Moon Gang, Ubud’s newest stylish hideaway, has transformed an abandoned holiday villa into an experiment in music-led hospitality and cosmology-tinged wellness
Arriving at Moon Gang happens in stages. Leave your luggage at Mini Moon Gang, a kiosk just off Ubud’s Jalan Raya, and the last stop for four wheels. From there, one of the ‘Moon Gangsters’ will whisk you away on a three-minute scooter ride. The busy shopping street soon gives way to the Sari Organic Walk, a narrow path framed by rice fields and palm trees. Amid it all sits Moon Gang proper, a new hideaway with wellness, music and design at its core.
‘We wanted to support well-being through calm spaces that are still energised by intriguing designs, materials and colours that combine into something tangibly otherworldly,’ says founder Kirsten Millbank. ‘It was also important to embrace Indonesia’s ancient and modern health, music and spiritual rituals — all this with our own cosmic spin.’ Millbank runs Adelaide’s First Base Studio, a design practice centred on well-being, and retrofitted Moon Gang from a derelict holiday villa in partnership with design firm YSG Studio and creative consultancy Dance Card, both also Australian.
With four keys in total, the largest offering two bedrooms, Moon Gang unfolds around a central pool surrounded by tropical greenery. Black and white chequered tiles line its edge, nodding to the saput poleng cloth of Balinese Hinduism. Facing the pool is Nongkrong Lounge, Moon Gang’s convivial heart. Defined by open archways, organic portholes and U-shaped seating, the space houses a tea salon and a small library of titles hand-picked by Millbank to match the mood. There’s also a listening station and vinyl library curated by Indonesian DJ and producer Munir, better known as Midnight Runners. The collection ranges from Indonesian and Japanese city pop to groove and disco. My favourite find was a 1979 yoga class on vinyl, with spoken instructions to the background of Indian music.
More than a dozen Indonesian designers and artisans helped furnish the hotel. ‘We wanted everything to be eco-conscious and crafted locally across Indonesia. Without those collaborations, Moon Gang would feel far less authentic,’ says Millbank. At Nongkrong Lounge, Bandung-based A_A Practice designed the vinyl cabinetry and timber speakers, and Wedoo handcrafted the DJ desk as well as other counters from discarded bottle tops. Byo Living wove the lime-green dining chairs and pool loungers from recycled plastic, all designed by YSG Studio, and Make A Scene did the same for a sculptural custom palm-leaf pendant.
Moon Gang’s wellness lab accommodates just one guest at a time but isn’t short on character. A large bamboo shoji door opens into a darkened interior with indigo-dyed plaster walls and cosmic-kitsch details. Upstairs, the open-air Melamun terrace hosts yoga sessions and invites guests to stretch out on rattan mats, gaze skyward and, as the staff put it, ‘get lost in thought’.
Rooms bear psychedelic names rather than numbers, displayed on colour-coded resin and timber lamps that replace signage. Night Fever, my suite, is arranged across two levels, with a sitting area featuring built-in furniture in earthy tones and an en-suite in deep charcoal-indigo. The latter is semi-open through breeze-blocks. The sleeping area above is dimly lit to support natural circadian rhythms. Mornings start with daylight gently filtering through plant-dyed watercolour curtains, made by Balinese artisans at Pagi Motley, and a chorus of roosters, crickets, and palm and banana leaves rustling in the breeze.
Breakfast is à la carte and served across the road in a pavilion with open views at Dragonfly Village. The restaurant belongs to another hotel, but competition seems beside the point to Millbank: ‘Local ingredients, local hands; there was no reason to look further than the people already beside us.’ For the wellness lab, Moon Gang partners with BSI International for IV drips and biomarker testing, and with Fields of Yarrow, whose skincare formulas use ingredients harvested across Indonesia, including at its own Uluwatu farm.
‘Beyond that, we collaborate with the community along the track,’ says Millbank. She cites gotong royong — the Indonesian spirit of neighbours working towards a shared goal — as central to running Moon Gang and caring for its car-free surroundings. ‘We sit inside the rice fields, and Moon Gang only works if we’re part of looking after it all.’ Her on-the-ground staff, the Gangsters, are easily identified by their athletic-style jerseys, designed with Indonesian graphic studio Peace Freedom. The jerseys are for sale at Cosmos Kiosk out front, which stocks a smart selection of Moon Gang wares. On the way back from breakfast — shopping detour permitting — you might see a Gangster performing the daily mebanten ritual, placing offerings at wall-mounted shrines across the hotel and outside each room, leaving a fine trail of incense behind.
By Tomás Pinheiro
Photography courtesy of Moon Gang
