Maldives Complete Blog - Page 86 of 252

Haven’t Seen Yet – 13

July 19, 2018 10:33 am \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

Off to the Maldives again today! Despite being our 9^th tour of islands (after this trip we will have stayed at over 90 resort which as far as we can tell is still the most of any one in the world) and our 15^th visit there overall, we still are looking forward to seeing so many things that we have not yet seen there in our two decades of visiting. In anticipation, here is my bi-annual list of “Things I Haven’t Seen In the Maldives…Yet (But Probably Should)…

Underwater Concert – Especially for one of the resorts with an underwater restaurant [ABOVE].
Underwater Easter Egg Hunt – Shangri-La Villingilli advertised it in their newsletter, but I’m not sure they ended up doing it as I can find nothing about it on the web and they are not responding to my enquiries. An inspired concept where guest would get different prizes based on the colour of the eggs they discovered like a bottle of champagne or a free spa treatment.
Gold Leaf Coffee – The ultimate “Golf Blend”.
Fish-Shaped Ice Cream Cones – No comment needed.
Watermelon Cocktails – One of our favorite items at any Maldives meal is it ripe and juicy watermelon. Now watermelon cocktails are becoming popular so I’d be surprised not to see them at resorts soon.
Floating Mansion Boat – Slick modernistic design, luxury yachts, and spacious mansion-sized villas all a becoming de rigeur in the super premium properties. So only a matter of time when someone puts them all together.
Rooftop Pools – Always a big fan of a bit of an elevated vista especially in this country of such low lying landscape (thanks Paola).
Float Pools – I’ve seen lots of floats in pools, but this is the first time I’ve seen a pool in floats.
Whale Shark Floats – Of all the dozens of floats that launch onto the Maldives lagoons every day for an Instagram snap, how have one (or both) of these whale shark float not migrated there??
Clear Bottom Inflatable Boat – Any clear-bottom boat is a winner in the Maldives to provide a means to observe the subaquatic sensations. This one is particularly stable and safe for the less comfortable swimmers (though only supervised as winds and currents could easily push such an inflatable into the open ocean).
Flexible Wooden Loungers – One of the give-aways to the true quality (regardless of how they have graded themselves) of a property is the quality of the loungers. At the bottom of the scale are the cheap, white, plastic jobs. The more sophisticated resorts have fancier adjustable, wheeled, cushioned wooden loungers. But the crème-de-la-crème looks to me to be this flexible design.
Gyrotonic – We got introduced to this yoga, dance, pilates fusion by our friend Dean in Boston.
Waterfall Table – I love innovative water features and I love creative dining tables. So you can imagine how much I love this creation…

Posted in: Lists \ Tagged: not seen

Best of the Maldives: Temporary Tattoos – Finolhu

July 18, 2018 8:55 am \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

If you want a bit of ink flair without the lifetime commitment to your body, then Finolhu provides its guests with temporary appliques its trademark retro motif.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: complementary

Sharing Daily…It’s Worth It

July 10, 2018 12:35 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

Happy Birthday to Seth Godin. Seth is of my inspirations to the wide range of blogging that I do, the most prominent of which is Maldives Complete here. These days you can’t swing a palm frond without hitting a blogger (especially in the Maldives), but when I started in 2009, the whole medium was quite novel. Seth was one of the first to embrace and extoll the platform and provided lots of tip and insights both explicitly and through example of his own work.

“This is post 7,000” – “The secret to writing a daily blog is to write every day. And to queue it up and blog it. There is no other secret…The discipline of sharing something daily is priceless. Sometimes there are typos. I hope that they’re rare and I try to fix them. Over time, the blog adds up. People remember a blog post a year after I wrote it. Or they begin a practice, take an action, make a connection, something that grows over time. The blog resonates with people in so many fields, it’s thrilling to see how it can provoke positive action. It’s true that I’d write this blog even if no one read it, but I want to thank you for reading it, for being here day after day. It’s more fun that way.”
“Susdat” – “Writer’s block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady. More important than the output, though, is the act itself. The act of doing it every day. When you commit to a practice, you will certainly have days when you don’t feel like it, when you believe it’s not your best work, when the muse deserts you. But, when you keep your commitment, the muse returns. When you keep your commitment, the work happens. It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up. Show up, sit down and type.”
“Gaztelugatxe” – “There’s an island off the coast of Spain that houses a church. The church has 230 steps to the top, and it’s said that it’s worth the climb. What a great expression. Gaztelugatxe can now mean, ‘it’s a lot of steps, but worth it.’ The opposite of fast and easy but worthless.”

The first two posts referenced above talk about ‘daily practice’ and while I may not post every day, I would say that I do something on Maldives Complete every day – respond to emails, update date, investigate leads, research pieces, etc. His thoughts help to express the answer to the 2nd most frequently asked question that I get (the first being “What is the best resort”), and that is “Why do you do Maldives Complete?”.

Posted in: Site \ Tagged: motivation, Seth Godin

Piscine Pelotons

July 9, 2018 10:18 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

A post shared by Patrik Jonson (@scubaartfoto) on Oct 6, 2017 at 12:58am PDT

The sub-aquatic landscape of the Maldives is also filled with its own photogenic teams of sporty packs in a daily Tour de Fish forming colourful underwater tapestries (thanks Verena)…

Blue Striped Snappers
Fusilier
Moorish Idol
Yellow Sweepers
Orange Anthias
Convict Surgeonfish
Oriental Sweetlips
Humpback Snapper
Gold Spot Emperor
Humbug Dascyllus
Yellow-fin Surgeonfish

Posted in: Lists, Ocean \ Tagged: fish

Best of the Maldives: Family Reviews – Anantara Dhigu

July 5, 2018 3:34 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

Even with nearly 100 stays in the Maldives, my knowledge of the destination pales in comparison of the travel community whose aggregate experience is many orders of magnitude larger. A while back I did some crude attempts data mining the great store of insight in TripAdvisor reviews and Forum about the resorts most frequently suggested by Destination Experts as well as the resorts most frequently asked about. Those posts are a bit out of date now, but it was still a curious exercise. Now DE’s Stu and Nikki have done their own investigation into the stars of the family properties in the Maldives. They measured the number of reviews that were tagged as “Family” stays as an indicator of popularity for various resorts in the family segment. The results can be found above (with a link to the original document). Not surprisingly, the bottom group is comprised largely of the “Adults Only” (or “Children Restricted”) resorts.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: Anantara Dhigu, TripAdvisor

Best of the Maldives: Cinema Pillows – Finolhu

July 3, 2018 2:50 pm \ 2 Comments \ by bruce

“Stay Out of the Sun Day” today! It was established to encourage everyone to give our skin a break from the sun’s ray. If you are going to sequester yourself inside today, then you might as well be as comfy as lying on the soft white sands of the beach or a cushy lilo. Something like the giant Fatboy cushions at Finolhu’s cinema room. We have a cinema room at home and one of the best parts is being able to enjoy a blockbuster is lounging in consummate comfort while doing so. So you can tune into your favourite tropical island flick like “Swiss Family Robinson” or “Castaway” and enjoy all of the tropical scenery completely out of the sun.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: cinema, Finolhu

Best of the Maldives: Postcard Service – One & Only Reethi Rah

June 28, 2018 11:37 am \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

One of my pet peeves when I visit a resort is if they don’t have postcards that show the resort. Postcards might seem a bit of a throwback, but we still send them to family who enjoy getting a real thing from our worldwide destinations. Aside from simply finding a good card of where you are, you can also run into a bit of kafuffle finding stamps and even a box to post them in (though all resorts will take them and post them), One & Only Reethi Rah does it all for you they provide fine postcards of the resort for you in your room *and* once you write them, they wil stamp and post them for you. Wish I was there!

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: One and Only Reethi Rah, service

Best of the Maldives: Retro Games – Finolhu

June 26, 2018 10:37 am \ 2 Comments \ by bruce

If you enjoy playing around on retro icons, but prefer something a bit more masculine, then check out Finolhu’s very own man cave complete with a collection of retro games including vintage “Baywatch” pinball (see above) and the classic PacMan (see below). In fact, the whole setting is a nostalgic throw back with retro sweets, décor, and soundtrack.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: entertainment, Finolhu

Best of the Maldives: Sunniest – Dhigufaru

June 22, 2018 8:46 pm \ 2 Comments \ by bruce

Sunniest time of the year. Well, the longest amount of sunshine in the day (depending on your time zone). Not that it matters that much at the Equator where daytime doesn’t vary all that much. Still an occasion to call out another quirky resort distinction. After visiting nearly 100 resorts, Dhigufaru did strike me as the “sunniest”. Essentially, the property was developed from an existing sand bank. As a result, the foliage is less dense, less tall and less mature. Walking around you feel the sky and sunshine everywhere. Conversely, many parts of many resort islands have dense canopies that can almost feel like tunnels of greenery.

Posted in: Best of the Maldives \ Tagged: ambience, Dhigufaru, landscape

Best of the Maldives: Bed Decorating Diversity – Kuramathi

June 17, 2018 6:14 pm \ Leave a Comment \ by bruce

I wasn’t quite sure what to call this recognition, but I knew I need to call out Kuramathi’s exceptional touches to old fashioned relaxation. Kuramathi was the first resort that I ever posted for its distinctive bed-art marking. They have clearly made it a resort trademark, in fact taking it up a notch with the latest generation of bedroom artistes.

All of the creations shown here are the work of 24 year old room attendant Adam Naseer. Kuramathi shared these details about his work…

“Adam has been working in another resort for about two years after he found out about Kuramathi on the internet and from some friends (who also work here) and decided to work for Kuramathi, this is now one year ago. He works at the Thundi area of the island and takes care of about 4 to 5 villas per day. His favourite part is decorating the bed or even the bath with towel art including flowers. It is his passion to make the guests happy and to see their smile on their face as he always receives a grateful feedback and the guests always want to have a picture with Adam and his designs. Mostly he likes to make heart shaped or honeymoon designs.”

My favourite is his birthday greeting complete with towel birthday cake (see photo at top).

For a gallery of Maldives bed decorating masterpieces, check out the Maldives Complete “Bed Art” Pinterest board.