NIRUP ISLAND, Indonesia – Quiet luxury is stepping off a 40-minute ferry ride from Singapore and finding that my hotel has its own immigration counter.

It is an island where petrol vehicles are neither seen nor heard; where only whisper-quiet electric buggies are used. It is a restaurant and pool only 14km from downtown Singapore – the skyscrapers of the central district still visible across the water – but which might as well be a world away.