Bali and Komodo

The plan was to head straight over to Komodo to do some diving (and see dragons), but as it seemed impossible to buy the plane tickets before arriving in Indonesia, we decided to spend a couple of days in Bali first, so we could sort out the travel arrangements and also have some much needed R&R. We decided to stay in Seminyak, as the Lonely Planet describes this as being more 'sophisticated' than the backpacker hangouts of Kuta and Legian (Kuta is where the 2002 bombings were). It turned out to be pleasant enough with plenty of swanky looking boutiques, restaurant and bars. However, the beach was a big disappointment. Whilst it is a good wide expanse of sand, it is also strewn with rubbish and rotting dead fish cast aside by the fishermen – hardly the idillic scene painted by the LP.















Having orientated ourselves, and had a fantastic dinner in a beach side restaurant, we decided to sample Bali nightlife. I think we headed out too early as most of the bars were deserted – most places don't get going until after 11. The only lively looking place on the street was Mix Well, a glitzy looking gay bar. We settled in for the evening with our Pina Coladas.

After another day recovering from our hangovers we boarded our flight for Labuan Bajo on Flores island which is the gateway to Komodo. We had arranged for three days diving with ReefSeekers and we headed out the next day. It takes a couple of hours to get to the dive sights, but the boat was well equipped and extremely well run with coffee and tea delivered to you at regular intervals so trip wasn't too painful. And as for the diving itself – well to be honest I would have been prepared to go twice as far for diving this quality. On the first day we had around 10 Manta Ray encounters and the second day we saw a group of three dolphins, including a pup – awesome. Other notable sightings included a beautiful eagle ray, bump head parrot fish, a giant shoal of fusiliers being chased by a giant trevally, a grey reef shark, several white tip and black tip shark, turtles, and mandarin fish. In addition to all this, the coral and abundance of small fish was incredible. Unfortunately, although we rented a camera, the light on that day was poor, and it fogged up so the manta ray is more of a shadow.














Obviously, a trip to Komodo would not be complete without visit the infamous dragons, so on the fourth day we charted a boat to Rinca beach which we had been told was the best place to guarantee finding them. It was only a short work from the rangers office, when accompanied by a guide with a large stick, we found our first dragon. We trekked for around 2 hours seeing around 6 dragon of varying sizes. They were actually not as large as we were expecting (about 3m nose to tail), but this could have been because they were mostly laying down sleeping in the sweltering heat. Apparently, if they kill a buffalo they will not need to hunt for another week so they can spend their time sleeping.














Other than the diving and dragons, Labuan Bajo doesn't have much to offer travellers. Luckily for us there was one very good restaurant and bar, Lounge, which as well as great food offered live music and even impromptu dance classes which obviously I couldn't resist much to the amusement of the locals.