My Island Home
For most of us, being shipwrecked on a deserted island will remain the stuff of fantasy. And buying our own piece of island paradise? Dream on. But here, four of the fortunate few share just what it is about their island homes that inspires them, as well as giving you insider tips to enjoying their abodes as a traveller.
Narelle McMurtrie
Langkawi, Malaysia
It's nearing midnight under the low, swirling fans of Bon Ton Resort's (Pantai Cenang, Langkawi; bontonresort.com; +60 49 551 688; rooms from $155) open-air restaurant, and we've already ploughed our way through several courses – halloumi, baked snow fish, potato gratin doused in cream – rich, heavy foods for tropical Langkawi's steamy nights.
"You can't leave until we have had at least a few desserts," says Narelle McMurtrie with the conviction of a sugar-deprived six-year-old as a gigantic concoction of pavlova, tiramisu and cream accompanied by home-made raspberry ice cream arrives at our table. But for restaurateur-turned-hotelier McMurtrie, this is just a warm-up. "There's no calorie-counting around here."
Rustic Bon Ton is a collection of old wood and thatched Malay village houses once destined for the blade of a bulldozer. It's an indulgent sort of place, as evidenced by the meals, designed for lazy days of long lunches followed by even longer stints beside the pool.
All that food goes not just to the waistline but to a good cause as well. Half of every Malaysian ringgit spent in Bon Ton's restaurant is donated to support LASSIE (Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation; langkawilassie.org.my), animal shelters McMurtrie established to house stray dogs and cats.
McMurtrie arrived in Malaysia from Australia during the recession years of the late 1980s to sell Sheridan sheets. But it was a sideline serving cake and coffee to shoppers that really took off, blossoming into the full-fledged restaurant within a year (Bon Ton Restaurant, 8 Jalan Conlay, Kuala Lumpur; +60 32141 3848; bontonkl.com; dinner for two without wine $85). After years of city living she finally progressed to the languid shores of Langkawi.
"I know it's a cliche, but living here is complete paradise," she says. "It's a small town, small community and completely trustworthy. I don't have a key to my house. Come to think of it, I have never even taken the keys out of the ignition in my car.
"We live very well here. Langkawi is quiet, but the benefits far outweigh the costs. It's safe, with spectacular natural areas and great local food – Thai, Malay, Chinese, Nonya – and we get Margaret River cheese and yoghurt flown in twice a week. Penang is a 30-minute flight away for necessary shopping and cultural fixes."
Bon Ton is an unfussy, unruffled place, meshed together from antiques, rich, multi-coloured fabrics and sublime views overlooking a lily- and reed-filled lake. Beyond Bon Ton are Langkawi's must-see mangroves (Kilim Nature Park, north-east Langkawi), one of McMurtrie's many recommendations.
As well as overseeing LASSIE and establishing a clinic for visiting vets to sterilise the strays, she is currently overseeing the construction and outfitting of a cluster of apartments, the first expat-standard rentals on Langkawi. Then there is the Sino-Portuguese shopfront in Georgetown, Penang's glorious British-era old town, that, when renovations are complete, will join a string of other similar properties to form a pool of self-contained villas and suites.
And last but not least is the ongoing work at Temple Tree @ Bon Ton (doubles from $168), a 24-room resort next door that will soon be re-titled into a trust owned by the animal shelters. Clustered around a coconut tree which houses a small Taoist shrine, Temple Tree is a mix of old Malaysian houses dismantled and reassembled in Langkawi. Fervent about old houses, McMurtrie wanted to reconstruct the exact design of the dwellings down to the unsealed windows and open-air lattice holes.
"If it works I'd like to use it as a prototype to fund charities," she says, reeling off a list of philanthropic endeavours she has in mind. "Set up tourism businesses and then transfer the ownership to the charity so I am merely a manager. Tourism has so much potential as a catalyst for social development." – Leisa Tyler
Guide to Langkawi
GETTING THERE
Malaysia Airlines (malaysiaairlines.com) flies between Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland to Langkawi, via Kuala Lumpur.
WHEN TO GO
High season is November to March. The monsoon season is scattered between April and October, when the island is crowd-free and room rates are reduced.
USEFUL ADVICE
The best way to see Langkawi is by car. The roads are good, rental cars affordable and both Australian and New Zealand driver's licences are legally valid documents. Australian and New Zealand citizens can stay in Malaysia for up to three months without a visa. For more information, see tourism.gov.my
Ian Hutton
Lord Howe Island, NSW
Somewhere on Lord Howe, an island Eden that is part of NSW, but only in name, Ian Hutton has a house – but he looks much more at home merrily plucking seabirds from their nests, dug deep into the hills around Blinky Beach, a small sickle of sand where local residents leave their surfboards lying in the grass.
I'm trying to keep up with Hutton. The 57-year-old, dressed in a heavy fleece, with callipers slung in the back pocket of his jeans, is fast through the bush. He spies a "fishermen's track" – little more than a boot's width across – and there is no catching him. We emerge at a cliff, buffeted by chilly winter winds.
Here, Hutton points out the rare appearance of an albatross as it skims the choppy sea. When I look back, he has darted into the scrub returning with a little shearwater, a bird that had once abandoned the island, but which has flourished since Lord Howe eradicated feral cats in the late '70s. It struggles in his grip, seemingly intent on relieving its captor of one of his digits.
Hutton was the first person to document the shearwater's return in 1990 and he whips out the callipers to measure its beak. He says: "People often say, ‘How do you get a job like yours?' But there is not a job as such, it is just a lifestyle."
Originally from Sydney, Hutton, guide-author-photographer-lecturer and curator of the Lord Howe Island Museum (open seven days; free entry) first came to the island in 1980, while working for the Bureau of Meteorology, but devoted all his spare time to the island's natural history. This would explain why, when I mention Hutton to Bill Shead, owner of the Lord Howe luxury resort Arajilla (02 6583 2622; arajilla.com.au; doubles from $750), he laughs and asks me if I know what Hutton was doing creeping around his property a few nights back.
"Arajilla's property is the habitat of the Lord Howe Island snail, which is very rare," Hutton explains. "I went out in the evening with white paint and I was tagging all the snails with numbers." Hutton convinced Shead to run elevated walkways above the leaf litter to protect this slippery local resident.
Hutton believes Lord Howe has just as much fascinating biology as the much-touted Galapagos Islands but that it is better managed. Lord Howe, just two hours by air from Australia's east coast, is certainly a place that belongs to another time, the embodiment of more natural beauty in a single small island than seems possible; from the surf beaches to the enchantingly named cloud forest atop Mt Gower whose ecosystem is reliant on the humidity of its almost-constant cloud cover.
Twelve years ago Hutton noticed that some of the native species on the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe were being compromised by introduced flora, so he set about clearing it.
"I developed these weeding ecotours where people pay to have a holiday on the island but for three hours a day they pull weeds out," he says. "Ecotourism is not about going out and looking at plants, it's about contributing."
His green solution has been popular, with other eco-friendly destinations adopting his plan. In 2006 Hutton was presented with an Order of Australia medal for the concept. But Hutton is best-known for his walking tours of the island, including a week-long "walk-fest" run out of luxurious Capella Lodge (Lagoon Road; 02 9918 4355; lordhowe.com) so it's no surprise that he suggests a good hike; over the hill to North Bay (though boats run in high season), and a more amiable amble to Little Island.
During my visit Lord Howe is abuzz with news that the carcass of a whale has washed ashore, something that happens about once every 50 years. Hutton makes plans to return and secure it for his museum collection, lest it go the way of the last vertebrate that washed up – it was turned into a milking stool.
"I don't know whether it's just in the psyche of humans, going back to childhood reading Treasure Island," says Hutton, "but for me the attraction [of island life] is having a finite number of organisms that you can get to know very, very well." – Paul Chai
Guide to Lord Howe Island
GETTING THERE
Qantaslink (qantas.com.au) flies direct to Lord Howe from Sydney and Brisbane.
WHEN TO GO
Lord Howe offers year-round interest for nature-lovers, but summer sees it at its most pleasant. Winter, at times, is surprisingly cool.
USEFUL ADVICE
There is no mobile phone reception on the island and that's the way everyone seems to prefer it; car hire is limited, but the host at your lodgings will usually help get you around. Ian Hutton's second book A Guide to World Heritage Lord Howe Island was published last month and is available online at lordhowe-tours.com.au. For further information see lordhoweisland.info
Janet DeNeefe
Ubud, Bali
When the inconceivable occurred, and bombs exploded in Bali, forever tarnishing, though not destroying, its reputation as the quintessential island haven, the first impulse of many stunned tourists and expatriates alike, was to flee and never return.
But Janet DeNeefe, married to Balinese Ketut Suardana, mother of four children and owner of a host of successful businesses dotted about the exotic, rambling hill town of Ubud, had other ideas. Her answer was to write a book, Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali, an appealing mix of memoir and recipes, and to establish the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (ubudwritersfestival.com).
DeNeefe's love of Bali began in 1974, when she tasted gado gado as a child on a family holiday: "Wow, salad with peanut butter," she thought. It flourished when she met her now husband on the second day of her second visit to Bali in adulthood.
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is just one way DeNeefe, the ultimate over-achieving expat, is involved in Bali's "cultural heartland". What's more, she owns an acclaimed cooking school, Casa Luna (Jalan Bisma, Ubud; casalunabali.com), two restaurants, Indus (Jalan Raga, Sanggingan; +62 361 977 409) and Casa Luna (Jalan Raya; +62 361 977 409), a gallery and two branches of the Honeymoon Guesthouse (Jalan Bisma, Ubud; +62 361 97 3282; casalunabali.com; doubles from about $46 plus taxes).
In yet another DeNeefe project, a new building for the cooking school is being constructed behind the second Honeymoon Guesthouse – classes are currently held on the tiled, open-sided top-floor terrace of the original Honeymoon Guesthouse.
And, besides having authored Fragrant Rice, she writes a column for the The Jakarta Post. Clearly, Bali's recent tragic past has helped inform both her writing and her business interests.
"After the first bombing I was in the process of editing Fragrant Rice and the release of the book was delayed," says DeNeefe. "[Bali] was such a depleted economy. I thought the whole Western world had shut the doors on us. The idea of the [writers'] festival was about turning a negative into a positive."
In the early days of the festival, now regarded as one of the world's leading literary events, high-profile guest authors were as hard to attract as tourists. But Bali now seems to have returned, if not to normal, then at least to a real sense of normality. This year's line-up for the fifth festival includes Indian author Vikram Seth, US novelist John Berendt and Egyptian writer Bahaa Taher.
DeNeefe hopes the festival will eventually consume the whole of Ubud in October, a quiet time for visitors to Bali, filling otherwise sparsely patronised hotels, resorts and restaurants.
For DeNeefe, the festival is a labour of love. And dining with her one mild evening on the terrace of Indus (the main venue for the festival), as she distractedly checks her text messages, you suspect that she may be as over-extended as a harried businesswoman in the West. She professes to be not as enamoured of the rest of Bali as she is of Ubud but is also disappointed by some aspects of her adopted paradise.
"I don't like some of the changes in Ubud," she says, "the physical changes with all the shops. And it's a different expat community now – once they were into the culture and you'd see them in the temples."
As a visitor to Ubud it's easy to be seduced by attractions like Monkey Forest Road, flanked by shops and restaurants and thronged with tourists, many of whom are day-trippers from the coast not much interested in Ubud's culture. It's quieter, much quieter, and slower here in Ubud. It is a place of simple pleasures such as strolling through spectacular terraced rice fields with hazy views to the north of distant Gunung Agung – at 3142 metres it's Bali's tallest mountain.
"I'm definitely an island person," says DeNeefe, pointing out that her grandmother was Maltese. "I was destined to live on an island. I'm just attracted to them." – Anthony Dennis
Guide to Bali
GETTING THERE
Jetstar flies frequently from Australia to Denpasar (jetstar.com). Indonesia's international airline Garuda, flies regularly from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin to Denpasar (garuda-indonesia.com). Before you go, arrange for an airport transfer to and from Ubud through your accommodation. Ubud is a 45-minute drive from Denpasar international airport.
WHEN TO GO
The weather is most pleasant May to September, with milder temperatures in Ubud than on the coast.
USEFUL ADVICE
Despite the US government lifting its travel warning on Indonesia, the Australian government, at the time of publication, still urges Australians to reconsider any plans for travel to the country. Before you decide to travel, check the website smartraveller.gov.au The New Zealand government also continues to rate Bali as a "high-risk" destination. New Zealanders can consult safetravel.govt.nz before they travel.
Karl Steinberg
Galle, Sri Lanka
When Karl Steinberg first set eyes on the Dutch-built fort of Galle, it was a crumbling backwater. Built by slaves of the Dutch East India Company in the 1600s and later sacked by the British, the charming seaside town was one of the most cosmopolitan in Asia, serving as a hub for P&O ships sailing between Australasia and Europe. Teeming with a lucrative sapphire and ruby trade, it was said that Galle's streets were lined with gold.
But 50 years after Sri Lankan independence, and long after the country's main port was relocated to Colombo, Galle was destitute. "It was like Gilligan's Island," recalls Steinberg. "It was magical, but so rundown. Tour buses would drive through and not stop. Even Sri Lankans were too scared to venture inside."
The fiftysomething former television producer from Sydney, went to Sri Lanka with his partner Christopher Ong, looking for a seachange and semi-retirement. Sri Lanka was priming itself for tourism, a ceasefire had been called after decades of bloody civil war and Galle had received a World Heritage listing for its colonial architecture in 2004.
"It was love at first sight," says Steinberg. "This country is stunning. We dreamt of having a colonial B&B on the beach when we stumbled across an old gem merchant's mansion in the fort. We had wonderful lives in Sydney and thought of every reason not to come to Sri Lanka. But, truth be told, our lives had become a bit sad. We'd won the rat race but were still rats."
So, with no home renovation experience, let alone hotel development, Steinberg and Ong moved from the award-winning Altair apartment building in Kings Cross to an asbestos- and rat-ridden room on the top floor of their hotel-to-be in Galle.
Eventually, they returned the mansion to its original Dutch facade, added a second wing with suites and a courtyard pool, and the Galle Fort Hotel was born (28 Church Street; +94 91 223 2870; galleforthotel.com; doubles from $160). So historically sensitive was their restoration that they were awarded a distinction from the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Awards.
Even during monsoon season, when tourism dwindles and many hotels close, the Galle Fort Hotel is still a hive of social activity. Every evening diners relax on the frangipani-scented porch and graze on set menus that include local blue-fin tuna sashimi, sang choi bao, Chinese-style prawns with herbs. It's an impressive selection for Galle, which lacks good restaurants.
The Fort is now in the midst of a cultural and architectural renaissance. A string of old mansions have been restored and transformed into stylish boutique hotels, and the Dutch government has allocated $4 million towards a maritime museum, cleaning and modernising the underground drains (where the Dutch once bred muskrats for oil) and returning private houses to their original facades.
"It's not paradise living in a poor Asian country; every day will make you and every day will break you," says Steinberg. Indeed, a few days after they started renovations a public meeting was called demanding all foreigners leave the Fort as they thought they were opening casinos.
Then, four weeks after the Galle Fort Hotel opened in December 2003, the Asian tsunami struck. Luckily for them the Fort, built to withstand cannons with 20-metre-thick ramparts, was saved, in contrast to the new city of Galle, which was razed.
"Nothing can prepare you for devastation on that scale. It was complete carnage," says Steinberg, explaining how people fled into the Fort's gates carrying the corpses of their family members as rumours of a second wave spread.
Now Steinberg and Ong have purchased land at nearby Tangalle where they are planning to build a sustainable beach hotel and turtle conservation centre.
"My life here is less caught up in pretensions," says Steinberg. "I take pleasure in small things, like a brilliant blue kingfisher that comes into my garden each day. I talk with guests, fossick for antiques, lunch at a nearby cafe and watch fishermen dangle their rods in the surf. Then, together with the rest of Galle, I parade the ramparts at sunset. To me, that's a perfect day." – Leisa Tyler
Guide to Sri Lanka
GETTING THERE
Singapore Airlines (singaporeair.com) flies Melbourne and Sydney to Colombo.
WHEN TO GO
High season is November to May, with temperatures about 30ºC. Monsoon season is cooler and quieter.
USEFUL ADVICE
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recommends travellers to Sri Lanka exercise extreme caution due to a high level of politically motivated violence in the country. Visit smartraveller.gov.au for the latest updates. New Zealanders should consult safetravel.govt.nz Australians and New Zealand citizens do not require a visa for visits of less than 30 days. Immunise for hepatitis A and B and protect yourself from malaria and dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes.
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