Actor host Max Loong opens Hidden Hills Villa resort in Uluwatu, bali

SINGAPORE — Looks like actor and host Max Loong is going strong with his hospitality streak. After opening Supperclub in Los Angeles in 2010 with two other partners, the Fly Entertainment artiste is now the proud co-owner — along with his mum — of a new villa resort in Bali which welcomed its first guests last month.

“It all started with my mum looking to buy a house in Bali to retire in; so we started looking at a piece of land to buy a house. We have good friends who built resorts in Bali who inspired us to do something bigger,” explained the Swiss-Chinese who got engaged last year to his American actress-host girlfriend. “We thought, ‘Okay, why not a small bed and breakfast place?’ Then the scale of it just got bigger and bigger!”

Thankfully for Loong, the project didn’t get too massive. Hidden Hills Villas at Uluwatu consists of six villas (with one to three bedrooms). “We want to position our villas as affordable luxury. Our one-bedrooms are only US$400 (S$531) nett and it’s half price till June!”

Q: There are lots of beautiful locations in Bali. Why did you choose Uluwatu for Hidden Hills?

A: This is part of the island that’s a bit far from the craziness and busyness of Kuta and Seminyak but it’s not that remote that it’s in the middle of nowhere. It takes 30 to 45 minutes to get to Seminyak. If you’re staying with us during the weekends, you can still get to town fairly easily, yet come back to peace and quiet. We like that the space is really open and the view is priceless. You get a view of the sunset from every villa.

Q: Why do some of the villas have names of destinations like Santorini and Marrakesh?

A: My mum has been interested in art all her life and she’s great with interior design. We didn’t want our villas to look generic as much as we like the Balinese elements. We decided to incorporate different cultures inspired by our travels and mix them up with what we find inspiring about Balinese decor. We had a lot of fun with it.

Q: What do you enjoy most about travelling?

A: I love everything about travelling. Yes, even the flying! It is really the one time I can have some downtime to myself — when I force myself not to work, but to sleep or watch some movies instead. I don’t have a deal with Singapore Airlines but I must say SQ makes the flying easier to bear. I also have my bag of tricks to make (flights seem) easier, such as forcing myself to adapt to the time zone of my destination by either sleeping or staying awake on the plane. I don’t ever suffer from jetlag.

Q: Have you ever had a bad holiday, then?

A: That’s a hard one as I usually just go with the flow. Well, there was a trip in my late teens or early 20s. I was raring to go to Turkey for a two week holiday with my friend. In the end, it rained heavily for the entire time. I was told the region only gets 14 days of rainfall in a year and we got all of it. To make it worse, my friend got food poisoning. Not a great time.SERENE LIM