Labuan Bajo - Komodo

Aloisia! Great to hear from you! Kiss Malta for me! Please reassure my Ma that all is very well and that I'll be home again soon!

KOMODO & FLORES

Our cruise from Lombok to Flores was a pleasant one. We even stopped on the desert island pictured below for a snorkel, our first dinner (Bar B Q on the beach) and to chill out while the boys played volley ball. Throughout the cruise we were spolit with countless dolphin playing in the boat's wake and all the while we were lucky enough to have a wonderful group on-board with whom to mingle.

We arrived in Komodo at the crack of dawn on Monday 4th June and we all stood on deck to admire the stunning view.

Within minutes we had anchored and were moments away from meeting the monsters! Yep Komodo Dragons. Unfortunately we were met with a rather sad story about a dragon that just two days prior had attacked an eight year old boy in the village, the poor kid died due to the copious amount of blood lost not to mention the bacteria in the dragon's saliva. Umm not good.

We hiked through the countryside accompanied by guides holding sticks - (yes just sticks!!) and we were lucky enough to spot a couple of dragons! They actually didn't look as dangerous as they should have but we took the guides' word for it :)

Back on the boat, the divers namely Natalie, Edwardo, Robert and myself looked forward to our first Komodo dive. We were picked up by Reefseekers and the fun began... OMYGOD is the diving good in Komodo!!!!

Fusiliers

Turtle Dive

The coral was so bright and it was everywhere, there simply wasn't an inch of no coral. The marine life, well that too was incredible, most of it rare and special. Once again we saw sharks, Groupers, Star Puffers, Giant Trevally, Giant Clams (pic below - actual size 1 metre wide) I could go on and on but..... and keep in mind that the camera used was a $20 dollar disposible one the colours are good but in reality it was 10 times brighter.

The best dive moment of all was the fact that I spotted two dolphin diving in a hunt. They were closely followed by a white tip shark!!! Shark and Dolphin hunt together but it is an extremely rare sight for a diver and I was extremely lucky to spot them! It was hilarious I pointed to the spot manically miming 'I see Flipper and a shark! but my dive buddies just laughed at my funny movements and wondered why I had grabbed my fin - haha it was funny.

Natalie and I stayed on in Flores on the Monday night. We stayed at the Golo Hill Top, a great guesthouse run by two Dutch girls.

The others returned to the boat to go back to Lombok. We were now in malaria country and Natalie became ill, the 'M' word wasn't mentioned but we both wondered. All went well in the end, well poor Nat was still ill but thankfully it wasn't Malaria.

I stayed two nights before heading out solo on my next adventure... Off to Sumba!! I wasn't, at this point, all together sure as to why I was heading off to Sumba. All I knew was that the seed of curiousity had been planted one fine Indian Summer's day. I was having lunch at my desk at the office in London last October. I was surfing the net doing research and generally trying to imagine the reality of my forthcoming trip and I came across photos of the beautiful aquamarine seas surrounding an island in Indonesia called Sumba. I had also read that it was a national park area, truly deserted and home to the Chao Ley(sea gypsies - ref: Ko Surin back in Feb on the blog) but the closer I got to going to this island, the more I believed that I had misread the actual name of the island on the net (there are numerous similar in name in this area) Unfortunately there was no internet access throughout Flores to be able to double check so I had to go on gut instinct and I did. I bid farewell to my Great buddie Natalie who by now was feeling better and planning to dive 'The Air Strip' that day (a Guaranteed Manta Ray dive ...) ummm and I, well I was setting off on adventure unknown. No one I asked even knew what the Chao Ley were and the closer I got to Sumba the more obvious it became that it wasn't a national park but by now I had spent months looking forward to it and more recently had become excited about the fact (the lonely planet (grrr) mentions that) that Sumba offers some of Indonesia's best traditional culture... I put on a brave face on and off I went! I was told that there 'might' be a ferry to Sumba the next morning leaving from Aimere which was 6 hrs drive away. The drive through Flores took us to Ruteng and then on to Aimere - it was a pretty drive. Flores is home to cinnamon and I can swear that I smelt it on our drive!! We drove up to through the hills where it became quite chilly and back down through the valleys. The island is very lush and very green. On the first bus I sat next to 'Napoleon' a young policeman on his way back to work in Ende, Flores. He had been home to Sumbawa, an island west of Flores and Komodo. We chatted for a little while, he was a sweet enough kid but when I tired of chatting I told him about my 'boyfriend' who was waiting for me to join him in Sumba (this works every time) that said he simply turned his full attention to the young lady sitting on his right. Little did I know at the time but he would become really helpful later that day. We said our Good byes in Ruteng but I found him on my next bus later that afternoon, the Ruteng to Aimere number! It was a long ride and not so comfortable as the first bus. This was a larger bus and I sat at the back. On my one side was an elderly lady and on the other was the open door. It turned dark and cold and my sweater was packed deep in my backpack which of course was on the roof of the bus!!! Anyway we got to Aimere, I wasn't expecting much from it. I got the impression from many that it was a very small town - it didn't feature in my Lonely Planet (for once) haha

Well we pulled into the bus station (also the ferry terminal) and the whole bus got off for a quick dinner. I re-joined Napoleon and he asked me if I knew where I was staying, I said no and that I was going to find something once I had eaten. He said don't worry I know a hotel, apparently there were three in town and he was going to have the bus drop me off at the best one. :)

...the hotel, well at this point I really did wonder. It was desperate. Rooms set out around a central courtyard in true motel style, the rooms, well a twin with damp old disgusting mattresses and a mandi bathroom (a local bathroom with the usual hole in the floor and open water tank complete with scoop for flushing) The floors of the room were concrete, now if only they were polished concrete - it would have made all the difference haha but no it was old dirty concrete!!! So I set off to work - there was no choice. I gingerly removed one mattresses making sure not to touch it without the cover of the old, but clean sheets. I took out my bed bug net and laid it over the wooden boards and next pulled out my sleeping sock and pillow. It was hard and I knew I'd wake up with very sore bones but as long as I woke up (and the quicker the better I didnt care) and set about texting my bro to ask for his help in booking an Air Asia flight on the net for my visa run out of Bali.

The next morning I was up early and SO ready for the ferry, it did arrive. There was a ferocious wind and quite a swell. The ferry actually crashed at speed into the port in order to stop.... I just stood there on the ramp leading into the mouth of this beast in shock. This rather good looking navy officer looked at me and said something, I knew he was just trying to be social but I immediately rummaged for my ticket and made him think I misunderstood. He just wanted to say hello. He asked if I was ok? I asked if the ferry was safe. He smiled 'you're scared aren't you.. ?' and I looked at him and said 'Yeah!!' He reassured me it was ok and he had a nice smile but I was still unimpressed, he walked me onto the ferry where I spotted the only other westerners, a weathered European couple standing by their battered but loyal 4WD. It was a old tank of a thing and covered in memorabilia. They turned out to be Swiss, in their 60's, just my kind of couple, they said Sumba was the best place they had been to in Indonesia so far and that Yes, East Timor's borders were indeed open, during the day mind you.... Damn, that was my first choice for a visa run but I had just booked my flight Bali/Kuala Lumpur the night prior having been advised the borders were closed! What bad luck but never mind Sumba was on the up again!!!!

Loading the ferry

The ferry took 9hrs as opposed to the usual 8 due to the weather and I won't tell you about the cockroaches. We got to Sumba at 9.30pm and I checked myself into the best hotel I could find! :) Boy it felt good to be there!