The island of Gili Trawangan off the north-western shores of Lombok, Indonesia, has seen tremendous change over the recent decades. From a poor fishing community, it has evolved into a major tourist destination with thousands of visitors every year.
This cache is placed in honor of Pak Majid, an islander who pioneered tourism in the Gilis. He and his wife, Suparmi, started a very simple guesthouse on this island in the early 80ies, offering basic rooms and homemade food to the very few travelers coming this way. I was among them, visiting in 1984.
Revisiting the Gilis in 2009, I had high hopes of meeting Pak and Suparmi again, as their place was still listed in the Lonely Planet travel guide. As it turned out, Pak Majid had passed away in earlier that year, and Suparmi moved to Lombok. But as I immediately discovered, they are fondly remembered by island folks, who would talk about them in respectful and highly emotional terms.
Many visitors to Gili Trawangan never venture beyond the tourist areas. However the interior of the island is worth exploring. It is quiet and scenic, and a hike here good way to meet local people. Unfortunately, there is a lot of litter around. When placing this cache, I filled several plastic bags with garbage and empty bottles. Please remove some trash on your way back from this cache. Finding empty plastic bags for the litter is certainly no problem!
The cache is placed on a hill near the highest point of the island, and near Gili Trawangan's only historic sight: The remains of a Japanese wartime installation.
Bring your own pen.
Note on cache maintenance: glogloman has offered to assist. Thanks!
Maintenance note: Warmest thanks to Huss-Team for doing major maintenance on the cache in April 2014.