No Matter How Luxury It Is You Cannot Get These 5 Things In Maldives
23 Nov 2016: I am so frustrated. I admit it. Many new resorts are coming up in the Maldives with almost no innovation. Ever since Maldives started tourism it remained creative and innovative. For the first time in a decade I am feeling the innovation has started to decline.
Let’s make it clear. New luxury resorts such as
Soneva Jani or
St Regis Maldives looks fantastic. But, that’s basically all, other facilities and services are the norms in Maldives, there is nothing wholly new. Nothing new to make guests blown away.
The villas in Soneva Jani comes with a sliding roof. You can now do star gazing in the comfort of your bed or just fall asleep under a blanket of twinkling stars.
That’s a little bit of innovation from one of the most intelligent hotel chains in the Maldives. Apart from that I don’t see anything else to highlight.
Soneva group’s addiction to organic foods is something I admire but there is plenty of room to enhance it further. Trash-to-treasure recycling was also attractive, their eco-friendly concept is simply wonderful. These were highlights of previous years. In 2016, the one of the few innovations I could mention seems to be the sliding roof.
Some of the existing resorts acquired small semi-submarines this year. The submarine at Kuramathi is the biggest in any resort, it seems server around 12 - 18 people at a time. Much small ones that can take about 4 – 6 people at a time are available at Lily Beach, Kihaad Maldives, Hideaway Beach Resort.
Tourism is a rapidly booming industry across the globe. The race of tallest skyscrapers is still on, space tourism is still attempted at rocket building stage, people are busy with many more. Tourism diversification is happening everywhere. If Maldives remains silent, the nature’s bliss may no longer be attractive.
Let’s get things straight. Here is a list of few things are not available in the Maldives. The villa you stay may cost thousands of dollar a night, but you can never get these in Maldives.
Bamboo chicken biryani
People from other continents visiting Asia would obviously likely to try out Asian cuisine. For that reason many resorts do have Asian Restaurant or at least an Asian specialty menu. Organic cooking styles are still not very common in the Maldives. Again, many resorts do have charcoal grill, that’s great. But there is room to enhance this and make cooking itself more nature oriented than industrialized.
Bamboo chicken biryani is a very popular street food in India and other parts of Asia. In Maldives bamboo is very rare, especially the thick bamboo that is suitable for biryani cannot be found. So, this has to be imported and it is quite convenient to do so. A bunch of bamboo that is stored in right temperature would last at least a month.
Breadfruit pudding
Bread fruit is used as a vegetable, you can’t eat it raw. It is not very common but available throughout the country, including the local market in Male’. Most of the chefs at resorts being foreigners may be they are not familiar with this fruit. Breadfruit pudding is a very traditional local dish that is still enjoyed in the local islands.
Breadfruit rice
Chunks of breadfruit mixed with rice and cooked together makes breadfruit rice. It’s an authentic Maldivian dish that is enjoyed in local families.
Fresh sugarcane juice
Sugarcanes do grow in Maldives but it is extremely rare to find. To serve fresh sugarcane juice it must be imported. It is not hard to source, just include in your purchase list and overseas supplies would deliver it. To make juice you will need a special machine that squeezes the juice out, it is inexpensive. Fresh sugarcane juices comes in olive green colour, within minutes it changes to brown and no longer tastes as good as before.
Fruits fresh-from-the-tree
This is a challenge. The soil of local islands are not very fertile, to grow anything on a consistent manner you will need fertilizer and with that it is not impossible to grow your own fruits. It would be fantastic to have an orchard where you can visit with your butler and enjoy fruits fresh from the tree.
No matter how luxury it is you cannot get these 5 things in Maldives to taste. #Maldives #Luxury
