If the kind of ‘space’ that you like in your pool is less the ‘starry night’ type, and more the ‘stretchy out’ kind, then Soneva Fushi’s Jungle Reserve Villa (villa #42) is the one for you.
It’s private pool extends 150 square metres (15m x 10m). That comparer to the runner up in astronomical aquatic acreage of Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru’s Royal Beach Villa with 113 sq/m.
If the underwater stars that dazzle you are star fish, starlets and feather stars, then Park Hyatt Hadahaa is the place to swim to and at.
Adrian Neville tweeted last week, “Park Hyatt house reef, the best corals of any resort bar none. But oddly the fish life is as quiet as life on the island.”
Not much better authority than Adrian Neville. And he’s just finished latest research for his upcoming edition of his must-have book on Maldives resorts ‘Resorts of the Maldives’. Check out his Twitter stream for 140-character advance tidbits.
Hadahaa is in the Gaafu Alifu atoll which Harwood and Bryning’s book “Complete Guide to Diving and Snorkeling the Maldives” describes as “The coral reefs inside the atoll are in great condition and a marvel to dive and snorkel” (see picture above).
If stars are more your thing than the moon, then follow them over to W Retreat for a midnight dip in their constellation pools. Both their main pool and their individual villa pools feature star lights along the bottom creating their own little galaxies. The main pool is one of the larger ones in the Maldives at 50 square meters. And the villa pools are also combined with Jacuzzis.
It is legend that when Dom Perignon discovered champagne, he remarked ‘I am drinking stars!’ (In fact, there is even a book on the history of champagne with this quote as its title). With a glass of champagne, you are surrounded by stars below, above and inside.
Perfect accompanying photo by Ahmed Amir – Full Moon over Kuda Huraa spa
This week’s full moon was at its farthest point from the Earth this year making it the smallest Full Moon of 2011. If you follow these sorts of celestial events, then you should follow the five stars to Four Seasons Kuda Huraa for their Night Spa just launched this week…
“The Island Spa’s Night Spa treatments are very different from treatments you might experience during the day. In fact, they’re probably different from anything you’ve experienced before. From the moment we collect you from your villa to the moment we bring you back, you’ll be wrapped in the nurturing embrace of the tropical evening air. Relax beneath the stars in the Night Spa’s torch-lit lounge, then indulge in one of four open-air lunar rituals devised by Sodashi to attune the body to nature’s rhythms. Each lunar ritual can be enjoyed at any time but will provide the greatest benefit during its linked lunar phase. Available from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am nightly, Night Spa treatments must be booked a minimum of 24 hours in advance.”
Their treatments include…
I never like to take spa treatments during the day in the Maldives because it is just less time in sunshine and being out and about in paradise. But the night time is a bit more limited to strolls through the paths and by the ocean and a great time to ratchet the stress down that further gear.
Also recommended for vampires and werewolves.
Asim Mohamed on right from his Flickr photostream
For Mohamed Asim, it is not just a job, not just posting, not just a career, not even a passion…it is his life. He is not only one of the few Maldivian native GMs, but he is definitely the first one still serving.
He doesn’t just ‘manage’ the property, he lives it. He surfs the Lohi surf break. He dives. He has his own Flickr stream with nearly 100 images to share his avid photography documenting so many facets of Maldive life and Adaaran Hudhuranfushi highlights. He first cut his teeth in ‘food and beverage’ operation when he entered the Maldive tourism industry in its earliest days so he even mixes it up in the resort kitchen from time to time.
Asim has decades of experience and despite numerous assignments and bountiful opportunity to travel and work just about anywhere in the world, he can think of no better place to be than the Maldives. I can think of no better legacy of the Maldives increasingly proud and world leading tourism industry.
Happy Birthday Asim!
Red Bull all around then after Vettel’s World Championship win this weekend. If you are as impatient to get to your resort as Vettel is to get around the hairpin, then Kurumba is the place for you. They are the closest resort island to Male at 3 kilometres away. They also have a fleet of luxury motor yachts (so they are always readily available) to that get you to the welcome pier in 8 minutes. Also one of the most comfortable and plush speedboat transfers you will find.
Kandooma puts the ‘up’ in ‘upscale’.
Aside from a Red Bull infusion (and Vettel is in pole position), a sea plane transfer or a parasailing excursion, the best way to ‘get wings’ in the Maldives is Kandooma’s various decks. The whole aesthetic of the Maldives is ‘low lying’. Maximum of elevation of a few feet and simple structures. Increasingly, resorts are looking to provide new perspectives with higher constructions. Anantara Kihavah, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, and Vadoo are just a few of the resorts with rooftop decks to provide a broader view of the spectacular surrounding ocean.
But the highest, outside of Male itself, is Kandooma’s architecture. I’ve already written about its library which itself is location on the upper floor or reception with its own delightful vista over the arrival harbour. The resort is chock full of 2-story villas with decks looking out over the ocean. It also has a rooftop deck over its The Kitchen restaurant. But the literally towering achievement is its rooftop deck (see photo above) to its aptly named ‘The Deck’.
Lori and I sat on the cosy bean bag chairs sipping mojitos watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean. Bottoms up.
Zoiks!
Casting even further back in Maldivian history is Komandoo’s own cultural antiquity – ‘Moussa’s Grave’. Not a lot is known about this character Moussa except that he was from the neighbouring island Hinnavaru and that he must have been fairly important to merit his own memorial stone on his own island. It is now a very unassuming artefact that you will miss if you don’t know where to look for it. But Lori and I had to go check it out during our recent visit. There is special place in my heart for gravesites having spent my childhood waiting for the bus next to one. In fact, my study of that local graveyard and the history of the families resting there earned me a scholarship which paid a big part of my school tuition.
I must say, though, Komandoo is starting to shape up to be like a Scooby-Doo episode. Mysterious gravesite. The management banning ‘pesky kids’ (no under 12s allowed). If the resort gets into some battle over its deed, then I would put my money on the caretaker as the culprit dressed up in traditional Maldivian dress running around scaring the guests.
Speaking of old school and Maldives classics, happy anniversary to Vadoo. 23 years ago this month Vadoo opened introducing the very first Maldivian water villas. The owner imported the concept from Bali. In fact, one of the original villas (see photo above) is preserved as a museum where a variety of cultural artefacts of are displayed (see photo below).
For another glimpse of Maldivian history, check out this fascinating piece, “Maldives: A Place in the Sun” (Thanks @maldives), featured in Eugene, Oregon’s Register-Times stepping back in time to 1972 when…
“About once a month a chartered Air Ceylon twin-engine plane flies the 400 miles to the Maldives from Colombo, Ceylon, with cargo, mail and perhaps a passenger or two. The two-hour flight is out for most visitors though, because the Maldivian ambassador in Colombo will, as he put it, “issue a visa only when accommodations are available, and there are no accommodations.” Since the plane returns as quickly as unloading and loading can be completed, there wouldn’t even be time for sightseeing.”
And finally, a special tribute to a global pioneer who made history that affects all of us – Steve Jobs. The world will miss him. For a stirring video piece that many non-Americans won’t have seen, check out today’s post in my other blog.
Maldives gives you wings. And Maldives Portal gives you all the nuts and bolt and any other tool you need to take flight to Maldivian paradise.
The most comprehensive German website for the Maldives is actually not from Germany, but Austria – www.maldives.at (For those of you who didn’t get the link to the ‘gives you wings’ tagline of Red Bull, Red Bull is the not just the biggest manufacturing company in Austria, but I think it is the biggest manufacturing company share of a country’s GDP of any in the world, not to mention it is by far Austria’s most iconic brand).
The simply titled ‘Maldives Portal’ is anything, but simple. It is a smorgasbord of information with a pedigree as rich as its pages. It is arguably the first major independent website on Maldives resorts. Certainly the oldest of any that persist to today. It was a major source of information for me when I first started researching my first trip in 1993. It wasn’t the most polished site with stylised graphics and slick interface, but it was chock full invaluable information that was actually useful. Instead of overly contrived pictures of tropical fruits and palm trees, it featured practical shots of the resort infrastructure like the rooms and facilities long before TripAdvisor or Flickr albums came on the scene. They also provided island maps which helped provide a sense of the overall layout. The forest for the trees. Not just of the island itself, but the surrounding waters, lagoons, reefs, etc. It was a major inspiration for me in creating Maldives Complete as I thought that the web needed more practical information on the resorts like the kind of stuff I could find some of on the Maldives.at.
Over the many years, Maldives.at has continued to update and enhance itself. It has added a bit more polish and order, but it still resembles a colourful, packed-to-the-ceiling-bazaar rather than a fussy, posh boutique. What it features in comprehensive information it does lack a bit in resort coverage as it only profiles 34 of the over 100 Maldives resorts. The section ‘All Tourist Resorts’ is, however, a virtually complete table of information with links to ‘Reports’ on nearly half which does provide a more expansive set of resort data.
The two areas where it stands out for its depth are diving information and its own community Forum. While Maldives Complete fatures dive maps of sites nearby to each resorts, Maldives Portal features broader atoll dive maps showing virtually all the dive sites in reach (see below). Unfortunately, the while the Forum rivals TripAvisor’s, it is almost completely in German.
But the shop inventory doesn’t stop there. It has links to key government sites, online webcams, TV, radio, services, companies, and so on. It’s like a giant hardware store of Maldives information where you could just get lost on a Sunday afternoon browsing all of the obscure items and thinking ‘surely, I can use this Maldives Puzzle!”
As Reethi Beech General Manager Peter Gremes wrote me after this week’s piece, “If Vettel wins next Sunday we’ll raise the Austrian flag and serve Red Bull.” Maldeives.at certainly is its own little online resort Red Bull – a powerful jolt of information, worldwide notoriety and German content in an Austrian car.
