Bali again and again and again and again.....

Bali is beautiful and has probably a lot to offer culture wise. But it's just so tempting to do nothing there. And so we did..again. Well, we did do some shopping. Using the Australian winter as our excuse to finally spend a lot of money on proper clothes.

We also tried to arrange a visa extension. That turned out to be exhausting and didn't work out for us. So we got back to doing nothing. Enjoying the hotel pool, a brand new one with a great view over the green and the sea. Wonderful.

We just noticed that the title is almost longer than the post ;)

Mantas?

The boat trip ended in Labuan Bajo, Flores. A small harbor city that lives on tourism and has more Italian restaurants than an average Italian village. Tourists come here for two things; komodo dragons and manta rays. The last ones being the reason why there is one business that tops the amount of Italian restaurants; diving. With so many dive shops it's difficult to choose. Going for the one closest to the hotel seemed to be easiest.

Running into our American and Canadian friends we made on our boat trip made them decide to join us for another day on a boat together. The diving day we had great fun together but the diving was the worst we ever had. Although the shop looked nice and organized the boat was the opposite. But a crappy boat was not going to give us a bad experience. Our dive guide did! It was an angry man without the necessary experience for diving in those waters. Which resulted in chaotic and for some moments even a bit unsafe dives. Besides that, diving at Komodo national park was amazing.

The next day we changed to another dive company and had a great time. The dive sites were superb and challenging. The main attraction for this day was manta point. The chance to see manta rays there is about 90%, unfortunately we were part of the other 10%. Unpredictable nature. But we have something to console us with, we saw some of the creators on the surface, which was already really amazing. And don’t forget the sharks and dolphins...

The day we left we took two motorbike taxis to bring us to the airport. Which we found out is just at the end of the street. The airport of Labuan Bajo is like a bus station or actually more like a bus stop. It's so small it's just funny. The plane we had to catch landed in front of us and opened the doors. We could hop on to discover it was already half full. It turned out to be coming from another part of Flores and only came for a few extra passengers to fly together to Bali.

A good start!

To get from Lombok to Flores we booked a boat trip. 4 days sailing with as highlight seeing Komodo dragons.

The wooden motor boat was a little less than 20 m long. It had an open deck with a solid roof. After the first 2 hours we came across some heavy rains. To protect us from the rain the crew closed the open structure with tarps. It kept us dry but had one side effect. The captain's view was blocked. This is no problem for an Indonesian captain who just put his head out of the side window of the wheel house ones in awhile. A bit funny looking but it seems to work till the moment we almost hit an island... The captain was lost.

Under the dark sky at an island he didn't recognize it was time for the navigation instruments. Which was a wooden table with NO map of the area and a compass which he looked at if he was waiting for the moment it started to talk. In the age of I phones someone could show a map and our location. Unfortunately the crew didn't seem to know how to read a map. Turning around and crew members on each side in the pouring rain made us find our way. The first night was a bit longer than expected but we made it to save place to stay overnight. This was a good start.

The rest of the trip we were lucky with beautiful weather. From the water is for sure the best way to enjoy the amazing views with all the little island, deserted beaches, crystal clear water and beautiful colored reefs.

The third day we made it to Komodo island. An island famous for its equally named inhabitants. The Komodo dragons. These giant lizards are known to be the biggest and baddest of their kind. We went for a hike through their territory guided by a park ranger. They are for sure massive, up to 3 meters, but actually look a bit lazy. According to the ranger Rinca island is where the action happens. This smaller island where food is more scarce also inhabits dragons. Several reports of attacked rangers and tourists exists. 

The next day we went to Rinca island for the real deal. It was now about 11 in the morning. Close to the hottest moment of the day, when cold blooded animals are most active.

From the boat to the ranger's office we already saw a few dragons. They all seem to hang out around the rangers camp. This day we got protection from three rangers. As we started our walk we understood why. While watching the first dragon and taking photos two other dragons sneaked behind us and a few smaller ones were approaching. We were surrounded by the deadliest lizards in the world. The dragons didn't look like they were planning to kill but just observing and considering their chances. The rangers, armed with forked sticks, directed us to move slowly. They needed their sticks to drift the dragons apart so we could walk away. We were followed for another 20 meters till they gave up. Rinca is were the action happens.