Best of the Maldives: Literary Event – Soneva Gili

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Wye River
(The Wye River in Gloucestershire…like the Maldives an idyllic spot for some outdoor water activity as well as a literary festival)

Also winner of the small world connection is Soneva Gili’s sponsorship of the ‘Hay Festival Maldives’. The Hay Festival started as a small literary event in the English idyllic village of Hay-on-Wye. The ‘on-Wye’ bit of course being the Wye River which happens to be our family’s annual canoeing destination courtesy of friend, former colleague and master canoeist Gareth Hall. I was at first surprised to read a connection between this rather esoteric and remote Gloucestershire event and the Maldivian top flight resort, but I guess the Hay Festival has grown into a truly international phenomenon with satellite events around the world…

“Soneva Gili is delighted to announce its sponsorship of the inaugural Maldivian offshoot of the internationally renowned Hay-on-Wye literary festival which is taking place in the Maldives from the 14th to 17th October 2010. The Hay Festival Maldives will celebrate 2,000 years of Maldivian island culture and provide a platform for focusing international attention on the challenges faced by the archipelago due to climate change, bringing together international and local artists from the fields of literature, art, science, music, poetry and comedy.”

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Best of the Maldives: Cover Story – Anantara / Naladhu

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SI cover

The iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, nearly as renowned for its spectacular locations background as it is for its bathing beauty subjects in the fore, has set its shoot in the Maldives. In particular, the resorts of Anantara and Naladhu had the pleasure of hosting the crew from SI Swimsuit 2010. The venue ties into a bit of an eco-theme. I’m not sure the models can speak very authoritatively on climate change, but they are certainly role models for consuming less…clothing.

SI shoot

 

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Best of the Maldives: Promotion – Coco Bodu Hithi

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Coco Palm Promo

Many people think of a trip to the Maldives as a holiday *of* a lifetime, but now Coco Bodu Hithi are offering a trip *for* a lifetime.

“Would you like to win your holiday for a lifetime? Win a fabulous two week holiday on Coco Palm Bodu Hithi….EVERY YEAR…for a lifetime!!! The prize includes a stay for 2 persons at our Club Coco Palm on Coco Bodu Hithi for 2 weeks (14 nights) on half board, including airport transfers with a speedboat.  Simply take part in our competition game and collect 10 “Coco Coins”. If you collect 10 “Coco Coins” you have a very good chance to win this fabulous prize. You can enter the competition at any point in time! Browse through our new website in the time period between January 25th and March 4th, 2010 and search for hidden suitcases. You will find a new suitcase every day from Mondays to Thursdays, somewhere on our English website. Simply click onto the suitcase and remember the item that is hidden in the suitcase. Every found item equals 1 “Coco Coin”. Repeat looking for hidden suitcases until March 4th and collect 10 “Coco Coins” in total. The last hidden suitcase will give you the chance to put your    10 collected “Coco Coins” into the competition draw, by filling out the provided form.”

I’ve looked several time through the website in the past few days and I couldn’t find a single suitcase, but maybe you all be more eagle eyed.

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Best of the Maldives: 2010 Calendar – Soneva Gili and Soneva Fushi

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Kingfisher Soneva Gili 2010 Calendar

Still looking for that last minute Christmas gift? Calendars for the new year are certainly popular and if Maldives is what you seek, then Soneva Gili and Soneva Fushi have hosted this year’s Kingfisher Swimsuit calendar.

What strikes me about several of the shots…is the sharks (I know most readers and my wife are thinking, 'rrriighht…you’re looking at the sharks in that picture??…hmmmm…’). The mini black-tipped reef sharks are as common to Maldives lagoon shallows as squirrels are to Central Park and just as skittish. We can never get close to the cute little sharks without them scurrying away. But the model doesn’t seem to have any problems attracting the cruisers to her. And the shot below is just too much with the shark on the left with its mouth open like it is smiling for the camera.

Kingfisher Soneva Gili 2010 Calendar 2

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Best of the Maldives: 2010 Annular Eclipse – Huvafen Fushi

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Google Map - Maldives eclipse

On 15 January 2010, an annular eclipse will be visible from a 300-km-wide track that traverses central Africa, the Indian Ocean and eastern Asia.  Several resorts will be in the shadows path (follow the handy Google map plotting the course above), but Huvafen Fushi is the one resort where the centre passes directly over the island.

An annular solar eclipse does complete cover the sun with the moon, but it takes place where the moon is too far from the Earth to completely cover the sun’s disk.  That leaves a blazing “ring of fire” shining around the moon as it passes in front of the sun from Earth’s perspective. It is not quite as dramatic as a ‘total eclipse’, but quite a dramatic celestial event nonetheless.  The GIF (click on graphic to see animated version) above shows last year’s annular eclipse in the Maldives that was 93% annularity. This year, the instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 07:06:33 UT when the eclipse magnitude will reach 0.9190. At this instant, the duration of annularity is 11 minutes 8 seconds, the path width is 333 kilometers and the Sun is 66° above the flat horizon formed by the open ocean. On dramatic point is that such a long annular duration will not be exceeded for over 1000 years (3043 Dec 23).  The timing in January is one of the driest periods of the year which helps to ensure an unobstructed view. Lots of people go to Maldives for the sun, and here is a chance to go for a ‘sun event’.

Annular Eclipse

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