I have been diving a few times, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it so much that I want to get addicted to such an expensive hobby. So I try to just stick with snorkeling. I am, however, interested in the enormous lizards called Komodo dragons, which exist in the wild only on three little islands of Indonesia, all sandwiched between Flores and neighboring Sumbawa. They're one of the several things in this world that you can ONLY see in Indonesia, which to me make them one of the big reasons for visiting Indonesia. And Labuan Bajo is the main jumping-off point for boat trips to snorkel and see the dragons.
So I signed up for a two-day trip to do just that. And, wow.
Well, I went the super-budget way, and there were definitely no frills. They crammed 13 of us on this little boat (there was an upper deck for us to sleep on that did not even realistically hold us all--they definitely overbooked the trip) and the food was passable but certainly not great.
But the boat was just a means to an end. We motored along through beautiful scenery...
...to the main event: Komodo National Park.
We went to Rinca Island, and before we even got 100 meters from the visitor's center, there were dragons everywhere!
I should share just a couple of things about Komodos, in case you know as little about them as I did. My favorite facts: (1) They eat entire large mammals, like goats, or deer (no joke! both of which live on the little islands where they do), which they "hunt" by lying lazily around in the underbrush, waiting for a doomed animal to wander by whom they will bother to bite only if it gets close enough it practically steps on them. Once the animal has been bitten, though, the Komodo's mouth is so full of vicious, deadly bacteria, that the animal is as good as dead. The Komodo only has to casually follow it around till it croaks and can be eaten. And they eat 'em but good, leaving only the skull, which lead to this ranger-created graveyard of mammal skull leftovers from Komodo meals.
(2) While a female Komodo lays 30-40 eggs once per year and will guard her nest to protect it from predators, generally only 2-3 of the eggs will survive and evolve into being mature dragons, because Komodos are cannibalistic, and the first few dragons to hatch will get their first meals by eating their brothers and sisters before they hatch. Lovely!
They're pretty fascinating creatures, if you're interested in looking up more. We hung out with them for a few hours (the rangers carrying what were basically enormous snake sticks to defend us with, if need be), and then moved on to the spectacular waters and beaches of this island group.
Check out the pink sand of this beach, if you can draw your eyes away from the turquoise waters:
And the inlet at Pedar Island was lovely enough...
...but when you climb the well-developed footpath to the top, you get probably the most famous viewpoint of the region:
The sunrise wasn't too shabby, either.
I mean, seriously:
This is me, no longer as white as the Antarctic snow, and happy:
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