Best of the Maldives: Wood Apple – Chaaya Island Dhonveli

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Chaaya Island Dhonveli - wood apple juice

Over the 10 days of Tour #5, I did uncover 143 new Best of the Maldives candidates, and over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing the first of these for each resort visited in the order of the tour. These selections are not necessarily the most stunning or dramatic, but just ones I picked out that I was especially fond of. The others will be posted over the coming months.

The first island up was Chaaya Island…Chaaya Island Dhonveli. After 55 resorts, I’m always a bit surprised to see something I’ve never seen before. Living in a culinary capital of the world (London) and travelling extensively, I especially surprised to find something on a menu I haven’t seen or tried before. Well, at breakfast at Dhonveli, the array of exotic fruit juices included a something I not only hadn’t tried, I hadn’t even heard of it – Wood Apple.

“Wood apple” is one of the most apt names for a fruit since “Orange”. It looks like an apple…encased in wood. In fact, you have to whack it with a spoon to crack the hard exterior. It comes from Sri Lanka, but can be found in the Maldives.

The juice isn’t your typical reddish or orangey colour of most fruit juices, but a rather earthy brown. And not in a golden “apple juice” kind of way. Imagine the pulpiest, mocha-est apple juice. Supposedly extremely good for digestion.

Dhonveli will serve you wood apple on its own (see below), but it is VERY tart (much like rhubarb). So it is typically served with honey or sugar on top.

Chaaya Island Dhoniveli - wood apple serving

Chaaya Island Dhonveli - wood apple breakfast

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Review

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Maldives Complete in sand

Tour 5 At-a-Glance…

  • 10 islands
  • 3 atolls
  • 5 new Resort Profile pix
  • 74 new Room Type Profile pix
  • 143 ‘Best of the Maldives” pieces
  • 2 ideas for Maldives Complete website enhancements
  • 19 Snorkel Spottings
  • 34 pages of notes
  • 5 dives
  • 4 spa treatments
  • 11 pina coladas

A few over-arching observations from my latest tour.  The “super premiums” (5+ stars) just keep coming with new distinctions and new options for style and luxury.  But you can still find fine value resorts that won’t break the bank (eg.  Royal, Chaaya Island Dhonveli).  The development of new atolls opens up new exciting new discoveries both on land and underwater.  Some other observations include…

  • Gaafu Alifu – Is Gaafu Alifu a rival to the South Ari Atoll’s crown for best diving and snorkeling? South Ari has the whale shark allure, but the dolphins of Gaafu Alifu are also thrilling and a lot more prevalent and predictable. We saw dolphins every day of our trip to Gaafu Alifu including a pod of dozens and a family of three who visited us during a dive (wow!).
  • Chinese – The rise of the Chinese visitors to the Maldives is well documented, and some of stereotypes about them have made some prospective guests apprehensive about resorts popular with the Chinese.
    • Everywhere – First of all, the prevalence of this group is not isolated to certain resorts, but is pretty extensive across the Maldives. The Chinese love this place. There are lots of affluent Chinese these days and the Maldives is a lot closer to China (6 hour plane trip) than to Europe. There was not a resort we visited where Chinese visitors were not prominent.
    • Fine Behaviour – Given the stereotypes, I paid particular attention to their behaviour. And instead of confirmation bias, I found quite the opposite.  The Chinese behaved identically to every other nationality. I’m sure people can point to instances of bad behaviour by Chinese, but I have witnessed bad behaviour in the Maldives by absolutely every nationality.  There are acknowledged cultural weaknesses with their swimming (many Chinese don’t learn to swim), but resorts have adapted to that with better communication, education and safety approaches for these guests.
  • Departure Tax – Maldives recently re-introduced a departure tax. Maldives veterans will remember a period back when you had to keep a certain amount of dollars cash on hand to pay this fee at the airport when you left. While there were rumours circulating they were re-introducing this system, they appear to have mostly incorporated it into flight charges in your plane ticket. When we left, there was no sign of any departure tax collection.

These trips are also a focusing lens which inspires ideas on how I can improve the website. I spend a lot of my time during the tours talking to fans of the site and hearing their feedback and questions. This year, I have come home with the following plans…

  • House Reef Profiles – Maldives Complete has long been the only site with house reef information, but that was limited to a very crude grading. I have long been torn on how to provide a richer perspective. House reefs are quite diverse with a number of characteristics which affect their enjoyment. Also, a number of resorts have weak “house reefs”, but have some impressive coral in their “lagoons”. Mulling over the issue while snorkelling off Soneva Fushi I came upon the solution – a House Reef Profile. I am going to do a whole house reef profile page with information such as the following…
    • Regeneration efforts (y/n)
    • Drop Off Coral rating
    • Lagoon Coral rating
    • YouTube Link (lots of YouTube vids now thanks to GoPro)
    • Snorkel Spottings (total number, most recent, and most prominent)
    • Residents (critters renowned for regular appearances in predictable places)
    • Distance to Drop Off (metres)
    • Dive Center email address
    • Marine Biologist email address
  • Design Refresh – My niece Katrina, a design student at Cornell, had been urging me to update the look and feel of the site with a fresher and more modern layout. Enough people have felt that a bit of spiffing up would be a boost to its appeal and popularity. I had considered changes in this area but have always been hesitant for a couple of reasons…
    • Skill – I’m not a professional web site designer and working up the expertise to make some of the changes would be a fair amount of effort.
    • Difficulty – Most of the site is focused on utilitarian functionality which has some pretty sophisticated code behind it and moving that around it not super easy.
    • Platform – I built the site back in my days at Microsoft and like a good corporate citizen, I used the portfolio of Microsoft tools. As has become pretty apparent, Microsoft ended up not faring so well in the online space and so many of those tools have obsolesced (eg. Community Server, DeepZoom, Silverlight) and been surpassed by superior tools (eg. WordPress, HTML5). Moving the complex functionality not to mention the extensive database of archived material is not a trivial task.
    • Artisinal – Finally, I kind of like the simplistic look of the site. It has a sort of artisanal charm that sets it apart from the ubiquitous and uniform glossy travel sites.

Until next time (can’t wait)!

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 11: Kurumba

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Kurumba tour 5

The Cliveden of the Maldives. A grand stately home that has kept up with the times refreshing and reinventing itself to maintain its revered status as a 5-star icon.

With our obsession for discovering new resorts, we have an unofficial policy to avoid repeat visits. Kurumba is like that is the exception to that rule. It is on my short list of all-time favourite Maldive resorts. I never hesitate to recommend it to someone keen to come to the Maldives, wants to enjoy a bit of luxury while here, but is on a budget. For your money you won’t find a higher standard room, higher class of service or and you get one of the most vibrant house reef in terms of fish life (coral has a way to go but they are investing in regeneration efforts) that you will find as a bonus.

The perennial question mark over Kurumba is that it is “close to Male”. The Maldive purists will say that the ideal island needs to be as far away from civilization as possible. A part of that trepidation is the airport at Male. The sound of the periodic passing plane has never bothered me much. It’s not like MLE is LHR so it’s not that frequent. And I actually find that the turbo-prop seaplanes occasional buzzing by add an air of mystique to the whole ‘remote tropical paradise’ vibe. Male proximity is not necessarily a bad thing for first timers especially. Male is itself is an intriguing micro-city and its mini, floating-in-the-ocean skyline has a charm of its own.

Our visit this week was our 4th visit to Kurumba. One might think that over time and repetition, it would get faded and familiar, but on the contrary it just keeps getting better. I’m always keen to see what innovations the GM Jason Kruse (see photo above) has added. Despite all the previous visits as well as 26 “Best of the Maldives” pieces to date, I still came away from my trip with another 7 candidate distinctions.

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 10: Anantara Kihavah Villas

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Anantara Kihavah tour

Mary Poppins of Maldives resorts. ‘Practically perfect in every way.’ That’s Anantara Kihavah.

There are very few resorts that tick as many boxes as Kihavah does. Some islands are great, and some resorts are great. Finding great islands with great resorts on them is by definition rarer.

The crème de la crème resorts tick a number of key boxes for service, food, styling, etc., but the “Super Premiums” (aka “5+ Stars”) take all of the criteria a step further. Not only that, but they also have one special, added requirement – the “wow” item. The “wow” is not just an abstract effect of quality and style, but it is a very tangible thing that is the first thing you brag about when you get home. In the Maldives, the most common “wow” is an underwater feature, but it can be something like a marine discovery centre or some other distinctive experience.

The Kihavah “wow” is its underwater ”Sea” restaurant. In many respects, it surpasses the iconic one at Conrad. Conrad’s Ithaa restaurant is in the lagoon, while Kihavah’s Sea is perched on the precipice of its house reef drop-off. And what a drop off it is. Plunging straight down for 30 meters into the deep blue abyss. Novice snorkelers, unconfident swimmers, and of course land-lubbers don’t usually get to experience the aquatic thrill of the reef drop off, but Kihavah’s dining portal give it a drop-off everyone can experience.

And that’s where the crème de la crème islands star. With a vibrant and easily accessible house reefs. Kihavah has a particularly fine house reef which you enter straight from the jetties. In addition to its reef, I was quite fond of Kihavah’s modest size. I like the smaller islands that have an intimate and isolated feel to them. But the frosting the cake was Kihavah’s dazzling circumambient beach. One broad, soft, white strip of sand that encircles the entire island. As my wife regularly reminds me, such beauty is not without effort and Kihavah takes considerable effort to groom and primp. But instead of beach defenses (like unsightly groynes and seawalls), instead Kihavah lets nature take its course and then each year they rebuild the section of the beach (typically by the pool) which gets eroded.

Kihavah scores more “outstanding” marks in more areas than all but a few places I have visited in the Maldives. No surprise that I came away from my visit with 19 new “Best of the Maldives” candidates.

A must candidate for any Maldives connoisseur.

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 9: Dusit Thani

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Dusit Thani tour

It’s all about the experience at Dusit Thani.

All of the Maldives has great snorkeling. Probably the best in the world. But how do you turn that into an exceptional experience? First, you start with a great house reef (one of the best in the Baa atoll). Second, you add exceptional excursions. In the Baa atoll, this is going to Hanafaru Bay where you can snorkel with manta rays. In fact, just before our arrival the Dusit Thani folks had been on an excursion where there were dozens all over the place. And you don’t stop there, but you also add a truly inspired snorkeling programme orchestrated by your top flight dive centre (stay tuned for details in upcoming Best of the Maldives).

All of the Maldives resorts have fine food. With fresh reef fish in the surrounding sea and a range of tropical fruits in plentiful supply, add savory traditional curry recipes and it’s not difficult to put together a delectable meal. Add toes wiggling in warm sand, a canopy of bright stars overhead, and a serenade of gently lapping water on the shore and any meal becomes a stunning experience. But wheel in a talented chef and then a whole host of gustatory delights take the meals to another level.

Eating at Dusit’s “Sea Grill”, my expectations were modest. I was expecting the conventional array of basic meats and fish lovingly flame cooked. Instead, I found an extensive menu of taste treats that would impress hard core foodies in London’s West End never mind on some remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

One of my acid tests for great cuisine is the soup (I’ve written a number of times about two of my favourites – bisque and gazpacho). These are the dishes where diverse flavours can be melded into a unique taste sensation. My first challenge at Dusit was choosing. Instead of a normal “soupe du jour”, I faced a several enticing options. So I did the obvious thing being a soup fan…I ordered them all. I’m not sure I have enough data and samples to go on to award Dusit a “Best of the Maldives” for soup, but it certainly was the most appetizing that I had ever enjoyed in the Maldives.

Soups and snorkeling are just two examples of Dusit Thani’s meticulous efforts to provide guests with an experience as distinctive as the paradise they are visiting. I came away from my memorable stay with 14 candidates for Best of Maldives

 

 

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 8: Royal

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Royal Island tour

Budget Baa.

One of the stops I most anticipated was a visit to Royal Island. I knew very little about Ayada, but I knew nothing about Royal. Of all of the resorts I was visiting, it was the only resort that I hadn’t written anything about. And yet, when I mentioned the island to Maldives experts, they would say “Oh yeah, fine island.”

I must say, for everyone bemoaning the escalating prices of the Maldives 5-stars, this well-appointed 4-star property would tick all the basic boxes for a superb Maldives getaway. For rooms, it has smart décor with comfortable air conditioning and outdoor bathroom. For food, it serves fresh reef fish and dishes cooked with local curry recipes including tropical fruit and a range of options. For activities, it offers a stocked sports centre,. For snorkeling, it has an extensive, easily accessible house reef that wraps around the entire island. For diving, it hosts a centre run by Dutch group Delphis diving which is particularly professional and helpful. And this is all on offer for less than half the cost of most 5-stars.

Being in the Baa atoll makes Royal especially distinctive. The entire atoll has been designates a marine bio-reserve to help protect the rich sea life there especially the abundant manta rays. The draw to this part of the Maldives may have contributed to this neighbourhood upscaling significantly so that it is nearly all 5-star properties and Royal is an opportunity to experience on a more most budget.

I even came away from our visit with a few “Best of the Maldives” candidates.

What’s not to like?

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 7: Soneva Fushi

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Soneva Fushi tour

Soneva Fushi , a love story. The resort is a heartfelt expression of love for the Maldives by the founders and owners Eva and Sonu Shivdasani. The very name “Soneva” is like two sweethearts’ names carved inside a heart, “Sonu + Eva”. They spend the majority of their time living on the island themselves, in one of the more modest two-bedroom villas, despite owning a number of other exquisite properties.

Soneva has long been a trend setter, not a fad follower. No glass floors, no water villas, no pool. The artistry of the execution is led by the Creative Director Eva. They’ve created a funky barefoot chic vibe that is imbued into every nook and cranny.

Love for guests.  Soneva meticulously tailors that aesthetic to each guest. Everything on offer is an option customized to the individual. When you arrive at the airport lounge, the hostess has you try a number of salt salts and soaps so that your villa would be supplied with your favourite. One of my pet peeves of spa treatments is when they ask where you would like the therapist to focus and then the therapist does a fairly standard treatment. I told the therapist to focus on head, neck and legs…and that was the only areas he really ever touched. I’ve never had a massage therapist so meticulously follow my brief.  Usually buffets are an exercise in quantity and quality. Like its former sibling Gili Lankanfushi, Soneva’s buffet food is near gourmet quality. Not just for a few items, but for most. For example, at their egg station they had prawns as an option for omelets. Now why don’t all resorts have this luxury ingredient on their egg stations (and crab meat too, by the way)?

Love for the unconventional.  “Sea level” is one of the defining aspects of the Maldives. Nothing, not the landscape elevation nor the seascape depth deviates much from the horizon of the sea. Still, I quite welcome the few places which provide a more vertical perspective on this paradise. Sea plane rides, mocktails at Traders Hotel “high-rise” in Male, and the occasional two story structure on a resort. Well, the majority of structures on Soneva – The villas, the spa, the signature restaurant, the observatory – are two stories which lend a more three-dimensional contour to the island.

Love for the planet.  If Park Hyatt Hadahaa is eco-obsessed, Soneva is eco-maniacal. Their reclamation and recycling area covers nearly an acre. They also have a solar panel farm that provides 3% of their electricity with aspirations to build it to 50%.

The combination of a (a) environmental, (b) vertical, and (c) family focus (they are building one of the most stunning kids clubs in the Maldives) makes the entire experience feel like you are in a real life production of Swiss Family Robinson. If the Robinson family hadn’t been rescued, but instead they stayed on their island and built it into a sustainable utopia. There are tree houses everywhere. Peg-in-hole door locks, coconut door closers, tree branch toilet roll holders. They should write a Buzzfeed article “27 Eco-Hacks for your Resort” (eg. use old jars with sand as table candle sconces). Gilligan’s Island if everyone on the Minnow were Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Powell III.

As a General Manager myself, I am intrigued not just by environmentally friendly sustainability, but by business sustainability. So many resorts have come and gone over the years and yet Soneva Fushi goes from strength to strength. The key to their success here is reinvestment. They seem to constantly be refreshing and adding to every part of the island. The villas, the offerings, the décor, the supply chain, and most critically the staff.

Having written more about Soneva Fushi than any other resort that I hadn’t yet visited and the resort commanding a high profile in lifestyle and travel press, I wondered what could be said that hasn’t already been said? Yet, I came upon “Best of the Maldives” potentials as dense as its lush vegetation. I found 4 ‘Best of’ subjects just in the Soneva airport lounge. As it turns out, over my short stay I uncovered 42 potential “Best of the Maldives” topics. Combined with the 22 already posted, Soneva Fushi tops the “Best of” league table with a stunning 64. But, it sort of seems like Soneva has an infinite supply of Best of the Maldives distinctions. Not only did I come across one every time I turned around, it’s clear that the resort has a whole parade of innovations perpetually coming down the pike. Stay tuned.

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 6: Jumeirah Dhevanafushi

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Jumeirah Dhevanafushi tour

When I visited Jumeirah Vittaveli last year, we were discussing potential superlatives for the “Best of the Maldives” section. The marketing manager asserted that Jumeirah Dhevanafushi was the “Most Romantic” resort in the Maldives. It was not the first time I had heard such an overwhelmingly ambitious claim (eg. Velassaru, Baros). I asked what makes it so much better. Do the sunsets glow more, do the palms wave more languidly, are the ocean blues bluer? ‘Best of the Maldives’ is necessarily the definitive arbiter of such distinctions, but it does do its research and look to have something tangible to for a ‘Best Of’ post to hang its hat on.

The marketer didn’t relent. She pointed to the biggest beds in the Maldives (okay, that is pretty cool and could contribute to some major romance not least of which is providing some acreage between a couple for snoring or tossing and turning). Then, she added that the island is shaped like a heart (well, maybe an anatomical heart, but not so much the iconic shape). I’m not convinced that it is THE most romantic resort in the Maldives (just like I don’t think that there is a “Best Resort” in the Maldives), but it certainly puts forth a compelling case.

What I will concede after a couple of pretty astonishing days there is that Dhevanafushi is a place where fantasies come true. Again, that might sound like a bunch of review palaver, but hear me out. I have the evidence to prove my case…

  • Octopus – I have been looking for one on a house reef for 13 years. Ever since we saw one snorkeling on Coco Palm Dhuni Kholu house reef, I’ve dreamed of seeing another one of these intriguing but shy creatures who are the world champion hide-and-seek players. Like Babe Ruth’s famous called shot, the staff pointed out the favourite hang-out of their house reef resident octoped and there he was when we went snorkeling (though we passed right by him the first time). Anyone who wants to spy one of these elusive creature curiosities, Dhevanafushi is the place to go.
  • Dolphins – Who doesn’t have a dream to ‘swim with dolphins? Not only did we see dolphins every day in Gaafu Alifu, but the dolphins swam by us during our dive from Dhevanafushi. Even the dive master was bowled over by how close they came.
  • Beach dinner – When we started coming to the Maldives, beach dining was an anomaly. People ate in established restaurants. We would ask if we could move our table onto the beach and the ever gracious Maldivians would always oblige. Dining with the sand in our toes, the stars above and the surf to our side is one of our biggest thrills. Dhevanafushi is one of the few resorts which features “in beach” dining. Not “on beach”. But in beach. They literally dig your dining table and settee out of the sand. Fantastic.
  • Beds. The beds in Dhevanafushi are bigger than some bedrooms I have slept in. You could spend days and never leave the bed (that would contribute to a romantic vibe). During the day, reading and hanging out with Lori was like being in our own little bed fort. During the night, my 6’4” frame could stretch out to my heart’s content.
  • Beach House. Lori especially has fantasized about owning a beach house. Why own a beach house when you can come to a place like this? The taxes, community charges, maintenance and utilities would be more than your stay here. While there were plenty of things on offer, the accommodation is so comfortable that you are happy just to hang out ‘at home’ in your villa, taking a dip in the pool or the ocean, lying in the sun, or doing totally nothing. For a couple of days, we felt we were living the dream of residing in our own little beach house.

Welcome to Fantasy Island.

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 5: Ayada

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Ayada tour

Exotic fusion. Some of the most exciting wines are blends. Some of the most delectable drinks are cocktails, and the most inspired cuisines are fusion concoctions. Ayada fuses two exotic ingredients – the tropical paradise of the Maldives with the storied aesthetic of Turkey – for an exquisitely unique resort. Appropriately enough, Istanbul has a millennia-old tradition of melding various cultures including being the nexus where East meets West.

Ayada is discovery that reminded me of a trip to see a dear friend in France. After an evening of appreciating a broad selection of wines from the region, he goes down to the furthest corner of the cellar and retrieves a most rare bottle that he saves for only the most appreciative connoisseurs. It is a unique chateau blend of grapes making for indescribable taste. It was like someone recognized that I was a particularly keen connoisseur of Maldives resorts and went and fetched this exquisite one for me to sample.

“Ayada”, which means “Moon Island” in Turkish, is a high-end 5-star. Impeccably executed from the coherently themed décor to the meticulous attention to detail and the gourmet quality cuisine on offer. It is another of those resorts (like Huvafenfushi, Soneva Fushi, Nika) who (not unlike my motivation with Maldives Complete) are the product of someone overcome with inspiration by the Maldives. The resort is the product of the owner and developer Ahmet Aydeniz’s affection. He discovered this part of the world and set out on a mission to build a great property befitting of its location in paradise.

I came away from my visit with 17 Best of the Maldives contenders and a whole new slant on the Maldivian experience.

Cennete ho? geldiniz

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Maldives Tour 2014 – Day 4: Park Hyatt Hadahaa

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Park Hyatt Hadahaa tour

As if to trumpet our arrival to one of the most eco-obsessed resorts in the Maldives, the very icon of environmental-friendliness – the dolphin – came out to greet us during our transfer to Park Hyatt Hadahaa. Not just a token welcome party, but a teeming hoard of spinner dolphins jumping, scudding and cruising up to the boat on all sides. I tried to count them, but gave up at 80.

Immediately, Hadahaa’s intimate connection with nature strikes you. The single central byway is completely shrouded from the tropical sun by a dense canopy of palm and other foliage. The resort lets the fallen fronds lay where they fall (most resorts will sweep this debris up) blanketing the surrounding undergrowth with a thick duvet of leaves. But it doesn’t seem unkempt in any way as the main path is clear and tidily edged. When you emerge on the beach, you sink ankle deep in powder white sand (the softest I’d walked since Maafushivaru).

The marquee nature attraction at Hahadaa is the house reef. Reputed to be one of the very best (certainly top 10), it didn’t take long before Lori and I donned our gear and leapt in to explore. Immediately, you could see the how it got its reputation. Hadahaa is one of the rare house reefs where the coral growth extends richly into the lagoon as well as in and amongst the water villas (lagoons and the water villas that are often built on them are often mostly expansive sandy beds). The drop off was readily accessible and teeming with both fish and coral. We came back across the lagoon on return to swim among the coral croppings there. Often such growth gives one the sense of a coral garden. Hadahaa was more like a coral jungle. In fact, a recent marine biology survey assessed that Hadahaa had over 100% coral on its reef. This mathematical anomaly results from the fact that a number of table corals had tumbled down the reef drop off and now there were literally corals growing on top of them. There were corals on top of corals.

General Manager Julian Moore explained why Hadahaa (and many of the other Gaafu Alifu islands) have such excellent reefs. The atoll is the biggest atoll not just in the Maldives, but in the world. It spans about 70 kilometers north to south and 50 kilometers east to west. It is also one of the deepest. This combination brings both a rich flow of nutrients while providing a buffer of protection from storms to islands and reefs inside the atoll.

Welcome to the jungle.

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