Best of the Maldives: Deep Sea Fishing–Bandos

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Bandos Maldives Game Fishing

 

 

Lots of resorts offer deep sea fishing as an excursion, but today Bandos has organised the first ever Maldives Catch & Release Game Fishing Tournament at the resort in conjunction with the non-profit association Maldives Game Fishing Association (MGFA)…

“The aims of holding this tournament event are to:

  1. Bring Maldives game fishing operators & resorts on to an international stage, where they can gain further exposure through international media , highlighting the great fishing opportunities & genuine friendliness that is on offer.
  2. To unite the Maldives game fishing operators, and introduce sustainable & professional practises of the likes seen internationally.
  3. To be a central body at local & international levels

Tournament Dates: 9th – 12th November 2011 These dates have been selected due to shoulder season on resorts & to coincide with the Maldivian fisherman’s calendar giving the best fishing periods”

Full details and rules located here…

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Best of the Maldives: American Breakfasts – Kurumba

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Kurumba Henry Jordan

If you want something a bit more substantial than OJ to start your day, then there is not much more substantial than an ‘American’ breakfast. Yes, the ‘British fry up’ is a noble effort with its variety and grease content, but most ‘full English’ would rank as a ‘bit of a starter’ for an American morning meal. In fact, Americans had to invent their own term ‘brunch’ to describe a meal so big it’s two meals in one.

And if you want the ‘American Breakfast’ experience, then the closest I have found in the Maldives is Kurumba’s spread…

  • Blueberry Pancakes…with blueberry syrup! IHOP staple (putting the ‘International’ into the ‘IHOP’). Lots of resorts have pancakes, but blueberry is the true classic. W had delicious Blueberry Waffles, but not served with the blueberry syrup.
  • Fruit Loops. Junky, high sugar, ‘kids bouncing off the walls’ with a cartoon character on the box. That’s American breakfast cereal. Fruit Loops is an old-school classic and I can’t even get those in the UK
  • Fresh cooked ‘proper’ doughnuts. A lot of resorts provide ‘donuts’, but few get it right. Most are stodgy, doughy, heavy and not even that sweet. These were freshly made at the resort because Lori and I smelled them cooking.
  • American chef. Perhaps one secret to Kurumba’s Yankee delicacies is their staff chef Henry Jordan from Narragansett, Rhode Island (see centre of photo above) who provides a real authentic expertise.

 

Kurumba donuts   Kurumba froot loops

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Best of the Maldives: Re-fresh-ment – Kandooma

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Kandooma orange juicer

Kuramathi wasn’t the first resort to offer locally made beverage. While coffee presses are all the rage at the luxury resorts, Kandooma offers a more natural orange juice press in every room. My wife and I enjoyed fresh OJ the mornings we were there and it was a real re-FRESH-ing treat and change from the bottled, processed stuff normally found in a mini-bar.  As the old jingle goes, ‘A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine’…and that would be a real shame in the Maldives!

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Best of the Maldives: Bottled Water – Kuramathi

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Kuramathi bottled water

If you prefer to imbibe rather than immerse in Maldivian aqueous refreshment, then Kuramathi has developed the tipple for you…

“Kuramathi Water. This clean, potable water made on the island emanates from a Classic Crystal purification system, ensuring the highest levels of quality and standards. The finished product is a glass bottle containing fresh drinking water. The bottle comes in two sizes, 500ml and 1 litre, and is a complimentary amenity for guests staying on Full Board. The bottles are also replenished from the guest’s stock every day. Reusing glass bottles is a milestone for Kuramathi, making our carbon footprint smaller as it would save the usage of about 300,000 plastic bottles discarded every year. To provide our guests with a memoir of Kuramathi, the bottles will be sold at the bars for very reasonable prices. One other interesting aspect about this water is that they are bottled in two forms; as still and sparkling waters.”

Perfectly timed launch coinciding with the Maldives’ ‘Always Natural’ campaign.

Among the old-timer Maldives aficionados, there is a bit of nostalgia for the ‘no shoes, no news’ simplicity of old school Maldivian simple paradise. One of the details of that nearly by-gone era that my wife Lori and I miss are the battered ‘re-used’ soda bottles. With the ecological mantra of “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle”, the re-used bottles were actually more environmentally progressive than the current practice of recycling. They had a sea-glass charm covered with the patina of many quenched thirsts. They also had sturdy heft to them for durability, but also making drinking from the bottle like holding a sculpted glass mug.  But, Kuramathi now takes it a reuse a step further adding locally produced beverage.

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Best of the Maldives: Pool Service – Kanuhura

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Kanuhura pool

 

Kanuhura does seem to have a thing for making your plunges as pampered as possible. In addition to its ‘Bath Menu’ it also offers ‘Pool Service’ (if you prefer your soaking on a larger, more public scale). Their services include…

  • Sun glass polishing by the beach host
  • Complimentary sorbets and ice creams (we had mango, coconut and pistachio…yum!), all home made on the island
  • Wireless Internet
  • Face mist spray service
  • Music CD menu

Yes, ‘sun glass polishing’ and ‘face mist spray service’. The spa is right next door to the pool, though, and I think the one thing they could add to the already decadently extravagant service would be “Suncream Application – one of our spa therapists will apply sun cream rubbing it in thoroughly while applying a gentle massage.” Just sayin’.

Maybe as a encore, Kanuhura will introduce a ‘Snorkelling Concierge’ with stuff like mask defogging and getting sand out of our fins. In any case, if you like aqueous indolence, then Kanuhura is the place for you.

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Best of the Maldives: Bath Menu – Kanuhura

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Kanuhura bath

“Your bath is drawn, m’lady”

You don’t need a butler at Kanuhura to get decadently pampered including having your bath drawn for you. Not just any bath, but your choice from their signature ‘Villa Bath Menu’ which include choices of “Veyoge Absolute Flower Bath”, exotic “Kanuhura Flower Ritual” or “Enchanting Breeze Flower Experience”.

“Drawn by the villa host at the guest’s chosen time, illuminated by a scented candle or oil burner, the water strewn with petals and accompanied by Champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries as well as a kids bath ceremony with milkshakes, cookies and a bedtime story.”

I don’t think my kids would protest at bath time with that sort of luxurious enticement.

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Best of the Maldives: Densest Population – Jumeirah Vittaveli

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Current World Population

 

Yesterday the world surpassed 7 billion people. That is according to the U.N.'s Population Division’s country-by-country projections of demographic trends. An awe inspiring number with equally stirring implications for the planet as MSNBC’s piece ‘7 Big Problems for 7 Billion People’ highlights. Sort the ‘Seven I-Wonders of the World’.

The Maldives has long been on the forefront of global ecological awareness and activism. And it re-inforces this focus with its recently launched ‘Always Natural’ campaign.

Maldives Complete has also, in its own trivial way, paid heed to visitors’ concerns about ‘population’. With both room count and island size in its database, it was pretty simply to add its ‘Population Density’ field as well (thanks Mark). In fact, the Room Density is something you can select for in the ‘Resort Finder’.

The most densely packed resort comes in as the freshly minted Jumeirah Vittaveli (opening 15 December). Its 91 rooms on 14,000 square metres is a mere 154 square metres per room. The result is skewed heavily by the resort having a large number of water villas (which don’t occupy any land) and being a skinny island (more circular islands occupy more acreage with space in the interior where the resorts tend not to put villas).

If you want to find out your place in the throng of billions, check out BBC’s ‘What’s Your Number’ calculator.

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Best of the Maldives: Skeleton – Meeru

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Meeru blue whale skeleton

Happy Halloween!

If you want to get into the spooky spirit, a number of resorts are offering special parties and attractions tonight. For example, Kuramathi has its ‘Halloween Horror’ event which includes activities such as ‘Pumpkin Bowling (where the objective of the game is to knock over ghosts), ‘Monster Freeze’, ‘Scary-Tell-A-Tale’ and ‘Make Your Own Mummy’.

It’s also a great excuse to visit Moosa’s grave on Kandooma. But the resort with the most dramatic (and certainly ‘Always Natural’) Halloweeny feature all year round, is Meeru with its Blue Whale skeleton.

A number of resorts feature whale skulls (eg. Kuredu, Kandooma), but only Meeru has the whole skeleton. The Blue Whale is the largest known animal to ever have existed on the planet and the skeleton measures 18 metres in length. The skeleton came from a whale that had washed ashore years ago and the owners decided to keep the skeleton.

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Best of the Maldives: Beach Tennis – Palm Beach

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Palm Beach beach tennis

 

While perhaps the most famous ‘beach’ sport (and the only one of Olympic standing), Beach Volleyball is not the only ‘beach’ game in town. In fact, there are so many, that the Maldives was just this month announced as host of the next 2013 South Asian Beach Games. Including some I have never even heard of.

One of those is ‘Beach Tennis’ which Palm Beach features. It is also known by its Italian name, Racketoni. Basically, it is a paddle like racket with a slightly heavier tennis ball. You will often see it on beaches around the world where people play without any net or court just hitting it to each other and trying to keep a volley going. But Palm Beach has a proper, dedicated court at Palm Beach as well as an instructor, Mohamed Adam (shown here in the far court).

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