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THIS MONTH: NEW RESORTS IN INDONESIA & AMSTERDAM HOTEL DEBUTS ONLINE: TAKE THE MEMBERS’ CHOICE SURVEY JUNE 2018 SINCE 1979 Traveling the world in search of truly enchanting places Horizon pool at the Nio Beach Club, Nihi Sumba Island INDONESIA: AN OTHERWORLDLY RETREAT Laid-back style, deserted beaches, pristine nature, world-class surfing, spa nirvana ometimes, remarkable hideaways an astonishing variety of languages are southwestern coast that subsequently Sturn up in the unlikeliest of places. spoken; prominent individuals are still became known as “Occy’s Left” (after the The island of Sumba lies 250 miles east of buried in megalithic tombs; and each World Champion Australian surfer Mark Bali in the remote Indonesian province of year during the rice-planting season Occhilupo). During Indonesia’s April-to- East Nusa Tenggara. With an area of 4,270 Sumbanese men engage in pasola, a October surfing season, this is a 10-foot- square miles — almost the same as that of ritualized battle on horseback. (Blood high, 300-yard-long curl of turquoise Jamaica — and a population estimated to must be shed to ensure a successful water regarded by the cognoscenti as be around 760,000, it is no mere tropical harvest, and while nowadays the wooden one of the best left-hand breaks in the microdot. But for centuries the island spears are blunted, fatalities still occur.) world. After a period living on the beach, PHOTO BY ANDREW HARPER was practically unknown. Headhunting Sumba began to attract a flicker Graves built a shack, which turned into a ceased only in the 1960s. Today close to of international attention in the late low-key bohemian surfing resort, which a third of Sumba’s people still practice 1980s, when surf enthusiast Claude subsequently found favor with a select an animist religion known as Marapu; Graves discovered a wave on the island’s group of wealthy people in Europe and the Andrew Harper editors travel anonymously and pay full rate for all lodging, meals and related expenses. Since the launch of Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report in 1979, the featured hotels and restaurants have been selected on a completely independent basis. For comments and inquiries concerning The Hideaway Report, please email [email protected]. Papaya, melon and grated coconut, and clifftop breakfast pavilion at NihiOka spa, Nihi Sumba Island From this perch, it was “possible to gaze along a mile and a half of tide-swept sand, edged by aquamarine sea and Other innovations have included a spa sink and monsoon shower, a huge walk- backed by forested hills. complex and an equestrian center. But in dressing area and an air-conditioned despite this construction, the land is still television room that led onto a gravel mostly undeveloped. garden with a second outdoor shower. United States who valued privacy, pristine I was greeted at reception by Loraine She then introduced me to my personal nature and the experience of being close Trollip, who, with her husband, Jason, butler, who explained that he could be to the end of the world. heads up the management team. A sunny summoned from anywhere in the resort One such guest was the New York-based and laid-back South African, she had via WhatsApp. Left alone, I wandered entrepreneur and billionaire investor worked previously as operations manager around my temporary home and decided J. Christopher Burch, who came to Sumba at Singita Grumeti Reserves in Tanzania that if I ever became a billionaire I would in 2012. Later that year, he purchased and before that as chef de cuisine at take up permanent residence. the property in partnership with James Singita Boulders Lodge in South Africa. Thanks to an early start, I was in McBride, whose résumé includes a stint This seemed an extremely good omen. need of lunch, so rather than ordering as the managing director of The Carlyle Formalities complete, we headed downhill room service, I headed down to the Nio hotel in Manhattan. on a cobbled path lined with hibiscus. Beach Club. Nihi Sumba is connected The scheduled flight by regional jet My villa, Mandaka #1, was accessible by a network of steep paths and steps, from Bali to Tambolaka in northwestern through a traditional gateway that opened laid out beneath a canopy of spreading Sumba takes 55 minutes. The transfer to into a private garden with a sizable jade- trees with buttress roots and dangling Nihi Sumba Island is then a two-hour green plunge pool. A teak deck led into a creepers. (There is a shuttle service for PHOTOS BY ANDREW HARPER drive along a winding road, with a glass-sided lounge with two parallel white those who are not feeling energetic.) surface that varies from adequate to sofas, wicker armchairs and a bar counter. Still getting my bearings, I found myself atrocious. Occasionally, at the crest of Upstairs, we entered an air-conditioned at the distinctly funky Boathouse bar, PHOTOS BY ANDREW HARPER a rise, the landscape opens out to reveal bedroom with a king-size bed swathed in next to the surf and dive shop. There, successive ridges of mysterious forested mosquito netting, which led onto a wide several bronzed 20-somethings — most hills, untouched by human settlement. balcony with a freestanding brass soaking of them Australian or South African it I reached Nihi Sumba still not know- tub and a simply astounding view. From seemed — were cleaning surfboards and ing what to expect. The estate comprises this perch, it was possible to gaze along a fishing equipment. I asked for directions 550 wooded acres that slope gently down mile and a half of tide-swept sand, edged to lunch. “Just follow the path past the to the sea. At the time of the sale, there by aquamarine sea and backed by forested turtle hatchery; you can’t miss it.” were just 12 understated accommoda- hills that even at first glance seemed to The Beach Club turned out to have a tions. Since then, Burch has invested a have an ancient and inscrutable quality. clay oven, a charcoal grill, a rotisserie reported $30 million to build 27 villas To wrap up my guided tour, Trollip and shaded tables set on the sand beneath with 38 rooms, all with private pools. showed me the outdoor bath with a stone thatched pavilions. Having resisted the 2 THE HIDEAWAY REPORT JUNE 2018 Clockwise from left: outdoor shower at my villa, the view from the balcony at sunset, and my plunge pool and garden, Nihi Sumba Island Escorted by a private guide, I set out to transfer me back to the main resort. just after 7 a.m. on a morning that was Perhaps the best way to characterize still cool, clear and newly minted. We Nihi Sumba is that it is a hybrid of luxury hiked up the hill at the back of the resort. resort and upscale safari lodge. And just After about 20 minutes, we left the road like the best safari lodges in Africa, it wood-fired pizza and ordered some satay to walk along narrow paths through displays an admirable sense of social and and a fillet of grilled Spanish mackerel village houses and then atop the earthen environmental responsibility. The Sumba instead, I perched on a bar stool at a ramparts between flooded paddy fields. Foundation was set up in 2001 by Claude counter next to the horizon pool, gazing Eventually, we arrived at a platform Graves. Today Christopher Burch covers out to sea in a trance of pleasure. with a view of the Indian Ocean that its administrative costs so that all dona- Breakfast and dinner are served at the seemed to stretch halfway to northwestern tions can be used for eradicating malaria, main Ombak (“wave front”) restaurant, Australia. From this vantage point, we digging wells, providing health care to which, from an elevated location, has descended to the NihiOka spa, a collec- around 25,000 people and equipping 16 a panoramic view of Occy’s Left. A tion of wooden buildings constructed primary schools with furniture and all large deck, cantilevered over the ocean, around a cove of luminous turquoise necessary supplies. provides front-row seats for Sumba’s sea. A member of the staff led me up to a Nihi Sumba will not appeal to every- theatrical sunsets. The menu offers a clifftop treehouse. There, overlooking the one. It is hard to get to. And in general, it mix of Indonesian and international breaking surf, I feasted on banana bread, is a place best suited to people who are fit cinnamon cupcakes, and papaya and and active. But there is nowhere else quite PHOTOS BY ANDREW HARPER dishes. Throughout my stay, the food was impeccably prepared, and the Sumbanese melon topped with grated fresh coconut. like it. Despite being extremely sophis- staff were charm personified. My treatments — the resort’s signature ticated thanks to the Burch millions, it PHOTOS BY ANDREW HARPER Although there are few places that massage, a head massage and a salt body continues to embrace its bohemian surfer are more perfectly suited to complete scrub — took place in a private pavilion past. If ever a $2,000-a-night resort could indolence, Nihi Sumba provides an with its own plunge pool. Alas, all too be accurately described as “cool,” then exhaustive list of activities, a significant soon a four-wheel-drive vehicle arrived this is it.

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