Gili Trawangan is a small island off the coast of Lombok. It's a wannabe hippie-haven where travellers meet to smoke pot, get drunk and listen to 60s rock'n roll. The planet is becoming increasingly filled with these blast-from-the-past oases where young backpackers can throw away their money in search of what their parents once had.




Daniel - of Daniel & Sara from Sweden – had an interesting take on “ new” world travellers when we last met in India. His philosophy is that foreign visitors destroy the social and economic fibre of the poorer countries they visit. If doctors and dentists can make more money serving the wealthy, acting as tour guides or taxi drivers, why not simply give up the profession and get behind the wheel? So what if the governments of these not so thriving nations have invested in the education of their young. It's all about dog-eat-dog, where the rich get richer and the poor stay that way. In the meantime Elenka and I will take local buses where we can give our extra cash to the truly poor.




Tomorrow we escape this make believe world. From the island of Flores in the east, we'll board a traditional schooner called the Al Isra destined for somewhere more pleasant. We managed to get an end-of-season deal that was too good to pass up, like the repositioning cruise we took from Seattle to Sydney. It'll just be Renate, Elenka and I, along with a crew of five. Many divemasters work in Indonesia just to have the opportunity to experience the reefs in the Sea of Flores. We'll get that chance too.




Check out the Al Isra at www.bluewatercruises.com