A meet and greet with the Komodo dragons of Indonesia

Well, it was an early start at 5am from Bali airport but that’s OK. I like to get going early so I feel I get more holiday for my money.

The plane wasn’t large and had about 20 passengers. I still can’t work out where they all went when we got there. The flight into Labuhanbajo was a great introduction because from the air it looked just like Jurassic Park! There were volcanoes sticking up through misty clouds and Im sure I heard a dinosaur roar.

The airport is small but totally fine and the guy from the boat was there waiting for me. Always a relief when you’re a woman travelling alone.

The harbour has a floating pontoon — just plastic containers strapped together — and you can get seasick before you even set foot on the boat.

That brings me to the boat.

It wasn’t really as big as I was expecting, and I was expecting small! There are larger sizes you can rent that are priced accordingly, but mine had room enough for everything and that’s all you need. There was the captain, his wife and cook, a helper and me. So off we went.

The water is smooth and really clear and blue. I think I focused on seeing dragons so much that I never really gave much thought to the islands themselves. And they are stunningly beautiful.

I’m not sure what the yearly weather is like in the area but October turned out to be perfect.
The lady cooked up a feast day after day of the best Indonesian food in the tiniest of kitchens. If you want beer you have to bring it yourself, so lucky I did my homework.

We called into two islands to see the Komodo dragons and, bloody hell, they are huge! I wasn’t disappointed. You can get really close but you have to be with a ranger. I felt completely safe because he had a big stick. What the bloody hell a stick is supposed to do against a giant lizard the size of a small car is still a mystery to me, but I got out alive and with photos.

It didn’t stop at the dragons. The snorkeling is absolutely unbelievable, too. Its like jumping into Finding Nemo and the manta rays just glide by.

On one of the islands I was lucky enough to join what I thought to be some kind of festival. Everyone was friendly and smiling and patting my arm but on moving to the front I found a dead guy on a stretcher and it seems I had joined a funeral. Everyone was so excited to have me there I kinda had to carry on.

Finally I had to return to Labuhan Bajo. I had booked the Bintang Flores Hotel and it was surprisingly good. Lovely modern rooms and a fabulous pool by the water. So much more than what I was expecting in the middle of nowhere.

There’s no shopping and I had lost my hairbrush so in desperation I bought a scrubbing brush from an old lady selling them on a blanket on the side of the road and I have to say my hair is starting to look a little freaky but no one understands “hairbrush”. I even drew a picture to no avail, but I’ll survive.

I have to say if you’re looking for a peaceful, beautiful place you can’t get much better than this..There is no night life but I found a little cafe run by an Italian man who hides away from the world and it serves the best coffee ever.

Sadly I have to head for home tomorrow. I’ll have a few days in Bali for old times’ sake but after Komodo I’ll be hard to please…

Have you see Komodo dragons in the wild? What was the experience like for you? Let us know in the comments section below.