Best of the Maldives: Resident Local Artist – Sun Island

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Sun Island Azum artist

This weekend kicks off the holiday shopping season in the USA starting with the infamous post-Thanksgiving ‘Black Friday’. Guests of Sun Island can get their own jump on filling their Santa sacks with any number of treasures at Azym’s workshop. Azym is the resident artist there and wields his paintbrush in his shop there packed floor to ceiling with pieces such as pictures, bowls, frames and all manner of assorted decorative arts.

I find that local artwork is quite variable in quality not just in the Maldives , but at just about any tourist destination that you visit. Some will be quite amateurish and tawdry pieces, but sometimes you can find some real gems of talent and style. I would definitely class Azym as the latter. He captures the Maldivian blues that are bright but not garish. His depictions are simple without being crude.

And because they are made right there, so you can order something customised as a special memento to your stay and favourite memories. A certain part of the island or vista perhaps.

Happy shopping!

Sun Island artist

Sun Island artist 2

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Best of the Maldives: Lemonade – Mirihi

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Mirihi lemonade

“If life gives you lemons, then make lemonade.”

This is the week for blogging milestones as my other major (and longer standing) blogging pursuit – ‘Bruce Lynn Blog’ – celebrated its 7th anniversary yesterday. The site explores the themes of ‘Leadership and Management’ as well as ‘Embracing Failure’. The two subjects are united in the common thread of how people deal with risk.

To celebrate the occasion, I thought I would post something apropos. Perhaps one of the all-time classic ‘embrace failure’ sayings is about making lemonade out of lemons, so I thought I would turn to the best and most varied lemonade I have found in the Maldives.

Mirihi offers 10 different signature cocktails at Muraka bar including the following tart treats…

  • Mihiri Lemonade – “Fresh muddled strawberries, aged rum, strawberry and vanilla liguer with soda.”
  • Wild Honey & Orange Lemonade – “Vodka, Drambuie, Cointreau, honey, oranges and orange lemonade”
  • Green Tea & Chili Lemonade – “Green tea, fresh limes, Southern Comfort, Brandy and a bit of chili” (see above enjoyed with fellow TripAdvisor Forum contributor).

Admittedly, ‘embracing failure’ by drinking lemonade in a tropical resort isn’t too hard of a sell.

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Best of the Maldives: Board Game – LUX* Maldives

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400! That’s how many ‘Best of Maldives’ pieces I have logged with today’s post. Looking for something suitable for this quadricentennial milestone. ‘400’ is the square of 20, the HTTP status code for a bad client request, the top wealthy people in Forbes. It is also the price for ‘Boardwalk’ in the American version of Monopoly. With all of its hotels, money spending, and entrepreneurship in the Maldives tourism industry, that seemed particularly apropos for Maldives Complete.

Most resorts have a selection of classic board games at a common area library or from reception – chess, checkers, Risk. And the all-time classic for when you really have lots of time to while away – Monopoly. LUX* Maldives, in their characteristically creative-quirk style has lent a twist to even this simple pastime…

“Monopoly that makes a difference. Join us in a villa or a suite where we will set up the game and convert the Monopoly money ‘winnings’ of the victor into a real currency donation to our carefully screened and approved community projects.”

It got me thinking that they should do a Maldives Monopoly custom-version.

Each ‘colour’ collection could be a different atoll (with an effort at trying to get escalating prices of properties featured)…

  • Dark red – North Male (Club Faru, Summer Island)
  • Light blue – South Male (Fihahlohi, Club Rannalhi, Kandooma)
  • Pink – North Ari (Chaaya Ellaidhoo, Maayafushi, Bathala)
  • Dark Yellow – South Ari (Vilamendhoo, Vakarufalhi, Mirihi)
  • Red – Nilandhe (Angsana Velavaru, Filitheyo, Niyama)
  • Yellow – Gaafu (Park Hyatt, Ayada, The Residence)
  • Green – Baa (Anantara Kihavah, Soneva Fushi, Four Seasons Landaa Giravaru)
  • Dark blue – (The Rania Experience, Dhoni Island)

Alternatively, each grouping could be a resort operating group…

  • Dark red – (Club Faru, Fihahlohi)
  • Light blue – Villa (Holiday Island, Paradise Island, Sun Island)
  • Pink – Chaaya (Hakura Hura Huraa, Dhonveli, Elaidhoo)
  • Dark Yellow – Crown & Champa (Meeru, Komandoo, Kuredu)
  • Red – AAA (Medhufushi, Filitheyo, Zitahli Kudafunafaru)
  • Yellow – Universal (Kurumba, Baros, Velassaru)
  • Green – Adaaran (Dhigu, Naladhu, Kihavah)
  • Dark blue – Four Seasons (Kuda Huraa, Landaa Giravaru)

Other changes could include…

  • ‘Houses’ would be ‘Villas’
  • ‘Hotels’ would ‘Water Villas’
  • ‘Railroads’ would be ‘Liveaboards’ (Yasawa Princess, Atoll Explorer, Dhaainkan’baa, Four Seasons Explorer)
  • Utilities would be ‘Dive Centre’ and ‘Water Centre’
  • ‘Jail’ would be the ‘Male Airport Transfer Lounge’.
  • ‘Free Parking’ would be ‘Free Diving’

Community Chest and Chance cards would have things like…

  • ‘Step on coral, pay $500 reef restoration fine’ (this idea courtesy of Vilamendhoo)
  • ‘Advance Token to the Nearest Dive Centre’
  • ‘Advance Token to the Nearest Water Sports Centre’
  • ‘Get PADI certified. Pay $150’
  • ‘Pay decompression chamber fees of $100’
  • ‘You have won second prize in a swimsuit contest – Collect $10’

The tokens would have to be all changed…

  • Ship → Dhoni
  • Old shoe → Fin/flipper
  • Top hat → Cocktail with umbrella
  • Doggie → Turtle

Any other suggestions??

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Best of the Maldives: Whale Shark Odds – Holiday Island

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Holiday Island whale shark sightings

Perhaps the ultimate underwater treasure in the Maldives is a whale shark sighting. Most of the time, the biggest animal that you can see there. And a paragon gentle-giant docility and prehistoric charm. And number of spots are known hang outs for these elusive creatures who spend their lives in the depths unless they are feeding. Those locations (eg. Dhidhdhoo, Hanifru) are all protected by the Maldives as Marine Sanctuaries. While they are more prevalent in these places (and at certain times of the year), there are never any guarantees when it comes to mother nature.

The resort dive centre, Dive Oceanus, keeps and publishes detailed data on whale shark sightings (see above) which can also help to focus one’s holiday timing and planning for the highest incidence and probability as well.

I have to confess that Lori and I were tinged with a touch of disappointment when our whale shark excursion this summer came up empty. Most South Ari resorts offer such excursions, but on specific days. If you really are obsessed with sighting one and want the highest odds possible, then Holiday Island (also located within the Dhidhdhoo Marine Sanctuary) offers daily excursions. They will even add extra trips for people if they request it. It might mean a lot of event-less boat rides for your holiday. But at least you will have given the effort you all. And the beautiful Maldives seascape makes for dazzling scenery as a consolation prize.

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Best of the Maldives: Treasure Surprise – LUX* Maldives

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LUX Maldives message in a bottle 1

You might need a looking glass when looking for this glass. LUX* Maldives’ ‘Message in a Bottle’ is one of the most creative and apropos touches to their resort experience I have come across.

LUX* hides bottles around the island with special messages inside. They even hide some in the lagoon underwater for snorkelers to happen upon.

First, the notion just conjures up exactly the mystique that permeates this tropical paradise. When describing the Maldives to someone who doesn’t know about them, I say, “You know those pictures of a plot of sand with a palm tree in the ocean…that’s the Maldives.’ And if you were to think of one image on that empty, isolated island it would proabably be a message in a bottle. Either a shipwrecked soul sending out a rescue message or a lonely sole having one float to shore (typically as part of a punch line to some New Yorker cartoon).

The other prominent image for this exotic landscape is swashbuckling pirate adventure. When our children were young, one of the highlights was us organising a ‘treasure hunt’ on the island with a sequence of clues scattered around the island ultimately leading to a bag of sweets. At LUX*, my wife and I could just lounge by the pool and set the kids off in search of the elusive ‘message in a bottle’ lucre.

The messages all include a special treat for the luck treasure hunter. Best one is a free massage at the spa. Wait for it…’Massage in a bottle’

 

LUX Maldives message in a bottle 3

LUX Maldives message in a bottle 2

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Best of the Maldives: Room Telescope – Lily Beach

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Lily Beach - telescope

The Leonids are back!

Our favourite astronomical event. We love to be in remote places with little air pollution or light pollution which provide ideal viewing. Just lie on the ground and star at the heavens waiting for the staffs to fall.

If you want to be a bit more pro-active with your personal star gazing, then Lily Beach offers the most powerful personal telescope we have found in the Maldives. A number of resorts offer a high powered device for group star gazing and Soneva Fushi even has its own observatory. But for more private viewing, Lily Beach offers Celestron Power Seeker 80EQ in its water suite which includes “3x Barlow lens triples the magnifying power of each eyepiece…[and] ‘The SkyX – First Light Edition’ astronomy software with a 10,000 object database, printable sky maps and 75 enhanced images.”

Star struck!

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Best of the Maldives: Longest Jetty – Constance Halaveli

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Constance Halaveli jetty

Guinness World Record Day today.

Only natural that Maldives Complete ‘Best of the Maldives’ collection of distinctions would rank not just among the best in the country, but across the world as well. One such example appears to be Constance Halaveli’s water villa jetty. They have the longest jetty in the Maldives at 850 metres. Two-thirds of the Maldives resort islands themselves aren’t even that long. And with the Maldives leading the way in the world with water villas (due to its unique shallow reef/island topology), some research indicates that it appears to be the longest in the world.

Back here in blighty, we have to console ourselves with celebrating distinctions like ‘Fastest bog snorkelling triathlon’ (see below – slide 36). With the current UK weather, it might become the new national pastime. If Maldives is the ‘Best Snorkeling in the World’, then the UK has probably achieved the distinction of hosting the ‘Worst Snorkeling in the World’.

 

UK bog snorkeling record

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Best of the Maldives: Cashless – Centara Grand

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Centara Grand spa treatment

Centara Grand is getting rid of another kind of paper in its business…cash. ETurboNews resports…

“Guests arriving at Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives from November 1, 2012 can leave both their shoes and their cash behind, because from that date the resort begins its Ultimate All-Inclusive experience. Although Centara has always featured fully-inclusive accommodation, Ultimate All-Inclusive takes this concept to an entirely new level and represents the ultimate in luxury escapes. Included are champagne breakfasts served all the way through until mid-morning, a choice of three restaurants for lunch, and sumptuous dinners that offer a daily theme buffet, Thai cuisine, Italian dining at a romantic overwater restaurant, Japanese teppanyaki cooked to order, fresh seafood, and international dishes…Also included are credits of US$100 per person, per day, to spend at Spa Cenvaree village spa, with a range of treatments that include foot massage, Indian head massage, face relaxing massage, and a choice of body scrubs and upper-back massage…The package also includes Wi-Fi access in the rooms and across the resort, use of fitness facilities with programs designed by a personal trainer, tennis, snorkeling equipment, motorized water sports, and windsurfing lessons…A number of off-island excursions are also included such as a whale shark tour, sunset fishing, sunset cruises, and the local island discovery tour.”

Other resort have done ulta-all-inclusive plans comparable to this, but one feature that stands out for me here is the $100 daily spa credit. Nice touch.

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Best of the Maldives: Press Kit – LUX* Maldives / Gangehi

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LUX Maldives press kit

Bumf, swag and paraphernalia. That is the burden of conventional marketing. The most popular give-away (often sponsored) at trade-shows is a carrier bag to haul all of the brochures, pamphlets, flyers, fact sheets and other assorted promo material. After a tour, I have to watch my baggage weight with piles of paper I bring back. LUX* Maldives has remedied all that with their credit card USB press kit. After my island tour, PR Manager Dolores Semeraro handed me all the material I needed on the handy little device shown here.

As it happens, when I met with Raffaela Colleoni of Gangehi at WTM and they had the same gizmo. But they had a picture of the island on it. In fact, several of the business cards I collected featured aerial resort shots. I think this is a smart idea. The romantically diminutive dot nestled in swathes of turquoise IS the ‘product’.

Like the Maldives islands themselves, good things do come in small packages.

 

LUX Maldives press kit close up

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Best of the Maldives: Pool Number – Beach House Iruveli

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Beach House at Iruveli pool

One of the dividends to my WTM visit is coming away with a notebook full of new ‘Best of Maldives’ candidates through my discussions with the various resorts and the Tourism Ministry folks. One of my revelations was meeting with Haydee Cruz of The Beach House at Iruveli and learning about their ‘all pool villas’ concept.

Iruveli are neither the only nor the first ‘all pool villa’ resort (eg. Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru has the same concept), but they are the biggest. With their 83 rooms (versus 48 are Vabbinfaru) plus their 2 (!) main pools AND a special kids pool at the kids club, they coming to a splashing 86 pools in total (hat tip to Liz Panchang who pointed out the distinction). And these are substantial pools, eg. Length: 3.2m, Width: 2.3m, Depth: 1.1m.

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