Newsletter: Confession - We Tied a Staff Member to a Mast

Andrew Dixon
Oct 28
6 min read

Updated: Nov 7

This is an archived edition of Island Life. Island Life is the bi-monthly newsletter and whimsical musings from the team at Nikoi and Cempedak Islands. You can subscribe to it here.

Shoutout to My Son, the Mule

Every year we arrange for Graham “Jono” Johnson to visit the islands over the Australian winter season to give all of our staff a refresher on CPR and first aid. That training has led to one of our team members successfully resuscitating a young local kid who was pulled unconscious from a local beach on Bintan. This story alone made us appreciate how much our investment in training can have an impact beyond Nikoi and Cempedak.

Jono is a local legend at MacMasters Beach Surf Club where I have been visiting annually since I was in nappies. Not only is he a fantastic surf rescue coach, he also founded the Clean4Shore program which has been removing around 80 tonnes of garbage from coastal shores a year.

After Jono’s recent visit, he very kindly offered to upgrade our rescue board as his surf club had a few spares. Having hand-carried these boards up from Sydney a few times before, I was dreading the logistical battle ahead. Thankfully though, I was reminded that my son was making the journey up soon and figured he might enjoy the experience of shuffling a 3m board across three countries and through various airports and ferry terminals! One long trip later and we are delighted with our very smart new rescue board on Nikoi. Don’t worry, my son was paid for his troubles with a bit of classic island bartering (unfortunately he’s too old for sky juice now).

Our lovely new rescue board and Jono in action with the Nikoi team.

A Guest Speaker with No Diary

Recently rejoining our team in Singapore is the fantastic and ever-resourceful Lilly Gilbert, who’s helping us shine more light on, and bring more support to, the Marine Protected Area that surrounds both islands. It’s a project close to our hearts, and while it involves many other stakeholders, we’re determined to do our part. Earlier this year, when USAID funding was cut, the project lost a significant amount of support, halting progress on the MPA’s management. With Lilly’s help, we hope to develop alternative funding mechanisms and ensure the project’s long-term success.

I mentioned in our last newsletter our successes in turtle conservation on the islands, but that’s not our only marine story. A few years ago, we managed to convince a former dugong hunter (dugongs are often also called “sea cows”) to hang up his spear. In return, Pak Munsa now works with us and occasionally shares his fascinating story, though his appearances tend to be wonderfully unpredictable. When Lilly was brainstorming ideas for a fundraising event, she suggested we invite him to speak. My response? “I don’t think he has a diary!”

If you’d like to follow Lilly’s work and keep up with our ongoing ocean conservation efforts, be sure to sign up for our new newsletter, Ocean Life, which she sends out on a bi-monthly basis.

Pak Munsa stopping by for one of his impromptu chats on Cempedak.

Celebrating Local Voices with Tulisan Nusantara and Eastside

On Cempedak, we hosted our first ever writer for the Tulisan Nusantara residency program. Pam Ng joined us for the month of August and was wonderfully generous with her time, sharing stories and conversations with both guests and staff. We hope she’ll return one day. As it turns out, she’s also quite the dab hand with a camera, capturing some beautiful shots of the island which you can see below. Pam also left her mark through a series of intriguing teasers, which she typed out on our old-school typewriter, rolled into scrolls, and slipped to unsuspecting guests. Our next Tulisan Nusantara writers will be arriving in December and again in January and details of their stays will be posted on the events page of our website.

A few of Pam’s shots - handwritten notes, a hornbill enjoying a snack and the team posing after a guest departure.

We were also excited to run a competition with the new publication Eastside to send a young regional writer to Cempedak. Yuni, from Batam, was chosen as the winner for her engaging writing style and her passion for local culture and the region. Last weekend, Yuni spent two days with Asti, founder of Bintan Bertu Tour, uncovering hidden cultural stories from Bintan, which she will explore in her piece for Eastside. Between the walking tours she stayed with us on Cempedak where she reflected on the experience and gathered more insights over coffees and meals with the team. Opportunities like this are fantastic for helping to preserve and celebrate the Riau Islands’ largely undocumented history and culture.

The Ups and Downs of Our First Kolek Race

In my last newsletter I mentioned that the team on Cempedak had acquired a locally made wooden sailing boat, called a Kolek, so they could participate in a race on National Day (17 Aug). These are tricky boats to sail and they only had a few weeks to get familiar with this one. Koleks have no keel like a modern sailing boat, but rather a brave crew member is tied to the mast and leans over the side to keep the balance.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be on the islands to watch the race this year, but I am told they were leading at one point before ending up last when their mast broke - clearly pushing the equipment to the limits. Given it was recently built for us by one of the teams we were racing against I jokingly asked whether our warranty might still apply? There has also been a suggestion that we should put the logo on the sail upside down as they have spent a considerable amount of time capsized and once you go over there is no easy way to right these boats again.

Pam, our resident writer, watched the race from the shoreline and mentioned that the eventual champions held a steady last place until the final turn, with Pak Munsa, whom I mentioned above, on board. A calm and collected leader, and reigning champion, his quiet presence seemed to steady the crew.

Spirits remained high, no matter which way the boat was facing. Photos by Pam Ng.

Sustainability is Never Boring…

For the last few years I have been attending a sustainable tourism conference in Phuket called PHIST. Last year, I received their Green Giant award which was a great honour, although I did feel 3D printing a mini version of me in a tarzan styled green outfit might have been taking the theme a little too far. For one of the panel sessions, I joined a fellow Long Run member, Jeff Smith, who is Head of Sustainability at Six Senses. Despite the picture of me looking like I am being lulled to sleep by Jeff’s words of wisdom, I actually have huge respect for him and the conversation we had. Moderating our chat was Eric Ricaurte, a renowned voice in sustainable tourism. I have been on a few panels with these two before and there is always a good bit of banter - far from nap worthy!

On the left: Not snoozing, I swear! On the right: Jeff Smith, myself and Eric Ricaurte after our panel discussion at PHIST

The discussion was an unscripted session where we dived deep into some of the less sexy elements of sustainability including Green Washing, Green Hushing and Green Lighting. I have some strong views on this and will actively call it out when I see instances like this one. I think the industry needs to tread carefully, or customers will start to lose trust in hotels’ sustainability claims. Here are a few tips on what to look for if this is also important to you…

If the property is talking about what they are going to do, maybe ask them what they have done already.
If the sustainability team reports to a marketing manager, their agenda for this is in the wrong place.
‘Reduce, reduce and reduce’ should be everyone’s mantra. It’s not about how many solar panels you have, but how few of them you need. Not about how much waste you recycle, but how little you produce. Offsetting isn’t the solution - it’s a scapegoat for the problem.

Upcoming Events

Only a few spots left for our Murder Mystery Weekend with Evolve School of Performing Arts, 7–9 November. Join us if you dare. More details here.

We’re really excited to be exhibiting artwork from two years of Ubah Rumah at the Affordable Art Fair in Singapore. We have free tickets for Island Club Members and a few extra to give away. If you’d like to attend, just fill out this form and we’ll be in touch soon!