JOHN HARDY
JOHN HARDY Environmentalist and founder of Bambu Indah, along with his wife, Cynthia WHERE DO YOU FIND THE OLD BALI? Long beach walks at sunrise. Heading to off-the-beatentrack villages in the rural mountains. Bike rides through coconut groves. WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS FOR BAMBU INDAH? We are adding three new living spaces including a house nestled in Colombian bamboo complete with a freestanding meditation pod and plunge pool with an unobstructed river view, and the Chiara Tree House from which you can see the mountains. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PLACES ON THE ISLAND? Home! We love our daily three-hour walks in the rice fields across the river. We love engaging in local ceremonies. And we will often head north for the mountains on motorbikes and just get lost. From top: Green Village’s Ananda House; the Kuno House at Bambu Indah Facing page: the Artists Dinner hosted by Elami & Co and Maya Kerthyasa ILLUSTRATION: JULIAN RENTZSCH; STEPHEN JOHNSON, © BAMBU INDAH 52 NetJets
paradise found COURTESY MAYA KERTHYASA its lush, newly expanded gardens. Looking for innovative farm-to-table and forage-friendly cuisine? Go directly to LOCAVORE (locavore. co.id), a world-class restaurant run by a Dutch-Indonesian duo that was just awarded Best Restaurant in Indonesia by Asia’s 50 Best. The most intriguing culinary trend on the island, however, is a long-overdue celebration of Indonesian food. An incredibly rich and diverse repertoire of flavours and tastes that reflects the complex culture of the country itself – made up of more than 15,000 islands – Indonesian fare is having a moment because it’s healthy and vegetable-friendly. About six years ago, the Ubud-based writer and restaurateur Janet DeNeefe, who offers fantastic market tours and cooking classes through her restaurant Casa Luna and Honeymoon Guesthouse, launched Bali’s first food festival that focused primarily on Indonesia’s food scene: the UBUD FOOD FESTIVAL (ubudfoodfestival.com) returns in mid-April. Some of the newest and most exciting restaurants and cafes on the island are Indonesian-inspired such as the KAUM (kaum. com) restaurant, located in the Desa Potato Head in Seminyak, and the casual but ambitious HUJAN LOCALE (hujanlocale.com) in Ubud, which serves up elevated traditional dishes such as Sundanese steamed and fried fish dumplings with chilli peanut sauce. For a romantic Indonesian meal with some old-school Bali magic head to TANDJUNG SARI (tandjungsarihotel.com), a beautiful resort designed like a Balinese village with seating under old palm trees illuminated by lanterns on the beach in Sanur. And worth the journey to the northeast of the island is a meal at the foot of Mount Agung surrounded by rice fields at BALI ASLI (baliasli.com. au), a restaurant and cooking school run by Australian Penelope Williams. HOMES FROM HOME Bali boasts some of the world’s most legendarily beautiful resorts – Four Seasons Sayan, Amandari, Como Shambhala Estate – but the property that has most captured the imagination of the experience-seeking next generation is BAMBU INDAH (bambuindah. com), an estate created by the former jewellery designer John Hardy and his wife, Cynthia, which is perched above a dramatic river gorge beyond Ubud. Originally made up of recovered antique teak houses surrounded by gardens and lily ponds, it has evolved over the years and spilled down to the river to include several stand-alone villas of bamboo and copper that look like giant Art Nouveau bird nests, conceived by John Hardy’s daughter Elora and her design studio Ibuku. Elora Hardy has also designed a village of bamboo villas, one more ornate and fantastical than the next, called GREEN VILLAGE (greenvillagebali.com) located on a jungle ravine between Seminyak and Ubud – some of the houses are available to rent through Airbnb. One of the newest properties to open that celebrates “Old World” Bali is the CAPELLA UBUD (capellahotels.com), designed, without cutting down one single tree, by the renowned Bill Bensley. A resort on four hectares of emerald green rice terraces made up of 23 of the most luxurious and fantastical tents ever conceived – complete with rock pools and suspension bridges – each tent has a theme (such as the Librarian’s and Cartographer’s tents) and all are lined with lavish, rich textiles and rare antiques. On the less developed east side of the island are several exclusive accommodations which are highlighted by the VILLA IDANNA (alilahotels. com), an elegant, intimate estate built by Idanna Pucci (the niece of the Italian fashion designer, Emilio) who has had a love affair with Indonesia since the 1970s, and the very insidery VILLA CAMPUHAN (villacampuhan. com), a series of Sumatran-inspired villas with multi-tiered roofs designed on a palm treelined stretch of sand by the fêted Bali-based designer Linda Garland and owned by the Hollywood director/producer Rob Cohen. Another cultish property especially popular with high-end surfers is ULUWATU SURF VILLAS (uluwatusurfvillas.com), about a dozen rustic but spacious thatched-roof villas with a stellar cafe, scattered in lush gardens on a cliff looking out over one of the island’s best surf breaks. If you need a party-beach fix head to the buzzy Seminyak area and book a room at the just-opened, Rem Koolhaas-designed hotel that is part of DESA POTATO HEAD (potatohead.co). More of a village of creatives and design-lovers than a hotel, the complex also includes the legendary Potato Head beach club and Katamama, a modern building made from locally made bricks, traditionally used for building Hindu temples, with mid-century design-inspired interiors. CULTURE, CRAFT & WELLNESS Bali is an island of craft, dotted with villages populated with master artisans who specialise in everything from mask-carving to jewellery making. Plan to spend an hour wandering around the TONYRAKA gallery and cafe complex (tonyrakaartgallery.com) in the carving village of Mas, which offers an impressive selection of tribal art and sculpture sourced throughout the archipelago. For a modern take on Balinese craft, make an appointment to NetJets 53
