Hi there. Arieh here. This post is about our time on Flores and Komodo islands.
We took an organized side trip from Bali to Flores for 4 days. The flight is about 1.5 hours and was quite beautiful flying across Lombok and some other little islands to get to Flores. Flores is a larger in area than Bali (longer and narrower) with much less population (300K compared to about 3 million people) and is the jumping off point to Komodo and Rinca islands. These islands are the only places on earth that you can find Komodo dragons in the wild and both islands are National parks and wildlife reserves. These islands (well, really the dragons) have recently been voted one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature. http://www.new7wonders.com/. (There are new "man-made" Wonders as well as the "old" 7 "man-made" Wonders).
After arriving on a Monday afternoon, we (Val, Sue and I) went for a quick tour of some natural caves (Batu Cermin) and then up to our hotel (Golo Hilltop: www.golohilltop.com). Here is the view from our hotel.
The next day we embarked on a 2-day trip on a boat designed for 7-10 passengers. There were two cabins on deck with room for 4 single sleepers. Everyone else sleeps on mats on the deck or on the roof above the cabins. It turned out that sleeping on the roof would have been much better as it was quite stuffy (even with the windows open) in the cabins.
Notwithstanding that minor inconvenience, the trip was great. Mostly sunny or dry skies, very little rain when it mattered (and this was rainy season) and fairly smooth ride. The food was cooked on board and delicious, albeit quite a make-shift kitchen (not something you would want to inspect too closely). The food was quite different than Bali with different spices and very tasty fried bananas as a treat. The islands we passed were quite green (again, because of the rainy season). However, many of them were uninhabited due to a lack of fresh water except for rain. Some had fishing villages only (no roads or electricity) and some of those villagers had to take their children to the local school by boat. This school would be located on another island perhaps a kilometre or two away!
The islands of Komodo and Rinca are quite small. The village of Komodo has built its house on stilts to protect themselves from the dragons. The Komodo dragons eat anything and anyone. This includes their own young. The young, after being hatched, scurry up into trees to avoid being eaten. As they get older, the dragons are not able to climb as they once could and hence the stilts for houses. The dragons have no natural predators and their bite can be quite serious (if they don't rip you apart). It is somewhat poisonous, although not as fast-acting as a venomous snake bite. Simple disinfecting and going to a hospital for antibiotics will do the trick and get you on the path to healthiness. However, as I said, they could rip you apart just as well. These dragons can be quite docile looking, yet they are fast-moving when they want to be for short distances. Val was actually moved off a path up to a gazebo because a young lady ran by her with a Komodo in pursuit. Neither Val nor the young lady were damaged.
Again, the people on Flores and the boat were very nice. English on the boat was limited but we coped and we all had a good time. Our tour organizer (don't forget--this tour was for the 3 of us only) was a former nun who left that "job" in Rome because there wasn't any time for her to visit family back in Flores. She decided that this was not for her; now she runs and tour company and speaks very good Italian. .
Video of the Komodo dragons in the wild.
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