Lombok to Flores adventure

From Lombok I took a 4 day-4 night boat to Flores visiting the islands of Komodo and Rinca, aka The Komodo National Park, home to komodo, dragons or how we called them – dinosaurs.

There are only two “budget” boats operating this route. The well-known Perama boat reaches Flores within 3 days and costs more than $400 and Kecana tour that costs merely $150 for 4 days. Given the savings, it should not come as a surprise that Kecana boat did not have any safety measures or any decent navigation system. The food was bare minimum, we slept on the deck, the “guide” did not really speak English, but since we have not drawn, I cannot complain. At times through I was wondering if we'd ever make it. To make us feel save we were told "if waves are too big, we will wait".

We have seen komodo on both Komodo and Rinca islands, but significantly more dragons on Rinca (as everyone says!). It was the mating season so we witnessed a magnificent dragon fight for a female. There is only one female for 4 male komodo. The most fasinating way to see the fight is to have photos lined up. I was impressed! Those heavy carnivores only seemed to be sleeping in the sun. Another second they were fighting with their blood vessels flexing scarily just about 3 meters in front of us.



On the way we also snorkeled at two superb locations. Satonda National Park was maybe the best coral collection I have seen to date. Snorkeling at Red Beach near Komodo was also amazing. The beach itself is also interesting. It is white from the far, but pink up close thanks to red coral pieces.

The landscapes on the way were stunning and different from anything I have seen before. Barren islands with no vegetation, life or people are surrounded by amazing warm blue waters with colourful corals. Some views:








Labuan Bajo is where we ended the trip. The place did not reveal anything special to me except for lack of decent budget accommodation. An expensive hotel outside the city was a nice change after 3 days without fresh water on the boat - we enjoyed the pool for $5/day.



Did I mention the earthquake? Yes, it happened while we were having dinner, but it was weak, not even our plates fell.

My advice is to book an ticket in advance to get out of Flores the very moment you arrive (in high season ppl get stuck there for 10 days). Unless, unless you dive. I heard diving is AMAZING but difficult around Laub Bajo (very strong currents). It costs $80 for two dives.

KOMODO TRIP album on flickr with more dragons and views

Next stop was Sulawesi with a day layover in Kota.

Dragons in action, Rinca Island, Komodo National Park, Indonesia

more to come shortly

Portuguese Blues

I will never catch up with my photography. I just came back from the beautiful (western) coast of Portugal. I have a number of great images, still on my SD card. I am still to go through some images from Indonesia (the amazing Sulawesi) and I am asking myself the same question over and over again. Why bother?

If anybody is reading it, let me know. That would motivate me somewhat to go through this torture of selecting images. I realize that blogspot is not as good as livejournal to create a snowball effect for readers. Flickr is definitely better at it, but I am still not ready to spend the time required for that. And besides I like telling stories even though recently I became lazy and somewhat paranoiac.

Regarding Portugal - after partying at sudoeste festival I concluded that Portuguese men are the best looking in the world, at least the part I have visited (the whole 25% of it). Sorry Israelis, you move to the 2nd position in my list. Comments?

Lombok

I was lucky to get an individual tour of Lombok behind the adventurous, as he calls himself, travelmaster. Still undeveloped compared to the Gili Islands and Bali, Lombok felt like real Indonesia – Muslim, poor and beautiful. Three days on a bike (btw, my ass still hurts a month later!) and I began to discover this island - the green rice and tobacco fields, wild beaches of the north and south, waterfalls by the Rinjani, sunset over Bali, photogenic locals and hyperactive kids screaming “Hello Mister, where you going!?”, the worst roads ever in Southwest Lombok and an amazing cafe Ashtari.

Here is my "favourite" old lady that we caught by chance before sunset.



Other amazing photos on flickr.