Adventures in Paradise

The morning I check out of my fancy-pants resort, I learn two fascinating things:

• My Visa Signature card has been canceled.
• My WaMu MasterCard does not work in the only ATM on the island.

Dropping my bag behind the reception desk, I double-time it down to the I-café make a Skype call to Visa customer service. (Amazingly, Voice over IP works even here!) Turns out there was some big security breach involving thousands of card numbers, mine included. So a new card is waiting for me at home and the old card was closed out last week. Surprise, surprise!

Happy ending: old card restored until I get home, fancy-pants resort paid off, almost-deadbeat guest on his way to cheaper but still comfy digs down the road. A-frame grass hut just 20 steps from the beach, with an open-air bathroom, air-con, breakfast, about 35 bucks. Sweet.

That afternoon I walk all the way around the island, a two-and-a-half-hour hike across sand in 90-degree equatorial sun. I am a sunburned, footsore idiot.

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Once again, a tropical Asian paradise in which the prime restaurant locations are dedicated to White People chow – your Irish pub, your sandwich joint, pizza place, etc. And once again, the sure-fire way to find real-deal local food is: turn your back on the ocean and start walking. Two blocks inland I find a scruffy little warung called Borobudur 2, cooking up the equivalent of Indonesian soul food.

First time there I didn’t have my glasses to read the menu, so I just went to the big bowls of ready-made food and pointed. Big plate, lots of rice, tried different stuff. Came back for seconds and he told me to come around the counter and help myself. I eat my main meal of the day there now for all of a buck-twenty.

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The Visa situation is fixed, but the no-ATM access I can’t resolve, and I don’t want to cut it too close with my last 100,000 rupiyah note. Gili Trawangan is a high point of this adventure, but it might be time to pull up stakes and catch the ferry over to Lombok. But not before one last stop at Borobudur 2.