Owning a piece of paradise

A roll of mosquito net and a kuali - that’s all it cost Robinson’s parents to buy an island in Mentawai, West Sumatra. But that was 60 years ago. Today he modestly estimates his paradise island is worth at least 200 million rupiah (RM77,700).  

Robinson (yes, named after the famed Robinson Crusoe) cheekily laughs and says that unlike his namesake, there’s no way he or anybody else is going to be shipwrecked on his island. “It’s too small. It takes only 20 minutes to walk around it,” he adds.