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Published: April 22nd 2008
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After a few days travelling we ended up in Gili air island, close to Lombok, Indonesia. Here we settled for a couple of nights, and sampled some of the fine cuisine. We heard of a liveaboard boat that heads east from Lombok, for 3 nights, catching some nice sights along on the way, but most importantly Komodo and Rinca islands, home to the legendary Komodo Dragon. A local travel agent showed us a brochure for the boat which featured a "Ficture of the boat" and a ficture of the "daragoon". We were hoping to get a couple of days diving in North Sulawesi before the end of the trip, which seemed a bit ambitious given the length of this boat trip. The travel agent told us we could fly back from LabuanBajo (the boats final destination) but when we checked with the airline we were told the flight was full. The agent put us in touch with one Mr Hakim of the cowboy cruise company who run the boat. He assured us there was availability on another flight. After expressing doubt, he replied with: "Listen my friend, Trust me, I know the flights and there is availability. I will have your
tickets for you tomorrow.". So we booked and paid for the boat, and booked our connecting flight to Sulawesi.
Next day we left Gili by boat, and caught a bus to Mataram, the capital of Lombok to meet Mr Hakim and collect our tickets. I introduced myself:
(ME)Hi, I'm Ray, we talked on the phone last night. I've to collect 2 flight tickets from you today.
(HAKIM) Oh yes, Hi. WHat day you want to fly?
(M) Monday. You said you'd have tickets today.
(H) Yes, 1 moment.
-- A few phone calls later
(H) You can fly on Tuesday from Bima? (10 hrs bus/ferry from final destination)
(M) No, I've a connecting flight on Monday.
(H) Oh.. OK.. 1 minute..
-- A few more phone calls later
(H) The flight on Monday is full.
(M) You told me there was availabilty and you'd have my ticekts today.
(H) Maybe you can change your flight to Tuesday ?
(M) No. We don't have enough time. Just give me my money back.
(H) We can only give you half your money back because the agent on Gili has taken his commission. You must go to him for the other half.
(M)
OK, Take me back to Gili so.
(H) We have no car.
(M) LISTEN, I only came here because you told me you'd have flight tickets for me. Now you are liable to get me back to Gili or give me all the money back.
(H) Not possible...blah.. blah.. blah..
After an hour of heated arguing with neither party moving, & the other boat passengers waiting, we started to investigate changing our flight, and cutting our already short diving trip even shorter.
After a trip to a travel agent, a trip to the airport and a 1 hour wait we finally got our flight changed.
That afternoon we were on the boat heading east feeling jaded.
The nights on the boat were pretty restless, as the sea was rough at times. On the 2nd night as we motored through the night, I wondered were we mad sailing in the dark with no navigation equipment on a wooden boat owned by a bunch of cowboys, in order to see a dragon that can and has attacked & killed humans. On the evening of day 2 we eventually arrived intact at Komodo island, having stopped at some nice islands, lakes &
waterfalls. The daragooons were amazing. We saw 2 getting angry with each other, which was quite scary. The next day we went to Rinca island to see more daragoons, and get some photos, before the end of the trip.
Next day we caught a flight back to Bali. We had 3hrs to kill before our connecting flight to N.Sulawesi for our diving trip, so we headed into Kuta beach. Our reason for not hanging around Bali was due to it's reputation as the Costa Del Sol of Asia, been overrun with tourists, hawkers, hookers and drug pushers. All of the above it was and we loved it. On the way back to the airport we thought how it would have been nice to stay in Bali a few days. As we queued to check in for our flight we thought of ways we could get to spend more time here. Cutting our already shortened diving trip even shorter was not an option. So it was either miss the flight or miss Bali. When we got to the front of the queue we held back and let others go ahead as we tried to make a decision. Finally, with 30mins to
go before take off, we made a decision and that was that as mere mortals we would not be able to make a decision in time. So we turned to the wise one- "Bring out the coin". After a quick flick the coin had spoken and our decision was made - we were staying in Bali.
We got a Taxi back to Kuta & hung around shopping & surfing for a few days, and a quick visit to a cheeky monkey forest. We bought some fruit for the monkeys which was swiftly swiped from us by a monkey. When attempting to retrieve it, the monkey showed us his teeth in anger. A raised leg ensured he ran away leaving the fruit behind. Another monkey spotting me putting my hand in my pocket (where I had some fruit). He came over and put his hand in there tried to get it out. After his unsucessful attempt to, he proceeded to empty the contents of my pocket. When I tried to get rid of him, he started to bite at the fruit through my shorts. It would have been nice to have a Komodo here to deal with the Monkeys. We teased them some more before heading back to Kuta where we stumbled across the sobering site of the 2002 bomb, which killed 200+ people, including 24 British backpackers. A memorial wall now stands opposite the site of the bombed nightclub, listing the names & nationalities of those dead, while the site of the club itself remains levelled. A very sad place.
After 4 days in Bali we headed to Bangkok for 2 days before catching our flight back home.
We took the time in Bangkok to buy even more t-shirts, souvneeres, and visit a elephant and tiger sancturary, before finally the trip was sadly over.
Thanks for reading, and remember, beauty lies with dark skin.. .. eh... I mean bright skin....eh... just do what the damn corporations say!
Some more photos
here
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