In Indonesia , 4 days at sea to Komodo islands

After an amazing 4 days boat trip we arrived at Labuan Bajo in Flores.
We started on Gili Trawangan, where we found a travel agency that promoted trips for a company named Wanua Adventures.

Erin had done some research on them in beforehand and they had decent reviews.
They are not great in promoting these trips, they all show the same bad pictures and say the same things, if you ask about weather conditions they all say the same, – yeah yeah I think it will be good, but we can never promise.

I did this trip 7 years ago, and it was one of the best trips in my life.
The boat I went with back then looked similar as the ones Wanua Adventures have, it might be the same!

Many people are complaining over weather conditions during these trips, I don’t know if they are very sensitive and scared for open sea and some “bigger” waves, or if their weather conditions were actually really bad.
I’ve heard a few ones have had shitty trips because of the weather, were they have to dock to shore and just wait it out, some of them have not even been able to go for the snorkeling.

But I think that if you avoid the rain season, and try to overlook the weather situations earlier and the forecasts around the time you will be going, you’ll be fine.
You will experience the rough seas at night, but hopefully nothing major.
The wind will pick up during night time and the boat will be rocking.

For me this is just a great thing, I sleep like a baby!
When you wake up , just before sunrise, the weather will be extraordinary with clear blue skies and the sun will fill it with its beautiful different colored rays!

The first night we had a few hours of rough sea and some rain, so people were a bit scared.
I woke up when the crew closed all the windows, and I woke up again when Erin was scared that the water was coming in where we were sleeping so she had a super bright flash light pointed on the floor and in my face.

We all survived, I woke up super energized with one of the best sleeps ever.
Just got a bit annoyed when I realized that the storm had taken my 100 dollars surf shorts I bought in Portugal last year!
But I didn’t let that ruin my day.

The first day we just stopped at a place outside Lombok were we could swim and enjoy some sun.
Perfect weather, around 35C .
The water here is bright green, and it’s very clear, around 20 meters of visibility!

Remember to bring a rash guard to protect your body against all jellyfish.
You also need it for all the stinging micro aquatic life like plankton, you will enjoy both swimming and snorkeling way more if you have this!

We were very lucky with this trip, because we were only around 20 people on board including the crew!
Sometimes there can be up to 40, I would not enjoy that at all!
The crew was a fun group of guys, all of them joking around making the trip more fun for everyone.

The food on board was awesome, the most of the trip it very tasty vegetarian food.
Sauteed water spinach, mixed vegetables noodles , nasi goreng and many other vegetables fried or boiled in different flavorful sauces.
The last day they bought fresh calamari from some fishermen we meet at a beach we stopped at for snorkeling.
They made a very good dish from that!

Coffee and tea are available at all times!

When just sitting on the boat looking out on the ocean, you see a lot of wildlife.
Dolphins and mantas breaching the surface and we even got to see a massive whale coming up a bit away from the boat, it had the same size as the blue whales in Sri Lanka, but no one could confirm what it was.
It is truly an amazing experience to just sit on a slow boat and watch the nature do its thing, you feel so at peace and align with everything.
One big Marlin was curious and came up next to the boat! So cool.

The landscape around here is incredible.
You got the volcano islands, all inactive since way back.
They are all covered in green vegetation, you got the jungle below the peaks, but also on the actual volcanoes you got a few trees growing randomly, it is beautiful!

Around the big islands etc Sumbawa and Banta, there are many small islands.
Small paradise islands which have its own beautiful beach, and of course they all got its own little peak, it looks like the islands have their own volcanoes.
It is amazing to see the result of natures creation!

We stopped at Gili Laba to hike to the peak there , an amazing 360 degree view point overlooking the whole islands and many distant beautiful volcano islands!
It takes about 20 minutes to hike up there, but it’s worth it.
You do it early morning so if you are fast enough you can catch the sunrise!
Overlooking the bay on Gili Laba is also a very beautiful sight.

The snorkeling here is amazing, a bit further out away from the beach the condition of the reef is super.
It’s like being in a massive aquarium with the most colorful fish you can think of, all of the colors!
I saw one turtles which I tried to get closer to.
So I dove down to about 5 meters where the turtle were hanging out and had my GoPro ready to roll.

They are one of my favorite animals to be around, I was just a meter above it, floating there and the turtle didn’t seem to bother.
It’s always an incredible experience.
After a half a minute I went up to the surface to grasp some air.
Looked down fast to keep track of it, but then instead of one turtle I started to see more turtles, there was 4 of them swimming around, it was a turtle playground!
So awesome!
Snorkeling around there I also got to see two really big Cuttle fish showing off, changing colors and patterns to camouflage themselves.
So cool!

We made about 6 stops on the way to Komodo island, all of them were really great spots for snorkeling and just hanging out on the beautiful beaches.

We visited a waterfall on Sumbawa, which was really nice to jump in, so fresh!
Snorkeling and hiking on Gili Laba and Santonda island, where you can also visit the salt water lake.
We hiked up to a view point so we could see this lake from above, stunning view!
One cool spot we got to was Pink beach, a beautiful beach protected from all the massive currents.
You can see red/pink fragments in the ripples on the bottom if you look beneath the surface.
A very beautiful place!

Every day was a great day with many amazing adventures on the menu.

This ocean is really amazing.
You have pretty much the strongest ocean currents in the world here, and you can see that on the surface.
There are twirls everywhere you look.
The tide is so strong so you can see that the north surface is higher then the south, depending on tide.
Super cool, a bit scary at the same time!

These trips seems to be safe going on, the crew don’t push the boat too much and they know when the waves or currents are to strong and the weather is too bad to continue.
You got life jackets and rafts on the boat.

Finally at Komodo islands and Rinca!
You do around an hour of hiking on each island.

It’s always scary to not know what can lurk in the bushes , these komodos are massive, around 3 meters and 100kilos!
They can also run up to 17km/h which is pretty damn fast!

When you see them, you realize that dragons once existed.

On Komodo island it’s more commercialized , the komodos you get to see are basically feed to be able for the tourists to see.
They are still very dangerous though!
Their saliva contains about 6 million bacteria, so if you get bitten you will not be far away from death if you don’t get the “cure” fast enough.

The only thing the rangers can protect you with as a long stick that they can try to push in the neck of the 100 kg komodo and hope that it will give you enough time to run away.
Komodo island is a very big island so that’s way they have feed some of the komodos and placed certain water holes for them to go to so all tourists can see them.

On Rinca it feels way more authentic, here you do a way nicer hike.
This island is way smaller so you get to see more of them, not as big though, but still big enough for you to get scared!
It’s an amazing experience to get face to face with these vicious animals, this is the only place on earth you can see them in the wild.

Around 4pm on the last day you will arrive at Labuan Bajo in Flores, the end destination for the boat trip.

Everyone are satisfied with everything.
The whole experience have been a bliss, this was my second time doing this one but 7 years later and it is still and amazing experience.

Everything in this trip are included, 3 meals a day, unlimited with tea and coffee, snorkeling equipment, beds , pillows and blankets and all the park fees are in the price!
We paid 1.500.000 IDR which is about 110 USD for an incredible 4 day experience!

In Labuan Bajo we stayed two nights, while you are here and you are into scuba diving you have do it!
You need a bit more experience to do these dives, the currents are very strong!

The marine life here are extraordinary, amazing reefs of both soft and hard corals.
At manta point we got surrounded by 15 mantas! Wowzer.
Turtles, sharks, mantas, frogfish, sweet lips and what not.
We spent 3 hours under the surface, 3 different dive sites.
I was not even tired after that.

So excited over the whole experience!

This day trip with 3 dives + great quality equipment, food, water and coffee included for a price at 1.200.000 IDR, 90 USD.

I have said it before and I will say it again, I love Indonesia!

From Labuan Bajo we took a flight this morning , 900 000 IDR with Wings airline to Den pasar Bali.
You are only allowed to have 10 kg as checked in luggage so be prepared to pay extra, but only 1 USD per kilo.

Now in Ubud for two nights before heading to Lombok for the surf!

Life is great.