Nathalie and I finished off our surprisingly odd but much needed month-long pit stop in Malaysia and headed off for our next destination: Indonesia. We decided that we wanted to get back into the wild, having recharged in urban Kuala Lumpur.
We set out sights on Bali, having ruled out losing a few days dealing with Jakarta only to take another flight to head out farther east. We found a deal on Malindo Air, Malaysia's incredibly comfortable low-cost carrier, that would take us directly to Bali. On the agenda for the next seven days: arrive in Bali, stay one night, fly to Komodo Island's nearest airport, go out to sea on a liveaboard (diving) cruise for a few days, spend one night near Komodo, fly back to Bali, then end all with a big splash. Here's how it panned out.
Getting to Bali was easy. We transferred out of KL without any issue and after a three-hour flight, we landed at the surprisingly large and modern Ngurah Rai International Airport just outside of the island's capital city, Denpasar. Prior to leaving, we checked for Indonesian entry requirements for both of us and were under the impression that we would have to buy a visa on arrival (VOA). This required us to have two passport photos each along with 35 USD per person. As it would turn out, the law has been modified recently, allowing Belgians and Americans (and no doubt other nationalities) the right to enter the country as a tourist for 30 days without needing to purchase an VOA.
This meant that we were able to get out of customs and into the arrival hall much quicker than anticipated. We wound up booking accommodation close to the airport which included a free transfer to and from the hotel. After rectifying a bit of confusion related to our early clearance through customs, we were spotted by the driver and whisked away for the five-minute drive to the hotel.
We settled into the room, grabbed lunch from the hotel's restaurant, and more or less did our initial new-country routine which included getting local currency, getting a local SIM card for our portable wi-fi hotspot, and trying to get a read on the indigenous population. My initial impression of Bali was that it's the result of Vietnam and the Philippines having a baby and when this kid grew up, he got to be really good at dealing with tourists and developed a fairly serious obsession with kites. However, I tried getting deeper into this fictitious analogy and I couldn't really explain what I meant. I'm going to give this a bit more thought and see if I can clarify it, but for now, I'm leaving it in.
The evening was uneventful otherwise and having a good night sleep predicated our effortless departure the next day. We were transferring to Labuan Bajo, the town closest to the Komodo islands to do a liveaboard scuba diving cruise. Our flight took a little under two hours and en route, we were treated to the magnificent landscapes of Indonesia; blue seas dotted with volcanoes bigger than many of the mountains found in the Alps.
Whereas Bali is an easy place for tourists to get around in (more on that later), Labaun Bajo is much more 'authentic.' The one-street town is primarily visited as a diving launch ground and other than that, there isn't too much else to do. In between spartan bungalows, budget hotels, and walled-off resorts lie basic huts, houses and shacks where locals dwell. There are again roosters everywhere (like in the Philippines) and there's a lingering smell of fire wafting throughout the air. We checked into the dive shop (the fantastic Dive Komodo) to get our gear ready for the next morning's departure and set out looking for a place to stay.
Our lodging for the evening was a very basic room with one fan, no power plugs, a bed with a mosquito net and a bathroom without sink (we somehow overlooked it when we were inspecting the place). While we thought it was overvalued, it certainly was affordable. Besides, we didn't plan on spending much time there as we had to be up early for the cruise. That night, we wound up having a few drinks and dinner at a very chilled out bar that had an open-air roof-top terrace complete with couches and beanbags. Their draw was that they played movies projected onto a giant screen and we settled into watching a film while enjoying the pleasant evening weather.
The next morning, we checked out, grabbed breakfast and headed off to the dive shop, where we would group up and walk together to the port. This isn't the first time we've done a liveaboard, having done one previously at the Similan islands off of the coast of Thailand. My previous post explained why doing a liveaboard is the way to go if you're looking to get the most of out of diving big marine parks, and this trip was no exception to that.
Nathalie and I had a blast. We had some great dives including our first sunset dive. Diving around the Komodos is unique because it's where the Pacific Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. This convergence brings in not only a diverse range of marine life but also an abundance of nutrients meaning the fish and creatures underwater are huge! Amongst other underwater life we saw: Napoleon fish, scorpion fish, lion fish, flying gunards (look it up), oriental sweetlips (heh), frog fish, both white tip and bamboo sharks (one swam right next to me apparently), and a wide assortment of rays from blue spotted to a manta. Saying it was worth it would be an understatement.
Inbetween dives, we chilled on the deck and got to know the people we were diving with. Perhaps out of pure coincidence, everyone on the boat, save for one person, was between 30-40 years odld and other than Nathalie and myself and two of the dive masters (guides), were all single. We were delighted to be able to meet people our age who weren't caught up in the family game and were just out for a good time. We all clicked with each other and as such, we had a great time joking around, sharing conversation and spending an entire surface interval jumping off the top of the boat. Unsurprisingly, none of these people were on extended leave from work and were there instead for holiday. This further reinforced our hypothesis that we're statistical outliers in the wide world of backpackers both in terms of our age and in terms of the income we have available to spend compared to those ten years our junior.
On the last day of the trip, we paid a visit to Komodo island to see the world's largest lizards. We were told that we probably wouldn't be able to see too many as we were visiting in the middle mating season and most of the dragons were busy getting busy in the bushes. Despite this hindrance, we were able to see three of them; a couple who were taking a break between their hours-long mating sessions (nice) and one male who had been rejected and was sulking near a ranger hut. A short hour later, we were back at sea and on our way back to port.
That evening, we met up with the other divers from the trip for one final dinner and some drinks. Again, it was great seeing people, almost all who were native English speakers (we had a Brit, two Australians, two South Africans, an American, a Belgian who speaks English like and American, and a Spaniard). Exhausted from the diving, we all called it an early evening.
The next morning, Nathalie and I chilled with the one person from the cruise who didn't have an early morning flight back to Bali. We spent the morning having coffee topped off with a lunch at a surprisingly authentic pizzeria. By the early afternoon, we headed back to the nearby airport and, after a small delay, were on our flights back to Bali. We returned to the hotel we had stayed at the first night we arrived in Indonesia and slowly checked ourselves back into civilization.
It was a whirlwind week and a phenomenal start to our stay here in Indonesia. We're very pleased with ourselves for booking our second liveaboard and are even more elated in the way it turned out. Having given ourselves a taste of some of the fine Indonesian diving and having three more weeks left in the country before leaving, we spent the next few days plotting out next course, which, as it turned out, was a big splash.
We set out sights on Bali, having ruled out losing a few days dealing with Jakarta only to take another flight to head out farther east. We found a deal on Malindo Air, Malaysia's incredibly comfortable low-cost carrier, that would take us directly to Bali. On the agenda for the next seven days: arrive in Bali, stay one night, fly to Komodo Island's nearest airport, go out to sea on a liveaboard (diving) cruise for a few days, spend one night near Komodo, fly back to Bali, then end all with a big splash. Here's how it panned out.
Getting to Bali was easy. We transferred out of KL without any issue and after a three-hour flight, we landed at the surprisingly large and modern Ngurah Rai International Airport just outside of the island's capital city, Denpasar. Prior to leaving, we checked for Indonesian entry requirements for both of us and were under the impression that we would have to buy a visa on arrival (VOA). This required us to have two passport photos each along with 35 USD per person. As it would turn out, the law has been modified recently, allowing Belgians and Americans (and no doubt other nationalities) the right to enter the country as a tourist for 30 days without needing to purchase an VOA.
This meant that we were able to get out of customs and into the arrival hall much quicker than anticipated. We wound up booking accommodation close to the airport which included a free transfer to and from the hotel. After rectifying a bit of confusion related to our early clearance through customs, we were spotted by the driver and whisked away for the five-minute drive to the hotel.
We settled into the room, grabbed lunch from the hotel's restaurant, and more or less did our initial new-country routine which included getting local currency, getting a local SIM card for our portable wi-fi hotspot, and trying to get a read on the indigenous population. My initial impression of Bali was that it's the result of Vietnam and the Philippines having a baby and when this kid grew up, he got to be really good at dealing with tourists and developed a fairly serious obsession with kites. However, I tried getting deeper into this fictitious analogy and I couldn't really explain what I meant. I'm going to give this a bit more thought and see if I can clarify it, but for now, I'm leaving it in.
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| Labuan Bajo, Indonesia |
Whereas Bali is an easy place for tourists to get around in (more on that later), Labaun Bajo is much more 'authentic.' The one-street town is primarily visited as a diving launch ground and other than that, there isn't too much else to do. In between spartan bungalows, budget hotels, and walled-off resorts lie basic huts, houses and shacks where locals dwell. There are again roosters everywhere (like in the Philippines) and there's a lingering smell of fire wafting throughout the air. We checked into the dive shop (the fantastic Dive Komodo) to get our gear ready for the next morning's departure and set out looking for a place to stay.
 |
| The sea around Komodo |
Nathalie and I had a blast. We had some great dives including our first sunset dive. Diving around the Komodos is unique because it's where the Pacific Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. This convergence brings in not only a diverse range of marine life but also an abundance of nutrients meaning the fish and creatures underwater are huge! Amongst other underwater life we saw: Napoleon fish, scorpion fish, lion fish, flying gunards (look it up), oriental sweetlips (heh), frog fish, both white tip and bamboo sharks (one swam right next to me apparently), and a wide assortment of rays from blue spotted to a manta. Saying it was worth it would be an understatement.
Inbetween dives, we chilled on the deck and got to know the people we were diving with. Perhaps out of pure coincidence, everyone on the boat, save for one person, was between 30-40 years odld and other than Nathalie and myself and two of the dive masters (guides), were all single. We were delighted to be able to meet people our age who weren't caught up in the family game and were just out for a good time. We all clicked with each other and as such, we had a great time joking around, sharing conversation and spending an entire surface interval jumping off the top of the boat. Unsurprisingly, none of these people were on extended leave from work and were there instead for holiday. This further reinforced our hypothesis that we're statistical outliers in the wide world of backpackers both in terms of our age and in terms of the income we have available to spend compared to those ten years our junior.
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| A Komodo dragon at Komodo Island National Park |
That evening, we met up with the other divers from the trip for one final dinner and some drinks. Again, it was great seeing people, almost all who were native English speakers (we had a Brit, two Australians, two South Africans, an American, a Belgian who speaks English like and American, and a Spaniard). Exhausted from the diving, we all called it an early evening.
The next morning, Nathalie and I chilled with the one person from the cruise who didn't have an early morning flight back to Bali. We spent the morning having coffee topped off with a lunch at a surprisingly authentic pizzeria. By the early afternoon, we headed back to the nearby airport and, after a small delay, were on our flights back to Bali. We returned to the hotel we had stayed at the first night we arrived in Indonesia and slowly checked ourselves back into civilization.
It was a whirlwind week and a phenomenal start to our stay here in Indonesia. We're very pleased with ourselves for booking our second liveaboard and are even more elated in the way it turned out. Having given ourselves a taste of some of the fine Indonesian diving and having three more weeks left in the country before leaving, we spent the next few days plotting out next course, which, as it turned out, was a big splash.
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| Cruisin'.... |
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