Last Sunday morning, our Grab car picked us up from the hotel at 7:30am and when we arrived at the airport in Jakarta the board said that our flight to Labuan Bajo had been canceled. Our hearts sank. We went to the check-in counter to find out our options and learned that the board was incorrect and our flight was in fact still on schedule for a departure at 9:50. The check-in process for our Batik Air flight was easy and so was security. The three of us went to the airport lounge and ate breakfast – they had an omelet station, which was nice for getting eggs to order. We then waited at our gate for our flight and thankfully heard a message in time that the gate had changed. We were among the last to board by the time we got over to the new gate. Our flight was about two hours, and it took us as far east as we will go for our visit to the Indonesian islands. With the time moving forward an hour we landed, picked up our bags, and arrived at Hotel Zasgo around 2pm. Sandy found a laundry service that picked up our clothes from the hotel, washed them, and brought them back to us later the same evening (it cost about $15 for all three of us – incredible and the service was amazing!). We spent the late afternoon and evening at the hotel rooftop bar and restaurant. They have a gorgeous view over the harbor from where we enjoyed the sunset, happy hour, and dinner – Sarah had Indonesian chicken, Sandy had pizza, and I had butterfish. We worked on some things and then headed to bed.
Monday morning, we started our next big adventure. Ronald and Yano picked us up at 9:30am. Ronald was our guide for our adventure. The reason we came to this area is to see the Komodo dragons in Komodo National Park.
I had no idea how pretty this area is. Our adventure was a four-day, three-night journey around the park on a live-aboard private boat for the three of us. Yano drove the four of us to a diving shop where we could get fins and masks for the snorkeling parts of our itinerary and then he dropped us all off at the marina. We boarded the dinghy at the marina, and it took us out to the Staelan in the harbor – this was our home for the next three nights. It was a nice boat with two decks. Our bedroom was on the top deck and included a bathroom. The top deck also had an eating area (we called it the restaurant) in the back behind the wheelhouse and a sitting area toward the front. The lower deck had a sitting area, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and the kitchen area toward the back. Sandy was really bummed because she thought both bedrooms had attached bathrooms. Sarah was a trooper and survived having to use the bathroom outside of her room and opening her bedroom door that required a special and challenging technique in order to get out (sometimes she thought she was going to have to yell for help to get out! 😔).
We met our crew – Captain Ano, Ardi, Yosh, Ryan, and Rikki (chef).
We left Labuan Bajo shortly after our arrival on the Staelan to start our clockwise tour of the park. The first stop was a small island with a steep hill from which we had a nice view over the other islands of the park and a ton of baby black-tip sharks.
We had lunch on the boat and then let a rain shower pass as we made our way to Rinca Island. This is the second largest island in the park and it is home to more than 1,000 Komodo dragons. We took a hike with a ranger around the island and saw 11 dragons, some deer, monkeys, an orange-footed scrub fowl, and the museum on the island (which was excruciatingly hot inside!) It was a fantastic start to the adventure. Komodo dragons are very dangerous because of their sharp teeth, sharp claws, and the poisonous venom in their bite that prevents blood from clotting. The rangers hike with a stick with a y-shaped tip in case a dragon becomes aggressive.
Following our hike on Rinca Island we had a snack on the boat and for sunset, we went to an island that is home to thousands of fruit bats (they are huge!). They leave the island at sunset and head for the fruit plantations on Flores Island. It was fascinating to watch their departure for their nighttime adventures.
We had dinner on our way to the parking spot for the night. The government recently made a change in law that now prevents the boats from sailing at night. This was in response to an accident that happened three months ago in which a boat overturned during a storm at night and four people were killed.
We met Ronald early on Tuesday morning for another hike up a hill – this time at Padar Island. Sarah didn’t sleep well because the air conditioner in her room didn’t work, so she stayed on the boat to get some more sleep. The hike up to the top of the hill on Padar Island was roughly 819 steps up to the top and with a few stops along the way, we made it in 23 minutes. The view was great from the top. We liked being able to see three different beaches from the top – one with pink sand (from the red coral in the sea), one with white sand, and one with black sand.
We headed back down and met up with Sarah for breakfast on the boat while we sailed over to Komodo Island, the largest in the park. This was another ranger-led hike, and we saw nine dragons on this one. It’s critical to have a ranger with you because they can be very difficult to see until you are almost right on top of them. On our walk back through the village, we met a man who had been attacked by a dragon two years ago. He needed more than 300 stitches to repair his wounds. He was in the hospital for months recovering and still has some physical limitations. The community has been very supportive of him in his recovery and have helped him to begin to overcome his fear of the dragons, which is critical as they live with them every day.
We were back on the Staelan at 11:40 for lunch and a relaxing afternoon of reading, napping, and watching life on the water. We dropped Sandy off at Pink Beach at 2:30. Sarah, Ronald, and I did our first snorkeling experience. Unfortunately, I could not get my mask to seal so I ended up going up to the beach pretty quick and relaxing with Bintang Lemon beers with Sandy while Sarah and Ronald snorkeled.
It was too fast to get a picture, but we did see a baby Komodo dragon run across the beach. We also saw wild boars on the beach. Sandy and I went for a walk on the beach and I tried my mask again and I think I resolved the sealing issue so I should be able to try again next time. We went back to the boat at 4:30 and enjoyed a snack, watched sunset, and then had dinner around 8pm. Rikki made fantastic meals for us the entire trip. We have had all kinds of things – no idea how he can come up with what he comes up with in the small kitchen area he has available. We have had shrimp, chicken, tofu, whole fish, rice, various vegetables, eggs, fruits, pancakes, fresh juices, and calamari. It goes on and on. Great food the whole time.
After breakfast on Wednesday morning, we headed east from our parking spot by Komodo and stopped at a sandbar for a walk and a little bit of snorkeling. I was happy to see that the seal on my mask was holding.
The next stop was to look for manta rays. We went to a spot where we were able to see one from the boat. These things are huge. I would estimate this manta ray to have been five or six feet across. We jumped in the water, but I could not keep up with Ronald as he followed it for a period of time. We moved to another spot and did some more snorkeling. Just as we were about to finish, we saw another manta ray – this one was probably five feet across. We were able to track this one in the water for a few minutes. Sarah came face to face with one. She was so close, she probably could have touched it if she had tried. So cool.
We were back on the boat for lunch and then more snorkeling for Sarah and me. This time we were in an area with sea turtles and we saw a couple of them along with all kinds of colorful fish and coral. The current was relatively strong and Ronald brought a flotation device out. That was nice to have to be able to take a break occasionally. Sandy stayed on the dinghy boat and put her feet in the water while watching the sea life. She saw many of the same things we saw because the water is so clear. We settled into our parking spot for the night and then took the dinghy over to a small island where a man and his wife live along with their herd of goats. A couple from a village on another island stopped by while we were there and bought some firewood and a goat. The crew from another boat was setting up a romantic tent candlelight dinner for a couple who were on their honeymoon and we talked with the chef for a few minutes about what they were going to be serving. The lobster looked fantastic. Then it was back to our boat and another great meal from Rikki.
Today was our last day for our boating adventure. We started out with a snorkeling experience after breakfast. We stayed near the Komodo Resort and Dive Club overnight and that is where we started this morning’s snorkeling from. The current was quite strong, which meant that all you had to do was float toward the ending point for this swim – The Seven Mushroom rock formation. This was my favorite experience – lots to see between the corals, fish, and turtles. Every time I get a chance to snorkel or dive, I am blown away by the colors that don’t seem to exist elsewhere in nature. I am sure they are there, but the concentration of them in waters like these is brilliant. About two-thirds of the way through this swim, we were called back to our boat because a couple of people needed help. I tried a couple of times to go back and see something that I wanted to look at more closely and had a lot of difficulty. The current was too strong. The couple who needed help were a mother and son and she happened to be the owner of the resort. She had declined having their dinghy come with them to bring them back, but she thought they were going to keep an eye on them to pick them up when they were finished. There was no way possible for them to swim back against the current. They were tired and happy to have been picked up by us and taken back to the resort. She was not very happy with her staff and I think they were going to be in some trouble when she and her son returned. That gave Sarah a chance to start the swim again from the starting point. I chose to wait until we got to the point where we stopped because I was getting too much sun. We finished up at The Seven Mushrooms and then returned to our boat.
Our final stop was at a beach on our way back to Labuan Bajo. Sarah did a little more snorkeling and walking on the beach while Sandy and I sat with Ronald in the shade. I got Ronald started on Duolingo because he wants to learn French. We are going to try to get a friend streak going so that when he goes for his formal French class (I think on the island of Lombok), he will already be comfortable with the basics of the language. We had one more lunch on Staelan and then we were back in Labuan Bajo and back at the Zasgo Hotel at 2:40. We basically followed the same routine as we did on Sunday – sent clothes out to the laundry service (the cost was about $5 each again for what we needed to have done) and had dinner at the restaurant upstairs. It was nice to be able to order from a menu again. Rikki’s food was great on the boat, but it’s nice to have some control over what you want to eat after a few days. Sarah had a chicken pesto sandwich and Sandy and I each had pizzas.
Like the orangutan experience, this was beyond my expectations. Sandy did all of the planning for these two trips and I was so impressed with each of them. I thought it was going to be neat to see the orangutans and the Komodo dragons in the wild. It was even better and the experiences with the crew we had on each tour were great. Back to this experience in particular, we learned so much from and about Ronald. He has big dreams ahead and we were all very impressed with his plan for achieving them. We are excited to stay in touch with him and watch how he progresses toward his goals.
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