Our story
It all began in 2017, on a warm night in Bali.
Canggu. A beach party. Music, laughter, sand… and a glance that, though fleeting, felt like fate.
Iván had just spent a year living in the Philippines. Bali was his final stop before returning to Spain.
Hoola, who was on vacation, was flying to the Philippines the very next day.
They only spent a few hours together.
An unfiltered conversation, shared laughter —the kind of connection that makes no noise but leaves a mark.
An invisible thread, soft and persistent.
Despite the distance, we stayed in touch.
Casual conversations, growing connection, a mutual feeling: this isn’t over.
When Iván returned to Spain, life began to weigh on him.
After so many months of traveling, living freely and with purpose, coming back felt like stepping into a life that no longer fit.
He needed air, excitement, to feel alive again.
And in the middle of that restlessness, he wrote to Hoola with a proposal as bold as it was sincere:
“What if we took a trip together?”
They barely knew each other.
But sometimes, what doesn’t make sense… makes perfect sense.
Hoola, born and raised in the Maldives, was working at one of the country’s most exclusive resorts.
She had 40 days off. And she decided to spend them with Iván.
The destination: Sri Lanka. A country she knew well, given its proximity. A completely new world for him.
They explored jungles, temples, endless beaches. They watched elephants at sunrise, shared spiced tea in forgotten stations, gazed at each other on slow trains that seemed to stop time.
And then, they returned to where it all began: Bali.
There, between slow breakfasts, scooter rides in the rain, and seaside dinners, something deeper was born. The first feelings. The first certainties.And one night, over glasses of wine and open-ended questions, a conversation came up that would change everything:
“If you could create anything… what would it be?”
Hoola didn’t hesitate:
“A travel agency. Because serving others is the only thing I truly know.”
She said it from the heart.From years spent lovingly and precisely attending to people who came to the Maldives searching for something special.
She knew how to listen, care, accompany. And that, unknowingly, was already the heart of Kakuni.
And that, too, was what made Iván fall in love.
That’s how Kakuni was born.
Not as a business. But as a gesture of love, trust, and a shared future.
What followed were reunions in places that also became part of our story: Thailand, plus Bali, plus Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Dubai, Turkey, Malaysia…
Work on remote islands, calls with bad signal, goodbyes at airports. And always, that quiet certainty: this is worth it.
For years, we lived in different places. Until finally, in 2022, we stopped living out of sync.
Hoola left her job as a butler in the Maldives and moved to Spain.
And we started building a life together — and with it, our agency.
Since then, Kakuni has grown alongside us.
Every year, we return together to the Maldives — the place where Hoola was born, and which is now also part of our home.
We explore local islands, visit resorts, speak with those who welcome us like family.
We don’t just go to create content. We go to feel again what we offer. To make sure that every place we recommend still has a soul.
To look with the same eyes our couples do when they plan their big journey.
Hoola knows the Maldives like few others do.
She’s lived its hospitality from the inside, and now she’s rediscovered it as a traveler — this time, alongside Iván.
Iván, meanwhile, builds from the invisible.
He designs the website, creates systems, automates tasks. But not to grow more — to care more.
To spend more time on what truly matters: listening, guiding, being there.
Because Iván has always been that way:
curious, a perfectionist, with that unique blend of a traveler’s soul and a creative mind.
And because at Kakuni, everything you see on the outside is held together by a lot of love on the inside.
In 2024, we packed our bags again.
A full year traveling through Asia:
Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Lombok, Malaysia…
We didn’t go looking for destinations to sell. We went to remember why we started all of this.
To live with the same eyes our couples travel with.
Because Kakuni is not a travel agency.
It’s a story. Ours.
And maybe, the beginning of yours too.
We’d love to help you write it.
Shahoola (Hoola)
Founder
Being Maldivian and with over a decade of experience in the luxury hospitality industry, I always dreamed of doing something related to travel and tourism in my beautiful country.
I was lucky to work with some of the world’s most renowned brands —such as Hilton, Minor International, One\&Only, Six Senses, and Jumeirah— as a butler and personal concierge in the Maldives. During those years, I discovered the true art of service: anticipating needs, paying attention to the smallest details, creating moments that are hard to put into words… but impossible to forget. I received recognition from many guests, but what truly stayed with me was seeing how an experience could become an eternal memory. From that moment on, that became my purpose: to create something that can be felt. That stays with you. That needs no words.
My childhood was a story of its own. I spent my days on the beach like a *kakuni* —a little crab— with my brothers. After breakfast made by my mother, *Mashuni & Roshi*, we’d run barefoot across the white sand, climb palm trees, jump off *bohkuraas* (traditional wooden boats), surf on makeshift boards, and watch my brothers dive deep underwater until they vanished into the blue.
Those memories never fade. And they’re the ones that, years later, inspired me to start my own travel agency. I wanted others —from different worlds— to feel even just a moment of that magic. That freedom. That pure nostalgia you can’t buy or plan, but that stays with you for a lifetime. This is my story. And it’s also the soul of Kakuni.
Ivan
Co-Founder
Although I graduated as an industrial engineer, I quickly realized I didn’t want a life in offices. I quit my job in consulting and left behind the city and its routines. I wasn’t chasing money. I was searching for something I couldn’t quite put into words: open spaces, peace, community… belonging. People who lived differently. Who valued other things. Who felt the way I did.
I’ve always dreamed big. I like taking risks. Exploring paths on my own. And that search led me to the other side of the world —to the heart of Asia. I lived in the Philippines for a while. And there, I realized something that changed the way I see life: **“How can the locals live with so little and yet have so much gratitude for life?”** Since then, I try to remind myself —and those around me— that happiness isn’t about what you have, but how you live.
My love for the ocean led me to Indonesia, where, on one of my surf trips, I met Hoola. From the very first day, we knew we shared something essential: the desire to stay in Asia, to build a different kind of life —one without traditional maps. That path took me to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and to falling deeply in love with the sea. For a while, I even trained as a diving instructor. To me, paradise is a freedive at sunrise, a wave at sunset, and a starry night on the rooftop of a boat. That’s freedom. That’s life.
And it’s from that place —that deep connection with nature, the ocean, and people— that I decided to become part of Kakuni Travels. Because I didn’t just want to create trips. I wanted to create experiences that give something back to the world. To the community. To Mother Nature. This is my story.And it’s also part of the soul of Kakuni.
