocktails” that let people enjoy drinking well. The example above is their “Orange Sky” (Hendricks gin, fresh orange, orange shrub, honey, lime, and egg white):
“We integrate wellness into all of our menus while ensuring the flavour and fun remains. Many of our cocktails are made using Homemade@Amilla ingredients including our range of kombucha and other probiotic drinks, bitter, infused spirits and shrubs (drinking vinegars).”
Many wellness products and spa “treatments” are couched in all sorts of medical lingo to make them sound more clinical, but Velaa is taking “wellness” quite seriously with a licensed medical doctor offering consultations for things such as:
While guests might come to the Maldives to check out the bioluminescence of the plankton in the Maldivian waters, they acan also check out their own bioresonance at Joali Being. The “Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby” episode about the Maldives hopped over to Joali’s latest property to see the latest tech for diagnosis and informing wellbeing. The host Monica Galetti visits its Areka Wellbeing Center to try out its “bio-resonance device which reads the energy produced by the living cells in her body.”
World Tourism Day today! And one of the best portrayals of the world of Maldivian tourism is BBC’s “Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby” series (available on iPlayer in the UK for another year) hosted by Joali and Joali Being resorts. Yes, the show does have much of the contrived, shilling lifestyle porn vibe to it. But what makes it distinctive is its “peek behind the scenes”. And while the “work” that the two bubbly hosts roll their sleeves up to do is also a bit contrived (Monica Galetti less so then tv personality Rob Rinder because Monica is an actual chef), it is still a lovely portrayal of the efforts made by the staff to keep the property running smoothly. And I must say that the tour of Joali’s staff area was most impressive and surely one of the finest areas in the Maldives. Stay tuned for some added posts about a few distinctive aspect’s of Joali’s operations revealed by the show.
To enjoy the underwater experience without getting your hair wet, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru offers land-lubbers a 3D-VR way to experience the aquatic wonderland around them:
“The Maldives’ first Hologram Room, recently opened at Four Seasons Resort Landaa Giraavaru, offers a magical “underwater” manta experience for the whole family, where no one gets wet. Unique hologram programs, based on real manta rays seen in the surrounding waters of the Baa Atoll UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, offer an extraordinary opportunity to virtually “swim” with manta rays, as well as other creatures such as the humpback whale, seahorse and mimic octopus. Two daily sessions of 30 to 45 minutes are hosted at the Resort’s on-site Marine Discovery Centre, offering guests of all ages colourful interactive opportunities to explore a life-size underwater wonderland.”
All-inclusive is becoming very de rigeur in the Maldives these days. But not the “AI” with cheap, constrain your budget, drink off-brand booze to your heart’s content stereotype, but “luxury AI” where the quality of the property and the “inclusions” are high. And in the luxury destination of the Maldives, the 5-star properties are regularly including everything under the sunshine to make the package even more appealing. Sun Siyam Iru Veli has gone beyond just “everything under the sun” to include under the water too with 3 dives included in its AI offering:
“Within the premium all-inclusive package offered by Sun Siyam Iru Veli, up to three dives per person per week are included for certified divers as an alternative to spa credit. Guests must present a valid diving license and medical record if applicable. Boat charges and equipment hire fees do apply.”
