Alang-alang thatch

Alang-alang is the soft, golden-brown thatch you see crowning villa roofs in Bali, Lombok and the Maldives. Made from sun-dried grass blades layered by hand, it gives the gently sloped pavilions their iconic shaggy outline and keeps interiors several degrees cooler than concrete. Walk into resorts like Como Shambhala, Bambu Indah or any Aman in Indonesia and the first thing you notice is the smell and the play of light filtering through the woven peaks. It needs re-thatching roughly every fifteen years, which is why properties that maintain it well are signaling craft and time, not just decoration.