Stay of a Lifetime - Kevin Pietersen

Welcome to Sangu Stories!

We invited a very special guest, Kevin Pietersen - a name celebrated in the sports world, former international player for England, a cricket commentator and a passionate conservationist, to Sangu Stories. Kevin shares his experience on the island, from exploring the seas with Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment to creating memorable #RCMemories with his family. 

For any further information or assistance, please contact Aminath.Haadhee@ritzcarlton.com , Marketing Communications Manager.

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Transcript

Mark Hehir: 0:00

Welcome to Sangu Stories. Today, we have our special guest, Kevin Pietersen, a name celebrated in the sports world, who's a former international cricket player for England, cricket commentator and a passionate conservationist. Kevin is here with his family, his two beautiful children, aged five and 11. His stay this time was filled with incredible memories, from dolphin spotting to a personalised itinerary by Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program, offering fresh insights into the intriguing nature of the Maldives. Kevin shares his experience in the resort that only opened four months ago, which is part of the Fari Islands archipelago, the first integrated luxury resort archipelago in the Maldives. So KP, it's great to have you here finally, in our new resort in the Maldives and talking about Maldives. What is it about Maldives and a family vacation that brings you back year after year?

Kevin Pietersen: 0:50

Mark, thanks for having us, first of all. We truly have had one of those experiences that you will remember forever. There are some holidays that you take for granted. There's some holidays that you don't take for granted. And this is certainly one that you will never ever take for granted. We, as a family, come to the Maldives for peace, for tranquillity, and just to get away from the hustle and bustle of normal all-day life. It's a pretty full-on, lots of things happening, young children. Dylan's 11, Rosie's almost six. So fitting their schedules into our schedules is something that takes a lot of planning. So Dylan finishes at different times of the day to Rosie. I've got stuff on, I travel a lot, Jess stuff on, so to sort of mix everything up is, yeah, it takes quite a big requirement to get things done. So to get to the Maldives, we live on Maldives time. We wake up when we want to wake up. The sun's always shining, these picture-perfect postcards everywhere you look. And I think that's just what makes us so happy.

Mark Hehir: 2:07

I find a lot of families get together in the Maldives. It's that moment in time where they can sort of push away the rest of the world. And then this is just that pure family time. Did you feel that this as well like that?

Kevin Pietersen: 2:18

We do and I think one of the, you know, one of the best things on this island and everywhere I've been with you is the ability to just hop on a bicycle. We don't hear a car; we don't hear a siren. We don't; there's no rush. There is literally you do not rush for anything. And I think your staff had been so magnificent in the way that they've accommodated us with the ability to just if we're a little bit late, it doesn't matter. Nothing's too onerous on anyone and anything. Your staff compliments you tremendously here, and that always helps as well with the kids being able to just cruise free-wheel and feel like there are no restrictions and you can just enjoy your life

Mark Hehir: 3:09

And then discovering things. I understand that you and your son Dylan have discovered diving and tell us what that experience has been like, especially that father and son moment, right. It's something special.

Kevin Pietersen: 3:21

I was more scared than him; right at 41, you're a lot more fearful and a lot more scared, and you have that many more things going on in your head. Things that you think negatively and you perceive to be negative. Uh, claustrophobia, for one is something that I have struggled with. And I thought, wow, what I struggled with this underwater. I felt completely free underwater. And it was truly magnificent once I had mastered the art and understood the breathing mechanism and the regulator so that the deep breath, the controlled breathing, the relaxed nature of being underwater. And also, once I knew Dylan was comfortable, then it was just literally, I just wanted to be out in the ocean all day. It truly is magnificent. With all the work that I do and protecting biodiversity in Africa and in India, it gave me a new understanding of what's actually under the water, and it made me realise there's a whole new world underwater. So I think our holidays in future are going to be planned around clearly Africa because that's where we have a home, but where can we go on an adventure- underwater with Dylan. I really want Jess to get into it. Rosie's just too young. So it's hard to just leave Rosie on the shore, Rosie on the boat and go underwater for 45 minutes.

Mark Hehir: 4:43

True. But it's something like in the Maldives. I feel like now, once you discover that, it's like going to the foot of the mountains and not climbing it. Now you're going down, and you're seeing something that you just can't see from the shore. And it's hard to explain sometimes to people just that extra 2, 3, 4, 5 meters like opens it up.

Kevin Pietersen: 5:01

It's truly incredible, people that have snorkelled, they don't understand because I never understood how good it is to actually spend time underwater and be one with nature underwater. When you're snorkelling, there's, it's a big beast on top of the water, and the fish are just so petrified, and they're just scaring, and they're just maneuver. Whereas we were swimming with about 50 batfish at about 12 meters for half an hour. We swam with sharks turtles. Like, it was just incredible.

Mark Hehir: 5:32

So, you know, for us to, you know, we want to evolve that further with education and really opening up people's minds to the environment and how we need to protect that in the future and bringing Jean-Michel Cousteau's programme to the island is also just also a flag bearing moment for everyone to say,'Hey, let's stop for a moment. And what can we do to help, you know, betterment to the environment and our kids' futures and whatnot." So, I know Sol has spoken to you and taken you out on a little excursion and seen some things last night, tell us what happened last night. You were out in the boat.

Kevin Pietersen: 6:08

We were, and we never realised that we were going to have the wonderful opportunity of diving with the dolphins, the spinning dolphins, and to just capture those wild animals out there in the ocean. And I think that the most unbelievable thing was Rosie. My daughter, she's only five. She dived off that boat without flippers. She just had her goggles on, no snorkel, no nothing. We were way out at sea, and she just dived in, and all she wanted to see was dolphins. There was no fear, zero fear at all. I was petrified. Mum was screaming at me. Have you got her, have you got her, have you got her? We've got some of the coolest videos of our little five-year-old out in the deep blue ocean, just literally diving under the water to about a metre, two metres to try and look for these dolphins, with her eyes open. That's amazing. And, that kind of thing for me is something that I don't know if she'll remember it. Do I remember things that happened at five? No, but does it actually, is it one of those steps in life where you grow as a person? I think yes, but, I think, yeah, the opportunity to create experiences here is something that you guys need to have a look at because I know that, and you know that very well with the stuff that I do in Africa. People are sick and tired of purchasing memorabilia. People are sick and tired of going on a holiday. People have come to islands like this and go to resorts like mine in Africa; they can do it anyway. What island, what safari lodge is different. They know they're not different, but what kind of experience can you give your customer that actually takes it to a new level? You've given my family this week the opportunity to swim with dolphins. I've done it in Africa when I was a kid, but my wife cried when she saw dolphins for the first time in this trip. She will never forget this. And so I think that's something that is quite unique to what you guys could explore here in the future with your customer base.

Mark Hehir: 8:04

Yeah, so when you, so your recommendation, I guess that's where I was going to ask the next question about when planning a trip to the Maldives, what would you recommend to some families to do, you know, when you're planning it and thinking through it.

Kevin Pietersen: 8:16

Learn to dive and inquire about experiences. Experiences as a family, lifelong memories that you can live with forever because we all live in nice houses that come to islands like this, we've all got the cars that we want, the mobile phones that we want. We all fly in front of airplanes. We do all that kind of stuff. But what I do in Africa is things that it doesn't matter how much money you've got. You can't do it. You cannot go. And just all of a sudden, be part of nature in Africa and work on rhino conservation, work on elephant conservation, do a census, flying helicopters with vets and dart animals to do medical procedures and all of that. Whereas you have an opportunity here to create experiences for families. And that's exactly what families I think should request when coming to places like this, request it, because why can't you do it?

Mark Hehir: 9:16

Yeah. And as the operator, we want to get ahead of that and make sure that, that we've got more offerings and make it more of an impactful moment that it's easy to do, easy to book, easy to understand.

Kevin Pietersen: 9:28

Yeah, absolutely. Again, it's another revenue stream for the island, right? Yeah,

Mark Hehir: 9:32

Definitely, and ultimately those experiences are the moments of differentiation for us. And it's those things that people will never forget. Right. And tell others, yeah.

Kevin Pietersen: 9:42

What are we going to talk about over this holiday? I'm not going to talk about the room, and the room is great, but I've stayed in rooms as good as this, better than this somewhere else in the world. What am I going to talk about now? It's the experience, the experience, the dolphins and diving with my boy. Yeah. Like that there for me, I've sent messages around the world to some of my groups, and they'll go Rosie at five diving under the water. You've captured it. So that kind of stuff is things that you, it's freedom with nature. That's what I love nature so much.

Mark Hehir: 10:12

So that almost comes into the last question about your stay with us at The Ritz-Carlton. What is it that you most loved? I guess you may have already touched on it there.

Kevin Pietersen: 10:22

Yeah. I mean, just the bond that we've created as a family, the unity that we've gone at, the unity that we've able to explore, the unity that we've been able to strengthen because when you go and do stuff like that as a family, it's priceless, right. It's just truly spectacular. When your wife cries because at one thing she's wanted to do in her whole life is swimming with dolphins and see dolphins up close and personal. You get that experience when I can go and dive with my little boy and he points out octopus and Moray eel, and we see turtles and we do all these sorts of things. And my daughter, I am swimming out in the ocean. I've got Rosie on my back. I mean the deep blue sea. And then all of a sudden, the next moment she's looked down and she's a meter and a half underwater with her eyes open, goggles open, no vest, no nothing. Daddy where the dolphins where are the dolphins, I mean, it's like, it's that kind of thing for us as a family that is it's

Mark Hehir: 11:23

Money can't buy in one way. Isn't it? It's priceless.

Kevin Pietersen: 11:26

Absolutely. As experiences are things that you cherish forever.

Mark Hehir: 11:30

Yeah. No, it's been great to catch up and thanks for your time. And it's been awesome to see how your family has embraced that and this little cocoon of The Ritz- Carlton and it provides that platform and then embraced it as a family and taken it to another level.

Kevin Pietersen: 11:45

And we've done all the water sports.

Mark Hehir: 11:48

I've seen you dancing away out in the water.

Kevin Pietersen: 11:50

Yeah. Your wife said, she said, Jesus, you'd be more active on this trip haven't you. So we've got an 11-year-old little boy and a five-year-old going on 15-year-old daughter who just wants to do everything: the jet skis, that stuff behind the boat. I don't know what you'd call it. I mean, we've ticked every single box here and amazing memories for our lifetime.

Mark Hehir: 12:08

Good. Well, thanks for your time again today. And we'll speak to you very soon. We'll be back. Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. Join me next time when we discover more about The Ritz-Carlton, Fari Islands.