Qualla: The Island Diana Chose

The Island Diana Chose: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Katiebowl, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1993, when Diana, Princess of Wales, needed to disappear, she chose an island that most of the world had never heard of. Moyo sits off the northern coast of Sumbawa in Indonesia's Lesser Sunda chain, a 349-square-kilometer wedge of savannah and forest rising 648 meters above a sea so clear that the coral below looks close enough to touch. The island had no airport, no paved coastal road, no particular fame. That was the point. Diana stayed at Amanwana, a resort of twenty luxury tents pitched in the coastal forest, where the nightly rate approached $2,000 and the nearest significant town -- Sumbawa Besar, on the mainland -- required a boat ride across open water. Three decades later, Moyo remains what it was then: a place that rewards the effort of getting there by offering something increasingly rare in Southeast Asia. Quiet.

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Image: Katiebowl | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Island Diana Chose: Where the Savannah Meets the Reef

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Egaryan Saadi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Moyo's interior defies the lush tropical stereotype. Much of the island's center is savannah -- dry grassland broken by strands of forest, more reminiscent of eastern Indonesia's dryer climate zones than the dense jungles of Borneo or Sumatra. The terrain rises to 648 meters at i...

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Image: Egaryan Saadi | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Island Diana Chose: Megapodes, Macaques, and Flying Foxes

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Torbenbrinker, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1986, Indonesia declared Moyo a conservation area, establishing the Moyo Island Hunting Park across 22,250 hectares of the interior and a 6,000-hectare Marine Nature Tourism Park along the coast. The island shelters a remarkable density of wildlife for its size. Long-tailed ma...

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Image: Torbenbrinker | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Island Diana Chose: Cashews, Boats, and 4,200 Neighbors

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Torbenbrinker, CC BY-SA 3.0. Moyo is home to roughly 4,200 people living in two administrative villages -- Labuhan Aji in the south and Sebotok in the north -- distributed across six smaller settlements. Life here follows rhythms that predate tourism by centuries. Most residents fish and farm, and the two oc...

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Image: Torbenbrinker | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Island Diana Chose: Still Undiscovered, for Now

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Tourism marketers have labeled Moyo "undiscovered" for so long that the word itself has become a kind of brand. Yet the description remains stubbornly accurate. There is no ferry schedule, no regular air service, no chain hotel. Getting here means arranging a boat from Sumbawa Be...

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Image: Public domain