An early autumnal treat, let's get tropical
Holiday challenge, it's unusual for me to be happy returning to places. There are many obstacles, in some cases restraining orders and in others, angry hoteliers with long memories.
If I've really enjoyed somewhere I irrationally fear that it will be disappointing on a second visit, and, if I've not enjoyed myself, well, why would I return?
It's different for Mrs Stuffy, annually she and her chums swan off on a girls trip to the Greek islands, recently returning thrice to the same hotel in Mykononos, and that's fine for her but would make me most uncomfortable.
We do however agree that the multitude of choices of island in the Maldives works for both of us.
We both love the casual shoe-less sandy laid-back ambiance of most resorts, the staff are invariably great and enough of the guests well mannered and pleasant to be tolerable to the ageing misanthropes among us (me).
She gets to lie on a beach or a veranda and Kindle away the days with occasional breaks for fine food, snorkel and swims. I tend to jump on a boat and get underwater for extended periods of time and I've found nowhere in the world that I prefer to dive.
The 'not going back syndrome' means that we've been, in the past to Kuramathi and Komandoo, but this time we decided to throw caution to the winds and visit an island that does not start with the letter K.
We flew off to Hakura Huraa in the Meemu atoll, a 10 hour BA flight and a 45 minute seaplane hop. Again, opinion is divided on the matter of seaplanes, He "isn't this fun?" Her "no".
The island, as one would expect, is very lovely although the weather was changeable and occasionally very damp as the rainy season started to flex its muscles. We had booked a water villa, a very pleasant setup on stilts over the lagoon with a private deck and steps into the sea, a glass floor and all mod cons.
We've always been on land before and her ladyship found the constant susurration relaxing whilst I, inevitably, found it difficult to sleep as the tides and waves played a never ending symphony of imminent maritime disaster.
The food was fine, the wine quaffable, we ordered a bottle of nice wine one evening and found it about as average as the all-inclusive plonk served nightly, It's the overall relaxing pace of these places that make the islands a delightful place to spend a few days, relaxing evenings with cocktails in the bar, critiquing the singers and the clothing choices of our fellow travellers.
I should mention the swim/snorkel/dive situation.
The lagoon here was bigger than we've experienced elsewhere (maybe it's a K island thing) but it did mean a long swim to the house reef and against a strong current which meant her ladyship didn't enjoy the quality of snorkelling she was used to.
On the up-side, for me the diving was excellent. I've always enjoyed every dive centre I've used in the Maldives (unlike occasional disappointments in the Caribbean, and that prat in Mallorca, deep breath, move on). The Dive team in Hakura were great and a joy to dive with. Interestingly some 60% of the 170 or so guests were young Chinese who apparently are not greatly enamoured of swimming although they are hugely in favour of taking millions of photos of each other every thirty seconds.
This meant that on many occasions the dive boat with its crew of three was at the disposal of myself, the dive master/instructor and at most two other divers. An excellent and rare ratio and made some stunning diving both more relaxed for all of us and a very personalised experience for me as for three of my six days I was the sole client, spoilt rotten.
The biggie for me was to finally break my Manta ray virginity, it's long been a wish and was finally achieved. I won't write too much as I'm linking to a film produced for me by the very lovely Sylvia from Maldives Dive and Sail. I'd also like to offer a huge thank you to Basti, Bjorn and Achmed and if you're looking for a holiday with some world class divers they are, without a doubt, the biz.
Click on the photo of the porky chap in a wetsuit to see the brief movie...
I would have some photos of my own but, for the second time my "waterproof dive camera housing" failed to live up to the first word in it's name and this enabled me to bring back to shore a camera sized sample of Indian Ocean water and $300 dollars worth of camera-shaped scrap metal.
Would we go back to Hakura Huraa? No, of course not, read the intro.
Would we go back to the Maldives, yes, of course, like a shot.
Labels: alfonsstraub.com, BA, British Airways, camera, dhoni, dive and sail, Diving, Hakura huraa, holiday, maldives, male, manta rays, me emu atoll, Oakwood, Scuba, sharks, Stuffy
New Yoick, New Yoick, it's a helluva town
Apologies gentle reader for the retro blogging, truth is it's been a busy month or two work-wise, (no bad thing by the way) and I've neglected my bloggerly duties in order to pay the bills. Now I do know, deep down, that's not acceptable and indeed I feel guilty that I've also failed to get around to launching my oft-requested recipe blog. Well it is on one of my many to-do lists and it will happen, maybe soon, I promise.
So, anyway, a quick update and a few pithy thoughts on the big Apple. Every couple of years the lovely Mrs Stuffy finds some (teeny,tiny) gaps in her wardrobe and the urge to spend a weekend traipsing the shops becomes compelling, coincidentally, at about the same time I get to the stage where I become concerned that I may well be the rudest person in the world and need some proof that's not the case so we organise a trip to the city that allegedly never sleeps, (hard for us to argue with that as we're now getting to the cocoa and slippers stage of our lives).
There are some aspects of this trip that are writ into family tradition now, we prebook a table at my favourite restaurant, (in the world) the River Cafe in Brooklyn, a delightful Michelin starred place with great food, an awesome night-time view of Manhattan, a lovely piano bar, and crucially, (and in New York this is the real treat), the most relaxed and amiable yet professional staff. We booked a table for our anniversary dinner, 4 years of marital bliss, not bad from a total of 11 years of marriage, (just kidding). As ever the place and people didn't fail to impress, I'm normally nervous of returning to a great experience, the opportunity to be disappointed is so prevalent but this is obviously the exception, and one we'll keep on enjoying.
Our hotel, the Muse was very adjacent to the madness that is Times Square and apparently quite "happening" (translation=expensive bar). Our room was surprisingly spacious for NY where broom cupboards are the norm. It was quite acceptable for a couple of day's stay but it would have benefitted from a view of something other than a brick wall 18 inches away.
We visited Ground Zero and were surprised, (after experiencing the hushed, respectful and spooky quietness of the area a couple of years ago), to find it effectively just a busy, buzzing, building site, it's probably a good thing to move on but it was odd, nevertheless, to us. We enjoyed a leisurely amble from the Financial sector up through the Village and TriBeCa, enjoyed morning coffee in SoHo at Spring Street Natural restaurant, recommended by Sophie and a very pleasant place.
Lunch, again following a recommendation from Sophie, was at Dos Caminos where your correspondent indulged his passion for Mexican food and newfound but profound affection for Tequila, thus ensuring an afternoon of gentle acquiescence to the random, repetitive and recursive process that is the Mrs Stuffy shopping technique.
A word about diners, we tried two for breakfast, it seems really wrong in NY to eat in the hotel and I do like to try new stuff, we went to Cafe Edison which is old school, and reminded me of so many movies, the service was authentic (brusque) and the food, not that special, indeed, not that good at all.
We also tried a more touristy version, the relatively well known Brooklyn Diner, which was a bit smarter, a bit slicker, busy as heck and with exceptionally good food and obscenely huge portions.
On the subject of food another tradition of ours has developed around taking an occasional luncheon on the 5th floor of Saks.For her Ladyship, the entrance is through the designer shoe floor which is like shoe-nirvana (apparently), for me it's really good food, most excellent people watching and an excuse to step out of the fray for a well earned glass or two.
This was only a two day trip, brief but practical, the flights, BA on the way out, (we were spoilt rotten, an upgrade is always a joy) and we flew back with American Airlines on a daytime flight, unusually, and more enjoyably, noticeably reducing the effect of lag and making it a very pleasant couple of days.
On this trip we really enjoyed spending more time away from the Fifth Avenue and Times Square heaving-tourist-throng-end-of-the-city and next time (2013 I guess) I think we'll look for a hotel in the Village or Meatpackers and go for a less frantic, more laid-back trip.
Be aware that in early preparation for the next trip Mrs Stuffy is keen to engage any of our chums who consist of a lady shopper and gentlemen drinker who'd be prepared to join us and reduce (for her) the (alleged) plethora of "you've already got one of those, you don't need another" type of comment.
New York? "Fageddaboutit"
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Labels: blogfromthebarn, British Airways, brooklyn, Brooklyn Diner, Mrs Stuffy, muse hotel, new york, Oakwood, river cafe, Saks, shopping
We do however agree that the multitude of choices of island in the Maldives works for both of us. 
This meant that on many occasions the dive boat with its crew of three was at the disposal of myself, the dive master/instructor and at most two other divers. An excellent and rare ratio and made some stunning diving both more relaxed for all of us and a very personalised experience for me as for three of my six days I was the sole client, spoilt rotten.
