Green Luxury
Posted by deborahchan on Apr 27, 2010
Photo by Leong Siok Hui
In an era where everyone brazenly hitches a ride on the green bandwagon, the folks behind Nikoi Island are an aberration. When I asked Andrew Dixon, one of Nikoi’s founders, about the resort’s eco-friendly approaches, he says, “We take sustainable tourism seriously but avoid labelling or marketing ourselves as such.” Dixon thinks, and rightly so, that these green labels have been bandied about by too many hoteliers who don’t do much beyond asking guests to reuse towels or changing light bulbs.
To find out for myself, I took a ferry to Bintan Island, Indonesia, from Singapore’s Tanah Merah terminal. From the fishing village of Kawal, I boarded a boat to “Eden”, and in less than three hours I was on the island, a world away from bustling Singapore. A white sandy beach fringed by sparkling azure waters and a row of rustic thatched bungalows peeking out from a lush green forest greeted us in Nikoi. Wide grins on their faces, the resort staff scampered out to the arriving guests – yours truly and an American couple, Lara and Nick, who were on the same boat. Read more of this article…
Wild Asia
