01 — The place
Sumba is four hundred kilometres east of Bali and about forty years behind it.
We built on a headland of black volcanic rock where the savannah runs out and drops ninety metres into open water. There is no road past us. The nearest village is Weekarou, twenty minutes inland, and most of our staff walk from it.
Nine villas, no more. Thatch cut from the hills behind the property, stone quarried from the cliff itself, teak from a plantation in Waikabubak. Nothing here was shipped from somewhere more convenient.
The trade-off is real: the wifi is adequate and nothing more, the swell is too strong to swim some weeks, and dinner is whatever the boats brought in. Guests who want a resort should not come. Guests who want an island will not want to leave.
02 — The villas
Every villa opens on the ocean side with no glass and no wall. Rates are all-inclusive: meals, house drinks, laundry, and the airport run from Tambolaka.
Set back on the grass line, facing due west. The quietest villas on the property and the only ones that catch the full sunset from the bed.
$620 / night · all-inclusive
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Cantilevered over the drop with a plunge pool cut straight into the basalt. You hear the water below all night. Light sleepers should take the Ridge.
$880 / night · all-inclusive
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Two bedrooms at the far point of the property with their own kitchen and cook. Taken whole, usually by families or by two couples travelling together.
$1,940 / night · all-inclusive
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We did not build a view. We stopped building where the view was.Rambu Kahi — founder, third-generation Waikabubak
03 — Your days
This is roughly how a day moves if you let it. Skip any of it. Most guests skip the morning.
Coffee is on the pavilion from half five. Nobody will speak to you.
Sumbanese ponies, an hour along the cliff path to an empty beach. Ride back or take the truck.
Ibu Rambu Ana dyes ikat with indigo and morinda root the way her grandmother did. Two hours. She sells directly; we take nothing.
Treatment pavilion, or the library, or the pool, or nothing at all. Nothing at all is the local preference.
One long table on the terrace. Whatever the boats brought and whatever the garden gave. You will eat with the other guests unless you ask not to.
Lights go low across the property. The Milky Way here is not a figure of speech.
04 — The table & the house
Three meals, cooked by Ferdi and four cooks from Weekarou. No menu — you are told what there is. Dietary needs handled if you tell us a week out.
Daily · included
House wine, arak from Waitabula, beer, and a short list of good bottles that we charge for at cost plus freight.
Daily · house included
Two therapists, open-sided, facing the garden. Sixty or ninety minutes. One treatment per guest per stay is included.
09:00 — 17:00
Six ponies stabled on site. Beginners taken on the flat inland loop; confident riders get the cliff path to Marosi.
Mornings · included
Nihiwatu's break is ninety minutes north by truck. We drive, we wait, we bring you back. Boards are not ours — bring your own.
On request · $70
The ritual spear festival runs Feb–Mar on the coast. Dates are set by the sea worms, not by us, and we cannot promise it.
Feb — Mar · weather-bound
05 — The property
06 — Reserve
We hold a villa for 48 hours while we confirm flights into Tambolaka. Minimum three nights, five over Christmas and New Year. Nothing is charged here.