I have always had a fascination with gamelan and could take the opportunity to 'have a go' at Dartington Summer School. However as a string player I'm in two minds. I know I will either love it and find it completely relaxing (no tuning involved!) or it will drive me insane.

Does anyone have any experience of gamelan, especially other string players.

I'm not a string player but I find gamelan very relaxing, and incidentally very good for ensemble co-ordination and perception - it's easy to get lost because it's so repetitive.
Technically it's very easy (most of the instruments are anyway) so it'll probably be sounding pretty good even at a summer school. If you're interested in Gamelan then i'd say go, you might not have that many opportunities to experience such different music.

I did a 'Gamelan day' once a couple of years ago. I was before i played violin so i can't answer the string player bit but it was good fun

Thanks for the feedback. It looks as if it would be relaxing and that I should really take advantage of the opportunity to do this. That's one week of one annual leave sorted!