Wunderlusters,

I am coming to you from the white sands of Nihiwatu Beach. A dozen horses just bolted past me, thrashing through the white water, a solid 6 foot left hander thunders on the barrier reef in front of me and the mild Timor Sea heat is cut by a lazy breeze. Broome is about 900km’s over the horizon and I feel million miles from Bali’s claustrophobic bustle. This is Sumba, a Jamaica-sized island of about 800,000 people in the south of the Nusa Tenggara Archipelago in Indonesia. Sumba (or ‘Humba’ or ‘Hubba’ in dialect) means something along the lines of ‘no interference’ or ‘original’ which is how the indigenous identify themselves against foreigners, and you really feel that here, de-regulated, a little dangerous, off the hook. This is very much the ‘edge of wildness’ as NIHI’s seasoned hotelier James McBride puts it. 

James and NIHI Sumba owner Christopher Burch were correct in identifying this place as something special.

The resort was originally founded by surfers Claude and Petra Graves in 1988, and surfer’s tend to obsessively seek out remote uncrowded waves and in doing so find remarkably pure places. It feels great here - light, personal, real, warm, happy, slow - it feels like a resort that the owner really wants to live in. Yet with James’s experience (The Grosvenor House, The Carlyle, YTL Singapore) that certainly doesn’t translate to unpolished. Here you are convergent with nature, village and culture, the physical limits of the resort don’t feel clear. The effect suits my whole ‘live-slow-die-old’ thing rather well and you can be sure it will suit you too.

Notably NIHI has been ranked in the top five best eco-hotels globally and was awarded best hotel in the world 2016-2017 by Travel + Leisure through its distinct authenticity.

Sooooo, you guessed it, James and I teamed up to make a few swim togs. Viridian to reflect the forest, ultramarine to reflect the sea, motif’d with a stylised uma mbatangu, the vernacular steeply peaked house reaching towards the Marapu spirits in the Sumban animalist belief system.

On the subject of clothing I would highly recommend delving into the ikat designs of Sumba that reference python’s skin, these are some of the most striking and powerful in Indonesia. Beautiful. 

Yours, wildly,

PCJ.

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