My travel destinations over the last year

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

In Search of the Komodo Dragon - Flores, Indonesia


The purpose of heading Labuanbajo on the island of Flores was to visit Komodo Island National Park.  I had heard from friends that this area has some world class diving and that the deadly komodo dragons are only found in this part of the world. 

We ended up flying to Labuanbajo from Bali and as we walked out of the airport we were surrounded by a swarm of Indonesians offering transportation into town.  Feeling a bit overwhelmed we decided to stick with a guy who promised free transportation if we went to his hotel.  Since we had no plans of where we would stay we decided to check it out.  It turned out to be just what we were looking for and had the most amazing view of the bay.   Lucky for us that of all the people getting off the plane he happened to grab us because later we found out that all the other hotels in town were FULL! 

View from out hotel at Golo Hilltop in Labuanbajo

We ended up spending 5 nights in Labuanbajo, moving hotels almost every other night due to them being full, and other than diving there was not much to do in town.  The diving is probably some of the more dangerous diving in the world due to the quickly changing and strong currents but luckily we had great dive masters who know what they were doing and what to look out for.

Dock in destruction in Labuanbajo

Most days were spent diving and since the dive sites were about 2-3 hours by boat the days were long, leaving just after sunrise and coming back just after sunset.  Most nights were spent drinking the local “Bintang” beer or local palm wine “Arak” and beating John at rummy.  

One of the many amazing sunsets on Labuanbajo

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