Nias surf house at Sorake

Lagundri Bay on the southern tip of Nias is a name every travelling surfer knows. The Sorake point wraps a fast, hollow right over a shallow coral shelf and holds size from March through October, and the bay behind it is a warm, calm horseshoe of sand where the swell dies before it reaches the shore. Around it sits a village economy of surf losmen, warungs and boat builders.

The house is a three-bedroom, ninety-five square metre build in the local hybrid style: a concrete ground floor with a timber upper level and a broad first-floor balcony aimed directly at the point, so you can read the sets over breakfast. Two bathrooms, a functional kitchen, a covered outdoor washing area for boards and wetsuits, water tanks, and a small walled garden with coconut and banana. A hundred and twenty metres of sand path takes you to the water.

Nias is culturally extraordinary as well as a surf destination. The megalithic villages of the south, above all Bawomataluo with its stone-jumping tradition and carved chiefs' houses, are an hour inland on winding roads through jungle and rubber. The island has its own language, its own architecture built to survive earthquakes, and a hospitality that surprises first-time visitors.

Practically, Teluk Dalam is the nearest town at twenty minutes with markets, a clinic, banks and fuel. Gunungsitoli, three hours north, has the island's hospital and Binaka airport with daily flights to Medan; ferries also run from Sibolga on the Sumatran mainland. Electricity is grid with occasional cuts, so a small inverter is normal, and internet arrives by 4G.

Prices here remain a fraction of Bali's for a comparable build, and buyers use the usual Indonesian leasehold or right-of-use structure with a notary. For anyone who has ever watched footage of Lagundri and wondered what it would cost to wake up in front of it, this is the answer.