Gili Trawangan is a paradise of global repute, ranking alongside Bali and Borobudur as one of Indonesia's top destinations. Trawangan's heaving main drag, busy with bikes, horse carts and mobs of scantily clad visitors can surprise those expecting some languid tropical retreat. Instead, a wall-to-wall roster of lounge bars, hip guesthouses, ambitious restaurants, mini-marts and dive schools clamour for attention.
And yet behind this glitzy facade, a bohemian character endures, with rickety warungs (food stalls) and reggae joints surviving between the cocktail tables, and quiet retreats dotting the much-less-busy north coast. Even as massive 200+ room hotels begin to colonise the still mostly wild and ragged west coast, you can head just inland to a village laced with sandy lanes roamed by free-range roosters, kibbitzing ibu (mothers) and wild-haired kids playing hopscotch. Here the call of themuezzin, not happy hour, defines the time of day.
Settled just over 50 years ago (by Bugis fishermen from Sulawesi), travellers discovered Gili T in the 1980s, seduced by the white-sand beaches, and coral reefs. By the 1990s Trawangan had mutated into a kind of tropical Ibiza, a stoney idyll where you could rave away from the eyes of the Indonesian police. And then the island began to grow up – resident Western hedonists morphed into entrepreneurs, diving rivalled partying in the economy, and outside money poured in to build resorts.
Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/indonesia/gili-trawangan#ixzz3J0oA4K44
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