We were leaving Gili Trawangan together with Tara for a 4days/4night boattrip around Komodo National Park, visiting islands and beaches on the way to our destination in Labuan Bajo on Flores island.
Well to begin with we were late and didn't meet Tara before we came to the jetty in Bangsal on Lombok. After a overloaded boatride to Bangsal we found Tara in the boatcompanys restaurant.
We waited to get on the boat for ages, and got a bit annoyed over the long waiting time, they really pushed it to the limits. The restaurant was packed with people and luggage, apparently the boatcompany had to arrange our permissions to the national park and that's what took them so long.
Eventually we were split into 3 different groups and was shown to our boats.
We were 17 on our boat, plus 4 boatcrew members and a guide. It's amazing how we have lowered our standards and material needs on this trip, like for example this boat.. Everything onboard was very basic, no comfort anywhere, there was two tall benches on each side of the boat, both so tall that we couldn't reach the ground proberly when sitting on them, a canoe took up half of the space on the front deck and we all slept on the upper deck on thin dirty smelly matresses..
Despite the circumstances which no one seemed to carry about anyway, everyone was happy and looking forward to an amazing trip through one of the most beautiful places on earth. Most of us went for a dip in the crystal clear water before departure.
Our guide Chin informed us about the trip, what we were gonna see, where we stopped and so on. Obviously we met a lot of new people on the boat.
Most of the first day was a transfer day, we had one stop at a beach to swim. The captain was busy the rest of the day with getting us to our next destination. After only a small breakfast and some crackers during the day we were starving when dinner was served.
The boatcrew put out a big waterproof carpet on the floor and dinner was served as a buffet on the floor. We all sat around the magic carpet, either on the wet floor or on the bench, and enjoyed the food. We spend a lot of time watching the surroundings and enjoyed every moment of it.
After way too little sleep the night before we were knackered really early and actually had a good sleep, eventhough the noisy engine was on all night.
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| Our home for 4 days |
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| Tara, us and Matt enjoying our sweet life |
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| The kitchen on board |
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| Feeding time! |
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| The upper deck where we slept 13 people |
Thursday 24th April
I could easily get use to waking up by sunrise and seeing this view every morning. Then there wouldn't be any problems with getting up early anymore! Abolutely stunning scenery!
Our breakfast was tame, only consisting of a jam toast sandwich. We usually have a big meal in the morning, so this sandwich only kept us full for a few minutes.. The whole boat felt the same way, but there was nothing to do about it. The boatcrew didn't bring enough food for tree big meals a day, apparently.
We had two stop for snorkeling and swimming this day, at the first stop we trekked into a island, where a spectacular waterfall was waiting to be explored and climbed, second stop was at a beautiful vulcanic island with a saltwater lake inside the crater. We weren't clever enough to bring beers from Bangsal, but to our luck they sold beers on this little remote island.. It was Bintang (local beer) time.. They were a bit more costly than normal, but fair enough considering we were in the middle of nowhere.
There was a good and cosy atmosphere on the boat, and everyone got along really well. It was definitely a good choice to do this boattrip. First of all because transportation is seriously bad and slow in most of Indonesia, and second we got to see a lot of breathtaking places, that we wouldn't have seen travelling by land, and the big plus was that we met so many cool people.
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| Stunning sunrise to wake up to |
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| Bintang time |
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| Showering in the waterfall |
Friday 25th April
We were surrounded by islands, all covered in green grass and soft hills. I've never seen anything like this, and I honestly never thought something like this excisted. It's a view that you can only dream about, it looked so unreal, and we were all god damn fascinated. Undoubtedly the most beautiful scenery that we've ever seen. Can't say it enough.. It was absolutely stunning and so unique! Freaking love travelling and see new places everyday.
This was the big day where we visited the komodo dragons on Komodo island. We were very excited. We got a guide when we arrived on the island and then went trekking to explore the dragons, we didn't find any on the trek, but around the ranger station in the very end of the trek there was a small and two big ones hanging out. They seemed very lazy and slow.. And terrifying big.
The rangers were very careful and made sure we didn't get to close to the dragons, cause they can actually move really quick.
They eat goats, cows, buffalos, dears and each other. The way the hunt is that they bite their prey in the leg. Then they follow it for several days until all the bacteries, has infected the prey enough, and it then surrender and die in front of the dragon. Then the dragon sets in and eat the whole thing. They only need to eat one time a month.
There is ofcourse stories about people getting bid by the dragons, though it's not lethal, if treated right, it can still take ages to recover from a bite. So we were all a little attentive when one of the komodos raised up and moved towards the crowd.. The guides were even more attentive and tried to get us to move away. Fortunately the komodo wasn't in for troubles, it just wanted to lay in another spot. We were safe and got some amazing photos with the dragons. Later on we went snorkelling with manta rays.. How lucky can we possible be... This was the best day ever!
Then at night some local village people came sailing in their small dilapidated canoes and sold us icecold bintangs and homemade souvenirs.
Our boat anchored together with one of the other boats, from the same company, and we had a party together with them.
I actually left the party really early, and thanks to my iphone, a swedish guy, who borrowed me his headphones and Jack Johnson I fell asleep easily. Erik left the party when he realized I was disappeared, and after finding me in my beauty sleep, he decided to join me.
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| Hanging out in the canoe |
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| Simply amazing scenery.. Loooved it |
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| This is dreams coming true |
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| Komodo dragons play area |
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A bit intimidating to approach this fellow from behind |
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| Erik went for a quick hike before we left the bay |
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| The local salesmen |
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Living the dream
The boatcrew
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Saturday 26th April
We reached Rinca island around noon, which is another island with komodo dragons. Due to the less wildlife on the island, and less to catch for the komodos, they're more aggressive and hungry here.
So we crossed our fingers for a actionpacked trek. It took us a while to convince the ranger that we would be able to do the long trek, he wasn't happy about it since most of us were in flip flops and some even barefooted. The long trek was through tall grass with a big possibility for snakes passing.
We insisted that we wanted to do it and finally got our will.
We quickly seperated into two groups, the fast and slow. That didn't make the ranger any happier, people should keep his speed, but considering some people were suffering from last night and didn't bring any water, it was impossible for them to keep up.
Our surroundings was spectacular and the nature really looked like a dinosaurs land - it fitted perfect with the dragons aswell. Our guide saw a injuried buffallo along the trek, and with a injuried buffalo you'll also have a hungry dragon around. We had no interest in disturbing the hunt, so we made a little detour around the action.
In the very end of the trek, nearby the ranger station and a small shop/restaurant, we discovered tree dragons underneath some trees, we left the trail to go and take some pictures.. Only a few seconds after we heard a loud voice behind us yelling "dont run, dont run". We turned around a saw the "slow" group getting chashed by a huge dragon. All of a sudden they didn't have any problems with walking fast... They were coming in our direction, with the dragon right behind them. Our ranger started yelling aswell and quickly guided us to the nearby restaurant.
Luckily on the way, the dragon got interested in one of the smaller dragons under the trees, but it only lasted a few minutes then it came towards us again.
We were all safe in the restaurant and a pavilion, both raised a meter or two over the ground. But the dragon was definitely out for troubles. All the rangers were yelling at the stupid few people who was still standing on the ground and taking photos - not realized how dangerous it actually was.
Out of nowhere there was another dragon joining, just as aggressive as the other and they started chasing each other around the area, it got really exciting and we difinitely got the action that we wanted.
It all ended with the one dragon chasing the other away, and the rangers ended up tempting the last one away with a piece of meat in a rice sack, that they shoocked up in the air - and eventually the last dragon got interested in that and left the area.
We left the island with a big smile on our face, laughing and joking about the people that got chased, luckily no one got injuried.. Everyone was satisfied with our actionpacked adventure.
We arrived in Labuan Bajo in Flores in the afternoon. After four days only "showering" in saltwater we were dying to get a prober shower and get all the saltwater washed off. There was a few of us who stayed on the boat for one more night, just because we payed for 4 nights and only got 3 on the way there. We borrowed a shower from some of the guys who rented a room for the nigth, and then most of us met up for dinner, and went out to a big local party at the Paradise bar.
It was the perfect ending of a great trip and we all had a blast during the night. We got in around 3.30am, and immediately passed out on the boatdeck.
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| Sunrise |
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| One of the rangers, the stick is used to keep the dragons on a distance |
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| This huge creature was extremely shy when we all stopped to take pictures |
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| Aggressive dragon |
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| Could look at this view forever |
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| Flying Erik |
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| Last stop near Labuan Bajo.. |
Komodo Dragons
Boattrip Komodo
In the early afternoon we had collected enough energy to go and get something to eat. We met most of the other people from the boat at the italian restaurant, Cit Ma Bon, which by the way serves some excellent and reasonable priced food. Some people was leaving or continued their travels, and some stayed longer.
A german guy from the boattrip had hooked up with a local girl, Valery, and she invited us for a barbeque at night. He was by the way, the most outstanding backpacker we have met. A 19 year old guy, had travelled for 1½ year, most of the time he had been hitchhiking around in Asia, sleeping outside in his hammock, he had seen and met more local people than we will ever accomplish. His stories was fantastic and different from everyone else.. Amazing to meet people like that.
Valery and her family served us some delicious food, and the barbeque fish was the best we've ever had. Since four of us was diving the next day and the remaning was going away, it was a quiet night. When we got back to the hostel the manager Gregorius thought we had left the hostel with all our stuff, so he sold one of our beds to someone else, which meant that we had to share a singlebed.. Of course for less money then.. Only 90.000 rupiah (43kr).
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| Barbeque in Valerys garden |
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| Delicious barbeque fish |
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| Cute little chickens, that Valery bought on a market.. Not surprising! |
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| The Asian dishwasher |
First dive at Sebayur Kecil was a bit frightening for me. Already on our decending we had a really bad visibility with a lot of green plankton that tricked me, I kind of paniced in my head, got a bit claustrophobic and shortly felt disorientated - I guess I didn't prepare myself enough for bad visibility. I felt like going to the surface again, had the exact same uncomfortable feeling that I had the first few times I tried diving... I looked at the others, they seemed calm and all right, so I calmed myself down with thinking about the nightdive and the cavedive that I had done before, and they were more dark than this, and then I started to relax and finished my decending.
The dive was shitty though, due to all the plankton. There was tons of colourful and stunning corals, but I don't remember seeing a lot of fishes on this dive. Second dive, at Pengah Kecil, was way more exciting. Our divemaster got attacked by a huge triggerfish, she didn't see it coming towards her and it bid her right in the head. Their nesting season is now (march-may), so they're very aggresive if you come near their territory. Fortunately their bite isn't dangerous, but it's still intimidating to be bidden. It left a bleeding wound in her head, and headache for the rest of the day.
After seeing this we were very attentive to the triggerfishes, the following days. Third and last dive this day was a nightdive at Wainilu. It's truly exhausting to dive, but also a lot of fun, and as always on the liveaboards, it's all about diving-sleeping-eating-repeating. We watched the undescribable beautiful sunset and thousands of flying foxes, coming out to hunt.. They spiced up the whole sunset scenery and made it even more special.
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| The liveaboard boat |
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| Watching the sunset and thousands of flying foxes isn't the worst way to end the day |
Tuesday 29th
It was a busy day with 4 dives (Wainilu - Manta Point - Batu Balong - Komodo Bay), and apparently also a lot of fishes on the program. We dived with manta rays again, and loved every second of it, white-tipped reef sharks, turtles, surgeon fish, unicorn fish, napoleon wrasses,jack fish, lionfish, trevallys, sweetlips.. Just to mention a few - the list is endless, and the dives was awesome. See the videos. Komodo national park is known for it's strong currents, and with strong currents you also get a lot of the big stuff, like sharks and mantas.. And specially some of the puffer fishes we saw was enormous, but also the batfishes and even the anglefishes were quite big, compared to what we have seen other places. At one of the dives we struggled against the current, we didn't get far on a fin kick, and in a few minutes we went 50-60 bar down, due to our heavy breathing, it was very unpleasant.
Apparently our divemaster navigated us wrong, and that's why we ended in the strong current. It got really annoyed at last, specially when we got up and heard stories from the other group, about how they had avoided the current and seen loads of devil rays. Damn it, we were annoyed over our divemaster!
The next 2 dives was great and the sealife was overwhelming. We love these spots where there's fishes everywhere, and we feel like we're in a massive fishsoup, where the fish amounts are unlimited.
Komodo Diving
Wednesday 30th April
Last day of diving and being spoiled with deliciuos food and beverages on board. The divesites was the Golden passage, Crystal rock & Castle rock. All crazy dives with a lot of stuff to be entertained by. We had some current aswell, but we were well prepared, and all had a reef hook that we could hook onto a rock if the current got too strong.
At one dive we were hanging and watching all the stuff come by.. Big oriental sweetlips, big surgeon fishes, unicorns, jackfish etc. To sum up this liveaboard, we saw the greatest amount of fish in one place and in general bigger fish, we swimmed with a lot of white-tipped reef sharks, and saw a school of peaceful mantas.. And we definitely experienced how strong, powerful and unpredictable currents can be.
As always on the liveaboards it's sad to leave the luxury on the boat, and go back to the bagpackerlife again. We had problems finding available rooms when we got back to Labuan Bajo. A huge ferry had arrived the day before, so everything was fully booked, except for the cheap hostel (cool corner backpacker hostel) - here the manager Gregorius (love the name) managed to fit us in (again), in one of his two dormitrys. The hostel is really dirty and messy, it's the cheapest in Labuan Bajo and apparently also the only one with space for us.
We didn't want to hang around Labuan Bajo for much longer, so we tried in vain to get a bus to Ende the next morning, but also here everything was fully booked. The first bus we could get would be in 2 days. All right, nothing to do about that, we would just get a "wasted" day in LB.
At night we said goodbye to Tara and Tony, and finally we were by ourselves again. I mean we love meeting people and making new friends, but it's also nice to be just the two of us sometimes.
Thursday 1st May
While people at home were celebrating Labour day, we were spending time in this uncharming little town.. There was no celebration from our point of view. We got some blog done and ate some nice western food. We were looking forward to leaving the next morning. We prepared ourselves for a long day of travelling. The trip to Ende is suppose to take 10 hours, so as always in Asia we prepared ourselves for 12-15 hours.. It's more unpredictable than the railways at home, so better be safe than sorry.
At night we said goodbye to Tara and Tony, and finally we were by ourselves again. I mean we love meeting people and making new friends, but it's also nice to be just the two of us sometimes.
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| Relaxing area on board |
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| The hostel we stayed at looked quite shitty, but it was cheap |
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| Mainstreet in Labuan Bajo |
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| Labuan Bajo bay |
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