Week 33 and 34
Our little detour back to Bali didn't hinder our plans to visit the Komodo national park. We initially intended to travel there by boat from Lombok (a 3 day boat trip) but instead we flew from Bali into Labuan Bajo, Flores.
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| See ya later Bali |
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| Flores from a above |
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| Flores from above |
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| Hello Luan Bajo |
A few months ago, we visited the Galapagos Islands and we were both hoping that the Komodo national park would offer an Asian version of our experiences there. We wanted to see the most dangerous lizard in the world - the Komodo Dragon!
I did not realised how dangerous this so called dragon was until Roland was doing a spot of research on the Internet and started to reel off a few things we should check before we went on a trip to see them - basically they like humans and once they catch a whiff of you (especially the smell of blood or perfume) they can charge up to 18km/hour to catch you!
Our hotel, Sylvia Hotel & Resort (£26 per night), was nestled in the middle of a beautiful bay on Flores Island. Getting here was 30 minute ride on a bumpy road from the airport and as usual, we paid far too much for the taxi ride - 150,000R! Grrrrrr! Doubly annoying this time as we didn't realise that the hotel offered free pick up! The bay was lovely and the beach was gorgeous. Once settled in we headed straight for the sea and were one of the few people there splashing about with the fishes.
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| We stayed here |
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| Amazing sunsets! |
We booked a trip to visit the Komodo National park with one of the hotel staff. There are various options to travel over to the islands but as we were poor backpackers we chose the cheapest option - a slow boat and sleeping on the deck (£125 for both of us).
As soon as the boat approached the dock, I wished that we had not been so tight! It was a clapped out banger of a boat with the noisiest engine in the world! 2 days stuck on this boat was certainly an interesting experience! At least it wasn't crowded - there was only Roland and I along with the 'captain' and his helper.
It took us 5 hours to reach Komodo Island (70 minutes in a speed boat). The Komodo Dragon was named one of the 7 natural wonders of the world in 2012 and because of this, tourism in the area has bloomed in recent years. Once we paid all the park fees we were assigned a ranger (armed with a large stick to protect us from any aggressive Komodos!) and began our trek around the island. You are not always guaranteed a sighting of the Dragons so we were delighted when the ranger spotted a 3 year old sunning himself on the path in front of us, after 20 minutes of walking!
Our next sighting was a 25 year old female dragon who was relaxing on top of a hill we had climbed. The ranger was very happy about this and was excited to take photos of us with it. I was a little worried how near he told us to next to the 2.5m long dragon, especially after hearing the story about how a dragon in recently killed a little boy by biting him on the bum when he was having a poo (just 1 bite of the lizard can kill you due to poison contained in their saliva, if it isn't treated ASAP).
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| Flying lizard |
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| Top of the hill |
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| Massive! |
Our next sighting was when we neared the end of the trek - there were a couple of lazy dragons waiting for scraps of food from the locals.
Back on the boat, we sailed over to Pink Beach for a spot of snorkeling. This was the best snorkeling we had experienced so far during our 8 months travelling. There was an array of live coral and tonnes of different coloured exotic fishes swimming about.
Back on the boat and it was another 2 hours to Rinca Island to see some more dragons! We arrived quite late in the afternoon so we couldn't walk for too long. However that didn't stop us from seeing more dragons. This time 5 big dragons were all relaxing in the grass in the middle of the small island village!
I got a shock when I emerged from the toilet to find a rather big one had followed me and was just waiting outside my cubicle door! Roland and the ranger was nowhere in sight!
'Ahhhh, there is one here' I shouted.
'Its only a bat Emma' replied Roland.
'No, there is a Komodo in here!
Roland and the ranger quickly came over to where I was and when I saw an opportunity to escape, I jumped over its tail and ran towards the ranger who was armed with his protective stick!
We stayed overnight at Rinca Island and anchored just off the main entrance. The captain had prepared us a nice dinner and got our 'bed' ready. We went to sleep really early! Well there was no choice really, the boat's lamp wasn't working so we couldn't see a thing once the sun disappeared!
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| The light lasted for about 10 minutes |
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| I had such a great sleep .... NOT! |
The following day we headed back toward Luan Bajo stopping at 2 more snorkeling sites. Again the snorkeling was great and we both saw loads of fishes and a reef shark! After lunch we went back to the hotel. We couldn't wait to get off the boat!
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| Sunrise |
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| Good morning! |
Our next adventure was probably the worst 4 day trip we have done during our 8 month adventure!! We wanted to go and see the 3 colour lakes of Kalimutu and were advised that a great way to see the Island would be a take a 4 day trip in a car to get there - 2 days there and 2 days back. I wouldn't recommend the itinerary we did and in hindsight it would have been better to have flown back from Maumere or Ende.
Each day was spent rocking and rolling in the back of a Toyota for about 10 hours each day, stopping to take some photos every so often.
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Our car and driver who spoke no English!
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| 5 minute photo stop ... |
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| another one ... |
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another one (blue stone beach)
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| and another one |
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| How petrol is sold in the rain ... |
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| ... and how the locals move homes! |
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| Standard loo along the way |
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| Lunch is served - immediately from the window shelves! |
Our favourite stops though were:
The spider web rice terraces of Manggarai
Visiting a very traditional! Village called Bena
I was very relieved to get out the car on the last day and be back in the comfort of the hotel!
We has 1 days rest in Flores before heading back to Bali for our last few days in Indonesia.
We caught an early morning flight and by 11am we were back in Bali. We then caught a 3 hour Taxi ride to our next destination - Amed.
Amed is a well spread out fishing village located on the east coast of Bali. We both loved it here and would come back if we had the opportunity. We stayed at Barong Bungalows for 3 nights and spent our time in Amed snorkeling, sunbathing and eating delicious sea food!
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| Volcanic sand |
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| Fishing boats |
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| Amed bay - where we sunbathed and snorkeled |
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| Food at Aquaterra was amazing! |
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| Sunrise - don't see them that often! |
