Another diving trip, yaaay!
It was a perfect trip: 7 days live aboard, sunny weather with my best-buddies group., 12 of us (Dewi Wardjojo, Adrijani Liem, Darwin Wibowo, Lisa Daryonne, Spencer, Danil Tirtowidjojo, Cecilia Yuda, Zaenal, Harfi, Bonar Sitohang, Joseph and myself). And the dives? My favorite destination! (plus the big discount as we arranged the trip ourselves. Well, Adri, our beloved buddy, did it ;). We paid less than 8 millions rupiah for the dives, guides, food and the vessel).
It started with quite a news before we even started to sail. Only 24 hours before we departed, 5 English men plus one local guide were missing at exactly one of the spots we wanted to dive. They luckily were found alive in Rinca Island, after drifted more than 20 miles and fought all night with the komodo dragons (don’t let them bite you, you will have 40 deadly bacterias in your blood instantly).
Komodo Islands are located in the West side of Flores. You have to fly to Labuhan Bajo (usually through Bali) with local airlines, such as Merpati. From there, it is recommended to live aboard a dive vessel, which you have to arrange in advance with the operator (we used Grand Komodo whose main office was in Denpasar, Bali). As the islands are not too far, you can start your first dive only in several hours after boarding.
The vessel, Tarata, was the smallest compared to the others under Grand Komodo company. It wasn’t so bad. The food was good, the kitchen was clean and the crew were excellent. In fact, I have never heard any complain regarding the professionalism of Grand Komodo crew from anyone. Johny, our lead dive guide, was a bit moody though.
We dove 4 times a day, as we normally do whenever we live aboard. You wake up, dive, eat, sunbath, dive, eat, sunbath, dive, snack-time, dive, eat and get drunk. Plus.. fishing, jumping from the top of the vessel, watching the star, listening to everyone’s iPods on speaker, photographing everyone while they’re sleeping, watching our underwater photos, and finally, some sleep.
We also went to the Pink Beach. A beautiful, beautiful beach. It’s the best to go there in the afternoon enjoying the sunset.
Sorry, sooo can't resist to compile these...
.. so that we all know: Never sleep near the candid camera 😉
Some of the dive spots really stunned me to the max: Current City, Crystal Rock, Pink Beach and Manta Alley. Komodo has everything, from the magnificent pelagic to cool macro creatures. From fascinating walls to unbelievable landscape. If I sound like a salesman, well, I am selling it! Komodo is definitely one of the best. But you have to be aware that Komodo will not be easy to dive. It is recommended to have 50 logs before you decide to go there.
We of course could not skip Rinca Island, home for thousands of the dragon lizards. It was my second trip to this beautiful island. When we were hiking, the ranger told me that the island was once underwater as there were many sea creature fossils at the top of its hills. Wow. You only need to pay very little entry fee and can only explored the island guided by a trained ranger. You can choose the short trek (approx. 2 hrs) or the long one (6 hrs).
Enough writing, let’s enjoy more pictures!
PS: I found the picture that I took in 2004 for Tourism Department at the airport. Cute lizard!
