Next up Komodo. We got a plane from Kuala Lumpur to the island of Flores in Indonesia 🇮🇩 , where the nearby island of Komodo sits – home of Komodo dragons. The airport in Flores is called Komodo, even though it isn’t on Komodo, it’s on Flores. So it’s a bit of a misnomer but hey.
We had originally planned to just do Vietnam and Cambodia, with a week on the beach in Thailand at the end. But the trip transmogrified, because just as I was about to book our flights to Bangkok, Isreal started bombing Iran and flight prices subsequently went mental for any direct flights avoiding the Middle East. So we ended up with outbound flights to China and inbound from Kuala Lumpur and built a new trip around all those perameters.
Then I’d given the kids a list of options of things they might like to do/see on the trip and Komodo dragons won – alongside Angkor Wat – so we built the trip around those.
Anyway, just as we got on the plane in Kuala Lumpur to fly to Komodo airport, I got the following text message from my boat guy in Flores:
Basically, every stopping point on the trip was now cancelled. I was understandably a bit highly strung on receiving it.
Once I read it properly and realised we could still see Komodo dragons on Rinca island on the revised tour, I was cool again.
So, we arrived in Flores and our hotel “Loccal Collection” (don’t ask me why the 2 x c) collected us.
We stayed in Labuan Bajo town – where the harbour for Komodo boat tours is – to make it easy for the trip and also for ease of walking to restaurants (and ice cream) for everyone. The hotel had really lovely views of the harbour and the liveaboards in the sea.
I had searched for a liveaboard a for us when planning the trip – despite Jonathan saying he’d rather spend a month in jail than live on a boat – but unfortunately they were all booked up months in advance.
I had loved both times me and Paddy had done a live aboard in the Galapagos; everything is less rushed because you’re not trying to cram it all in a day. They drive through the night, meaning you can get to places much further away than on a day trip. And I’m just a water lover, so the more time in the water the better. Alas, it was not meant to be. Jonathan was delighted.
I had arranged our boat trip in advance with Warren, owner of Alexandria travels, whose reviews were excellent. So good that I even accepted the 5:30am start time, as the reviews said it was worth it – and I don’t say that lightly, because I do not do mornings before 7am as rule, unless it’s for a flight or to feed a baby.
We decided to do the trip on Bo’s birthday so we were doing something special for it.
So, up at 5am – kids all delighted and absolutely no fuss about being dragged out of bed while it was dark 😕 – and we were collected and driven to the boat.
We shared it with a Korean family with 2 children, a funkily dressed lesbian couple from Oz and a quiet couple who never spoke, so – origin unknown.
First stop was Kelor island, where we hiked (scrambled) to the top to watch the sunrise, then had breakfast on the beach.
There were baby reef sharks along the crystal clear shoreline and a tiny emaciated kitten (which Rai said was the best part of the whole day 🙄).
After breakfast we headed to Rinca island for dragon spotting.
There were a few big ones lazing around, they don’t do a lot during the day. They are most active at sunrise when they hunt for food, because it’s much cooler, but once it warms up they just chill until sunset. Their claws are enormous and their feet look like hands.
We also saw a couple of juvenile ones, who are more lively during the day (see special walk video).
After Rinca we moved to Mawan island for 2 separate snorkelling stops. When the boat stopped and they told us there were 2 mantas right next to us, I was off that boat faster than lightning absolutely forgetting about all the kids who had never actually snorkelled before.
Luckily they had Jonathan who had remembered them! But the boat also had snorkelling guide onboard, who swam with a lifebouy on a rope the whole time, so any of the the kids could hold to it and he would tow them behind him and guide them to all the most interesting snorkelling points.
The mantas were quite deep so it was hard to get a clear video but they were about 2m across.
At the second stop we literally just floated on the strongest current I’ve ever been in, looking at the most fabulous, intact coral reef below. Undamage. All flourishing and full of fish. No swimming required.
(I did remember the kids this time)
They dropped us at one point and collected us a few hundred meters down current. The videos really don’t do it justice because the colour doesn’t render properly at all on an iPhone and it all looks the same/ kind of dull – but it was just wonderful and vibrant under there in person.
The fact that the whole bed is pristine coral is a testament to Komodo national park.
Then we moved to our second island Siaba besar where we swam with turtles.
There were about 10 in all, and they seemed quite happy to have us swimming nearby.
Not quite as domesticated as those in Barbados – who will literally come over to you because they are so used to being fed by tours – but at least they didn’t scoot off immediately like the ones in Galapagos, who flee as soon as you’re within 10ft of them.
After the turtles, we had lunch on the boat in the most beautiful pocket of turquoise water.
Here, Sophia decreed that she needed to get rich enough to just live on a boat and snorkel every day in water like this. Same Soph, same.
When they said there was another snorkel stop after lunch, I initially thought – I can’t be bothered. I’m dry now and I’ve just eaten. But I’m so glad I did, because the coral reef at Sebayur island was absolutely spectacular.
My phone died just as I got in the water, but it’s one of the best reefs I’ve ever been in.
There were lots of little sections of sea anemones with clown fish hiding inside, and blue star fish everywhere.
The last time I swam in such good coral was some random island in Fiji in 2006. Nothing else has been remotely comparable, mostly just dead coral around the world. This was wonderful, like a full healthy garden under the sea. Colourful coral and plants and interesting fish everywhere you looked.
I was the last to get back in the boat and would have happily spent hours more just taking it all in.
That was the last stop and we headed back to the harbour and then driven to our new hotel, the Puri Sari.
This one was on the beach, with the cleanest pool we’ve had the whole trip and we spent the rest of Bo’s birthday afternoon enjoying both beach and pool, before a birthday dinner for Bo.
I had asked the hotel to arrange a surprise birthday cake for Bo, and we’d brought a few decs from home to attempt to make it feel special for him, it’s weird having your birthday away from home (which seems to happen to Bo every year!).
The kids delighted in just being able to run off and play on the beach whenever they liked during dinner and just come back to eat. Beach dinners are the best (for our unruly kids anyway).
During our stay in Flores, the big boys flew back home to the UK, we stayed another 24h after they left and then flew to Lombok for a week of sitting in the sun and snorkelling 🤿
danilovescats 