Gili Trawangan

Sharon’s 50^th birthday continued for another three days on Gili Trawangan. Next morning, fourteen of us, mostly Sharon and Tony’s family drove to Denpasar, then boarded a small plane bound for Lombok, drove another hour on very poorly maintained, winding mountain roads just to make the misery (read: hang over) worse by entering a small boat that took us over to our resort, The Beach House.

But soon all misery was forgotten! The larger villa had a swimming pool and four rooms, big enough to accommodate Tony, Sharon with kids plus Penny and Lee. Bernice, Robert, Lizet, Mark and I got individual bungalows at the back. The open restaurant was right on the beach, sand on the floor, serving tropical drinks and playing good old music, perfect for our age group. It is quite funny that tropical islands play the same kind of music as when I was backpacking in Asia 1982. Reggae for the most part of it. Newer names suitable for beach bars is Jack Johnson.

The Gili’s are three tiny islands just off the west coast of Lombok. One can easily walk around Gili Trawangan in less than two hours. There are no cars and only a few restaurants have internet access. It has a reputation of being a party island. All the way along the north-east beach front, restaurants and bars were lined up as pearls on a string. In spite of the group being slightly ‘worn’ from partying the previous night, the spirits soon rose to higher levels when we got a Gin Tonic. Tony and Sharon treated us all with drinks and food that night. For days we have been talking about how wonderful of a time everybody had and some suggested that it was because of the nice group of people attending and no doubt we all contributed to that (we really were nice) but Tony and Sharon Dawson deserves full credit for putting it all together.  

Sharon had planned, arranged and cooked for weeks. Hospitality at the highest level!

I feel very lucky that I came to Bali at this very moment. Thanks to Face Book I got contact with Tony. Hadn't talked to the dude for 20 years. Then I met his beautiful wife Sharon, who put me up in their guest house and she invited me to her birthday party including the trip to Gili Trawangan. After traveling on my own for 5 months it has been wonderful to be part of a family and be with like minded people. Traveling on your own is great fun, too, but after a while I started missing being with people I know. It takes a few days to get to know people and I got more than that. I got friends for life.

Several times I have referred to myself as a flashpacker, i.e. a backpacker who uses a suitcase or travel bag instead of a rucksack and who has a little bit more money on their account than the average (younger) backpacker. When I was picking out a suitable size lobster for my dinner I felt flashier than ever, remembering the daily plates of fried rice which made up my diet in 1982.

Besides having a good time enjoying delicious food and wine in the evenings we relaxed to the max during the day, whether it was in the pool,  on the beach or by walking around the island. One morning Sharon, Lee, Penny, Bernice, Robert and I went horse riding. It was rather hot but still fun, especially along the beach. That’s always a treat whether on a horse or not.

 

We even squeezed in a snorkeling trip on the last morning. We saw two large turtles, the average tropical fish and some corals; nothing spectacular compared to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but non-the-less a treat for the eye and always fun to be on a boat on warm waters.

Today, 20^th of March is the date I was supposed fly back to Amsterdam via Hong Kong. At least that was the original plan when I booked my ticket in September. It would be the end my 6 months sabbatical. Six months go way too fast!!

But I haven’t seen enough yet and I am not ready to settle. Traveling is fantastic so I have postponed my ticket in order to be able to attend the Annual Functional Neurology Conference in Florida in May. I am looking forward to see my colleagues and get 'into it again' after an eight months long break from chiropractic and neurology. I still haven’t decided where I want to live next and I am not at all worried about not knowing as long as I have money on my account – it is actually a wonderful thing to be able to ‘go with the flow’ and let things unfold along the way. Life in Europe can be rather rigid.

This trip was the right thing to do, something I will never regret. When will I ever again get a chance to do what I do now? I don’t remember who said it but it could be Anthony Robbins: 'It is better to regret the things you did than to regret what you didn’t do'.