Johannes Widjaya.

My Jakarta: Johannes Widjaya, Creator of Pelabuhan Ratu's "Dr. Seuss House"

Johannes Widjaya is living the dream. Every Friday, as the sun dips behind Jakarta’s high-rises, he leaves his desk on the eighth floor of Chase Plaza and hits the road for the beauty of Pelabuhan Ratu, a snaking four-hour drive south through the mountains of Bogor and Sukabumi that leads to a quiet coastal town and some of the best waves in Java.

Along the coast of Pelabuhan Ratu sits Karang Aji, a 10-room villa that rests atop a jade slope overlooking the Indian Ocean. It’s about the man just as much as it is the house. Johannes is famous for this wicked mix of lookout tower, eco-lodge and tranquil villa that is one of the most unique getaways in Indonesia.

How do you feel when people refer to Karang Aji as the Dr. Seuss house in Pelabuhan Ratu?

Dr. Seuss has been a source of inspiration ever since my primary school days in Singapore. I unleashed my full admiration for him in building Karang Aji Beach Villa. I remember “Dr. Seuss Zoo Toys” with Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle, Norval the Bashful Blinket, Tingo the Noodle Topped Stroodle and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion. These toys could be assembled, disassembled and reassembled “in thousands” of ways. The basic body parts were the same and all were interchangeable in essentially unlimited ways. Similarly, the villa will always be changing. One day the main living room is on the first floor, and six months later it will be outdoors in the basement. I’m able to do this without even sacrificing a single bolt or nut due to the Dr. Seuss concept.

How many rooms do you have?

The homestay is like one big house, with 10 bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

There is a new cottage you’re finishing just off to the side of the house. Tell me about it.

It’s built on a stretch of volcanic rock. You can see the sea out the front window, and then off to the side there are squirrels and I’ve seen wild boar out there twice.

How did you get the idea for Karang Aji?

Twenty years ago I came back from the US; I had finished my undergrad degree at Pepperdine and my postgrad at UCLA. The closest place to surf was Pelabuhan Ratu. The current down there in the bay in Karang Aji, Lagon Pari, was calm.

When did you start building?

I started about nine years ago and I finished the first phase three years later. I was working in Sampit when the riots broke out in 2001. Afterward, I bought a bunch of wood from the supplier I was working for, and after the riots, I needed somewhere to park it.

What do the blueprints for a place like this look like?

At first, there were no blueprints. The house was built around the lookout point, which I built first. I got ideas for the design of the house from books and from the photos I took from my travels, places like Maldives, Morocco, India, the Middle East and Europe. I’m proud to say that after nine years, the house has survived a 5.0 magnitude earthquake, a 40-knot cyclone and a mini-tsunami in 2007. Academically, I am a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in finance.

The house is huge. It kind of juts out of the hill and looks out over the bay. How many square meters is it?

The main house is five stories high and it’s 2,200 square meters. It sits 200 feet above sea level, but the lookout is about 40 meters higher than that.

After you are done exploring the homestay and the grounds, what else is there to do here?

A family last week went out into the bay on a shrimp boat and saw a whale. There are dolphins in the bay. Besides that, there are hot springs, waterfalls trekking, and if you walk along the coast for about four kilometers, there’s a sea cave. Plus, at night, you can spot fireflies.

Who stays at your place? Is it for families and surfers?

Families stay here but I would say 60 percent of my clientele are young Indonesians. There are all kinds of people: budget travelers, surfers and people from the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor.

What about the colorful room that sticks out from the main house? You call it the bird head room?

It’s acrylic paint. Early in the morning and late at night, there are two eagles that fly around the area. They’re the inspiration for it. The acrylic room is the bird’s head while the acrylic canopy that spans the lobby is the wings.

You make the drive from Jakarta to Pelabuhan Ratu. Some people say it takes three or four hours to get down there. What’s your best time?

Two hours and forty minutes. I’ve been doing it for years. I know all the right routes. The best time leave Jakarta would be before 6 a.m. or after 8 p.m., to avoid the traffic jams. But that’s up to you.

What kind of wood is the house made of?

I used bangkirai, yellow ballau, a hard wood, iron wood and meranti batu. That’s the reddish colored wood that you see inside the house. Kempas is used for the flooring. Ninety percent of the house is made of wood.

How would you describe the experience of staying in this house to people?

It is like camping in the sky. We have the views of the ocean, the forest on the other side, the village, the paddy fields and the rolling waves.

Johannes Widjaya was talking to Zack Petersen.

Your View

See Result