The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
Where does your wanderlust lead you?
To Melbourne’s cafes or the vast deserts of the Empty Quarter, a New Zealand vineyard or the pavements of New York… what’s your neighbourhood?
Join travel journalists and editors Kirstie Bedford and Belinda Jackson for inspiring stories and inside information from across the world.
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The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
Ep 128 Summer Series: The Islands Episode, Cambodia & the Maldives
This week is all about islands, as we take you to a Cambodian conservation-based private island resort and to the island nation of the Maldives.
First up, Kirstie takes us to the stunning island resort of Song Saa in Cambodia’s Koh Rong archipelago. Bought by Australian Melita Koulmandas for US$15,000, she has transformed it from knee-deep in rubbish to a luxury retreat with Cambodia’s first protected marine park. Hear from the island’s marine biologist, Anna Sabrina Petry about how it not only supports the ongoing conservation efforts but continues to enrich the area. Learn more about Song Saa at www.songsaa-privateisland.com.
Next, Belle chats about her most recent visit to the Maldives - does it live up to the hype? This time, she stayed at two resorts, Niyama Private Islands in the Dhaalu atoll south of the capital, Male, and Avani + Fares in the Baa atoll, famed for its UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. We're talking about the food, the different types of resorts, their sustainability and, of course, whale sharks.
See niyama.com and avanihotels.com/en/fares-maldives
Visit us at https://theworldawaits.au
Welcome to the World Away. Travel tales to inspire your wonderlust. Hi there, I'm your host of The World Awaits, Phil Jackson, and welcome back to our summer series. This week is all about islands, and we are taking you to a Cambodian retreat and to the island nation of the Maldives. First up, my co-host Kirsty Bedford takes us to the gorgeous island resort of Songsa in Cambodia's Ko Rong archipelago. Bought by Australian Melita Coolmandas for a cool 15,000 US dollars. She has transformed it from needy pin rubbish to a luxury retreat with Cambodia's first protected marine park. Hear from the Ireland's marine biologist Anna Sabrina Petri about not only how it supports the ongoing conservation efforts, but continues to enrich the area. So beside its beauty, what made you want to go there, Kirsty? I mean, I want to go to a private island in Cambodia. Just please take me.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So I was beyond fascinated, I have to say, with Melita's achievements, and I really wanted to experience it firsthand. So um, you know, as you point out, it is also an exceptionally pretty island. But it's it's just I find it I'm fascinated with the whole philanthropy and and conservation concepts around tourism. And um, and so I visited and wrote about it for Carry On Luxury, and also I wrote a cover story of the New Zealand Herald, and we can put the links to both of those in the show notes.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, so now I'm desperate to get to the private island in Cambodia. Whereabouts is it exactly?
SPEAKER_03:So it's a tiny island in the Korong Archipelago, which is off the mainland of Cambodia. So to get there, you need to fly into a main city and then you go down to Cienakville, which is down the south, which is a 45-minute flight from CNRIP, and then it's about a 45-minute speedboat from there. But can I tell you, oh my god, the journey is really all part of the experience. So when you get there, it's so worth it because actually the boat ride out is really lovely and it just it's in a little speed boat and it feels really quick. Um, and when you get there, you see this like postcard worthy location, and oh, you would just do anything to be there, seriously. You immediately feel like you've landed on your own private island. And you basically have because there's only 24 villas and they're all sort of dotted around. Some are over water, which you can see as you're pulling into the pier, and others are all hidden in the jungle. So our villa literally, we found like movie stars when we got there. I mean, you walk along a wooden boardwalk to your villa, and it's basically like a standalone bungalow, the size of some small houses in Australia, and they're all built sustainably from local driftwood and salvage wood and local stone, and that's kind of half the point of the story, right? So the whole design ethos was that they replicate a Cambonian village. And the door, the door opened. Our butler took us, and because your butler guides you, you have a dedicated butler from the minute you land on the island, and then he guides you to your villa, and then he opens the door, and there's this huge living room with a 12-seated dining table and a sunken lounge with a lounge suite that seats like 20, overlooking an infinity pool that looks out over the house reef, and beyond that the Ko Rong Island in the distance, and all you see is just ocean and blue, blue on blue on blue. And on either side of the room of this humongous living area, are these bedroom wings with four poster beds and they have their own living areas with um a bathroom and there's a deep stone bath with wraparound windows, so you can lie in the bath in this deep stone bath and just gaze out over the over the ocean. And it feels like you're just floating on the ocean. It is just remarkable, and it's all inclusive. So there's a fridge full of everything that you requested before you came. Champagne, anyone um know, prefers Sauvignon blog, whatever. And it's all sitting there for you in the in this fridge. And of course, you can order whatever you like to eat. Um, and then each day there's a little tiny scroll that's rolled up and attached to your door, and when you open the door, you have this teeny little scroll that you unrol you unroll and unfold, and it tells you where you're going to dine for that night. So one night it might be um, you know, there's a couple of different restaurants, or you can dine one night. We were just dining at the in the beach, beside the beach with our feet in the sand to a beautiful sunset, and we were literally the only ones there for like most of the night.
SPEAKER_05:Oh gosh, that sounds absolutely incredible. So I mean, this like how did this island cut, you know, this island paradise uh how did it come to pass? I mean, how did Melita change you know, how did she put a stamp on it?
SPEAKER_03:So she had this vis she she originally didn't have a vision to build a resort. So her initial priority was all about just cleaning up this island. So she bought this island, she didn't really know what she was going to do with it. She just they her and her boyfriend at the time had been traveling around Cambodia, they literally came across this island. She'd seen this island in the distance, and she said to a fisherman, Can you take me out there? It took like hours to get out there back then. And they she got taken out to the island and um it was just filled with rubbish, like literally, like more than knee deep full of rubbish. And she just then he said, Do you want to buy this island? Because he wanted to move back to the mainland. And she said, How much? And he said, 15,000 US. And she said, Fine. She went back to the mainland, got the cash out, brought it back in a brown paper bag, literally, to went back and gave the cash, and then she got the the locals from this, from the Korong um May the main island, the mainland, which is which you have to get a boat over. She basically engaged the community and mainly the women, and they picked up all the rubbish. And um she said it was only once she'd sort of built this really strong relationship with the community and also the chiefs that the island that she then decided that she would build Songsa. And the main reason for that was because she wanted to start the foundation. She wanted to that the only way to move forward to, you know, to have a conservation and ongoing conservation efforts was to basically um have this project. So she she was always about um regenerative tourism, and she had this support, like I said, from the local community. And within 18 months, all the fish stocks were replenished. So it was like a traffic jam of fishing boats just coming in and dip depleting the entire marine life in the area previously. So they had this agreement with the local chiefs where only, you know, only so many, so many local boats could be in the area, and they got the local chiefs on board and the government on board, and her efforts in collaboration with those local chiefs and authorities formed Cambodia's first protected marine park. Remarkable. So she just seven years after she bought the island, the Songsa opened its doors and the foundation was also formed a year later. And that was, like I said, purely to give back to the communities who supported her and to ensure that that protection of that entire ecosystem um around that island.
SPEAKER_05:Unbelievable. It just sounds, I mean, what an incredible story. Absolutely incredible. So when you were on the island, back to you, um, when you were on the island, what did you actually do while you were there?
SPEAKER_03:So, because of this concept, everything you do when you're on the island is around the Songsa Foundation, which I just loved. So we took a boat over to the main island to Kai Rung and you can go, you can go kayaking in the mangrove forest, which is just beautiful. I mean, I'm talking glassy waters, just spectacular. And these eco-friendly little guest houses are on the riverbent. So if you wanted to, you can go and stay on those little guest houses. And the local government is planting mangrove seedlings because they're and releasing fish to try and enrich the ecosystem there too. Um, and we also went over to Koh Rong, the main sort of island, which is so like Songsai is like a little island off this main island island, which is off the coast of Cambodia. So we went with there's a marine biologist and conservationist called um India Thomas, who took us by long tail over to the local community on that on that island. And um, we wandered through the township, and you can sort of see the tiny wooden stilts. And the the the thing here I found really interesting was there was a lot of children running up to us, you know, and you want to give them money. And she said to me, Whatever you do, don't give them money. Because if you give them money, it prevents them from going it prevents them from going to school. And the whole point is if you really want to help them as tourists, give the money to the foundation because they it is genuinely going back in to ensuring the education of these kids. So we we learnt you can go over there when you stay in Songsa and you can meet all the locals and see this beautiful little community and see their school. So they've got a school over there and they teach the kids English. So we went up to the school and there was like about half a dozen kids up there, and they're all, you know, reciting English, um, and they they love to meet you. So that was one of the things we did. The another thing we did was you can go, there's another teeny little island called Kobong, which is connected by another bridge to Songsar Island. Um, and there's a naturalist and botanist who works on the island, and you can go with him and he'll take you over and talk about all the plants and trees that you're seeing. So the wild yams and the edible orchard tree, the banyan and rosewood trees. And he talks about um educates you, yeah, about the uh floor, the the you know, all about the flora and fauna basically on the on the islands while you're there.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, that sounds just incredible. So um just like just tell me a bit more about what they're doing in regards to ongoing conservation efforts there.
SPEAKER_03:So while we were there, you can of course also snorkel with the marine biologists and see the seagrass and the work they do to restore the coral. And while I was there, I actually sat down with marine biologist Anna Sabrina Petrie and um and had a bit of a chat with her about specifically about this because she was so passionate about it. So I'm gonna hand over to her. So let's take a listen to see what she says about the work they're doing.
SPEAKER_00:You have these structures on the reef which are integrated in the reef, but there's just a bedrock. So now what we do is we cover this bedrock with small fragments. And those fragments grow faster than they would if it would just be one coral colony. Because for corals, if you break them off, it's like having a cut on your skin. If you have a cut on your skin, your skin is really fast at healing and just closing this cut. And it's the same for corals, they grow faster if they have this. That's why there are now even studies doing microfragmentation on corals, like putting them into super small pieces, putting them on plugs, and then when they grow, putting them putting them back onto the Yeah, amazing. Um, and if we cover, like now our transplanting site is basically one big bedrock, and we start to cover it with all the fragments. And some of them are from the same colony. So even if we stock them in the same place, they start to encrust, grow on the over the bedrock and connect again. But even the ones who are not from the same colony, they grow faster because we did the fragmentation before. And does it encourage new marine life or just attracts marine life straight away? It's what we can see once we put corals on a place like this, instantly there are more fish. It's the moment you put the there, even if it's not secured. That's actually sometimes with the parrot fish here, you have to make sure that you secure the peace straight away because otherwise they pick on it and it falls down and gets lost. Um, but there's instantly more marine life, more shelter um for the like their crabs straight going into the corals, um, yeah, making it their shelter. So the we have the Korong Archipelago, which is a marine reserve. Yeah. But then the special thing about those two islands is that we have another protection zone which is 200 meters around those two islands, which we can also monitor way better because we have security here on the island and they monitor um, so if there are boats coming into those 200 meter zone, they get checked by the security. So I think the long-term goal is having, of course, doing all the conservation projects we're doing. Uh, so monitoring the marine biodiversity on the reefs, which we do. Um and so we're usually we do surveys, we look um for inverts for fish, for the substrates, for the bantics. And doing that on the same sites every year gives us a good um insight in how the populations of the different species are doing and if biodiversity is increasing or if it's decreasing. Um, and we also do secrets surveys. So we try to monitor the overall health of the ecosystem and the biodiversity. What I like here is that we do the whole ecosystem. It's we not just do co-restoration, we also look after the biodiversity, we also look after the um seagrass, and it's really important to have this whole approach because everything is connected. So we do everything. We do the co-restoration, we help the reef uh to recover, we assist because we're in the stage now where we need to assist natural reefs because they can recover uh to a certain point, and here we're lucky because we have the um passive restoration with the marine reserve, but now we also start doing the active restoration with putting nurseries, with growing coral fragments in the nurseries and putting them back on the reef, which gives more structure. We're now also planning an artificial refructure, which is just there to give structure, to put corals there, so then marine life can um be attracted, can follow find shelter there, and then overall it will be taken over by nature anyway at some point.
SPEAKER_04:How does it change your experience? It means that there's more places to die, there's gonna be more bitter uh diving into this.
SPEAKER_00:The whole experience is different. You have there's there are more species to see.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um you see a healthy ecosystem. Um, you so people here they come here because uh they want to see the great nature. And the nature here, the coral reefs actually here, and I've dug in a lot of different places, but the reefs here have one of the highest biodiversity in corals I have seen. Uh, we have a lot of different coral species here on the reef. Um and coral reefs are hotspots of biodiversity, they attract a lot of marine life, even if they're just cover such a small amount of the whole ocean. Um, they are the hotspots where all the marine life is attracted to. So if you wanna if you want to have a great experience as a traveler, you want to go in a place where you can see a lot of different stuff, where you can see an ecosystem in like how it would be naturally. And this is what we wanna achieve. We want to have a healthy ecosystem with healthy nature where we have all those species for people to see and to have authentic experiences in like the basically the encounters you out encounters you would have with marine life here. Why I love doing this job, because you see your impact and it's it happens so fast. After a few weeks, you see what I'm doing is changing something, it's improving something, it's a really fulfilling work to do. That's also something which we have the privilege of having this education, but we want to provide it to the community here, we want to give it to the locals here. And then if they have the education and they have everything, the tools, the knowledge on how to deal with everything, they will be able to do it by themselves. And it's we are just there to support and um basically give them all this knowledge and tools, and then they can deal with it on their own. And it's also a the focus on the community projects. We don't want to do something where we think it might be beneficial for them. We always check with them that it's actually something they need and which is beneficial for them.
SPEAKER_05:I love how she talks about how they are always working in c collaboration with what's best for the local community, not assuming that they know. So um I think you know, I think that's a a really strong point about why this is so successful. And if you'd like to learn more, go to Songsaw's website, which is Songsa S-O-N-G-S-A-A, hyphen private island.com. Next up, I'm chatting about my recent visit to the Maldives. This time I stayed at two resorts, Niama Private Island, and Ivani Plus Faraz. We're talking about the food, the different types of resorts, their sustainability, and of course, whale sharks.
SPEAKER_03:Turquoise lagoons, incredible sea life, overwater villas in Must Be the Maldives. This week Belle's my guest, and she's taking us to this beautiful island nation to see whether it lives up to the hype. So, firstly, Belle, for those who don't know, where are they?
SPEAKER_05:Well, let's start with our little geography lesson here. This little archipelago is southwest of India and Sri Lanka. There are just under 1200 coral islands in the Maldives in 26 atolls. And only 200 of those islands was inhabited. All these stats just blew my mind. What is really interesting is that half the number of those islands are inhabited by Maldivians, and the other half are tourism resorts. And fascinatingly, that balance is changing. But look, the capital is Malay, which is one of the most densely populated capitals in the world, and it's not because it's got a ginormous population, but because the islands are just so insanely small. So everybody is chock on top of each other. So when you look at the size of the Maldives, it's only seven uh eight eight hundred and seventy kilometers from the top to the bottom and just 130 kilometers wide. So it's absolutely tiny. In fact, when the first plane landed in the Maldives in 1960, Malay was just too small to accommodate an airport. So they put the landing strip on the neighboring island, Hulhule Island. And I've got to say, the first two times I visited the Maldives, to get to Malay from the airport, you had to catch a small boat called a derni across the stretch of water from the airport to the capital. Now there's actually a large bridge connecting the two islands. So when I when I was there last month, that was the very first change that I noticed flying in.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, interesting. So how do you get there from Australia?
SPEAKER_05:Well, I've got to say, we are terribly unlucky here in Australia that there are no direct flights from Australia. Um but look, watch this space because I anticipate news to be announced very, very shortly. Will change this. So at the moment, most people fly to Singapore with Singapore Airlines and then they transfer on to the Maldives. Um, you can also fly via Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian and even with budget carrier Air Asia, which I find is really fascinating. This time I flew with um Sri Lankan Airlines and I transited in Colombo, it's only an hour and a half from Colombo to Malay, it's probably the closest of the transfers. So it really depends on your budget and the best connections, because often uh we are stuck with quite a long wait in those transit countries. But every airline worth its salt flies into the Maldives, including all the Middle Eastern carriers. Turkish is in there, Aeroflot comes from Russia, British Airways, and all the Chinese carriers are in there too. So, like who's not there really is the question.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, wow, I don't know. It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_05:Um, so tell us a bit about where you stayed. Well, look, firstly, almost nobody stays in Malay, the capital. While it has improved, it is generally regarded as pretty dreary, and you can cover it off in a short time. The highlight for me when I visited on a previous trip to the Maldives was the fish market, which sounds kind of rando, but when you go in, you see these absolutely enormous whole tuna sold. It like at the end of the day, they'll just be flogging it off for a couple of dollars a kilo of this beautiful, beautiful f fish. I mean, it's not the ideal way to see the famous marine life, but there you go. Um, I better say most visitors don't go to Marlee. They stay at the airport and connect straight onto their resort, either by speedboat for those resorts close to Marlee, by a commercial flight to one of the domestic airports dotted around the atolls, or via seaplane.
SPEAKER_03:Now we're talking who doesn't love a seaplane.
SPEAKER_05:Absolutely. Like you, I do love a little plane. The smaller the better. It's it's kind of like Fiji in the sense that there are whole fleets of twin otters, if you're an AV geek like me, skipping about amongst the islands, between the islands. So these planes seed up to 19 people, and they have the most beautiful runway in the world. They take off and land on water. And I just love the seaplane terminal in the Maldives, seeing all of these private planes whipping out to the Ultralux resorts. The um the seaplane transfers are the most indirect and also the most expensive way to get to your resort. Alternatively, for a lot of them, you can take a commercial flight to the nearest airport and then you take a speedboat onto your onto your um island. But on the seaplanes, the scenery is just incredible and they flow, they fly much, much lower than the regular planes. So you just, I mean, look, jump onto my Instagram. I have taken so many videos just of what we were looking at as we are flying over these atolls. But look, when you are planning your Maldives um adventure, let me remind you that these beautiful little seaplanes only fly visual line of sight, which means they have to be able to see where they're going. They can't rely on radar. So they don't fly at night and they won't fly in very poor weather. So you have to ensure that your international flight arrives in the Maldives with enough time to get onto a seaplane. Um, generally the last ones go out to the islands at about 3.30 in the afternoon. Otherwise, your transfers have to be done by commercial flights. And the most incredible thing about it, actually, Kirsty, was none of the pilots wear shoes. So you're flying out on this tiny plane. And with the first time we flew out, there was only seven or so of us in the plane. Pilots are barefoot. It's just amazing. Like it, and and that is when you go, I'm on a seaplane with a pilot that doesn't even have any shoes on, I must be in the Maldives.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And that's a really good tip, actually, about timing. Because often you don't you don't think about those sorts of things about coordinating because the transfers you just assume are there waiting and ready for you. So what was your resort like and um and why did you choose to go there?
SPEAKER_05:Well, I stayed in two resorts. I was there for a week and I split my time between two of them. The first one I stayed at was Niama Private Islands, which is down south of Malay in the Dala Atoll. And then the second resort was north of Malay at the Yvani Plus Faras in the Bar Atoll. They're both owned by minor hotels and they are both very different hotels.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and let's delve into that a little bit because uh my understanding is that from the Maldives is that you really have to choose the resort based on what you want to do because the experiences are so different to paste it, uh, you know, depending on their geographic location.
SPEAKER_05:Absolutely. Look, yeah, the as I've said, the Malay, uh the Maldives is not huge, but it is incredibly diverse. So, first I'd say it is the ultimate fly and flop destination because the scenery, no matter where you stay, is absolutely spectacular. The islands are surrounded by lagoons that hold back the Indian Ocean. The sand is blindingly white, the sunsets are magnificent, best enjoyed from your pool lounger, or if the positioning is right and it often is, enjoyed from your bed, um, or that gorgeous little beach bar shack. But look, the back to the activities and those two properties. The unique point about Niama Private Island is it is is one of the very few islands in the Maldives with a naturally occurring surf break on its shores. The the break, it breaks right off the northern um point, which is called Vodi Point. And so while they're surfing in other areas of the Maldives, such as down south a few years ago, I was at the Como Malafushi, where dedicated surf tour companies run surfing trips. But um often they might be on liverboard boats, or you've got to go out to the atolls, and that is very different to this as a beach break.
SPEAKER_04:So just apart from surfing, what were you doing to walk away your days?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I'm absolutely. And they do do beginner surf lessons, you know. I mean, what a bragging right that is. I alert to surf in the Maldives. Um, Niamos is uh is a great one because it's really just it's just refurbished, uh, it's nearly refurbished this year. So the resort's only eight years old, but you know, sun, sand, and surf do take their toll, not only on your skin, but on the resorts as well. So we were lucky enough to stay in one of the newly renovated overwater villas. And like most resorts, they balance those overwater villas, which do come with a higher price point, with its beach villas. And Niyama has a lot of beach villas hidden between the palms, which are super private and right on the beachfront. And they are absolutely popular with families with young children because you can simply wander out of the villa and out onto your little slice of a beach to swim in very shallow, safe, and incredibly warm waters. So I did do a lot of that. And then they also run day trips out to see turtles, champagne sunsets, go on a dive tour, and all of those water sports that you'd expect. And what I loved about this resort was that unlike others, it's also quite sizable. So it's four acres spread across two interconnecting islands. They've got a little wooden bridge between them. Um, and everybody gets around on these old school beach cruiser bikes, which is just gorgeous. So, you know, you're just cruising through the coconut palms on these sandy trails along the over and along the overwater boardwalks. You go to the restaurant for breakfast, out onto one of the beaches for a bit of stand-up paddling. You might take your kids to the kids' club, or they they all have teen clubs on them now with um things like, you know, FIFA and um and ping pong and stuff like that. Or you're going to the the treetop restaurant nest, which is beautiful, out to that beach bar where you can watch the surfers. Um, what you cannot cycle to is Niama's specialty restaurant Edge, which is set half a kilometre offshore on a pontoon. So at sunset, you take a boat out um to this pontoon to this restaurant. So you can dine on Maldivian lobster as the sun sets across the ocean, and there is, you know, with nothing on the horizon, it really is spectacular. And then on Friday nights, you can follow a staircase on that pontoon down to its underwater restaurant, which turns into a disco. So heartbreakingly, I arrived on a Saturday. So I cannot share with you what it was like dancing underwater, but it was like we went down to the space and it was just amazing. I've I have eaten in underwater restaurants like in on the Conrad property at Rangali Island. There was a little bit of guilt, Kirsty, because they serve seafood. So you're sitting there eating a fish and then its cousin swims past you and you think, Oh my god. How do they feel about that?
SPEAKER_03:But I have to say, uh dining on a pontoon um, you know, is on lobster. Oh my god, what an amazing experience. And um, I think the food would be so good you wouldn't be worrying about the uh the cousins or sisters or the brothers that are swimming around.
SPEAKER_05:And if your thing, but sorry, and of course there's no calories in holiday food as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, of course. Or drink. Um, but yeah, your videos were so beautiful, and everyone can check those out at um global underscore salsa. So what was the food like? And can you actually try the try the Maldivian food? If it like what sort of food is that? Because they're all based around obviously the ocean.
SPEAKER_05:I am glad you asked, Kirsty, because you know I do love to eat. And one of my favorite things when I'm in places like India or Sri Lanka or the Maldives is breakfast curry. Show me a breakfast curry with parata, fried bread, and I will show you a contented woman. Um, also good tea. Yeah. So um checking all the boxes, um, on both the resorts I stayed in, they had a Maldivian breakfast station, which I'm really happy to see because you know you can eat bacon and eggs and sausages anywhere around the world. What? But there are two foods that underpin Maldivian cuisine, which are unsurprisingly coconuts and tuna. Years ago on Conrad Bengali Island, the head chef told me no tuna, no life for the Moldivian kitchen. So oftentimes that breakfast curry is chicken, but traditionally it's more likely to be a fresh tuna curry and a rich sort of tomato-y, coconut-y gravy. And I am so okay with that. And chili as well, always chili, because they do love a good chili. They play it down in the resorts, but um they serve it on the side. And when you say to the chef, Yeah, I can do a bit of chili, they're like, Yes, but they still keep it at a lower level to what a Maldivian definition of chili is. So uh yeah, I just think the food is really fascinating because you know, you get through to a culture, you know, you understand a culture through its food. And so when you go, it's all about tuna and and coconuts, it's like, of course, because you are on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, right?
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, all that chat about that incredible food's making me very hungry. But the other property you actually stated is actually one that we've featured before, which is Ivani Plus Fares, which is in the Bar Atoll north of Malay. And if you jump back to episode 98, I interviewed free diving conservationist Hanley Prince Lou, and I have to say she's absolutely sold me on the incredible wildblast there too.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, there is a saying here in Bar, it's better in Bar. Um, and I don't know how many times I heard that because the Maldivians just love it as much as much as everybody else. This resort's only a couple of years old. It is set on a what was a 200-year-old coconut plantation um on the western edge of the country. So if you are having a little drink looking west across the Indian Ocean, there is nothing, nothing, until you hit the coast of Africa at Somalia. And that like that actually blew my mind. I felt so remote on this island. It was it was almost disconcerting that it, you know, you really felt that that incredible isolation.
SPEAKER_03:Amazing. And what was the vibe like there compared to the other one you were staying at?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, compared to it, it is a really different animal compared to Niama. It's not a question of the number of rooms because Niama has 134 villas, um, which range from overwater and uh and beach villas. And then on Ivani there are 176. So they've got overwater villas, they've got the beach villas, and then they've got these pavilion rooms, which are decorated exactly the same as the others, but then they're in an um, they're in uh small groups. So so your families can actually take a couple of them together. It's much more interconnecting. They are at a lower price point. I met this great English couple who said, Oh, we were gonna stay at the overwater villas, and then we realized we could stay for two weeks if we stayed in the pavilion room. So they were staying on this island for two weeks, which I thought was just phenomenal. Um, but there's a very different energy on Ivani Plus. I feel Niyama is really classic, wonderfully laid back, uh, in that Maldivian escape style. Ivani has more activities, and I that is due to the location. Avani won the Best Dive Resort uh award at Maldives Travel Trade Awards last year, and it's and it's actually won it a couple of times, and and that is fighting off some serious competition. I'll give you an example of um because I'm a snorkeler, I'm not a diver. Um, I'm not a bad snorkeler. The house reef is um the house reef on the island at Avani Plus is you literally walk to the end of the beach near Smuggler's Shack, which is a cute little beach bar, and you jump in with your snorkel on, and you are diving straight into an aquarium. But it's just incredible the phenomenal amount of fish life around you. Like you'll just have schools of a hundred um, you know, tiny little angel fish flying, you know, tearing past you. They've got um, I mean, there's things like eels and uh just moorish idols. And the numbers are phenomenal. And look, I've you know, I've snuggled extensively in the Great Barrier Reef in places like the Great Astrolabe in Fiji, in southern Fiji. Um, on this beach, uh, you know, it's in its turtles have been laying their eggs, and the hotel protects them. They have about 50 or 60 hatches on the island around the year. And that's just a place where you're having like a sunset drink. It's it's absolutely phenomenal. There's a drop-off from just a couple of meters offshore, and it drop drops past, and people were seeing um sharks, nice, friendly, delightful sharks, um, just off this reef. Uh, it absolutely blew my mind, Kirsty, to be completely, you know, no holds barred, honest with you. It blew my mind. In fact, I had a chat with Ivanny Plus Farah's um general manager, Judd Rabbage, who is actually Australian and he lives on the island with his young family, and he's been there a couple of years, and he's going to explain to you why it's better in bar.
SPEAKER_01:Um, the bar toll is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. And for example, where we are um, you know, certain times a year you're standing on the jetty and you've got, you know, dry mantrays even coming past, eagle rays, turtles, sharks. We call them vegetarians, unlike Australian sharks. Are they vegetarians and a muldevs? They've got enough food so they don't um don't try and and eats uh eat humans, which we're lucky about, but also um you look every kind of marine life you can imagine is there, and because of it's it's a reserve, there's no fishing, um, you know, the marine animals are really comfortable coming in close, comfortable humans as well. Um, so it's that is a destination as a bar toll. You will not find marine life like that anywhere else in the Maldives. And I think a lot of places other than the Galapagos in the world, um, it's you know, you can you can go to certain areas and just the uh the the sheer amount of of turtles that'll be on one reef, or you know, there's a pot of dolphins in the area, they're a thousand strong. So it's an incredible um, you know, a toll. It's it's far enough away, you know, north that you're away from the shipping lines, you're away from normality, you know, and where we are at Ivani, we're on the very, very western edge. So you can't see any other islands as you would have noticed about when you're on the island. You can see Vakaru just on a nice day, but it's about 15-20 minutes by boat, but you can't see any other islands, and and that's what really makes us being on that very western edge, the animals are comfortable to to kind of swim in. So, you know, throughout the day, the amount of marine life you see is fantastic. I was I was a bit out now on the um out to Harifaru Bay, which is where they all congregate, where the giant mandarys congregate. And we're going out there and and all the Maldivian boys, um, you know, and I and I love it. Look, I really I think you know, as a as a leader, when you're there in the Maldives, you should really focus on on the locals. You know, we're lucky enough to be expats in their country, and we should always be grateful for that. And and so I try, you know, really get involved with the local boys. And they said to me, When we get past this point, just put your head out and you'll see, you might see some some while shots. And we saw this and and look big in Australia. I mean, I see the odd fin and I do get a bit of a fight. So I put my head out, and and I sort of saw um, you know, these uh the tail coming in out of the water and got a bit of a fright. But the boys, one of the lads just jumped straight in, and um, but you know, they're giving me grief. Obviously, working the hotel, and they said jump. And um, you know, my wife is pretty quick always to jump in, so she jumped in first, and then I was right behind her, and just swimming with this animal with its you know, two or three trucks, the car sizes are big, and just how gentle they are, and and swimming in the you can see so far in the water, and they're just so relaxed. It was yeah, an incredible experience, absolutely incredible experience.
SPEAKER_03:You can definitely hear the passion in his voice about the the world laughing the bar at all. And particularly, I loved it how he talked about how he jumped in with the whale shots on the honey farous bay. It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_05:I know it's it's absolutely incredible. There you have it from the horse's mouth. Judd also told me incredibly the Australians, speaking of animals in uh traveling around the place, as Australians are actually number five in the nationalities that visit the Maldives. I was so surprised by that. So the most popular market is Russians, and honestly, if you have a look at their weather, you can see why. Um, with a big then followed by a lot of Europeans, Germans, and Italians, and um, and then after that, Australians at number five, which actually really surprised me. And I I did like, he made a really good point when we were chatting that his resort doesn't just focus on one nationality, but it's an eclectic mix of nationalities. So so when you're at breakfast, you know, you can hear the Italians over this side, this German's here, we heard quite a lot of Dutch were visiting and stuff. So I I always find that fascinating. Um, it wasn't the season for um, you know, they traditionally had a lot of people coming from the Southern Asia from Hong Kong and Singapore and places like that. I just find that fascinating on land as well. Hilariously, we were on the island at the same time as British reality star Carolyn Stanbury. If you ever watched the Real Housewives of Dubai, uh, she was there with her Spanish footballer husband, Sergio Carolo, who um I was happy to be sharing the island with. She was running her power and paradise retreats here. I'll leave you to read between the lines on that last comment. She was running her power and paradise retreats here in the Maldives. And it was it was really interesting, actually, to watch how a power influencer couple operates. But it is one of the most aspirational destinations in the world, along with other places such as Tahiti and the Seychelles.
SPEAKER_03:People are madly Googling that footballer's name right now. Um, and so on to more serious issues. The question is, uh, with all this uh growth, is um is it going to be sustainable?
SPEAKER_05:Look, I've got to say that is something top of my mind when I think of the Maldives. Um, it is no surprise, it is one of the lowest lying countries in the world. The highest point is about two meters above sea level. So if you are talking about rising sea levels, I'm like, hello, Maldives, what are you doing about it? Um I did ask Judd about this, and we talked about the Maldives sea rangers who monitor the number of boats and proximity to animals. So, you know, when you jump off a boat to go and swim with a whale shark, you can't just jump on the whale shark. It doesn't work like that. So they are monitoring that and keeping that distance. Um, and they do come and talk to guests about the importance of keeping your distance from animals and staying close by the guides because I I think it's really fascinating. We tend to treat sea animals with a lot less respect than we treat land animals. You know, everybody is like, okay, um, you know, they understand how how an um lions or elephants need that space. And honestly, they're very big and they're very bitey as well. But we don't always necessarily think about this when we're talking about sea animals. And the Maldives is changing as well because you're going, you're starting to find new islands that are being man made um or made by humans. It is incredible to note, like in 2017, the last time I was there was about 10 years ago, there were there were less than 50 resorts. Now there are 180, and at least 20 more opening in the next year or two. And we're talking about the biggest names in the business. Bulgarie opens there next year. Rosewood, Aman, Capella, Mandarin, Oriental, they're all coming in the next few years. And this, you know, this is like$5,000 a night. So it's very much a luxury destination. Um, what uh what Judd, a point that he made about it, was that the marine life knows for generations where these natural reefs are. And it's going to take them generations to feel comfortable about the new reefs. So this, you know, there is muscle memory in the margarity parts. So what we've got to hope is that the tourism industry takes into account the the the sustainability, like actually takes on board about being sustainable. And that's not just, you know, not using plastic straws and stuff like that, but having um genuine measures to ensure that they are doing things like, you know, getting away from diesel and having solar-powered resorts, which which makes sense. You know, it absolutely makes sense about sourcing food locally, you know, having the Maldivian lobster and not having the lobster that comes from Norway, which I think is an absolute no-brainer because it means um, yes, you've got less food battles, but also it means us, the tourists, are having a more genuinely Maldivian experience.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so tell us a bit about local life.
SPEAKER_05:Look, it's an interesting question because in the past the Maldivian government kept the local islands and the resort islands separate. Remembering that this is a Muslim country and bringing pork pornography and alcohol in your luggage is forbidden. So if it is your want to travel with a little pork sausage or two in your hand luggage, I'd say don't. Um, you can buy alcohol when you're in the Maldives in the islands, of course. So the way that most people meet Maldivians, unless they take a look a dedicated local island tour, which I've done in the past, is you meet it through the resort staff. And I was really pleased to note that in these two internationally owned resorts, about half the workforce is actually Maldivian. So it might be the surf guides and the dive centre, or the personal trainers, the chefs, the butlers looking after the villas or the rooms, and a lot of the wait staff, um, mostly men in this situation, and they all really had a genuine warmth about them. I mean, they live in what most of the world considers paradise, and they are pretty proud of it. So, what's changing in the Maldives now is the rise of homestays on the local islands. About 10 years ago, the government changed its laws to allow homestays, and they range from backpacker up to fancy five-star homestays. Um, although, you know, it's pretty hard to compete with some of the world's great hoteliers who have opened resorts here. But I think that homestays are the next story that the Maldives has to share.
SPEAKER_03:And my last question to you is, of course, interesting for most people. How much do they cost?
SPEAKER_05:Well, um, look, Nayama, uh at Niyama, you budget around um$1,500 a night. Um, and that will range from being half board to full board, whether you get um breakfast and dinner or breakfast, lunch and dinner, and what's in your mini bar and things like that. And as I said earlier, you know, the overwater villas tend to come with a higher price tag um than other types of accommodation. And Ivani, um around$1,200, depending on the time of year. I mean, the peak is now November through till April, which is the dry season, because look, you don't want to be, we've all been in paradise where it just rains every day, you know, which is which actually happened the week before we arrived in late October. So depending on, you know, you can get a bargain, you need to look at the weather at that time of year as well, even though weather patterns are changing dramatically. So um, there's my hot tip for you.
SPEAKER_03:So to find out more about these properties that Belle has mentioned, go to naama.com and avanihotels.com. And if you want to see more about Belle's experiences and her amazing blown blue images, go to her socials, Globa underscore salsa on Instagram and search up Belle Jackson on Facebook.
SPEAKER_05:Stay tuned for our next episode as we're taking you to two of Australia's favorite holiday destinations, NUSA and Tasmania. And if you're enjoying our podcast, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, click on our profile, scroll down to the bottom to leave a star rating, and if you're on Spotify, go to our main page and click the three dots underneath our photo. Or simply drop us a line on email at hello at the worldawaits.au. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for joining us on the World Await Summer series. See you next time. That's a wrap for the World Awaits this week. Click to subscribe anywhere you listen to your favourite pods. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
