Kandui Villas
Mentawai
Overview
Kandui Villas® is simply the next level of luxury surf travel in one of the most remote regions on the planet. Created by the founder of Kandui Resort, Kandui Villas® is situated on Karangmajet Island, directly in front of Kandui left, and Baby Kandui, in the middle of the surf mecca known as ‘Playgrounds’.
Kandui Villas® offer accommodations in twelve private bungalows known in the Mentawai as umas. These umas are made of the finest quality local hardwoods. Intelligently designed, the umas combine traditional Mentawai craftsmanship with modern day luxury and amenities. Each uma is hand carved to a unique theme, inspired by natural surroundings.
Inspiration at Kandui Villas® comes from providing a place on the edge of the jungle and the sea, where a surf traveler feels comfortable and confident enough to bring their significant other and family. Kandui Villas® offer the only infinity pool in Western Sumatra, as well as a restaurant, bar, game room and spa. Another outstanding feature at Kandui Villas® includes fresh organic vegetables grown in an Eco-friendly garden to compliment plenty of locally caught seafood on the menu.
Whether you choose to surf the world’s best waves, engage and any number of activities or just relax and enjoy yourself, Kandui Villas® will not disappoint.
Unique Accommodations
Accommodations
Every uma is hand carved throughout with a different Mentawai animal, or jungle theme, and all the furniture is made of local hardwoods. Each unit comes with two air-conditioning units, allowing guests to adjust for their personal comfort level. The back one-third of each uma is built on a massive cistern which holds close to 10,000 gallons of water.
The bathroom and shower facilities are stylishly appointed, clean and comfortable, with stone floors laid by craftsmen from Bali. Each of the 12 umas are configured with three king-sized beds, or two king-sized, and two double beds, making them very versatile with room for 1 to 4 people – perfect for singles, couples, groups of friends, or families.
RESTAURANT
The restaurant is located directly next to the swimming pool and connected by a wooden deck which wraps around the pool and leads to a game room, bar, and palapa. Good food is vital to surfers burning calories in perfect waves under the tropical sun. The Kandui Villas® menu features local seafood caught by villagers and guests, but also a variety of Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, American, and Indonesian cuisine. Barbecues are also popular at Kandui Villas®, and all of that protein is served alongside organically-grown vegetables from a massive greenhouse on the property.
ORGANIC GREEN HOUSE
Located just to the rear and side of the restaurant, the organic greenhouse produces all of the delicious organic salads served in the restaurant, as well as supplying many of the kitchen’s produce needs. This environmentally greenhouse enables Kandui Villas® to serve salads as fresh as the fish.
THE BAR AND PALAPA
The bar and palapa are located right off the swimming pool deck, next to the Game Room. The spacious indoor/outdoor bar serves up cold beers, spirits and mixed drinks, as well as wine, and champagne. The outdoor palapa, under the same roof as the bar, is where guests can lounge on sofas while relaxing in the shade, right on the edge of the pool deck. The palapa is a place for rest and restoration, drinking favorite beverages, hanging out with friends and significant others, or for mingling with other guests and making new friends.
Amenities
The game room is located right off of the swimming pool deck, next to the bar, and has both a billiard table and a ping pong table.
THE SWIMMING POOL
Kandui Villas® offers the best swimming pool in the Mentawai Islands. The top pool builders in Southeast Asia designed and built a masterpiece: 25 meters long x 18 meters wide, with wrap-around benches along the entire interior of the pool. The infinity edge overflows into a large kiddie pool with a large stone deck encircling it. The swimming pool utilizes a state of the art salt water chlorinator unit, which, through a process of electrolysis, reacts with the slight salinity in the pool water to form chlorine. The form of chlorine it produces is very mild, and does not affect skin or eyes as an irritant. This mild chlorine, coupled with a salinity level similar to that of human tears, makes the water completely neutral feeling for eyes and skin, but is still very refreshing. The main pool is surrounded by a massive out door wooden deck, which connects to the restaurant, game room, bar and palapa.
THE SPA
Kandui Villas offers traditional Indonesian therapeutic massage to relax and soothe away sore muscles from travel, surf and everyday stress. The massage oil they use is very special, homemade raw coconut oil, shredded and pressed lovingly by our Indonesian staff. This massage oil is known for its medicinal properties for the skin and hair.
NANNY SERVICE
Nannies are available by special request, and when available. With enough notice, Kandui Villas® can arrange quality nannies, allowing guests to enjoy quality time with spouse or significant others.
BOATS
Kandui and Baby Kandui are directly in front of the Kandui Villas® and there are two dozen other spots within 30 minutes by fast boat. Kandui Villas® has a solid inventory of boats for accessing the waves: two, five-meter heavy duty plastic dinghies, one 5.2 meter Kahajaya center-consul speed boat and four, 45-50 foot longboats for accessing the spots outside of Playgrounds such as Hideaways, Nipussi, Burgerworld and E-Bay. Kandui Villas® launches the surf boats from four cement docks. Three of the docks are built in a mangrove lagoon located behind each section of the resort making for easy transitions to and from the resort. The fourth dock is a jetty located on the front beach side of the resort, in a keyhole channel between Kandui Left and Baby Kandui. The long boats are 45-50 feet long, and five to six feet wide. Because of the long boats’ sleek design, they cut through the chop better than any boats around, giving a smooth, strong, comfortable and stable ride even through rough seas. The long boats all use three x 40 HP outboards, and go 20+ knots. They have canopies, comfortable padded seats, and all the safety gear, including life jackets, flares, GPS, EPIRB, and satellite phone contained in a Pelican case. Each boat brings a drinking water dispenser, and cooler with snacks, and drinks.
Surf & Seasons
The Surf
Kandui® is in the middle of a chain of smaller islands between Siberut and Sipora that is known as Playgrounds in the surfing world. There are more than two dozen spots breaking on about half-a-dozen small- to medium-sized islands.
Going clockwise around the island, beginning with the spots directly in front of Kandui Villas®:
Kandui Left:
AKA Kanduis or Nokanduis = a startlingly fast, hollow perfect wave, known as the best left in the world by any person and any top pro surfers who have surfed it on a good day. One of those rare things in the surfing world that lives up to the hype, and then some. Unless you grew up with Pipeline, Teahupoo, Grajagan, Cloudbreak or a NASCAR track in your front yard, few waves in the world are preparation for the length, depth and intensity of Kandui®. Surfers from around the world come back to Kandui® to figure it out and get it wired, and once they have caught one good wave there, they are hooked for life, and keep coming back to add minutes and hours of tube time to their life inventory.
Baby Kandui:
When Kandui Left is giant and only mad dogs and Englishmen are game to charge it at 12-foot plus, other mortals take the five-minute paddle down the beach to Baby Kandui, or paddle off the beach directly in front of the jetty of Kandui Villas®. When the swell is giant, Baby Kandui is a 300 yard long, tubing left hander, with 3-4 tube sections on each wave. When Baby Kandui is small and high tide, it is an easy long left that is ideal for hot dogging, or long boarding.
Malibu Right:
Only five minutes from Kandui Villas®, this is a short but sometimes fun, easy right breaking on a small, one-palm tree sand island.
Playgrounds Left and Right:
AKA Karambat Left, Bikinis or G-strings. Around the northern tip of the island and on the northeast side, but only five minutes by dinghy from Kandui Villas®. This wave is predominantly a long easy left, but also has a right hander off of it when it gets a bit bigger. A good tune-up for surfers who don’t want to immediately fling themselves into the maw of Kandui. The view of all the surrounding islands from Karambat will knock the jet lag out of you and leave no doubt you’re not in Kansas anymore.
4 Bobs:
Located directly in front of the Kandui Resort on the east side of the island, 4 Bobs is a fun, hot-dog right-hander that is many steps down in intensity from Kandui/Kanduis/Nokandui, but is still better than 99% of the waves wherever you came from. Surfers who haven’t managed a turn while racing the barrels elsewhere come to 4 Bobs to throw spray and get airs.
A Frames:
A popular, consistent left breaking off a small island on the east side of the main island. Not as intense as Kandui – because few waves in the Mentawai, or anywhere, are – A Frames can be high performance heaven for goofyfoots, but will also throw up a barrel to remind surfers why they came all that way.
Kandui Right/Rifles:
Just ask 10-time world champion Kelly Slater or anyone else who has charged it and you’ll understand it lives up to Jordan Heuer’s description:
Kandui Right (AKA Rifles) is the best right hander in the entire world. It can be up to 800+ yards long, with freight train tube after freight train tube from start to finish. Better than J-Bay, better than Sanur, and any other of the top right handers in the world. Hands down the best right hander in the world. Rifles is only six minutes from Kandui Villas®.
Maikun Island / Hideaways
Directly to the north of Kandui is the island of Maikun, which is home to another left reef called Hideaways.
Hideaways:
Far off and fickle, as this spot is on the west side of a small island somewhat shadowed by Nyang Nyang and Karangmajat. Hideaways is a left reef that everyone knows about and keeps a weather eye on, for that proper combination of swell angle and wind. When it breaks, it approaches the Teahupoo and Pipeline class for challenge and gnarliness.
Nyang Nyang Island
Nyang Nyang Island is northwest of Kandui and is home to a half-dozen breaks. Going clockwise from the southeast corner of the island:
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Nipussi:
A right reef about 15 minutes by fast longboat from Kandui Villas®. If you’re tired of going Mach One through barrels frontside or backside, Nipussi is the place to go for hitting the lip, launching your bag of tricks and big carves. In other words: A performance wave that actually lets you out of the barrel from time to time. Nipussi is one of the more consistent, reliable waves in the Playgrounds inventory. -
Bank Vaults:
About 15 minutes by boat from Kandui Villas®, Bank Vaults is the 2nd best right hander in the Mentawai after Rifles, often compared to a cross between Backdoor Pipeline and Sunset Beach, but better, and with much easier drops. At any size, Bank Vaults offers amazing tube rides, but when it’s big, this spot has the biggest right hand tubes in the Mentawai Islands. -
Pit Stops:
Twenty minutes from Kandui Villas®, Pit Stops right is kind of like sushi, or other acquired tastes: Some people swear by it, others swear at it. Pit Stops is a right reef and a favorite wave for surfers who want to work on their aerials, tailslides and other tricks. In other words: A hotdog wave that will still barrel, although a lot of surfers prefer to float over the barrel than ride in them on this wave. -
E-Bay:
Twenty minutes from Kandui Villas®, E-Bay is a fickle left reef that fires when the swell is out of the west. E-Bay starts to grind when it’s overhead and goes to double overhead plus and is a fairly typical, perfect, hollow grinding Mentawai left barrel. -
Beng Beng:
If you want to come to the Mentawai and enjoy the view and surf without worrying about getting caught inside or trapped inside the barrel, Beng Beng is one of the spots. Anywhere else in the world, Beng Beng would cause riots but this left reef – which is better on lower tides – is one of the easier nearby waves when the easy waves in the Kandui/Playgrounds area are not working – and Beng Beng is a good tune-up for the more Black Diamond waves available.
Karangniki Island / Burgerworld
Even farther to the northwest, the island of Karangniki is close to Siberut and is home to Burgerworld: As the name implies, Burger World is not the fastest or most powerful wave in the Playgrounds inventory, but it’s one of the more consistent waves in the area, and a place surfers flock to on those rare occasions when there is no swell. When it is in the shoulder-high-to-a-couple-feet-over-head range, Burgerworld is a long rippable right hand point break with some tube sections, and has been compared to a section of small J-Bay by some of the top touring pros.
Boats and Access
Kandui and Baby Kandui are directly in front of the Kandui Villas® and there are two dozen other spots within 30 minutes by fast boat, in all directions. For getting to the surf, Kandui Villas® has a solid inventory of boats for accessing the inventory of waves: two, five-meter heavy duty plastic dinghies, one 5.2 meter Kahajaya center-consul speed boat and four, 45-50 foot longboats for accessing the spots outside of Playgrounds: Hideaways, Nipussi, Burgerworld, E-Bay.
Kandui Villas® launches their fleet of surf boats from four cement docks. Three of the docks are built in a mangrove lagoon located behind each section of the resort making for easy transitions to and from the resort. The fourth dock is a jetty located on the front beach side of the resort, in a keyhole channel between Kandui Left and Baby Kandui.
Synopsis:
The Mentawai are chain of islands approximately 100 miles long off the coast of West Sumatra situated just below the equator. Kandui Villas is located in the northern part of the chain less than 85 miles south of the equator in an area encircling the earth known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where the north and southeast trade winds converge. Early sailors named this belt of calm the doldrums because the inactivity and stagnation they found themselves in after days of no wind.
Unlike the islands to the south like Bali, Sumbawa and Sumba which have a distinct dry and wet season; the proximity of the Mentawai to the equator make the weather patterns much less predictable. Rain can fall any time of year which has created the lush rainforests of SE Asia and the winds can swirl month to month from most any direction; having said that, there are generalities that have been identified over the years with wind, rain and swell.
Air Temps: mid 70’s to 90 night to day year round. Most humid October through December
Water Temps: 85 +/- year round. Very comfortable boardshorts temp. No wetsuit needed.
Rain: Any time of year.
Wind: The Playgrounds has variable wind all year round and given the huge number of breaks around Kandui Villas it is generally not difficult finding a wave with good conditions.
Swell: Given the massive fetch across the Indian Ocean and the Mentawai’s perfect location situated to pick up all swell, the Mentawai has more consistent surf year round than most places do during peak season. Historical data shows peak season runs March through October with swell in the 6-8’ range 85%+ of days; biggest swells typically most consistent May through September. November through March sees 5’ on average for 70% of days.
So what does this all really mean? It means you can score surf in the Mentawai all year round. If you are looking for the biggest most consistent swells April through October have the best odds. If you would be happy with head high surf, the possibility of bigger days, hot and clean conditions with very few people around; November through March is an excellent call.
Activities
Activities
Playing poker or Scrabble or volleyball might seem mundane, but it’s all exotic when done in an island of modern civilization with the jungle and the ocean all around you. For those who want to stay connected with the outside world, Kandui Villas® also has a big screen TV connected to a satellite dish and Internet access.
- Game fishing
- Snorkeling
- Volleyball
- Ping-Pong
- Spa
- Cultural Tours
” You made our trip so much better! We would have been lost without ya’ll! Mmmm… good food. Good people. Good waves. Love this place! It will always be in my heart and soul.”
– JC
Travel Information
The following information is designed to give you a quick insight into what happens between arrival at the Padang Airport until you reach Kandui Villas®, and back again. From Padang to Kandui Villas® Once your flight touches down you are ushered to the baggage claim/customs area.
VISA FEES
US passport holders are no longer required to obtain a Visa for tourist travel to Indonesia for stays less than 30days. For extended stays beyond 30 days US passport holders should contact the Indonesian embassy to obtain a Visa prior to their arrival.
CUSTOMS
The fastest and easiest way to make it out of the customs area without having officials go through your bags is to get a porter to handle your baggage for a small tip. Pay careful attention to the porter that carries your bags, the general rule of thumb is to not give them the tip until your bags are loaded on the truck. The maximum porter tip per guest should be no more than USD$2, although they may ask you for more, please do not give it to them!
MEET AND GREET
Once you’ve made it outside the customs area you will be met by a representative from Kandui Villas® and into the air conditioned cars that are waiting for you.
THE WAIT
Once you’ve made it outside and witnessed the hustle and bustle of Padang International Airport you’re ready to get in one of our minivans and get taken to the Mercure Hotel for the night. Before you leave the airport parking lot do a quick spot check to make sure all of your luggage has made it on to the designated transport vehicles. If you are hungry, or need any additional supplies from town, then our staff is their to help guide you to where you need to go.
TIME TO LEAVE
During the high season time frame Kandui Villas will be offering direct round trip transportation to Kandui Villas via Mentawai Fast Ferry 2. The rate for this direct, very fast and convenient transportation is $550 per person. This schedule maximizes your time on the island as well as in the surf, and minimizes the time you have to spend in Padang, so that only 1 over night stay upon arrival to Padang is required, but no overnight in Padang is required at the end of your trip on your way home.
During this October – March low season time-frame, Kandui Villas will allow stays in any combination of a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday transfer schedule, in alignment with the new Mentawai Fast Ferry transfers between Padang and Siberut, utilizing an additional Speed Canoe charter between Siberut and our island, as this will allow guests a flexible schedule for their length of stay with us to fit their personal timeframes. This new flexible schedule allows for stays as short as 3 nights, 4 nights, 7 nights, 10 nights, or as long as you want to stay!
Welcome to Kandui Villas®—Paradise on Earth!
Upon your arrival to Kandui Villas®, you will be given a welcome drink, a meal if you are hungry, shown to your Uma, and given a run down on all the important information you need to know for your stay at Kandui Villas®. Some eager guests may decide to skip all the formalities, grab their favorite board, and hit the surf, jump in the swimming pool or go get all the tension from their travels massaged out of them. What ever you do at this point is entirely up to you, and our well trained staff is at your beckon call to help facilitate, what we hope, will be the best vacation experience of your entire life. From Kandui Villas® to Padang On the last day of the trip, you will settle up bar tabs, and/or any other extras you indulged in during your Kandui Villas® stay, at the office, say good bye to your favorite Kandui Villas® staff members, and basically repeat steps 1-7 above, but in reverse. Please be careful to make sure you have packed everything that you want, and need to go home with, including the form you were given by Indonesian Immigration upon arrival, as you will need it to be able to leave the country. Please note that before boarding your domestic Indonesian flight from Padang you will be required to pay 40,000 RP airport tax before boarding the plane, and you will later have to pay an additional 150,000 RP international departure tax before boarding your flight out of Indonesia.
Tsunami Preparedness
Kandui Villas® are aware of the tsunami threat and take precautions for the safety of their guests, and their own families. Kandui Villas® is an official partner on the German-Indonesian Tsunami early warning system. The only real-time GPS monitoring station for their system is located at Kandui Villas®. German-Indonesian Tsunami early warning system team also just set up the quickest email update warning system for us, at our request, which gives a map showing the epicenter, the magnitude of the quake, as well as the depth of the quake, within two minutes from the time of the event. Kandui Villas® are also working on a tidal gauge warning system and other tsunami precautions. If guests feel a large quake, or are alerted to earth movement beyond the horizon, Kandui Villas® has built a safe refuge at the top of a 30 meter high hill.
Pricing
2024 Rates
During your stay at Kandui Villas®, your home will be one of 12 luxury umas which have been hand-built by Mentawai craftsman. Each umas offers all of the comforts, privacy, and serenity you could expect. All of our umas are hand carved with local animal, and nature themes, have a large private tropical land scaped yard with Japanese grass, private beach access, an ocean view, are fully air-conditioned with mosquito nets, mini-bars, in-room safes, hot water, hair dryers and bathroom amenities.
Each Package Includes:
- Luxury Shared Uma Accommodations
- All Meals & Non-Alcoholic Drinks with Meals
- Welcome Drinks
- Speed Boat Transfers to Surf Breaks (depending on swell, tide, and wind conditions)
All rates include 11% government tax, 10% service charge & 1,000,000 Rp. per person Mentawai Government surfer tax.
Direct Transfers Padang – Kandui Villas
$550.00 per person
Transfers from Padang to Kandui Villas are about 3 hours depending on the ocean conditions. Pre and post nights are recommended to avoid any misconnects with the boat transfers and flights.