Blogs from Komodo, Indonesia, Asia - page 2

Komodo Ich war sozusagen Inselhüpfen in Indonesien (es gibt da ja auch so viele...): Zuletzt flog ich nach Labuan Bajo, Flores, um von dort aus mit einem Schifferl nach Komodo zu fahren um die berühmten Komodo Dragons (auf deutsch: Warane) zu sehen. Der Trip dauerte 2 Tage. Am ersten Tag stoppten wir zum schnorcheln, und konnten Manta-Rochen hautnah erleben. Meine wasserdichte Kamera war ab diesem Zeitpunkt nicht mehr wasserdicht... Somit gibts auch keine Fotos vom nächsten Schnorchelstopp, mit Korallen und einem Nemo-Clownfisch. Beim nächsten Halt störten wir "Flying Foxes" (Flughunde) bei ihrem Mittagsschlaf. Und am späten Nachmittag erreichten wir die Siedlung auf Komodo Island (Komodo Village oder Komodo City), ein kleines Fischerdorf mit ca. 1000 Einwohnern (...die meisten davon Kinder). Bei meinem abendlichen Rundgang durch das Dorf... read more

Early on the 5th September we tied the dinghy to the wooden pier at 7am and met our guide, Adi, who had come down to meet us. As we returned to the office there were several dragons lying around. Alex is a big fan of the “How to Train your Dragon” series and I think disappointed these dragons didn’t fly nor breath fire. We spotted one dragon walking, lumbered along and upset another that was minding its own business, in a small confrontation that caused a bit of excitement as the ranger was worried it might dart off in our direction - hard to imagine them moving at any speed. We then went for our walk, passed a dragon guarding its eggs in a huge nest (depressions in the dry mud ground), through woods, over dried ... read more

The two islands of Komodo Island and Rinca Island are home to over 2000 Komodo dragons. The two islands are quite far away from Bali, but can be reached from the town of Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores. I joined a tour which left from the dust swept fishing/tourist town of Labuan Bajo at around 8am. I paid around $125 with an extra $10 for renting snorkel equipment. I boarded a boat with three other Italian women. The boat had a three person crew who had a deep love of loud thumping club music and Indonesian ballads. The first part of the journey consisted of a two hour cruise on the emerald green and blue waters. Our first stop was Rinca Island. At the entrance to the park we were greeted by a female ... read more

I went for a dive trip to Komodo NP between July 10 and July 15. Amazing dives, beautiful corals and fishes and animals. Really fantastic. Some sites with strong currents. The most amazing drift dive of these was the cauldron / the shotgun. A very strong current up to 5-6kt blows you throug a channel... The greatest dive was perhaps the dive around Mawan Island, a cleaning station for Mantas. One dive we didnt see any mantas, but on the second dive we were lucky and three mantas were visiting, and a turtle and a cuttlefish. Mantas at Mawan island! funny: a manta diving nosedown into the sand-I have never seen this before who is watching who? ... read more

After a brief visit to Bali we went by propeller plane to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores. Labuan Bajo is a special place because it is the harbor giving access to the Unesco protected Komodo national park. We were picked up in the airport and taken straight to our nice hotel, Golo Hilltop. The hotel has a perfect location with an amazing view to the beautiful hilly hinterland and the ocean. We had chosen to save a bit of money and not have air condition. It was a BIG mistake. The heat was excessive and quite a bit warmer than usual. Even a swim in the pool couldn’t cool us off. After our liveaboard we bought air condition, which was a very good idea. Our Komodo chapter was primarily about diving. We dived with ... read more