If you really have a crowd, then consider Kurumba’s own glass bottom boat for a undersea glimpse of the Maldives aquatic delights. The bigger boat with more glass area does provide a bit more opportunity to see a broader range. The excursion is great for under those under 6 too little to snorkel. Or perhaps anyone else who can’t take in the joys of snorkelling for one reason or another.
Question: What is this a picture of?
Answer: A Jelly Fish.
[Soundeffect]: Buzzzz! Wrong. This is a ‘Portugese Man of War’ which is not actually a ‘jelly fish’ but a “siphonophore. Siphonophores “differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Each of these zooids is highly-specialized and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, are attached to each other and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival.” In this respect, Portugese Man Of Wars, also know as just ‘Man of Wars’ or ‘Blue Bottles’, are more like coral polyps.
As it turns out, this fact was so obscure that it escaped the Ceremonial Master himself in the first series of QI. Stephen Fry referred to a ‘jellyfish’ as the ‘right class of animal’ as a ‘Portugese Man-of-War’. In reality, Man of Wars are not even the same of the same Order as jellyfish. They are in the order Hydrozoa, while jelly fish are in the order Scyphozoa…
Bill: Forget the buzzers. Off the buzzers now. I would hazard a guess and say the, erm, the Portuguese Man-of-War.
Stephen: Oh, now, do you know, I’m gonna give you five points, ’cause you’re so much in the right class of animal.
Bill: Ah! See?
Stephen: It is a jellyfish.
Bill: A jellyfish.
Stephen: Yeah. It is a jellyfish.
Just one of the many fascinating facts we learned about Maldive ocean life during the talk by Marine Biologist Verena Wiesbauer Ali put on by Kurumba.
Kurumba is perhaps the most unsung house reef there is. You don’t often hear about it being mentioned as one of the tops, but I must say that Kurumba is simply the best house reef we have ever snorkelled. And we have snorkelled dozens. Especially for reef sharks, Kurumba is Shark Central (though a local tells me that Bandos is also extremely good for reef sharks). Our first snorkel at Kurumba we lost track of how many sharks we saw at about 20. Some well over a metre long. When they swim, sharks shake their butt more than a double-jointed salsa dancer. We thought maybe it was a fluke. Sometimes you see things snorkelling and other times you don’t is typically how it goes. But every single day we snorkelled at Kurumba, we saw tons of fish and lots of reef sharks of all sized.
But that wasn’t all. Lots of sting rays (mostly by the water sports centre), every type of lion fish, a turtle we swam with. A friend we met found an octopus in the lagoon and took lots of pictures. My wife’s favourite was finding a Zebra Moray (see picture below). They are very shy so she waited by his hovel for a long time hoping for him to pop out a bit more for a better photo op.
Dusk seems to be a particularly good time for fish activity. What we recommend is starting your snorkel around the front/reception side of the island (a bit to the left of the restaurants) around 4:00 pm and circle the house reef leisurely until you hit the Sunset Bar. Pull up there just in time for a sunset pina colada. Then, order your dinner right there too and eat on the beach while the sunset sky changes hues and the stars start popping out overhead.
My first ever repeat. After visiting 29 resorts with a credo of always trying new resorts, I have returned to a resort for the first time ever. Kurumba. My motivation pretty much describes Kurumba’s key differentiators – great value 5-star luxury, business convenience to Male, and variety of offerings.
Kurumba is the grand old man of Maldives resorts with all of the dignity and refinement the years of practice bring. It knows, though, that it has to keep in shape with all of the young luxury marque whipper-snappers coming into the neighbourhood on a regular basis. Current General Manager Jason Kruse has undertaken a particularly aggressive investment in updating the look and standard of the rooms. I revisited the Deluxe Beach Villa that we stayed in two years ago and it was a completely different class of room. Simple tasteful style touches livened up the whole look. But they haven’t flown in a bunch of Swedish style-boffins nor imported a boatload of Milan decor. Instead, they have done most of their work themselves to reflect a more Maldivian flavoured style and produced the touches right on the island by their own in house artisans.
Would you buy a second-hand Rolls Royce in excellent (not mint condition) cared for by loving, caring owners? Or would you prefer a brand new Audi for the same price with its new car small and whizzy state-of-the-art bits? If the former, then Kurumba is a place to consider.
They have kept their food standards very high with a constant refresh of the menu. The restaurants are all truly gourmet (eg. ‘Magic Fish’…a dish as fine as its name). Also, Kurumba is a top candidate for ‘Most Sharks as Diner Companions’ recognition. Their Ocean Grill sits over the water in a place frequented by the reef’s many juvenile black-tipped reef sharks. At one point we counted 8 circling just below our table.
Looking forward to settling in and enjoying a bit of this classic for a few days.
Welcome at the Ocean Grill restaurant by Ali Farooq who I friended on Facebook after our last visit.
The Lynn family enjoying one of Kurumba’s many dining delights.
Perhaps this post could also be called ‘Best for Americans’. Americans love choice and Americans love food. Living the UK for two decades, people ask what I miss from the States. There is not much at this point, both because I have grown fond of the UK’s own offerings and because the UK has more and more stuff from America. The one answer I always respond with is ‘choice’. USA is the land where places like Starbucks pioneered the triple-shot, skinny, extra-hot latte with a hazelnut and cinnamon as a form of a ‘cup of coffee’. In our local Waitrose store, they offer 3 types of cake mix…in America, there is a cake mix aisle. As it happens, this week I in the apotheosis of dining choice…Las Vegas. I woke up the other night from jet lag at 3:00 am and felt a bit peckish and I had 3 restaurants that were open to choose from…without leaving my hotel.
If you want that kind of decadent dining variety, then the unsurprising winner is the resort I found to have the ‘Most Choices’ overall – Kurumba. When it comes to dining, they have 10 options
which is the most culinary variety you will find in the Maldives…
Also, the resort offers room service which offers an impressive selection of dishes from each of the restaurants. See my blog post on ‘Meal Plan’.
Kuramathi also has 10 restaurants, but they don’t have the diversity of styles and menus as a couple of the restaurants are just different areas serving the same fare.
Most resorts have a handful of choices for types of rooms. Most typically, they will have a couple versions of a beach bungalow (standard and deluxe) and increasingly a majority of resorts have a water bungalow option (61 of the 121 resorts in the Maldives Complete database). Sometimes they will add a special ‘suite’ which will be a specially designed, king-sized accommodation for VIPs and thick-walleted customers.
But if you like your room choices the way you like your doubleshot-decaf-dry-skinny-mocha-latte, the Kurumba is the rate card for you. They have 8 different room categories…
And these are just land-based lodging variations as Kurumba does even not offer water bungalows.
Kuramathi list 9 on its rate card, but 4 of these are just one type with a Jacuzzi added, and not completely really a different styles.
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7 |
Choice, Experienced, Diversity, Handicap Access, Room Types, Loyalty Programme, Dining Choice |
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6 |
Golf, Wreck Dive, Turtles, Online Forum, Water Sports Centre, Longest Beach |
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6 |
Voluntouring, Cinematic, Geek Activity, 2010 Calendar, Eco-Friendly, History |
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6 |
Hip Entertainment, 2010 Eclipse, Spa, Wine, Buoyant, Service |
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5 |
Biking, Dining Experience, Elevation, Running, Lacustrine |
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4 |
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4 |
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4 |
Seating, Reefscaping, Library, Hot Drinks |
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4 |
Celebrity Watching, Li-Lo, Shoe Boutique |
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3 |
This piece is the 100th Maldives Complete post. When the site was inaugurated, I added a blog to the web site to provide a way to dynamically update and cover the more qualitative aspects of the resorts that could not be accommodated in the core database profiles. I included some special pieces that covered a few interesting stories, factoids and useful info, but quickly the blog gravitated to the vehicle to regularly recognize the resorts’ uniques and superlatives in a very broad and even quirky range of categories featured in the ‘Best of the Maldives’.
I’ve decided to celebrate the 100th post milestone with a bit of a retrospective review of the Best of the Best. The recognitions themselves are highly unscientific in the first place (though most of the feedback is that they are pretty spot on) so the aggregate tally will be even more so.
Another caveat is that while a number of ‘Best Ofs’ have been published, nearly as many remain unpublished. I continue researching them and posting them on a regular schedule, but have decided not to rush things or overwhelm the growing readership with too many too often.
This wealth of material has led to my next project which is to adapt all of it into a ‘Best of the Maldives’ guide book which has been spurred by interest and support from a number of corners.
Soneva Fushi tops the list with 5 published superlatives in total (including 1 I haven’t published yet), but Kurumba tops the overall list with 7 overall (including 5 not yet published). There is huge bias in this stat not because I have any particular affinity for Kurumba, but because I recently stayed there and was able to uncover all sorts of gems and special aspects that even Kurumba hadn’t appreciated that it had (eg. exceptional handicap access).
As a result, to help balance the score and to similarly ferret out all sorts of other unsung gems, I am currently planning my next trip to the Maldives in July to cover as many resorts as I can to get more research for both the site and the book.
All those with 3 or more awards so far are listed above.
This week happens to be my birthday (yay!…thanks), and actually, this it also marks the year-and-a-half milestone for Maldives Complete itself. In fact, the 100th post is just a few weeks away (this one is #95). Many people think that folks of my vintage start to dread their birthdays, but actually I am finding that I enjoy them more and more. There is a certain charm and dignity to the wisdom of the ages and the experience of a lifetime.
And speaking of ‘experiences of a lifetime’ brings me right back to the subject at hand…Maldives resorts. As it happens the resort with the biggest bragging rights on time tempered experience and the most birthdays to its name is where our family celebrated our own holidays this year – Kurumba.
Kurumba is the very first resort to ever open in the Maldives. Active since 1972 when Maldives was sort of a hidden gem for a select in-the-know divers and sailors, the resort has built a longstanding reputation and infrastructure which has served some of the most illustrious names including US Presidents George Bush Snr. and Bill Clinton. It has had its share of facelifts and tummy-tucks (complete renovation in 2003) so it still maintains a freshness amidst its grandeur of seniority.
One of my tasks when I visited Kurumba last week was to get a boat and circumnavigate the island taking pictures to create a Maldives Photosynth. Thanks to the kind assistance of Andreas Ronecker of the Unlimited Watersports centre there, I got a full set of photos. Unfortunately, being my first go at a Photosynth, my ‘synth’ didn’t turn out as great as I would have liked. I didn’t get enough pictures for the calculation engine to map and model the island effectively. My ‘synthy’ measure was a low 12% so not many of the picture groups joined into a whole. Though you can take the tour around the ocean perimeter of the island using the ‘slide show’ function.
Not too worry, Maldive resorts are becoming more and more popular subjects for Photosynth and the Microsoft gallery now has 32 uploaded. Photosynth is sort of more than a 360 degree virtual tour. Because it builds a 3D model of the subject, you can really explore and get a sense of dimension and scale.
Given my experience and investigation into Maldives resorts, people often ask me ‘which one is my favourite?’ It is a bit like asking which of your children are your favourites. They are all great in their own distinct way. But it is their ‘own distinct ways’, many of which are highlighted by MaldiveComplete’s ‘Best Of’ posts, that either turn on or turn off people. Some people like a big island, other like small. Some like lots of activities, others like peaceful tranquillity. Some like family catering, others like to avoid children for the stay. That is why it is important to know what is important to you and then select for those key features. This is why two off the key features of MaldivesComplete is a (a) database filter/search facility (‘Resort Search’), and (b) this very own ‘Best Of’ highlights.
But sometimes decisions are a tough thing. Especially if you your preferences vary or if you are in a diverse group. In that case, what you might want it lots of choices. Kind of like an American cake mix aisle. After having stayed there last week and cross referenced a few data points, I am convinced that if ‘choice’ is what you want, then Kurumba offers the widest, deepest set of resort ‘choice’ in the Maldives.
Two upcoming ‘Best Of’ awards for Kurumba are ‘Most Room Types’ (7…and that’s without having any water bungalows), and ‘Most Dining Choices’ (10…seafood, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Arab/Lebanese, Indian, buffet, coffee hours and two bars). And if 10 isn’t enough for you, then you have easy access to Male where a whole host of further offering await you (I especially recommend the Holiday Inn Male rooftop Azure restaurant, but there are a range of ethnic eateries as well as a range of very good Maldivian restaraunts featuring local fare). Kurumba also has 3 pools, 3 tennis courts, 2 gyms when most resorts will typically have one. Finally, the water sports centre features everything imaginable (including ‘pedal surf’ and soon a ‘sup’).
As I said in my ‘Kurumba Wrap Up’ post, I think groups (extended families, corporate team/groups) would work well at Kurumba because there is such a range of offerings and choices that there is something satisfying for everyone. Some of the more boutique resorts in the Maldives are amazing in certain special ways, but sometimes those ‘ways’ are not everyone’s cup of tea.