Maldives Complete-ly by the Numbers 14

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Comple-ly by th enumbers 2022

The 14th anniversary of Maldives Complete and time for my customary look at the site numbers and share a few perspectives informed by another year of Maldives fanboying…

  • Post COVID Catch-up: Our July trip represented the first time we have ever visited the Maldives twice in a 12-month period (being on the heels of our November 2021 visit). The trips gave us a chance to re-stock our “Best of the Maldives” larder for posts and generally keep packing the database with material.
  • Lowest Resort Increase: 4 new active resorts is consistent with the previous two years in being quite low and likely reflective of the post-COVID impact on development plans with both financing and construction logistics impacted.
  • No dives: Lori and I had just the month before taken a 7 day live-aboard trip in the Galapagos diving 4 times a day and seeing the some of the most astonishing underwater sights on the planet (eg. while we never saw any hammerheads at Hammerhead Point off Kuramathi, a school of 300 hammerhead sharks swam by us at Darwin Island). So we decided to just enjoy the snorkeling and the sunshine in July.
  • Twitter twilight?: This past year my Twitter engagement completely dropped off. This was not a big surprise as Twitter has been increasingly becoming simply a broadcast medium for very high profile individuals. In fact, the Musk acquisition might just be the final straw for me to depart this increasingly disfunctional and toxic platform.
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Best of the Maldives: Spa Oasis – OBLU Helengeli

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OBLU Helengeli - spa oasis 1

The de rigeur location for luxury spas are over the ocean, but OBLU by Atmosphere at Helengeli shows how distinctive you can make your spa setting over a different kind of water. They have developed a little spa oasis with rich greenery and seating cabanas set around a tranquil lily pond. One of the best renditions of the Zen garden concept of Seijaku (静寂) – a tranquility or an energized calm, stillness, solitude.

OBLU Helengeli - spa oasis 2

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Best of the Maldives: Vilebrequin Swimsuits – Ritz-Carlton Maldives

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Ritz-Carlton Maldives - Vilebrequin swimsuit

Black Friday is the starting pistol for the Christmas shopping season. A few Christmas’s ago, I asked Santa for a Vilebrequin swimsuit which were the smartest suits I had come across. Since the fashion line was among my Haven’t Seen collection, Santa’s little helper had to find one at their London boutique (see me modelling my turtle motif suit below). But now Ritz Carlton Maldives is featuring the Vilebrequin line at its resort boutique. So if you are puttin’ on the Ritz Maldives for Christmas and are behind in your shopping just put on some Vilebrequin.

Riz Carlton - Villebrequin

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Best of the Maldives: Outdoor Toilet – Cora Cora

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Cora Cora - outdoor toilet

World Toilet Day today. How far we have come with indoor pluming that the notion of have an outdoor toilet seems to be the quintessence of backwardness and impoverished living. And yet, Cora Cora’s outdoor toilet is distinctly luxury. For starters, it provides the most thoroughly vented toilet in all of the Maldives. Many luxury properties have moved their water closets to the villa rear exterior. And many do have toilets sitting in the overall bathroom area either in the open or partly enclosed by some glass blind. But Cora Cora’s does provide the al fresco morning constitutional experience with a bit more privacy with its own segregated area.

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Best of the Maldives: Seabreacher – Siyam World

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Siyam World - seabreacher

If you prefer your aquatic thrills above the water and fast, then I have now finally seen (after first noting it back in 2014) a Seabreacher introduced at Siyam World

  • “Operating more like an aircraft than a watercraft, these extraordinary semisubmersible vessels can jump over, dive under and carve left and right through the waves – and are even capable of 360-degree barrel rolls on the water. The Seabreacher’s acrylic canopy and underwater view ports give pilot and passenger near-360-degree views, while its supercharged 260hp engine propels them across the water at speeds of up to 50mph.”

If snorkeling over a house reef drop-off feels like “flying” in water then riding one of these does seem to be like flying Jetson-style over the water.

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