Part 1: Answer questions based on the text: "Blink and you miss it" by Alex Garland
I believe that the author traveled to the exotic island because he wanted to try a new lifestyle. He wanted to get away from his home and the life he had there. I think he just uprooted him- or herself and just left. Kind of like some backpackers do it, they just pack a bag with the bare necessities and start traveling, when they find a place that seems nice, they settle down for a while, usually with others who have the same motives.
Based on how the author describes the island I think what he wanted to get out of his stay there, was simply to experience. I don't think he went there to experience anything in particular, but just to get in the world and try something new, something different from what he was used to. He has just been traveling by putting one foot in front of the other, and then he ended up with the "surfers" at the beach. By surfers I am referring to the surfer subculture, a culture where people have a relaxed approach to things and use the words chill and dude in almost every sentence.
The group of people on the picture on p. 211 has a different motive for traveling. To me they look like high society tourists. They are probably in London because they want to see the sights and other points of interest. In the picture you can see a man standing with a woman who is probably his wife; he is leafing through a book. If it was a new picture I would say a guide book, but since the picture is from 1874 that is not very likely. The young girls that are in the picture look like some kind of custodians, who are guiding the tourist around.
When I travel, it is for different reasons, depending on the destination. When I travel out of the country, it is because I want to try something new, to get away from everyday routines and such, sort of the same motives as the author in "Blink and you miss it." Everybody gets tired of their life sometimes, we