Komodo, the land of dragons and manta ray heaven

I thought I was in Westeros or Middle Earth when I step in on the island that day. But no, I am in real world. Just in the land of dragons. 

Komodo, or known as dragon is the endemic animal in this infamous national park. The name of the island followed. I went there with 8 friends and none of them are my travel buddies before. So this was our first trip together to encounter the beautifulness of earth. We planned this trip since November 2013 and officially went mad on 28 March – 4 April 2014. I even brought my DSLR camera (which I kinda lazy to bring it lately due to its weight). But I don't wanna miss moments or landscapes for this matter.

Here is the map of Indonesia with Komodo spot on it.

 Komodo Island from above

We flew from Jakarta to Labuan Bajo via Denpasar. Stayed over in Denpasar for one night and took earliest flight to Labuan Bajo because we don’t want to leave out our check dive that afternoon. Like any other East Nusa Tenggara cities, Labuan Bajo is simple, no-fuzz city. I feel like time really moves slowly there. I hope it stays like that for many years to come. Peaceful. 

 Labuan Bajo Harbour

We are ready to sail with Embun Laut 

Labuan Bajo was really hot, remind me a bit of Papua. That’s the typical eastern Indonesian weather I guess. After lunchtime, we moved along to our ship, KM Embun Laut, and finally met the fish whisperer Mr. Condo Subagio who is the owner of the ship. We sailed and sailed and sailed passing beautiful small islands on left and right. I would not recognize those islands one by one if I pass them again and I don’t care! Been waiting for this trip for too long. Just want to enjoy this entire careless and free-scenic-world-#eatsleepdive-holiday.

 The scenic view from our boat 

Life is a boat (and then we dive)

Though the original idea of this trip was to live on board and dive 15 times in 5 days, we got so much more than we expected. Here are 10 things that we embraced during our Komodo trip:

1. The underwater sites of Komodo are overall marvelous.

2. We met great species such as black manta, white tip shark, black tip shark, napoleon fish and many more.

3. All sunrise and sunset in Komodo are captivating.

    One sunset on no man's land

     4. Each night, we could see half milky way and almost all constellations in the sky. And that God must be real! (too bad I don’t bring my tripod to capture the sky with my camera).

     5. We met Komodo dragons on their habitat (being working in conservation organization made this point my achievement).

      A little trekking wont hurt! (location: Rinca Island)

    Komodo dragons, the native population

 

    View from the top of Rinca Island

    6. We did trekking in no man’s land and I saw the most beautiful sunset in my life. 

     Another trekking with real sweats!

 

    We're on the top

     Looking for best spots

   7. We ate 5 times a day. No kidding on this one. I gained two kilos afterwards.

   8. Apparently we are good traveling group, both underwater and on the surface.

    After one of those wonderful dives 

    9. We went sun bathing on Mawan beach alone. Live truly like snob tourists that don’t want to share space with others. Only at that time, no other human beings are around.

    Space of our own

     
     10. We went to Batu Cermin cave in Labuan Bajo that is believed to be located underwater hundreds of years ago.

Five days of adventure were fast gone, of course. We didn’t want to go home, just stay there and have #eatsleepdive life as long as we want. If only Komodo is Narnia and we can go there through wardrobe cupboard anytime we want.

 Our last night in Komodo

We flew back to Denpasar and stayed for two nights, tried to put ourselves together, moved pieces by pieces so we know when we were ready to comeback to Jakarta. Three weeks passed since the holiday and still, we were in wanderlust.

Back to Jakarta, I sent black manta ray postcard to my niece and nephew. Shared a piece of adventure perspective and dazzling underwater view to them. I hope they can have their own adventure some day. I even hope to go back to Komodo someday and have some wicked time again!