Best of the Maldives: Boat Deck – Shangri-La Vilingili

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Shangri-La Villingili Horizon boat deck

For a bigger sailing sunrise and cruise that is just as enjoyable in silence, Shangri-La Vilingili has one of the best bows I have seen for relaxing in the best seat in the house. Sofa on the foredeck. Brill.

Lori and I have done our fair share of boating from your brother-in-law’s 50 foot catamaran on the North Carolina Intercoastal waterway to sailing with various friends. One of the favourite places to settle down for the ride is the very bow of the boat. A la Titanic ‘king of the world’ style. The problem is that it never seems to be that comfortable up there. Anchor chains and other rigging get in the way of truly stretching out. While not at the tippy-tip of the prow, I nonetheless love the Villingili luxury yacht Horizon’s sofa situated on the foredeck for languid place to stretch out and truly enjoy the ride.

Sitting on the sofa at home watching Graham Norton somehow doesn’t compare with sitting here and watching the sunrise.

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Best of the Maldives: Craft Activities – Kurumba

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Kurumba crafts

Happy Centenary to the Girl Scouts.

Our family has a proud tradition in the scouts with my father an Eagle Scout and my grandfather a ‘Silver Beaver’ recipient. A good scouting career often starts with a range of creative activities and skils building. Often, with the spirit of scouting, many of the crafts and skills use materials and tools found in nature.

Kurumba’s new Majaa Kids’ Club and Majaa Recreation Centre would do the Scouts proud with their ‘coconut arts and crafts’. An extensive range of weaving, folding and other crafting of palm fronds are taught to kids of all ages including many equally enthralled mature students (see below).

Majaa Recreation Manager Monica Comanescu noted…

“The Dhivehi word, Majaa, means fun. This will be the underlying philosophy for the Recreation department. Majaa Recreation will be the ‘fun’ centre of the island. This allows it to be a unique identity and destination within Kurumba. The purpose of Majaa Recreation is to provide guests with many options to enjoy their holiday while experiencing the Maldivian palette and learning about the water that surround Kurumba in an environmentally responsible way with a Maldivian twist.”

Majaa Recreation offers more than just crafts with such a range of activities, Kurumba grouped them into categories…

  • Kan’du (Ocean) – Ocean based activities
  • Hakatha (Energy) Energy or sporting activities
  • Kulhivaru (Games) Games
  • Visnun (Learning) Understanding and learning activities
  • Haveeru (Evening) Evening activities.

Some people like to sit around and do absolutely as little as possible on a Maldivian holiday, but Kurumba provides an alternative for those who want the option for broader range of fun.

Kurumba Majaa

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Submarine – Traders Hotel

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Whale Submarine 1

If you fancy an under-the-sea exploration or just a fun adventure to fill out a Male excursion, consider booking a trip on the Whale Submarine. Okay, it’s not a particular feature of Traders Hotel per se, but Traders is both the closest (one block away departing from Jetty 1) and the most tourist ready hotel in Male.

Its web site describes the vessel…

“If you have never been on a submarine this is your chance to go and dive in one of the most advanced passenger submarines in the world…This is your chance, whether you are young or old, able or disable, to visit the underwater world without getting wet, while enjoying the sensation of diving in a submarine…Whale Submarine is designed and constructed in Karlsrhue, Germany under the strict regulations of the American Bureau of Shipping and Bureau Veritas and is capable of carrying 50 passengers to a dive depth of 150 meters. Whale submarine is currently the world’s deep diving largest tourist submarine in existence. So far this submarine has performed more than 2000 dives safely. The cabin of the submarine is fully air-conditioned and has a normal atmospheric pressure and thus you breath normal air. Therefore you are safe to fly just after a dive. Whale Submarine has redundant safety features to ensure the safest, most comfortable ride, and is operated by a fully trained and certified team of French and local pilots. Whale Submarine carries enough oxygen, water and food supplies to support all passengers and crew for 100 hours.”

Dive, captain, dive!

Whale Submarine 2

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Best of the Maldives: Submarine – Conrad Maldives Rangali

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Conrad Maldives Rangali - nemo sub surface

If windows over the ocean is not good enough for you, how about windows under the ocean?

You can go diving in the crystal clear colourful waters of the Maldives without a scuba course or even holding your breath. Conrad Maldives Rangali features a Nemo submersible.

“Built in Germany by Nemo Tauchtouristik, the Nemo N100 submarine can dive to 30 metres and seats three people: two passengers and a trained pilot. Looking like something from a futuristic space cartoon, the submarine is bright orange with white stripes, characteristic of a clown fish (“Nemo” in the Disney film) with three acrylic glass ‘pods’ sticking out of the top offering the submariners 360-degree views of the underwater world they’re passing through. With the submarine’s arrival in late February, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island is the only resort to offer its own daily submarine tours to its guests, naturally subject to weather conditions. The price for one dive is US$495 for two people, or US$280 for one person.”

Our family went on a submersible in Mauritius and it was great fun. It is a great activity for young children to both as a unique ride in its own right as well as a way to expose them to undersea marvels before they can snorkel or snorkel easily in deeper water.

10,000 micro-leagues under the sea.

 

Conrad Maldives Rangali - nemo sub underwater

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Best of the Maldives: Biggest Glass Bottomed Boat – Kurumba

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Kurumba glass bottom boat 2

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.

 

Kurumba glass bottom boat 1

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Best of the Maldives: Glass Bottom Boat – Paradise Island / Conrad Maldives Rangali

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Paradise Island - glass bottom boat

Unparalleled snorkelling and work class diving aren’t the only way to explore all of these QI curiosities in the Maldives. If you don’t want to spoil your finely coiffed ‘do, then consider a glass bottomed boat excursion. A number of resorts offer them – Reethi Beach, Kurumba, Baros, Conrad Rangali, Paradise Island, Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu and Taj Vivanta Coral Reef.

But the top of the line in this unique class of ocean vessels is the Paritetboat brand which both Paradise Island (photo above) and Conrad Maldives Rangali (photo below) feature.

“Paritetboat company developed unique ultra-durable bottom window shaped as an optically regular spheroid of never seen before size 2×3 m – it is the biggest size all over the world. Our glass is made of modified acrylic and has thickness 15 mm it’s more solid than fiber glass boat hull. It allows to enlarge field of view dozens times as compared to ordinary glass bottom boats. For instance, field of view at 9 meter depth is half basketball playground size.”

 

Conrad Maldives Rangali - glass bottom boat

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Best of the Maldives: Fish Feeding – Reethi Beach

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Reethi Beach fish feeding

 

 

To feed or not to feed. That is the question of an increasing number of eco-activists. Certainly one problematic area of fish feeding is visitors taking it upon themselves to feed fish bread and other items purloined from the restaurant. This sort of ill-informed feeding can actually be very harmful as it can throw off the diets of these fish in subtle but critical ways. No visitor should ever feed a fish themselves.

However, fish feeding has been a common feature at various Maldive resorts. Typically around sunset, the resort will bring out kitchen scraps of fish and feed them to sting rays, reef sharks and other scavenger fish who quickly learned to show up for this routine feast. These feeding sessions are more informed about feeding the right things to the right species. But does that make it right? Some activists claim that even this apparently innocuous activity can have long term harmful effects on the species and the ecoysystem.

I’m certainly not enough of an expert to assess. Sometimes the argument is simply based on the principle that humans should interfere as little as possible in the natural environment. While I applaud that principle in general, I’m not of the belief that humans should never interfere with the environment. For starters, we humans interfere constantly without even knowing or trying. In order to remedy the environmental impact we humans have we need to muster broad based support for ecological initiatives. Sometimes the best way to muster this political will is to build rapport and relationships between the creatures and the humans. The ‘panda effect’ or ‘polar bear effect’. The more people fall in love with the natural world, the more they will be willing to support efforts to protect it. And seeing these creatures up close through fish feedings can be a way to enhance that affection for and fascination of them.

Fish feeding is done in a variety of ways. Kurumba used to incorporate it into their meal prep so that as they we gutting the days catch for dinner, the scraps were fed to a range of sharks and sting rays (they don’t do it any more). We always remember Filitheyo where they let the guests feed them (supervised and assisted). But Reethi Beach’s feeding time is so popular that it attracts guests from neighbouring resorts. More impressive, is that they have built a special viewing gallery for the comfort, safety and view of the guests.

 

Reethi Beach fish feeding 2

 

Reethi Beach fish feeding 3

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Best of the Maldives: No Shoes Games – Reethi Beach

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Reethi Beach games room

 

Games rooms are plentiful enough and ‘no shoes’ experience is plentiful enough, but the two together is a real treat that Reethi Beach has done best.

Games rooms are usually they are housed in an air conditioned building in the main area. Another very practical reason why games rooms tend to be solid floors is the matter of levelling the pool/snooker table. But I played on it and they seemed to a figured out how to get it all level.

Also, the ‘no shoes’ experience of the basic Maldives, for a while, seemed like a bit of a declining treasure as more upscale venues developed more conventional dining restaurants with solid floors. I think now the resorts are starting to realise that their is a certain priceless allure to soft, warm sand between your toes no matter where you go including diner or post-prandial play-time (that said, there is a balancing act of catering to a jet-setting posh segment that want to wear their Manolo Blahniks around the island).

Reethi Beach is certainly one of the ‘old school’ resorts with the feel of traditional Maldives with friendly, collegial atmosphere, simple and natural landscaping, and of course the ‘no shoes’ experience throughout. The games room also includes a Foosball table and Ping Pong table. A final bonus point for Reethi Beeth was the blue felt on the pool table. It really captured that aquatic Maldivian aesthetic.

Games on!

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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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Best of the Maldives: Eco Education – Kuramathi

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Tui International Environmental Award Kuramathi Tui

Reef protection is big and getting bigger in the Maldives. The latest tip of the hat goes to Kuramathi for its accolade from international tour operator Tui for its annual International Environmental Award.

The award specifically cited the work of Reinhard Kikinger who has been working for 10 years on coral reef preservation in the Maldives and heads the Eco Centre there. In particular, it called out the video it had developed and uses in its education programme to both guests and local Maldivians…

“Water pollution and over exploitation through tourism can lead to irreparable damage. The compelling concept of the Kuramathi Eco Centre for bringing nature conservation and tourism into harmony is based on research, the sustainable use of resources and the raising of public awareness, which are performed in cooperation with TUI and the local population. From the very beginning TUI was involved in the commitment of the research centre as an important partner playing a catalytic role. A project currently being undertaken is the production of a computer animated short film for tourists highlighting sustainable behaviour in coral reefs. Several times a week video presentations are shown revealing the coral reefs habitat. On top of that are microscopic demonstrations which provide tourists with an insight into concealed worlds. And guided snorkelling safaris reveal the beauty of and also the threats facing the underwater world. Moreover, the Eco Centre cooperates with the school on the neighbouring island of Rasdhoo.”

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