The ';over-develpers'; have struck again!

centarahotelsresorts.com/centaramaldives/ind鈥?/a>

This is the old Machchafushi. Re-opening (scheduled for) May, as ';Centara Grand Island Resort and Spa';. There goes any charm it may have had.

Too many rooms for the island size and a westernised name change. Never good.

The ';over-develpers'; have struck again!

I always find pictures to be useful for this kind of stuff.

First a small picture (sorry) of what the place use to look like:

malediven.at/machafus/machchafushi05-1.jpg

Now an artists rendering of the ';new and improved'; place. It%26#39;s a bit difficult to tell from this drawing how many water bungalows they are going to build but since they are putting about 40 more rooms than they had before and there really isnt space on the island to build that many more rooms its pretty clear that there will be lots of water bungalows.

malediven.at/machchafushi/baerbel-machchafus鈥?/a>

The ';over-develpers'; have struck again!

Opps I didnt notice the ';picture'; of the new resort on the link that nakatcha originally posted. The rendering I was showing the link to didn%26#39;t show the other side of the island where they are really building the water bungalows

centarahotelsresorts.com/centaramaldives/Mal鈥?/a>

Hi Nakatcha

Thanks for the update. The old island looked lovely - very traditional. Shame the lure of the mighty dollar requires all this to be lost.

I couldn%26#39;t see from your web link but I guess this is at least a 5* resort when it opens?

Another one to cross of my list!!

OD

This is even more heart breaking. This is no ';artists rendering'; This is an actual photo fairly recently taken of the state of the island. These folks took a page directly out of the book of the starwood corp folks when they built the ';W';

If there isnt room on the island then just build everything out in the lagoon someplace. Unfortunately all those people who ';live'; out in the lagoon have to come back on the spec of land that was originally there to eat or drink or go to the spa etc etc. Build 50 more rooms, call it a five star and triple the price. Unfortunately it seems to be the future of the Maldives.

malediven.at/machchafushi/baerbel-machchafus鈥?/a>

Yes Skibum - I thought it was just like the dreaded ';W'; but I didn%26#39;t like to mention that for fear of the usual digs about being anti-progress. Mind you, those who didn%26#39;t agree seem to be agreeing nowadays ...

Hi SkiBum

That photo was taken in January 2007. Wonder how it looks today? Hopefully the palm trees might have grown a bit but you can see how desperately overcrowded it is going to be.

OD

a maldivian island with a population density three times that of manhatten - can you spell nightmare !?

spare me that kind of ';luxury'; ... if every guest was to spontaneously decide to visit the island at the same time , they%26#39;d sink the poor thing !