Cempedak Private Island

As a surprise to my wife, we spent the weekend in the autumn on Cempedak island. It's in Indonesia, quite near to Bintan, 2.5 hours from Singapore. As a private island, the resort is the only thing on the island, so you rely on them for food and everything else. This turned out to be a great thing because we could just forget about everything for a while and not be constantly happycow'ing where to eat next like we usually do on travels.

The surprise worked perfectly, even at the Indonesian customs she still had no idea where we're going, but at that stage I had to bring up the name as the customs officer was asking. Nonetheless, it was perfectly smooth -- you arrive at Bintan, go to the lounge at the port and the Cempedak people pick you up from there and drive you to the other side of the island where they have their own speedboat for the rest of the trip.

The arrival was perfect, the place in the darkness of the night had a bit of a magical feel to it. I had told them several times we're vegan since we would be relying on them, but was positively surprised when the guest relations manager upon giving us our welcome drinks was saying they know we're vegan, clearly knew what it meant, and was asking about which kind of vegan breakfast we'd like.



Cempedak is surprisingly eco-friendly. The whole place is built of bamboo, they don't allow any plastic on the island, compost the waste, use water sparingly etc. All this is really nice to see in a luxury resort, and it really doesn't appear to take anything out of the luxury either. The place was much nicer than any 5 star hotel we've been to (and we've been to many!), particularly when it comes to service level.


We chose the seaview villa, which is higher on the hill than the beach villas. Since we didn't try the beach villas it's hard to compare, but the villa on the hill was wonderful, and the wind blowing through made sure we didn't miss having an aircon at any time of the day.



The villas are huge, two floors, really specious, and with a private pool for that morning swim. The water in that pool was quite chilly in the mornings though. The bed has mosquito netting, which is good, although we didn't see too many mosquitos around. Might be just luck.



As for things to do, the resort has kayaks, sailboats, paddle-boards, windsurfing, etc, all free of charge. I even got a free windsurfing lesson since it wasn't busy. They do an eco-tour of the resort area in the mornings, and one extra free activity each day. You can also go snorkeling or diving nearby, or of course relax by the pool or at the villa, or go for the spa treatments. The spa is not cheap, pretty much at Singapore prices, but has a great view.



We also brought our musical instruments along (my wife plays the guzheng and I play the dizi, Chinese bamboo flute). Magnificent environment to be playing music in. At night the sky was so full of stars we were totally amazed, never seen such a rich night sky!

The best part of the wonderful stay was still the food though, I think. Every time at the end of a meal they would suggest and ask things they would do for the next meal, and since they were totally attentive to feedback, the food kept getting better and better throughout the stay! And we never had to wonder about things being vegan as they clearly knew what it is and how to make great vegan food, which is truly a rare treat in a non-veg place.