Gadling

When we first posted about Tribe Wanted, there was some schadenfreude speculation that the online creation of a “tribe” and the subsequent lease of a South Pacific island where members could live out their tribal aspirations, would eventually disrupt into some type of Lord of the Flies anarchy in which Piggy’s skull is crushed and modern man once again proves that evil is inherent.

Well, the island is up and running and so far the death toll is non-existent.

James Vlahos was amongst the first of 920 members to arrive on the island and has penned the most in-depth report I’ve seen on the development of the island. And development it is. As a “pioneering colonist” Vlahos and his other tribe members were charged with actually building an eco-friendly resort and facilities from scratch while also maintaining a cohesive tribal unit comprised of random members from around the world who signed up online and didn’t know each other until they arrived on the island.

So far the utopian experiment has gone rather well according to Vlahos. Sure, there are some personality clashes on the island, but that’s inevitable. Otherwise, there has been no Lord of the Flies scenarios except for one exception: a major brush fire which caused a schism in the group when half chose to evacuate on a boat while the other half stayed behind to fight the fire.

Things are moving along, but I still don’t think I’ll be signing up any time soon.

For those of you interested in joining the club, you can do so on their website here. In the meantime, here is a selection of photos from Vlahos’s National Geographic Adventure article.

I’ve traveled to places where they’ve never seen an American before. That’s not too hard of a challenge. But, as far as I know, I’ve never been to a place where the locals have never seen a white person before.

There are many places on this planet where this is still possible, but I never would have expected resort-packed Fiji to be one of them.

And yet, it is. Gustavo Ten Hoever, writing for Travel & Leisure, went in search of “authentic” Fiji and actually found it.

The informative article whisks the reader through some of the more popular areas of the island nation and then delves into the backcountry where tourists are non-existent and the sight of a white person sends children running away in fear.

Sounds like my kind of place!

We posted a couple of months ago about a fantastic idea hatched by a couple of Brits: lease an exotic island for three years and populate it with a tribe of due-paying members who can visit up to three weeks a year.

Like so many semi-utopian ideas, we were all curious if this one would ever get off the ground. Well, the first boatload of tribespeople have finally arrived at the island and are gleefully getting things in order according to an article in Friday’s USA Today.

Vorovoro Island is part of the Fiji archipelago and is mostly deserted–which means that part of the time-share aspect is that tribe members have to give some of their time to help build. The 937 paid members of the tribe need to construct shelter and toilets and basically an entire infrastructure to survive. In the meantime, it’s tents and hospitality from some of the real locals living on another part of the island.

Tribe members who are not currently on the island can also participate in daily planning from the comfort of their own homes thanks to a live internet link powered by solar energy.

Check out the great online feature at USA Today which incorporates a number of pretty cool videos to give a much better idea of how things are shaping up in paradise.

Let’s hope it survives.