No sooner said than done, my draft of the recent “Haven’t Seen” post (#21) included the popular summertime game of corn hole. Only for it to pop up at our visit to the The Standard. Sandbags on the sand!
Best of the Maldives: Cylindrical Table Tennis – The Standard
The trademark of this blog has been identifying distinctive features at Maldives resorts. Things I have never seen in my 20+ years of visiting over 120 properties there. In my online research and other world travels, I sometimes I also come across distinctive things I also haven’t seen in the Maldives. This particular item at The Standard, I have not seen in the Maldives, not come across elsewhere in the world, and in fact, didn’t even know such a thing existed. In fact, if you told me that it did exist, I still would have trouble conceiving it. But not as much trouble as I had playing it! In fact, as the video above demonstrates, it seems near impossible to play. And I’ve played a fair amount of table tennis in my time having a table in our basement growing up and in our adult home. Playing it for a little while, I think the objective of the game is not really competitive and getting the ball past your “opponent”, but rather collaborative in terms of striving to see how long a rally can continue before the crazy, three-dimensional randomness prevails.
Best of the Maldives: Surf Simulator – Cheval Blanc Randheli
If the waters are too calm in the mill pond like Maldives for hanging ten, Cheval Blanc Randheli has introduced the country’s first surf simulator (thanks Paola). The facility is also a great way to learn the sport and move on to some of the famous long, gradual breaks of the destination.
Best of the Maldives: Skydiving – Shangri-La Vilingili
Look! In the sunny cerulean sky! It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s super Best Of! “Super” because skydiving in the Maldives is perhaps one of the most eagerly anticipated Best of the Maldives activity to date. It was featured in the very first “Haven’t Seen Yet” post nearly a decade ago. Since then, I have been teased regularly by a number of announcements that skydiving was coming to the destination. A number of initiatives never seemed to get off the ground (quite literally). Even the company who eventually pulled it off, Sky Diving Maldives, posted about it months before details actually were forthcoming. Until finally they teamed up with Shangri-La Villingili for a landmark jump. The plane takes off from neighbouring Gan airport and you land on Villingili island. Guests were able to sail through the blue sky towards the blue water in a tandem jump for $699.
Best of the Maldives: Games Room – JA Manafaru
International Childrens Day today. Not to mention the beginning of half term in the UK schools. So something to keep the little one’s happiness enhanced wouldn’t be amiss. Like JA Manafaru’s game room packed to the brim with more games than I have seen in a resort including…
- Flight simulator with specialist handsets controls
- Full Driving simulator
- Big screen HD playstation
- Foosball
- Pool
- Ping Pong
- Mah Jong
- Chess
Mind you the collection is just a tempting to the kid in all of us.
Best of the Maldives: Beyond the Surface Innovation – LUX South Ari Atoll
The Maldives is all about the surface. The nexus of sea and sky in this land of boundless horizons. Where the islands themselves are just inches above the waterline and the reef wonders just inches below. But LUX South Ari Atoll has been pushing this boundary above and below the water taking their guests to new heights and depths innovative ways…
Many of these activities have been replicated and even prevalent across the holiday destination, but as the posts describe, in most cases they were the pioneers to introduce these far flung experiences. LUX is always pushing the boundaries of luxury and perspective.
Best of the Maldives: Personal Transport – Soneva Fushi
Soneva Fushi has its own solution to saving the planet and dead head personal transport – personal bikes given to every guest (including 3-wheeled bikes).
