When we first saw Cempedak Island, I believe our little group uttered a collective “Wow” and then we were stunned into silence. Rising from the white sand was a bamboo structure with a spiral roof that resembled an ocean wave.
That, we later learnt, was the boathouse, the building that would house the bar and restaurant, in other words, the lobby if this were a hotel in the traditional sense of the word.
The resort is built around the terrain so that it is at one with the nature of the island.
This is no traditional hotel though. Cempedak is the new all-bamboo private island resort developed by the same folks behind Nikoi Island. Located 30 minutes by boat from the island of Bintan, Indonesia, it is due to open sometime mid-March and it’s been more than three years in the making.
Piers (right) and crew mates have been at work the past three years working with bamboo, one piece at a time
Waiting for us was Piers Berry, the project manager, looking like a veritable Robinson Crusoe. How a man hailing from England, who last worked in Panama and who’s never built a resort before, ended up with this project, well, that’s a story for another time.
But you can sense that for Piers, this is a dream project come true – which engineer gets to create an all-bamboo resort on a private island in the middle of nowhere after all?
Piers has been hard at work the last 36 months. He’s carted a total of approximately 30,000 pieces of bamboo across the seas from Java and Sumatra on 280-foot-long barges. He’s had to treat and process them for termites and beetles. He can tell you stuff about bamboo that would make you fall in love with this unassuming plant. With his crew of 120 – 70 of whom work on the island – they’ve built a total of 20 villas, each taking three months to complete.
The attention to detail is amazing from specially-made ceiling fans to coffee tables to bamboo pegs that hold the structures together. Using local building techniques from Bali and Java, the resort has been built around the terrain.
The attention to detail can be seen from ceiling fans to coffee tables.
Said Piers, “The vision was to work with what was there, and build around it, so that the resort is symbiotic and complementary with the nature. We did everything with local staff and local stuff. We used local building techniques and kept adapting, taking into account weather conditions.”
Piers has clearly adapted well himself – somehow he found the time to get married in those three years. “I’ve been lucky. I met Mark (one of the owners) in England at the right time and I also got to meet my wife.”
With the opening date drawing near, he said he can’t wait to “finish it and see the first customers”.
Owner Andrew Dixon is also looking forward to the opening. “I am very excited about how the buildings are coming together. The big difference from Nikoi is the landscaping – we had a team based there for a year and they sourced and propagated from the island, and it’s blending in nicely with the buildings.”
Using local building techniques, the crew has had to adapt to weather conditions as well.
His favourite building, like mine, is the boathouse with the spiral roof. “Makes you want to surf on it,” he laughed.
With Cempedak being his second project, after Nikoi, clearly Dixon is more experienced and knew what to expect going in. But still “I had forgotten all the little details which are killing me – from how to present the menu to glass ware. We also made things hard for ourselves – like hand-making the speakers from black bamboo and the iPod docking stations.
“Our turntable is made out of bamboo, except for the motor. It started as a joke. My son was looking for a turntable and I said, wouldn’t it be a laugh to have one made of bamboo. He found a maker in Canada, communicated with them and it took a few months for it to be made.”
Dixon said it’s the attention to details that customers notice. “It’s easy to buy a Bose stereo for the room but that’d be easy to replicate. People want unique and different. When you go into a room, you can tell who’s paid attention to the details, the little finishes.
Villa with a view
“I am a great believer in design being functional and practical so we do mock-ups of everything. We make it, finetune it – so we have the beta version, then the refined version.”
I likened it to the tech world’s mantra of “test, fail fast and learn” and Dixon laughed, “Yes, except that’s pretty hard when it comes to furniture. The tech world plays with a few keystrokes, we make things.”
The interior of the villa
But he said it was precisely because we now live in such a high-tech world that people appreciate the art and craft of building and making things by hand.
With Nikoi celebrating its 10th anniversary this May, Dixon said customer tastes haven’t changed that much except for a stronger emphasis on unique experiences, local and sustainability.
“People want food and drinks to be locally-sourced, they like homemade and craft products, and there is more interest in sustainability. That topic was new 10 years ago and we tried very hard not to ram it down people’s throats then, but now it’s become a business case rather than just marketing.
“We learnt a lot of lessons in sustainability from Nikoi and can put them into practice more on Cempedak. Technology is more available and affordable now. I like tech that’s unseen and we have tech that monitors energy and deals with waste.
“Technology has also changed enormously on the operations front. Ten years ago, we didn’t have wifi, now you wouldn’t dream of not having wifi. The customer’s ability to share their stories – Facebook is huge marketing tool for us. Our guests are acting as our PR and marketing agents. Charging for wifi is stupid, it prevents people from doing the marketing for you.
“We have developed our own POS system – a cloud-based app on the iPad. Four or 5 years ago, we had iPads in front of house but nobody used them, but now they are being used back of house.”
Dixon is testing a new “butler technology”on Nikoi, a concierge service on mobile web. Guests can order room service, request for change of pillows and book spa treatments.
The flora and fauna on the island are all part of the experience of staying on this private island. If you’re lucky, you may even get to see the native pangolin. The island is also home to the Nicobar pigeon, believed to be the closest living relative of the dodo bird.
He is conscious this may take away the “island feel”. One good thing about Nikoi is that you had to walk to the bar to order services and that made for a communal feeling at the bar. “We’ll see how the usage goes. So far it’s been promising.”
He expects business for Cempedak to also come from word of mouth as it does with Nikoi. About 10% of business comes through TripAdvisor and now that it’s using Siteminder for its bookings, Dixon expects more direct bookings through its website.
Cempedak will also be differentiated from Nikoi in that it will be an adult-only island. It should be priced 20-25% more than Nikoi.
Cempedak, for adults only
“Private islands are still unique. In our area, there’s not a lot of private islands and that’s our attraction. People want space and privacy – that’s the new luxury,” said Dixon.
And as excited as he is by the imminent opening of Cempedak, he said, “I will be happier once it’s opened.”
