Hi guys, sorry to leave you for so long. Today’s post is going to continue on from the previous one, when I ended up in Kupang, Indonesia…by mistake. And on the next one I’m going to tell you the reason behind my absence, hopefully you understand and forgive me =P.
So I left Kupang to go to Labuan Bajo, Flores. I had to take this little plane, so adorable, comfortable and with meal included (not like Air Asia).
The flight wasn’t too long but we had to do a stopover. Then, I arrived at the airport, it was super small, not much there at all, check in/out involved you going and waiting behind a table from where you could see the runway, for someone to bring your luggage. It was just crazy.
I got to the “main street”, a dusty small road with not much to offer. I looked around for an affordable place to stay, you have options you just need to walk around until you find a place and a price that suits your pocket. Most of the guesthouses will help you book any tours that you need. As soon as I dropped my backpack in my room, I went back downstairs to book the only reason why I was on this part of the country, the Komodo dragons. It was a bit pricey for me but I didn’t want to walk around and this is why I was there, I just was going to have a tighter budget later on.
Labuan Bajo itself doesn’t have much to offer, its a tiny, simple town but it’s getting a lot of tourism because of its proximity to the Komodo and Rinca Islands, where you can go visit the dragons of course. It’s also known for the marine life in the region, just an hour away you can find nice places for snorkeling and diving. So it is slowly growing.
Because of my little “mistake”, I didn’t have much time here, if not I would have explored more. I arrived late in the afternoon and it was raining, so as soon as I booked my tour it was off to bed. A long day was awaiting for me early in the morning.
You can imagine that I woke up the next morning extremely excited. We weren’t a big group just 5 of us, they picked us up and took us to the port where we got on this little boat that looked like it was going to fall apart. But I didn’t care I was about to get to one of the places that I had always dreamt of.
The boat ride took a few hours, but the way there OMG! It was just amazing, we passed a lot of small islands with only one hut or two, so quiet, so peaceful, just amazing.
We went to Rinca island not Komodo, according to the tour guides we had better chances of seeing the dragons here. Once you get there you have to pay a park fee and a buy guide.
Let me first explain to you something about this animal. These big lizards (for me they will always be dragons because its cooler) can grow up to 3 meters long and weight around 70 kilos, so not a little cute iguana. They can run quite fast, up to 20 km/h, if they chase you your only chance is to climb a tree. They are carnivorous and they eat anything from birds, to monkeys, goats and even water buffalos! The can eat a whole goat just in one piece, bones and all, which is terrifying. There were cases where they ate humans as well. They have really long claws to trap their victims and serrated teeth with which they take chunks of flesh. Some people say that the Komodo dragon has something in their saliva that paralyses its victims so that they can feed on it, but there are still debates on that.
So even though I knew this, I was ready for my 3 hour hike. As soon as we started walking around they were just there, next to the entrance, just chilling. The guide said that they lay down there because it provides them shade and also because they can feel the heat coming from their kitchen. So ok I’ve already seen at least 10.
We started walking down this park and the grass was almost 2 meters tall. Our guide was a small, skinny Indonesian man that was only holding a bamboo stick. I kept thinking to myself, if the dragon comes we can’t really see it because of the grass being so high. And even if we’d see it how is this guy going to protect us with that? It eats bones…the bamboo is just like candy.
We walked and walked, the parks flora is beautiful, we saw some birds, crazy monkeys and a few water buffaloes. I got to see only 2 dragons in the wild, if you can even call it that. But nothing more than that.
At least now I could say that I’ve been there, that I’ve done it☺.
We got back on the boat and half way on our journey back we stopped in a small island for snorkeling. This place was just unbelievable, just 4 bungalows and nothing else. There was a couple that was on my group that was going to stay there for 2 days. If you want to disconnect from the world you definitely need to do something like this.
The water was so clear and peaceful, I remember finding this purple starfish but I thought it was fake, it was so beautiful, so I picked it up and no, no it’s real. So I dropped it in the sea again. We spent an hour or two here and it was just the perfect ending to Labuan Bajo.
We jumped back on the boat and got back to town. I finally did what I came to Indonesia to do, my dream was now fulfilled.
Slept like a baby that night, now it was time for a new adventure!