Q: If what is the plural of fish if you are talking about different types of fish?
A: Fish?
Q: <<buzz>> No, “fishes”
No not “April Fool’s Day”, but “April Fish Day”. Yes, it’s a thing (no fooling!). So to mark the day, we have another QI fun fact that might just have you fooled.
Daylight saving time moved the clocks forward in the UK this week. Other countries have other dates when they adjust their clocks (eg. the USA did theirs two weeks ago). Some countries in the world are even shifted a half hour or even 45 minutes.
The Maldives also has their own set of time variations despite all of the islands sitting on virtually the same longitude (time zones move by latitude). This has created the curious notion of “resort time”. Resort time is an hour different to the main Maldives time which is also known as “Male time”. But some resorts go even further. Nika’s resort time is 2 hours behind Male.
But Maalprolfulshi resort has topped them all by setting its resort time to 37 and half minutes ahead of Male time. The Director of Chronology R.U. Ciddingmee commented:
Maldives resort Oprefooshi has combined the top two reasons to visit this bucket list destination – honeymoons and snorkeling – into a single, once-in-a-lifetime experience: Snorkel Wedding.
Couples are provided with a Snorkel-Guide/Wedding-Officiant. Unlike underwater weddings (which have been conducted at various resort), snorkeling allows the bride and groom to share their vows by actually speaking to each other (while treading water). Why have a seaside wedding when you could be *in* the sea?? And you don’t require special training and certification to opt for this nautical nuptials (in fact, if you are a weak swimmer, the property has a special wedding dress with buoyancy aids sewn into the garment (which also add a special buxom look for your wedding photos).
We can fully appreciate the romance of the house reef venue as Lori and I celebrated our anniversary snorkeling (see photo below).
With interest in sustainable local sourcing of foods (and now some of the supply chain constraints with the coronavirus pandemic), the Mookowfushi resort is expanding its chef’s garden (where it has grown a range of herbs and vegetables) into a chef’s pasture that will support a small herd of Angus steers for the property’s dinner plates.
Their initial trial of the husbandry hit issues with the island not providing enough grazing land. But they quickly determined that the bovine palettes were as happy with sea grass as they were grass on land. The problem was that sea grass washed up on the beach was dead and sandy. They needed the bovine buffet to be fresher to the animals. So they experimented with the classic Maldivian accessory – the mask and snorkel. The animals took to the devices very readily (see photo) and were happy to use them to see and find fresh sea grass in the lagoon shallows that they can graze on.
Mookowfushi doesn’t just serve “Surf and Turf”…it puts the turf in the surf!
…and you will find them in amongst the vibrant and varied marine life of the Maldives! Snorkeling and diving has long been one of the great appeals to this aquatic wonderland. Triggerfish, reef sharks and wrasses are ubiquitous, but some species are much more elusive. After 20 years of visiting the Maldives staying at over 90 resorts, we have yet to see a whale shark. 
Mind you, I would be just as happy if I spotted one of these rare creatures in my underwater meanderings…
Today is the International Day of Failure. Which happens to be, along with Maldives resorts, my other specialist subject. I’ve written about as much about embracing failure as I have about quirky features at Maldivian resorts. And today I get to combine the two. Enjoy!
The Maldives has long been synonymous with honeymoon romance and spectacular reef diving. In recent years, it has established itself as a world class center for other things like Michelin star cuisine and top flight surfing attracting top talent to its shores. Its natural tranquillity has also turned it into a bit of a yoga haven. No premium resort is complete without sunrise and sunset yoga sessions for the guests. And its uniquely placid, reef-sheltered lagoons have afforded yet another opportunity for such Asanas practice – Underwater Yoga. So much so that the International Federation of Floatational Yoga (IFFY) are hosting their annual World Yoga Championships in the Maldives today. They are being hosted by the resort Apreelfulshi Spa and Villas. Below are a few snaps from the early qualification rounds.
Above and below, a top contenders in the Ladies Levitating Lotus (Heat 1)…
While below an entry in the Men’s Seafloor category warms up for his heat (Quarterfinal-FInal)…
The shallow lagoons of the Maldives provide an ideal venue for the popular Semi-Submerged Padmasana (Semi-FInal round)…
A number of demonstration workshops were also featured for aspiring fans attending the event. Below one of the master classes is led by an underwater guru…
Namaste #1! Go team! Winning!
This cartoon could have been my wife Lori 20 years ago. We had been living in the UK for a few years at that point and the grey, dreary British winters were taking their toll on her psyche. Eventually, she gave me an ultimatum, “Bruce, either take me on a sunny holiday or put me in psychotherapy. The choice is yours, but might I suggest that either way you are going to pay and you might enjoy the holiday a bit more.” And thus started our nearly annual trips to the Maldives laying the groundwork for Maldives Complete.
Today is National Depression Screening Day 2016 in the USA. So if you have been feeling a bit more down than you probably should be, look out for the many seminars and events being held to provide information and guidance. There many effective ways to address and treat depression these days…even if you can’t make it to the Maldives.
With the cancellation of the Sri Lankan Airlines direct service and British Airways curtailing its own London-Male service in the summer months, most UK travel to Maldives has required the tedious stop-over. But the customer-focused Virgin Airways has not only stepped into the breach with its own daily direct service to the Maldives, but it has done with an aeronautic innovation so appropriate to the destination…glass bottomed planes.
Richard Branson himself announced, “The Maldives is a destination renowned for its spectacular seascape. People marvel at its aquatic sights underneath the surface with glass floors in many villas and they do so when they fly above this amazeballs azure archipelago. It is the perfect destination to launch our new state-of-the-art planes which lets every passenger enjoy this turquoise tapestry when they arrive.”
Using the same pressure-resistance, high tensile strength glass that the famous underwater restaurants there use, every seat is a window seat! The scenic wonder is ideal for that climactic arrival to the otherworldly archipelago as the distinctive tapestry of blues emerge in the seascape below. I much prefer these windows-full planes to the windowless planes the industry has been talking about recently. And lest you think this can’t be real, see the full details on Virgin’s website – “Virgin launches glass-bottomed plane”.
With all of the effort into providing a guide to the best snorkelling (and diving) in the world, only fair to provide a further instalment on some sites to avoid. The latest was the photo of West Bank snorkelling in Israel featured in a number of this past week’s news galleries which becomes our third instalment in our photo gallery of the snorkelling spectrum’s other end. Not quite azure expanses and the accompanying creatures a bit less colourful.
