Indonesia is such a large and wonderfully geographically diverse country. While here we really struggled to decide on which natural sites to explore beyond Bali and Ubud. We toyed with Borneo among other places but eventually landed on several days in Komodo once hearing the animal park was soon to close for rehabilitation— we didn’t want to miss our chance.

EXPERIENCE

We flew from Bali to Flores to begin our multi day ocean adventure. From here we boarded a private junk boat and cruised the region for three days stopping to snorkel, hike islands and view all kinds of amazing wildlife.

We had an awesome three day itinerary while at sea. Activities included several stops to snorkel, hikes on various islands, opportunities to see Komodo dragons and spots for sunsets. Our trip started at Kelor Island to snorkel and swim. This was the least impressive of the reefs we visited, and the current was quite strong mid-ocean, but we did see some pretty fish and relatively healthy coral here. From here we headed by boat to Menjerite to do an off-shore snorkeling activity. Then onward to Rinca Island for a wonderful afternoon trek to find the Komodo Dragon. The views from the long circuit trek here were really nice and this island in general was very quiet compared to Komodo. We ended our first evening with a boat ride back to Kalong Island to see thousands of giant fruit bats flying out of mangrove forest while enjoying the spectacular sun set. This night we got to see a beautiful Milky Way while snuggling on the boat deck and hung out long enough for a lovely full moon rise.

The next morning the crew was up before us for early boating to Padar Island. We had breakfast on boat then trekked to the hilltop view-point of Padar island for an iconic landscape view around Komodo National Park. This was stunning but super crowded with tourists.  From here we headed to an amazing Pink Beach to snorkel more and relax. I was getting lots of jellyfish stings at this site, but we got to see a cuttlefish and some more incredible fish. We showered off the best we could, then boated to Komodo Island for an afternoon trek to find the Komodo dragon and headed to Kalong Komodo Island for our overnight mooring.

On our final day at sea, we had the best snorkeling of our lives. We prepped for jellyfish and hit Taka Makasar/Manta Point and lucked out to find huge Manta Rays to swim with. This was really spectacular. We had hoped to do this on our honeymoon to Tahiti but weather did not cooperate then, we were so happy to finally have the chance. After lunch we did the best snorkeling of our lives at Siaba Island, where we experienced the healthiest reef either of us had ever seen. This area was home to giant sea turtles and some of the most spectacular fish and coral I have ever laid eyes on aside from nature documentaries. We made one more stop at Kanawa before heading back to Labuan Bajo’s harbor to return to the airport.

EAT

While aboard and in this region we ate ALL of our meals at sea. Aboard our boat, the chef prepared three meals a day with fried bananas as a snack each afternoon once we finished snorkeling. These were particularly good with the local Nutella spread on them (not as good with shredded cheese added, which our cook seemed to insist on doing the last two days…).

Meals typically felt very local with an assortment of seafood like fresh fried fish, calamari and prawns. There were also many un-named greens and tofu dishes. Each meal had about five hot prepared dishes along with white rice and a plate of delicious fruit like mangos, watermelon or pineapple. We certainly did not go hungry while at sea, but were eager to get to Singapore and enjoy some other flavors of Asia beyond the Indonesian cuisine by the time we made land.

STAY

For this part of the trip, we slept aboard the boat provided by Top Komodo. Our accommodations here were comfortable for a boat but much in line with camping. Since we had a private vessel we had two bunk cabins to ourselves, one of which we used for luggage and one for sleeping. We decided to splurge and get a boat with AC, I would highly recommend doing this if you plan to travel this region in August like we did. Showering was challenging and more of a bucket bath to rinse off salt water than a real cleaning. Though there is a cool breeze in the evening on deck, the cabins are quite humid and stuffy at night. The experience is worth the discomfort for a few nights if you are willing to tolerate it. Think of it as camping and you will be just fine.

Highlights of cruising included swimming with manta rays, swimming with giant sea turtles, spotting Komodo dragons in the wild and a spectacular dusk fruit bat show. The stars were also magical before moonrise, gazing at the Milky Way from the boat deck was very memorable.