Most folk on holiday are blissfully unaware of what goes on behind the scenes at a luxury resort and truthfully that’s the way it should be. But we are travel journalists staying at the luxury Gili-Lankanfushi resort in the Maldive islands and we want to find out more.
Where many resorts shy away from taking guests behind closed doors, the management at Gili are proud of what lies there and are more than happy to show you around, just ask.
We toured the village occupied by the staff that keep the resort on its toes morning, noon and night. We found mosques, schools, shops, Internet cafes canteens, bars and games rooms. There is even a tailors shop to keep the staff uniforms looking good and of course, a massive laundry.
What we did not expect to find, was a carpentry shop where everything from the loo seat on the toilet to the bench on the beach is either made, maintained or repaired.The host village is never still, it works 24 hours a day to make sure a guest in the resort wants for nothing. We were hugely impressed with the efforts that go into recycling ensuring that nothing goes to waste and by the innovative ideas the staff have to make sure it all works so well.
While we were there a team of thatchers who form part of the full time work force was rethatching roofs, boat builders were repairing boats and each week one or two residences are closed down for total refurbishment and opened afresh the following week.
The behind the scenes subject is huge and worthy of an article all of its own if only a magazine were to want that sort of thing and commission it. Now there’s an idea!