GQ | Berlin | September 2006

Text : Lisa Stocker

Photos : Wolfgang Stahr

English translation by Originate | Dusseldorf

W Retreat & Spa : Maldives 

V  A  C  A  T  I  O  N  I  N  G     I  N     S  T  Y  L  E

Blues against the blues, the “Aqua Oasis” over the ocean

The W Retreat & Spa is the first design hotel resort in the Maldives, and it fulfils dreams before they are created.

Even in the planes, one gets a turquoise shock, almost like when one eats too many oysters and gets a protein overload.  Below, this paradise of water shimmers, turquoise - aquamarine - azure, just like a catalogue photograph in which a Photoshop god has handcrafted. In the Indian Ocean, 700 km from the southern tip of India, this color is real, with small white flecks. This is the Maldives, encompassing around 1200 islands. The largest island is Malé, with 70,000 residents, it is also the smallest capital of the world, so small that the airport doesn’t have enough space and has to be located on the neighbouring island Hulhule. From Hulhule, we have to take an “Air Taxi”, not a car, but a red and white water airplane. Two pilots distribute earplugs to the 15 passengers, then start the booming vehicle, barefooted as though they want to make a point:  “Attention, your Holiday has begun!”

The Honeymooners behind us hold hands dramatically. A mother presses her baby to her breast. We silently take in the unique blue below us, like a tranquilizer, a drug. We land on a long dark wooden pontoon. Standing near a large stone “W”, the welcome committee awaits us, clapping and calling out: “welcome, warm welcome”. We will often hear many of such programmed W-Words in the next few days, even the service - philosophy of “Whenever, Whatever” begins with a Double - U.

Close to the beach is passé. Here the guests have their own terrace and their own ocean  [villas by Eco/id]

The W Hotels are the youngest success model of the Starwood Group, which also owns the Sheraton, Le Méridien and St. Regis.  No other chains have grown at such a fast pace as the W chain. Founded in 1998, it already owns around 20 exceptional big city hotels, 5 alone in New York, with Clubs, Bars, Lounges and its own W-Shops catering to a style conscious clientele. Starwood has not had any experience with lonely islands and even for the W-Professionals; the retreat on Fesdu has been a “Challenge”, as one would call it in the W-Language.

Even with tons of sand and old trees everywhere, they have also kept the hip city style; while their competitors in the Maldives, the likes of Hilton, Four Seasons or the Huvafenfushi offer butler service, paparazzi - free high-end-luxury (Huvafenfushi), revolutionary underwater restaurants (Hilton) or elaborately authentic interiors with explorer boats (Four Seasons); The unique selling point for The W Retreat in the Maldives is “Today-style deluxe”.  Another typical W-Phrase, which the General Manager Damon Page, a nice man in his early 40’s wearing a relaxed Indian suit, explains to us: “We are not trying to be ethnically authentic with our luxury hotel, we simply offer what we ourselves love when on holiday: great design, spa, fitness, water sports, good food and high quality party life with the best DJs from around the world.”  The barefoot feeling in Prada shorts. Paradise for the iPod generation.

Cool instead of cold.  Ed Poole designed the F+B interiors of the resort on the beach. [villas by Eco/id]

It is only consequental that instead of a stiff welcome reception area, we are greeted in a type of tent, the “welcome area” – no walls, only huge copper lighting, wood cubes serving as chess tables and deep divans, making the check-in experience already a relaxing experience.  We are welcomed by the Welcome Manager, Aylin Akyurt, a pretty Turkish woman, who at 29 years old has already been stationed in Cologne, Istanbul, Lucerne, New York, Miami and the Seychelles. She is also wearing a type of Indian inspired uniform, and whoever wants to, can play a round of chess with her.  Time, an element which is lacking everywhere else, is here in abundance.  Stress? Aylin smiles. Would it bother us to be spoken to on a first name basis?  In W-Hotels, there are special conventions and speech rules whose goal is to make everyone relaxed, their guests should feel as though they are visiting friends.  Spontaneously we have to think of Club Med, as she tells us that all employees are called “Talent”, Managers are called “Talent Coaches”, chamber maids are “Stylists”, and our stay, in the W-Language is called an “Experience”.  More questions?  Fine, then we can proceed to our room - pardon, of course we mean our “Retreat”.

There are two categories of Retreats: 46 seagrass-roofed “Aqua Oasis”, built on stilts over the water. From the bed, one sees only blue into infinity.  Upon waking, one could spring naked directly into the Lagoon from the terrace, where there is a ladder leading into the water. We cannot do this from our Bungalows. These 28 “Beach Oasis” are two-stories high and at 128 square meters, they are even larger than the ones on the ocean.  Instead of a direct entry into the ocean, we have a garden with mature trees, a private swimming pool on the veranda and a fantastic outdoor bathroom with no roof - typical of modern South East Asian villas. And as we discover the roof terrace of exotic wood on the 2^nd floor, our wish to switch over to the Aqua category completely evaporates. We can hear the Ocean which is only a few meters away. The purr and rush of the ocean creates a soundtrack for the whole island. And whoever has had enough of that can get out one of the 3 remote controls and instantly, at the pool or at the swing, the chill-out songs from the Bose Surround Sound system are mixing with the real sounds of wind and waves.

If we were a star like P. Diddy and would like to have even more privacy, then we can rent one of 2 XXL-bungalows on the snow white coral sand which are even bigger and more luxuriously furnished villas at 300 and 500 square meters.  And next year, another presidental villa is being built on the little sister island Gaathafushi. But why? The “Aqua” and “Beach” villas are already quite perfect in design. One often wonders while in Design hotels when is it going to dawn on the interior architect that the omni present retro style is slowly getting boring. Here we are surrounded by exclusive furnishing whose aim is nothing more than providing demanding guests a good time. Unobtrusive yet never boring; contemporary and noble but not cold. The man, who has succeeded in this interior-coup, is Ed Poole, an American living in Singapore - where he has designed all the hotels restaurants and bars, and who Wallpaper has once recommended.

One also feels this experience in the W-Restaurants on the resort.  In Fire, Poole has grouped wooden easy chairs around a central grill where the guests can directly tell the cooks what they want – a favorite principle of this retreat. No matter if it is about water sport or a favorite dish, one should be able to announce special wishes immediately! And in aptly named Fish, directly over the ocean, one gets delicious seafood dishes from Chef Oscar Perez - of Philippino lineage but grew up in Denmark - as was impressively and eloquently explained.

The people who have gathered here to take on the “Challenge” are perhaps the biggest attraction of the Retreat. People from 26 nations work together on Fesdu. Most have global biography, have been everywhere, think cosmopolitan, and know no arrogance. Welcome-Manager Aylin did not exaggerate when she said that the Team makes the difference in the W Hotels.

There is Tess from Australia, the queen of the Spa, who came up with the idea of Ocean Yoga combined with dolphin watching. Or Marco, a 31 year old Italian, Dive Master at 12, worked as a journalist after studying economics at Oxford, worked at Diesel in marketing, on the side published a volume of poetry, and now acts as the unofficial Event Chief at the retreat. A powerful Turbo type who is not too good for anything. Knocking on our door at 7am to take us snorkelling, which in the Maldives is like swimming in an aquarium. Marco does not have to play guide, because Marcus, a young Viennese marine biologist, works in “Bubbles”, the dive centre of the W-Retreat. He offers extensive excursions on reefs and not only knows where the sea turtles meet, but also how the ultra modern underwater jet skis operate. But then we are the first guests, and Marco feels personally responsible for our entertainment. His favourite subject is the high standard party-culture of the retreat. He feels that music has to play a strong role. In the pool bar Wet, one can sit in the sun, relax and hear the live DJ’s the whole day, watch dolphins while drinking Sundowners in the Sip Bar, and escape the heat in Fifteen Below, a noble underground club where famous DJ’s do 2 month rounds, after diner. One thinks of Jazzanova from Berlin or Moby.

“The problem is that the people who work a lot during the week have no time to go out. They have time on vacation. We offer them a fantastic sound.”  Says Marco.  He could not tell us who will be spinning at the opening in September by the time we went to press.  Only this much he has hinted at: ”Imagine a mood like in the Cap d’Antibes, self confident and lively women like those in the paintings of Jordi Labanda. And the bigger the sunglasses, the better."

There and back with the “Air Taxi”