4 Day and 4 Night to Flores

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We left Gili Air to travel east to Flores, where the Komodo Dragons are at, via a live aboard boat. The journey started via a ferry transport from Gili Air to Lombok and then a bus across Lombok. A couple really cool things about this bus trip; the first - AIR CON, the second, was we picked up our food for the boat on the way and we picked up 9 live chickens that road in the bus with us! I felt so bad for them knowing they were going to be our dinner, I felt even worse for them when I learned they rode in a cage off the back of the boat.

The boat was very basic. The 13 passengers slept on the top deck on very thin mats, while the crew slept below. The second day on the boat we visited the island of Moyo to see a fresh waterfall and went swimming. Then we moved onto Satonda Island where there was a very large salt water lake and some of the best snorkeling I have ever done in my life. I did get stung by what we think was a jelly fish right across my leg, it hurt very bad and gave me some raised welts, but thankfully we didn’t have to pee on it.

The third day on the boat was the big day! The first stop was a place called Red Beach for snorkeling and relaxing. The water was pretty cold and the snorkeling was good but not like the day before. The beach from a distance looked white but once on the sand it was very red, probably caused by the red coral. However, Dave and I did see a massive whale about 200 meters from the boat, it was awesome! Finally in the afternoon we arrived at Komodo National Park! This place charges $15 US to enter the park and then they charge an additional fee if you want to bring a camera in to take photos and they don’t guarantee seeing the dragons. I was a little shocked by this. Let me just back track about these dragons. So originally, I just thought they were large lizards that had big claws and such. No… these things are large lizards that eat humans and if you are bitten by these things they have so many bacteria in their mouths that you will pretty much get septicemia right away. Oh boy, let’s go find us some dragons! During our hike through the park we did see two dragons and then when we got to the tourist shop there was three just laying around. In all seriousness, there are only a little over 2,500 komodo dragons living in the wild so seeing these guys up close was actually a really special moment for me during this trip. That evening the boat stayed just off an island that during the hour just before sunrise and sunset, what seemed like a thousand bats would fly into the sky, what a site!

On the final day of the boat trip we went to Rinca Island, the second island that has komodo dragons, and boy did we see a ton and we got to see a baby one, cute but still very deadly. We then stopped for a quick swim at Rinca Kelor a small unpopulated island and then finally landed in Labuan Bajo, Flores! We did get off the boat to go check out the city and figure out who we were going to dive with the next day, ate my first cheese burger in what felt like an eternity, and then spent the last night on the boat. All in all, the trip was sort of expensive, it wasn’t the quickest way to get to the destination, but for sure worth it in the long run.

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