That Time I Bought a One Way Ticket to Bali— And Met My Wife!
Diving in Komodo National Park, Indonesia
Well, this particular week had to rank as one of the best travel weeks that I ever had. It was absolutely fantastic. After the absolute trashing I took across Flores, I woke up in the morning to a beautiful little harbour town on the extreme west coast of Flores, called Labuanbajo. All of the travel literature is calling this the “next big thing” as it is a beautiful setting and it is also the gateway to Komodo National Park, home of the Komodo Dragon, as well as a premier diving spot.
The first night there, I stayed in what the guidebook called a “ramshackle” set of bungalows overlooking the harbour. Ramshackle is an understatement, but fuck, was the bed ever comfy. That is the most comfortable bed I have slept on in YEARS. I’m not exaggerating. It was brilliant. I was worried if I rolled over too quickly though that the bed would go through the floor and the bungalow would collapse around me, so I was careful. Hard to find a good bed, I wasn’t moving.
My bungalow was buried in the trees halfway up the hill behind the harbour, which I believe has expedited the ramshackling process. First night in town, after a 10 hour drive, I roll into “The Lounge” (maybe the only lounge) for some food, beer, and football. Lots of people there, packed. The restaurant part was in the middle, and the lounge part consisted of cushions surrounding the restaurant. On the wall in the middle, a projector screen to see the games.
Found myself on one of the couches, and eased back into a Bintang. Sitting beside me, a woman from Boston, Allison, working in Jakarta who was diving in the morning. We started chatting about this and that and she asked if I wanted to come along in the morning as she did not have a buddy. I gave all kinds of reasons why not to go (my laundry, I’m wasted-tired), and after an hour or so of great conversation, we parted ways and I headed back to my bungalow. Bottom line, I’m an idiot.
When I arrived in my decrepit place with the brilliant bed, I proceeded to ridicule myself for the next hour. Laundry?? Anyhoo, nothing ventured, nothing gained, I woke early (set my alarm), showed up at the dive shop, and there she was. I talked myself onto the boat, and the next 5 days were amazing, beautiful, and ridiculously fun.
Let’s talk about the diving. The first dive was 25 meters off a pinnacle rock straight off the coast of Komodo Island, on the backside where there was no current. As soon as we hit the bottom, there were white-tip reef sharks, an incredible array of fish, and coral of all colors and shapes. Amazing variety and density. I was a little sketched out at first as I had not been in gear for almost 2 years. The Dive Master was terrific though and made me feel really comfortable really quickly.
Also saw an eagle ray (5–6 foot wing span) and a huge loggerhead turtle hanging out under a big chunk of coral, taking a breather out of the current. I did a total of 8 dives over 4 days, and they were all spectacular in their own way. One was through a narrow gap with a ridiculously strong current. A little hairy at first, but lots of fun once I got the hang of it. And then the mantas… in a spot called “manta alley” -wow.
I am anchored with my stick to fight the current and Allison is holding on to me. Pretty spectacular.
On the 3rd day of diving, we arranged to be dropped off to go see Komodo dragons in the park. There is a small pier and welcome center on Rinca Island, one of the 3 islands that actually have dragons living on them. We were dropped off and walked about 500m inland through mangroves to the welcome center. I had read that there were “resident” dragons that hung out around the cook shack. Sure enough, there were a couple of monsters there.
They can sure move fast when they want to, but are pretty docile in the afternoon heat. While they are still though, their eye is constantly tracking you, and if they have to move their head to keep you in their sight, they move in a slow, calculated manner. They don’t give off a cute and cuddly aura.
Apparently, the way they hunt large animals like buffalo is to ambush, bite, and then wait, up to two weeks while their fetid, bacterial saliva slowly infects the animal. They have an amazingly keen sense of smell, so once they have ambushed, they use their sense of smell to stay in the proximity of the wounded buffalo until it dies, then it’s dinner time. Yum, rotting, infected buffalo.
It was ridiculously hot there. After the dragon extravaganza, we went out on a hike on the island. Again, stunning.
Looking inland in the picture above, and looking north, out towards Loh Buaya and Komodo Island in the distance below. Someone is not so good at taking pictures (shadow).
Yup, kind of a pretty place. But maybe a bit more about Ms. Allison. Sometimes you meet a person who has an immediate effect on your being. This is one of those sometimes. She is a sweetheart.
The original plan was to do 3 days of diving, but it was so amazing, we tacked on a fourth day. The highlight of the 4th day was definitely “The Cauldron”, which was the fast drift dive between Komodo Island and another smaller island just to the east, the sunset, and of course, the company. After the last day of diving, we scrambled up to the Sunset Bar, where sunsets are spectacular. My last night in Labuanbajo, with good company, looking out over the harbour towards Komodo Island and Sumbawa Island beyond.
Going to be hard to beat this place, but man, I’m gonna try.
Off to Bali, Kuala Lumpur, and Beijing. More to come.
NOTE: Here is the link to the previous story (Part 3) and the link to the next story (Part 5)
🔔 Follow Me: LinkedIn | Twitter
Before you go… If you want to start writing on Medium yourself and earn money passively you only need a membership for $5 a month. If you sign up with my link, you support me with a part of your membership fee without additional costs.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to more articles I’ve written. There’s articles on Python, Generative AI, Expat living, Marathon training, Travel, and more!
