Best of the Maldives: Kids Marine Biology – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru kids discovery room

It’s not just the wee turtles and anemone fish that get special nurseries for their development at Four Seasons, but the littlest guest get their very own special area inthe Marine Discovery Centre.  Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru has put in its trademark attention to detail to a special young kids area of the Discovery Centre with colourful decoration and a hands-on ‘discovery’ tank.  It even has it’s own special mascot, ‘Kaku’ (short for ‘kauni’ which is ‘crab’ in Dhivehi).  Kaku has his own email address, postal address (“3rd Hole on Landaa’s Palm Tree Road”), and Facebook page where he posts his ‘Reef News’ articles.  So kids can keep engaged and keep learning even after their family stay.

“Hi, I’m Kaku – Landaa Giraavaru’s resident journalist hermit crab. Join me on Facebook and I’ll keep you informed of all the pioneering conservation projects underway at Landaa’s Marine Discovery Centre.”

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Kaku

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Best of the Maldives: Shower – Anantara Kihava

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Anantara Kihavah shower

Some prefer the bath, some prefer the shower. If you prefer a drenching standing up rather than lounging in a gargantuan pool amidst the sprawling expanse of water, than Anantara Kihavah is the place for you.

Their water villas showers feature the latest trend in the super luxury bathing fixtures – waterfall shower. It was just a few years ago that Rain/Drench showers were introduced for a more sumptuous showering experience (the previous innovation to that was the variable, pulsating shower Massage fixture). In the ever escalating arms race of 5-star-plus decadence, waterfall showers are the new 6-star thing. I first experienced one of these at Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru (see below). To cap off the experience, Anatara have added a glass floor so you get the whole water surround experience.

Just don’t scare the fish away with your singing.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru drench shower

[UPDATE NOV-14] As the waterfall drench showers grow in popularity among the super deluxe properties, Kihavah maintains its distinction with the widest of all drenchings...

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Best of Maldives – Fish Breeding – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Clarks Anemonefish juvenile

Question: For those who have been paying attention this past week, what is this a picture of?

Answer: Now that is a Nemo fish! I know because it has the three white stripes!

[Soundeffect]: Buzzzz! Wrong. Actually, the Maldive species ‘Amphiprion clarkii’ has three white stripes when they are young, but as they mature they turn a dark-brown/blackish colour.

Whatever you want to call them, one of the best places to see Anemonefish is Four Seasons Landaa Giravaru. Not just Anemonefish in general, but specifically the babies as their Marine Discovery Center has a breeding research project underway. One downside to the popularity of the Disney film is the popularity of capturing ‘Nemo’ fish for fish tanks. Landaa hopes to be able to improve breeding knowledge to both stock the ocean and to provide an alternative source of supply for fish tanks so they won’t be hunted from the reefs.

If you thought that Anemonefish were cute, the babies are all more the cuter. I couldn’t get my wife out of the Center she was so entranced watching them dart in and out of their host anemones in an incessant tease of pseudo-hide-and-seek. And not just the anemonefish, but the anemones themselves provided a bit of action. You could see them in all different positions all over the tanks. Resident marine biologist Harry Masefield (see photo below) explained that the anemones were quite active and often tried to escape from the tanks by crawling out the top and so they had to devise all sorts of guards. With their swaying tendril-like arms they seem more like colourful vegetation than the quite animated animals that they are.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Marine Discovery Center anemonefish tank

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Marine Discovery Center anemonefish

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Best of the Maldives: Aroma – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru pathway incense 2

Walking along a sandy path under the canopy of coconut tress. Lori and I love our sunset walks around the island when we visit the Maldives. How could it get any better?

Well, that’s what Four Seasons prides itself on. Those little touches that make a spectacle of the already spectacular. At Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, one of the their staff lights torches for lighting (instead of electrical lights) along the pathways that makes them all the more romantic. But that’s not all. He also lights little incense sticks that are put in the sand next to the torches. It gives the evening air a soothing accent making a simple walk to the restaurant or back to your villa even more magical.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru pathway incense

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Best of the Maldives: Teenagers – Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru teen room

Happy International Children’s Day!

An increasingly number of resorts are seeing the appeal to Maldives for families and catering to the younger clientele with some of the distinctive facilities and service that have spoiled the adults for years. One of the first orders of business is a ‘Kids Club’. These clubs not only provide great fun for the children, but also some extra freedom for the parents. But most of these clubs really cater for the ‘tot’ group with lots of colouring books, toys and crafts. But what about that often neglected (or at least feeling neglected) group…Teenagers.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru is the first resort to open a club specifically designed for ‘young adults. It’s called ‘Majaa Maizaan’. It includes more big kid pastimes like pool, ping-pong and Playstation.

Whatever.

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru teen centre 2

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Best of the Maldives Online: Reef Regeneration – Seamarc

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Gapingvoid Hugh MacLeod Earth Day 2011

Happy Earth Day 2011!

Maldives have always been on the vanguard of promoting the thoughtful stewardship of the planet. In the spirit of the day, I thought I would highlight Seamarc who has been pioneering ‘reefscaping’ and ‘coral regeneration’ projects across the Maldives. Resorts using their reef grafting frames include Kandooma, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, Beach House at Manafaru, Island Hideaway at Dhonakulhi, Reethi Rah, and Four Seasons Kuda Huraa,

“Seamarc’s unique propagation techniques; whereby broken or threatened corals are harvested, attached to portable Coral Trays and put back into the warm Maldivian waters, mean that branching corals grow faster, rapidly creating new and replenishing old habitats. The project also provides alternative employment to residents of nearby B. Fulhadhoo Island who build the structures.”

The illustration above comes from my friend and social media pioneer Hugh MacLeod. I especially like his tagline about ‘changing lives’. The more we do that for the better, the easier it will be to get everyone to agree to some difficult decisions to take care of our planet.

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Best of the Maldives: Innovation – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Queens Award for Innovation

Happy Birthday Your Majesty! And thank you for the very kind mention on your special day of ‘Piero’ (the company I manage) as an exemplar of British innovation. My day job is stewardship of a small software developer that provides sport broadcast graphical tools called Piero and today Her Majesty The Queen announced that we had been awarded The 2011 Queen’s Award for Innovation.

On a far less majestic scale, if I had to give out an award for Innovation in general to Maldive resorts, it would go to Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru. They not only innovate with a range of creative touches (many of which I haven’t had the opportunity to post yet), but they also must be the most technology rich resort. They have embraced ‘reefscaping’ more extensively than any other. Their Marine Discovery Center sponsors and conducts research in innovation for marine bio-sustainability.

A brilliant example of both service innovation and using technology is their ‘Manta On-Call’ service. One of the givens to nature is it unpredictability and that is especially true with many of its most beguiling and intriguing creatures. While it is part of the territory that there is no guarantee what you might see when you venture into the wild (as we learned on our Hammerhead excursion while visiting Kuramathi’s not-so-eponymous Hammerhead Point that day), it is nonetheless frustrating when you have so little time during your visit. While the lovely water and general aquatic flora and fauna always provide excellent consolation, it can be a bit disappointing heading out on a number of excursions hoping to see something as dramatic as manta rays but come back unsuccessful. To help increase the chances of seeing mantas, Landaa has a service called ‘Manta On-Call’. The reception gives you your own mobile phone and keeps in touch with the dive trips and snorkel excursions throughout the day. If a group of mantas is spotted, they telephone you wherever you are on the island and arrange an excursion to take you out so you can see them as soon as feasible.

Hat’s off to Landaa, congratulations to Piero, and Happy Birthday to Her Majesty the Queen.

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Best of the Maldives: Sore Feet Dining – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Blu pool dining

Ooohhh…sore feet. Whether it yesterday’s marathon or tenderness from overly hot sand, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru has the pedi-treatment for you.

Their Blu restaurant is a lovely place with a rustic, understated elegance fashioned from unpolished concrete and distressed wood. To extend the soothing comfort of its Italian delicacies, it also offers diner in the pool. Many resorts have ‘pool-side’ bars, but Landaa is the first ‘pool-in’ dining. I thought that the sensation of warm sand between my toes during dinner was distinctive, but warm water soaking my feet while a crisp Sauvignon soaks my palette is sublime.

Landaa’s piscinary gourmet uniqueness may be somewhat short-lived, however, as the upcoming Ayada resort has a published designs which show even more extensive catering to this no-shoes style of dining.

A final note to add an inspiring follow up to my post-script of the last post. Mark Deakin not only completed the London Marathon, but started a new life marathon at the same time as he stopped at the Tower Bridge to propose to his girlfriend, Ilona. So Landaa’s pool dining can not only soothe Mark’s weary feet, but also provide the perfectly romantic celebration to their new life together. Maybe this post should be ‘Best Post-Marathon Marriage Proposal Romantic Dinner’.

Mark and Ilona proposal 1  Mark and Ilona proposal 2  Mark and Ilona proposal 3

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Best of the Maldives: Kite Surfing – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Sakis Dreaming of Maldives kite surfing

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. As such it is classic kite flying season. The seasons are a bit different in equatorial Maldives, but we are heading into the half of the year with a bit more precipitation and breezes from the southwest trade winds. Not much too much to fret about since most of this time is still sunny, tropical paradise. But if you want to embrace the breezes when they blow, then Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru is the place for you. They have 9 boards and kites varying from 2 to 17 metres. And if you needed any further inspiration, Sakis just posted the dazzling masterpiece on his site last week. If you want to find other resorts with kite surfing, it is one of the activities noted in the Maldives Complete profiles.

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Best of the Maldives: Colouring Book – Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru

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Landaa Giraavaru colouring book

In recognition of Red Nose Day for Comic Relief, I call out Four Season’s Landaa Giraavaru’s own colouring comic book. The activity book is just one of the many examples of Landaa’s exquisite attention to detail one finds across the resort. Just one of the many fun activities at their kids centre.

To do my small bit, for every comment to today’s post that includes a (clean) joke about a tropical island, I will make a £1 donation to Comic Relief (up to £100).

Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru Colouring Book

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