As if the Maldives weren’t completely relaxing enough on their own, the resorts do seem to push the boundaries on how to make the stay even more comatosely indolent. The latest innovation is the Anantara Kihava swinging pool bed.
Zzzzzz.
Best of the Maldives: Paddle-boarding – Four Seasons Kuda Huraa
Happy 235th Birthday America!
I wanted to feature something distinctively American in honour of July 4th Independence Day. I’ve already covered basketball and I couldn’t find any hot dog stands, so I’ve settled on ‘Paddle Boarding’. Invented in Hawaii back in 1930, it has recently surged in popularity. Our north Carolina cousins have been doing it off the coast of Wilmington.
Also known as ‘Stand Up Paddling’ or ‘SUP’, Four Seasons Kuda Huraa’s Tropic Surf introduced the sport to the Maldives and offers 1 hour instruction session in its lagoon…
- “This course is an enjoyable, subtle workout that improves balance, endurance and core strength. View marine life and golden sunsets in the calm lagoon. Suitable for all; no experience required.”
Best of Maldives Online – Future Resorts: To Maldives
One thing that makes MaldivesComplete so ‘Complete’ is that I include resorts that aren’t even there yet. Of the 125 resorts in the MaldivesComplete database, 25 are ‘Inactive’. Half of these are resorts undergoing refurbishment and relaunch, but the others are those under development.
So what’s the point of featuring resorts that aren’t available? Well, many people plan their Maldives trips long in advance. Some people up to a year. If it is a honeymoon or other ‘once in a lifetime’ event, people often book very early. By including the resorts that are not yet online, but in the works, people don’t have to regret that they didn’t know a new resort was going to be a possibility.
If you really want to look out further on the horizon of the upcoming developments in the Maldives, then ToMaldives is the place to go. They maintain a comprehensive listing of ‘Assigned Islands’ with some photos and info on the planned development.
Another hat tip to Francisco.
Best of the Maldives: Bungee Trampoline – Beach House at Manafaru
Most people don’t need much assistance in jumping for joy in the Maldives. If you do, the Beach House at Manafaru has a ‘bungee trampoline’…
- “One of the unique highlights of Play, children will love bouncing their time away on this popular trampoline.”
You make appointments with the reception to use it between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 pm. Weight limited 10kg to 85 kg.
Boing!
Best of Maldives: Residence – Soneva Fushi
The Maldives has always been a bit of an opposite to Hotel California. You could check-in any time you like, but you could never stay.
Not just the tourists, but the resorts themselves are on long-term leases and don’t actually own their islands. But in a bid to boost the economy, the Maldives is cautiously venturing into residential purchases. You can’t actually own the property ‘freehold’, but they are offering ‘leaseholds’ (most Americans won’t be familiar with ‘leaseholds’ but they are a common structure in the UK and other countries. They are essentially an ‘option’ on a long-term, decades, ‘lease’ of the property that you can buy and sell like the property itself and work almost the same as owning the property itself).
The first place to pioneer this new opportunity is Soneva Fushi reports Phuquet Insider…
- “The first leasehold residential property that has been transferred on a leasehold basis in the Maldives has sparked interest in the islands property market. A three-bedroom hotel managed unit at Soneva Fushi, which transacted to a French national sold for USD7 million dollars has been officially registered. Last year the country enacted legislation in order to allow foreign property ownership to a maximum of 50 years in order to stimulate the local economy.”
A complete property spec on the six five residences for sale are featured on Ilre.
Best of the Maldives: Surf Shack – Four Seasons Kuda Huraa
Plenty of great surf spots in the Maldives (even more if you do kite surfing), and a number of resorts offer surfing equipment and instruction, but there is only one ‘Surf Shack’ around – Four Seasons Kuda Huraa’s TropicSurf.
The Surf Shack sells a whole range of surf gear. It also provides video analysis as part of its instruction offerings. But it really just has a whole surfing vibe to it.
A great example of its surfing vibe and great offerings is its recently announced its ‘Champion Trophy Package’. Maldives.Net reports…
“The Maldives is set to host the world’s most exclusive surfing event this August. The event organized by Four Seasons Resorts Maldives, will feature six world champions, a leading five-star surfing resort, a luxurious 39-metre three-deck catamaran, and the perfect reef break waves. Conceived in conjunction with luxury surf pioneers Tropicsurf, the Four Seasons Resorts Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy will see the sport’s biggest legends such as four-time world champion Mark Richards compete across three disciplines that showcase the evolution of modern surfing.”
So if you are a hang-ten pro or a even bit clueless on the surfing front (like this lot), then head over to the Surf Shack.
Best of the Maldives: Cricket – Kuramathi
Maldives may not be a ‘Test Status’ cricket nation, but they love their wickets as much as their Subcontinent neighbours. Their closest Indian Ocean neighbour Sri Lanka is right in the middle of a Test Match with England at this very moment.
If you fancy a few overs, either watching or playing, then Kuramthi is the pitch you want. Their staff have an active team that competes across the country and they welcome resort guests to join in or simply sip their G&T’s from the side.
Asma Rasheed of the resort describes…
- “At Kuramathi we have a football pitch with doubles up as a cricket pitch as well. 4 days the team plays futsal and 2 days they play cricket. Guests are welcome to join if they wish (and often we will have a couple of guys joining, but mostly for the futsal than cricket I have to say). We also hold tournaments, at least once a year. This is exclusively for our team. In March we had our futsal tournament and most recently we had the cricket tournament. We also have occasional friendly matches between other islands. Over the last 3 weeks we have held a friendly match against Dhiraagu (Telecom Company of the Maldives), islanders of Rasdhoo (our neighbouring local island) and today, we had a match against Veligandu team (another resort in Rasdhoo atoll).”
The pictures here are just a few taken from Kuramathi’s Facebook album of one of their recent tournaments.
Sex on the Reef
Now that I have your attention! (you know, sometimes titles just write themselves…though ‘Polypamory’ was a really close runner-up).
The Maldives is renowned for newly betrothed couples consummating their nuptials with a honeymoon celebration. But the very microscopic creatures who built the Maldives over millennia, coral polyps, will be celebrating a honeymoon of their own this week in rather distinctive style. Their rather exotic ‘bedroom’ habits certainly put the ‘moon’ in the ‘honeymoon’. That is according to this month’s Scientific American featuring a piece about Coral Polyp reproduction…
- “It is hard to court the opposite sex when you are cemented in place, which explains why polyps—the tiny creatures whose exoskeletons form corals—do not reproduce by mating. Instead, they cast millions of sperm and eggs into the sea, where they drift up to the ocean surface, collide, form larvae and float away to form new coral reefs. Polyps may not be picky about their “mates,” but they are sticklers for timing. The polyps in a coral reef will “blow” their eggs and sperm simultaneously in quick frenzies for just one, or maybe a few, consecutive nights a year—and they usually do so shortly after sunset on evenings closely following a full moon…A reef generally picks one day during a full moon in summer to blow, for 20 minutes or so, during the twilight hours.”
I guess if we were going to grant a ‘Best of’ accolade for ‘Reef Romance’ it would have to go to none other than the Sheraton’s eponymous ‘Full Moon’ resort.
As it happens, this June’s Full Moon offers a special treat as well of an ‘extra-long Lunar Eclipse. MSNBC reports “This month’s full moon will pass almost directly through the center of Earth’s shadow on Wednesday in what will be an unusually long total eclipse of the moon, 100 minutes. The next total lunar eclipse of exceptional length will be July 27, 2018, and will last 106 minutes.”
The Full Moon this week rises at 8:14 pm on Wednesday 15th June. It promises to be quite the eventful evening from sea to sky.
Best of the Maldives: Protected Marine Areas – Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu
In the spirit of World Oceans Day, the Maldives established a record number of protected marine areas last week in what many consider to be the most spectacular atoll in the Maldives, Baa. The map above links through to the UNESCO map of the areas.
The first 5 areas are in a string right across the centre of the atoll, and at the eastern edge is Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu. In fact, Dhuni Kolhu is right next to Hanifaru Reef, the closest any resort is to a protected area.
Best of the Maldives: World Oceans Day – Kuramathi
Happy World Oceans Day!
The entire country of the Maldives is celebrating this event including several special activities in various resorts. But the resort that has pulled out the stops is Kuramathi. They are featuring a special complementary dive, an underwater photography competition, and reef clean up. The event is being sponsored by the resort’s recently inaugurated Eco Center as a part of its overall green strategy.