Liveaboard in Komodo National Park
After juggling Raja Ampat and Komodo National Park, Onno and I decided that for this time it will be easier to go to Komodo National Park instead. After asking around, we got Johannes, Korbinian, Philip, and Priyam to join, alas Priyam had to reschedule her trip because of the whole COVID-19 situation. But one week before the trip Onno met this lad called Jamie, he wanted to join, and he did. Turned out he’s a good laugh, I love him! So there we go, six young men exploring the Komodo National Park.
The Getting There
Korbinian, Johannes, and I came to Jakarta so we can fly together with Onno to Labuan Bajo, it was direct flight Jakarta-Labuan Bajo. The funny thing was, in the airport I met Pandu “Backpacker Tampan”, I told him that I was going to Flores and Komodo National Park, and he thought Flores might be interesting to explore so he decided to go there too, and he’s travelling solo, how fun is that! but we had different flights, so we part ways in the airport. Anyway, once we arrived in Labuan Bajo, we got a driver to drive us to our accomodation, Seaesta Komodo, it’s a nice place with good vibes, we stayed there for one night before going liveaboard for 3 days 2 nights. Later that day we went to Bajo Dive Center, to arrange our dive trip for after we finished the Liveaboard, but it was only me, Onno, and Philip who ended up going for the dive trip, more on that later. We ended the day by having dinner at La Cecile.
On 24 December morning at 8.30am, we left to the port because it is time for us to take over the Flores Sea! from the dock we took a smaller boat to get to the boat that will be our home for the next 3 days. Once we’re onboard, we settle in first, Philip and I stayed in one cabin. Our cabin was a private one with its own shower and toilet inside, and big bed, so that’s nice. Onno, Jamie, Korbinian and Johannes stayed in another cabin with bunk beds. Even though I got better room, I paid less than the other because I am Indonesian, I realised that is such a discriminatory pricing system, but it is what it is.
There are 6 other guests on board, a couple with their son, and a mother with her son and his wife. but on the second day his wife had to leave the boat because she’s having a pretty bad case of sea-sickness, maybe the fact that she’s pregnant wasn’t helping either. They’re friendly we hangout together quite a lot but the rest of the time we were just chilling with our own groups.
The Komodo Dragons
On the first day, after we had our first lunch on the boat (which was delicious by the way), we went to one of the islands (I forgot the name) to meet the famous big lizard, Komodo dragons. On the way to the island, Jamie was chilling on the deck with his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. it was a bright clear day and he didn’t put on sunscreen, we all know where I am going with this, don’t we? more on that later.
As we’re approaching the island, the boat stopped and anchored itself down, we then took smaller boat to reach the jetty. On the island, we saw some of them roaming around the island, they’re such a majestic animal, not giving a shit about the humans around, just living their lives. I guess they are used to it.
And then there was one Komodo dragons that was “sleeping” under a tree, the park ranger said we can take picture with it. I didn’t take picture with it, because I felt that it is wrong, I was not convinced that the Komodo was sleeping or simply just chilling and let us use it as property for picture, oh man I really hope that they’re not being drugged just so tourists can take pictures with them.
The island is beautiful, I was actually fantasising about living an simple life there, being self-sustained and enjoying my days walking around the island, never mind the fact that the island is full of deadly Komodo dragons that might kill you. It was a nice visit to see the habitat of this beautiful animal, I just wish it wasn’t too commercialised.
Fun Fact: Pink Beach in Komodo National Park is one of seven pink beaches on the planet, and is just one of the many amazing features of Komodo Island that make it truly a Natural Wonder of Nature. This exceptional beach gets its striking color from microscopic animals called Foraminifera, which produces a red pigment on the coral reefs. When the tiny fragments of red coral combine with the white sands, this produces the soft pink color that is visible along the shoreline.
I have been seeing a lot of photos of this beach on social media, because this place is really popular, and rightfully so! So I was really pumped to finally see it for myself. The first thing that came into my mind when we arrived at the beach was oh, it’s not as pink as I thought it was. and the second thing was damn, this place is insane! It really is insane, the crystal clear blue water meeting the pink colour of the sand with amazing greeneries and hills in the back. This place is as scenic as it could be! it’s simply magnificent.
We hung around for a bit, running at the beach, swimming, snorkelling, we even tried to hike the hills, but the locals said that there are green vipers on the island so we could not wonder around. It’s really disappointing, would be nice to explore and see the island from a higher ground. Onno tried to stay in the shades as much as possible, and you could see Jamie already got sunburn from earlier, and his sunburn was really funny tho, the shape! I guess sleeping under the sun with your shirt unbuttoned wasn’t the best thing to do Jamie! Well, at least we can joke about it now. That was a proper joke, every time I see the pictures now, I just can’t stop laughing. Sorry Jamie.
We stayed at pink beach until around 5pm. We supposed to continue with the hike at Padar Island for sunset, but with the time it would take to get there, we wouldn’t make it. We decided to do Padar Island for sunrise the next day instead. We continued sailing towards Padar Island, because we would stay the night near the island so we have enough time to hike before the dawn break and enjoy the sunrise view from the top of Padar Island. On the way there, the sky started to get more colourful as the sun setting. it was really beautiful, we were sailing with such scenic view, colourful sky with beautiful islands rising from the water. It was such a peaceful evening, Onno and I sat on the net at the front of the boat. I can’t really describe how it felt, the closest word I can use to describe my feeling is—serenity.
The Padar Island
Padar Island, if you google Komodo National Park, pictures of Padar Island will 100% show up. This island is really popular, and after I visited it myself, I know why. We left the boat and started hiking at 5am, the dawn already broke. it was an easy hike, because for most parts there were stairs, but if you’re out of shape like me, the hike will tire you a bit. it only took us around 10 minutes to get to the top. The timing was good because once we arrived on the top, the cold blue sky started to turn into warmer colours, spreading from the horizon all the way up. The clouds made the view even more scenic.
We went a bit further up, so there was only us there, most people were hanging out on the lower area where you can take pictures from the famous perspective that you see a lot in social media. i’m actually glad that we went a bit further, because we got 360 degree view, it’s quiet, so we could relax a bit. I was thinking that it was a million dollar view, imagine if you have a house with that kind of view, damn.
After two hours, we went back down, and arrived on the boat at 7.30am, just in time for breakfast. Yummy food, Happy tummy. While we were eating, we continued the journey to the next destination: Timbal Meko.
The Stretch of Sand in the Middle of the Sea
Like a stranded island in the middle of east Flores sea with nothing but white sand in view, Timbul Meko shows its magic when the high tide recedes. This is the next spot we visited after Padar Island.
Let me tell you something, the view is beautiful but boy oh boy, the sun was scorching. Since it’s only a stretch of sand, there’s no trees, nothing provided shades. Good thing I brought my towel with me, it helped a bit.
After awhile, Jamie, Philip, and Korbinian decided to swim all the way back to the boat, which is pretty far by the way. You can see Philip pointed to the boat in the back. Honestly I thought that might be fun, I would do it if I had the energy, but I did not and they’re crazy. So Johannes and I did what normal people do, we took the smaller boat to get back to our boat.
We arrived on the boat first (of course).It took them a bit long to got back to the boat, I could see them stop few times to catch a breath. They all made it back safely tho, so that’s good. Next stop: Sunset at Kalong Island.
The Kalong Island
This was one of the best moments on the whole trip. Kalong means bats or flying fox in local language. The island itself is located in a row of small islands inside Komodo National Park area, surrounded by mangrove where bats live (hence the name Kalong). We didn’t really go on the island, we just anchored our boat in the water amongst many other boats. the water is quite full busy with the boats because this place is one of the best if not the best spot to watch sunset.
The main show wasn’t the sunset itself, but hundreds thousands of bats flying out from the tress to the open sky as the sun setting. It’s like they’re putting on a show for everybody to see. If you are lucky like us, the colour of the sky will be quite dramatic as well, making the whole experience even better. I can’t really describe how I felt at that moment, I don’t think words can do it justice. it was so beautiful, so peaceful. I wished my parents and my siblings were there to see it too. Check the video I made here.
Honestly, I would come back just for this alone. What a majestic view. It felt like the Mother Earth was showing off her beauty, and rightfully so! This kind of moment is what make me want to travel more, to discover more of what this world has to offer. I hope you have a lot of moments like this too. And if you haven’t been to Komodo National Park, you should start planning your trip here!
The Kelor Island
This was our last day, we started the day with one of the most relaxing sunrises ever. Philip was reading a book on the net in the front, I was reading on the deck while having a cup of tea, and Johannes was laying next to me, enjoying the warm morning sun.
When the sun was up, the captain started the engine and we continued our journey to the last island, Kelor Island. It is a small island located in front of the the beautiful hills of Flores. It is one of the must do in the Komodo National Park as the view from the top of the island is simply breathtaking.
We arrived on the island around 10am and directly started hiking. A short hike of 15 minutes will lead you to the top where a panoramic view on Flores, Rinca Island and many other small islands. It was really beautiful up there, another perfect spot for taking pictures, but man.. the hike was something. I was soaking in my own sweat, the hike was a little bit tiring, but that wasn’t the reason I was sweating a lot. it was really hot, I am from Bandung, my body wasn’t used to hot weather like that. it was so hot that it made it quite difficult for me to enjoy the view. I took some pictures but then I really wanted to go down and just stay under the shades, sipping a cold coconut water, and that’s what we did.
There are a lot of small vendors selling souvenir and drink. I wanted to get some pearls necklace actually, but I didn’t have cash with me. We hung out a bit just to cool down and enjoy the island. I took off my shirt cause it was really wet from my sweat. As we were walking back to the dock, there were some local kids playing around while waiting for their parents selling souvenir and drinks. We played around a bit, and took some pictures together. I was really impressed by how happy they were. it’s like they didn't know how hard life can be yet. Maybe they did, but they didn’t understand yet. But then again, they were only kids, they should not worry about that kind of stuff. They made me miss my childhood. Back then, I used to be like them, happy with a simple life, not wanting much from it. But we all have to grow up at some point right? anyway, let’s not get too serious now.
The End of the Trip
After we left Kelor Island, we set our sail back to Labuan Bajo. And that was that, a short but memorable trip, sailing around Komodo National Park. I expected a lot from this trip, but somehow it exceeded my expectations. It was a really fun trip, I was sad that it’s over, but also looking forward to the next adventure. Until then, go check the photos I took from this trip, click the link below.
