You get an email from a client you have done work for 30 years to say they are looking at buying a surf lodge in the Mentawais and you need to work very hard to control excitement. To get to this island involves 60 hours of travel on a series of increasingly more intimate modes of transport starting in a Dreamliner and finishing in a tinny. Yet a 5 minute walk up the beach, there are no roads or even paths, are empty world class waves breaking over beautiful coral reefs. Every surfers' dream. This island hosts a few hundred dedicated tourists each year but also produces copra and cloves. The waves are much more consistent than our local breaks year-round but only enjoy tourism a few months of the year.