Island Life Newsletter: End of an Era - Saying Goodbye to Yogi
- Andrew Dixon
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
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.
End of an Era - Saying Goodbye to Yogi
When we first started hiring staff for Nikoi some 18 years ago, we were introduced to a man called Rudi. He came bounding into the interview with such energy and swagger that he was hired on the spot. Before long, he became something of a legend on the island and was swiftly nicknamed Yogi, after the much loved cartoon Yogi Bear.
We know many of you have fond memories of Yogi. It’s hard to imagine how many wooden swords, palm leaf crowns and island adventures he’s been responsible for over the years. Over the past year in particular, it’s been clear just how much he’s missed, with so many guests asking after him. Unfortunately, Yogi has been dealing with a persistent foot injury and his recovery hasn’t been straightforward, which is why he hasn’t been on the island as much. He has now made the decision to retire early, a moment that is both happy and bittersweet, as he will miss our guests enormously.
We are currently working on a way to record Yogi’s many island stories, both to preserve them and to help create some additional income for him and his family. If you have any memories or photos you’d like to share, we - and Yogi - would love to see them. You can email them to marketing@nikoi.com and we’ll be sure to pass them on to him.
Yogi behind the bar in 2007 and in front of it in 2025
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
Over the years, I have heard many glowing reports about the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, and this year, I finally managed to attend the event. There were some fantastic writers in attendance and I loved the fact that there was a great variety of speakers and literary forms showcased. Some moments that stuck with me were a harrowing account of 13 months in an Egyptian jail by Australian journalist Peter Greste, a whole day dedicated to works that focused on Climate Change and the sessions by documentary filmmaker Craig Leeson.
Back in 2019, Leeson produced a documentary called ‘A Plastic Ocean’, which not only highlighted the scale of the problem but also some of the solutions available. We managed to get him to put screenings of it on for some of the local villages on Bintan back then. His latest film is called ‘The Last Glaciers’ and we are planning on arranging a screening of it on the islands next year, so watch this space.
I was also impressed by the depth and interest in Indonesian literature. I particularly enjoyed a talk given about the works of Taufik Ismail, a prolific poet now in his 90s. Lontar, a local not-for-profit publishing house, has published 100 of his poems translated into English. They sum it up fantastically when they say, “His poems are a testimony of the times, exuding intense social commitment with the sophistication of words rarely matched in the history of Indonesian protest poetry.” Given what has gone on this year in Jakarta, I thought this one was particularly poignant:
Students afraid of the lecturer
Lecturer afraid of the dean
Dean afraid of the rector
Rector afraid of the minister
Minister afraid of the president
President afraid of the students
- Taufiq Ismail, "Fear ‘66, Fear ‘98" in Reading the Signs,
Translated by Amin Sweeny (Jakarta: Lontar, 2025), 148.
I have returned to Singapore with a pile of books to read over the Christmas holidays, so I will let you know in the next newsletter if I have found any other gems amongst them.
Photo credit: Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
I'll Leave it to the Academics
My trip to Ubud coincided with a Symposium on Seagrass and the very lovely team at Conservation International, who we work closely with, suggested I be a keynote speaker at it. My initial response - “but I don't know anything about seagrass” was met with “well just talk about sustainable tourism then”. I quietly wondered whether I should go back to being a banker… But alas I am now the proud owner of a tight fitting T-shirt confirming my attendance, and the academics in the room got an intro to The 4Cs. Here are some fun facts on seagrass which I do know though:
They can capture CO2 from the atmosphere up to 23 times faster than rainforests
They are the food of choice for Green Sea Turtles
At least 11 species of seagrass have been recorded in East Bintan
Some of you might have met one or both of our resident marine biologists. On Cempedak we have the always cheerful and easy-going Mutia, who has also become known for her singing and piano playing after dinner. On Nikoi, the very passionate Amandine has become best friends with our resident turtles. Together, they have just published this academic paper based on their long-term turtle monitoring and protection work. The paper presents field data collected over multiple nesting seasons and brings our conservation work into the academic conversation, something we are very proud of.
Xmas Lunch at Fiz
I have long bemoaned the lack of any restaurants in Singapore that take Indonesian cuisine to a fine dining experience. However, I was recently introduced to Fiz - a restaurant that single handedly changed all that. I have now been three times in the last couple of months. Whilst not exclusively Indonesian, it has a lot of references to Indonesian food. The attention to detail, innovative presentation and subtlety is next level, and not how Indonesian fare is usually thought of. I have been banging on about it so much that I took our Singapore office there for Chrissy lunch. It is not cheap, but I think it is still of exceptional value particularly given the efforts gone to sourcing heirloom varieties from small organic farms - also why it has a Michelin Green Star.
Photo credit: Fiz
Impact Reports
The Island Foundation has just released their latest Annual Report which highlights the fantastic work they did for education opportunities in the small island and coastal communities around us. Myself and my business partners started the charity over a decade ago and it is incredible to see how far it has come. You can see from the case studies in the report that the impact they have made is not only wide-reaching, but deeply felt.
Speaking of reports, one that has cause quite a bit of stir is Patagonia’s latest Impact Report. Patagonia is a brand that I have long admired. I particularly like the fact that they offer free repair service and build quality products. Yes, they are not cheap, but they are built to last. What stood out in the report was how clearly they highlight the areas where they still need to improve. I love their honesty. In the back of my mind I do wonder how much of this is a clever marketing ploy much like their award-winning advertising campaign “Don’t buy this jacket”. As we are starting to work on our impact report for 2025, it has made me think about highlighting those areas that are our biggest challenges - it might be a long list!
A Very Low-Stakes Literary Heist
I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but over the last 2 years our Singapore team have been playing a game in bookstores around the region. The challenge is to find and then surreptitiously improve the positioning of our amazing Island Life cookbook so it is displayed a little more prominently. I am not sure it has made a huge difference to sales, but it flatters us to see it sitting proudly beside the likes of Ottolenghi and Jamie Oliver.
In this vein, when I was in the National Library of Singapore a few weeks back, I thought I would check out the cookery section and was pleasantly surprised to see they had it on the shelves. I can’t tell you how lovely it was to see that the staff had already arranged it so prominently on the shelf - clearly a book that is in hot demand (or perhaps one of my team made it there before me).
I was curious as to whether they had it on the shelves of any other libraries in Singapore and was delighted to discover that 12 libraries stock our Island Life. So, if you live here in Singapore no need to buy a copy. If you do want to buy a few copies as Xmas presents though, then here is a link where we are offering it for 20% off until the end of the year. Even better, we have a digital version available here which, for December only, we are offering for just S$2.00.
My handy work in the National Library and Leanna’s in a Periplus bookstore in Bali Airport
Ending the Year on a High
We have been having a good year on the awards front and I am pleased that we have just added 3 more. Cempedak was the winner of the Country and Townhouse Future Icons Awards and Nikoi was named a finalist. Also very exciting is that Cempedak has been included in Condé Nast Traveller’s Gold List for 2026. We (or should I say our marketing team of one) have also been working tirelessly on rolling out our new websites for both Nikoi and Cempedak. I/we are thrilled with the final result so check it out.
Murder Mystery Weekend on Cempedak
In November, we hosted our second mystery weekend on Cempedak. The amazing team from Evolve created a completely new script. It was an elaborate plot with lots of twists and turns and involved 85 physical clues dotted around the island and a further 54 mentioned during scenes. The finale was the jetty dinner, which never disappoints and was made even better by the increasingly elaborate ‘whodunnit’ stories delivered by each group. I was impressed to see that five ‘detectives’ cracked the case. I got it wrong yet again. Planning for the next one is already underway, so if you are interested, send us an email so we can add you to the pre-release list.
Kids Camps on Nikoi
In the last couple of months we have hosted a few kids camps on Nikoi. We had the team from Into the Wild host a very popular island survival camp - yes they all survived! Our next ones are planned for the March local school holidays and they are already selling out quickly. More details here. A team from the Green School in Bali then ran a series of “Green camps” which was also very popular. We plan to be hosting these again next year, so drop us a line if you want to be added to our email list for this.
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