Hey, everyone! It has certainly been an eventful week for me here in Indonesia. From Bali to Flores to Lombok… I have been pretty consistently on the go. However, if you’ve been following along, you know that’s a good thing. I’ve spent so much time in Indonesia biding my time due to healing tattoos, eye injuries, etc. It feels nice to be experiencing now – especially because this past week has been filled with pretty awesome experiences.

A few housekeeping things:

1) I have started a podcast on Spotify called Rose Thorn Bouquet. Please check it out!
2) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
3) I have recently finished the first draft of my latest novel, The Death of Duncan Lee. I’ve sent it out to some friends to get feedback and I’m really excited to have it done(ish) finally. If you haven’t read it already, the link to my first book, Eclipse Me can be found here.

Kuta to Flores

After my last blog post, I spent a little less than a week in Kuta making sure my eye was back to normal. I also had to go to the immigration office to extend my visa for a final 30 days. I’ve heard sometimes that it can be a whole ordeal – bring in your passport on one visit, come back to do fingerprints and take a photo, come back a third time to retrieve your passport and extension. Luckily, I was able to bypass all of that by applying for the extension online. I just went in, took my photo, showed my proof of onward travel, and I was good to go. (The guy in front of me was not so lucky. The officer was totally grilling him on what ‘work’ he’s doing in Indonesia and wanted to see the guy’s laptop and website. Weird.) All I needed was to wait for approval of the extension.

In my downtime, I also got a prescription dive mask made. I had been chatting with my brother about contacts vs. glasses, etc. because he wants to start wearing contacts again. I, on the other hand, HATE wearing contacts. The only time I ever really wear them is when I’m snorkeling/diving. The conversation inspired me to see if there were any dive shops around that had prescription dive masks. I was able to get one custom made with my prescription in two days. And I’m happy to report that the mask is AMAZING. Sayonara, contacts!

The day after picking up my contacts, I flew from Bali to Labuan Bajo in Flores. While the flight was delayed by about an hour, I made it safely to Flores. I checked into my hostel in the evening and was eager to book a day trip the following day to Komodo Island. Unfortunately for me, Komodo Island was going to be closed the next couple of days due to rough currents – government mandated. I briefly considered extending my stay in Flores but because I have sort of a long journey ahead of me the next few weeks (from Flores to Jakarta), I decided to forego it.

Adventures Around Labuan Bajo

The next morning, I went in to the Wanua Adventure office to confirm my sailing trip. I had been really up in the air about it. The trip was four days, three nights, traveling from Flores to Lombok. Along the way, it stops at various attraction points. I was hesitant because I’ve heard the Indonesian waters can be really rough. I wasn’t sure I wanted to chance it, especially since there had been some boats capsizing around Indonesia the past couple of months. BUT, I decided to overcome the fear and just go for it. So I did!

I had lunch, bought a new pair of shorts (yeah!), and in the afternoon, I hired a scooter. I was considering going on another herping tour but the ones in Flores are way too expensive. I have to confess that I’m still bummed I missed out on seeing the blue pit vipers in Lombok. There were herping tours available that go to Komodo Island but they’re incredibly expensive (like 5x that of the 4 day sailing trip I was about to embark on) and I couldn’t justify it. I was chatting with someone about herping around Flores but that was about double the price of the other two herping tours I’d done. He did mention going to Mirror Stone Cave to try and see pit vipers, though… and I decided I would just go on my own.

With my scooter rental sorted, I drove 15min to Mirror Stone Cave. When I rocked up, I had to pay a parking fee. While doing so, I told the security guards I wasn’t really trying to go to the cave, more so just walk around the area to look for vipers. They recommended I talk to one of the guides, Benny, and see if they knew anything. Once I parked, some of the local rangers started talking to me. I explained the situation and asked for Benny. Alfons told me that Benny was doing a cave tour but that he could take me to see snakes… for a price haha. I was hesitant because I was like – well, maybe I’ll just buy a cave tour ticket and then I can walk through the trail at whatever pace I want. But Alfons and I came to an agreement at 100k rupiah (or $6). Boy, am I glad we did!

We left the ticket office and entered the trail and not 30sec later, he was pointing out a yellow pit viper that he had relocated earlier that morning. It had ventured too close to the public area, so he had moved it back into the bush.

I couldn’t believe it! No blue vipers for me, but a banana-yellow one would do nicely! AND it was the first time I’ve been able to see a viper during the daylight. YAY! Photographing with my 12 year old camera at nighttime can be a serious pain. The auto-focus on my camera is also super busted so most of the time, I have to manually focus… poorly.

Alfons took out his snake hook and lowered the viper from the tree and onto another branch. I had a field day taking photos. And then the mosquitoes came and ruined it. DAMN IT, I’d forgotten to pack bug spray. And they were brutally attacking me. I must have gotten 50 bites in the 5-10min we were there haha. It was honestly so bad lol.

Still… the photos are 100% worth it. Finally, I was able to get some close-ups that capture the unique texture of the viper and even the detail of their eyes.

Afterwards, we continued along the trail. We spotted a long-tailed macaque. Before getting to the cave, Alfons told me how he hoped a baby pit viper was still in the bamboo tree that he had seen earlier. And… it was! This was a green boy. I snapped some more photos, happy as a clam (but while also getting eaten alive by mosquitoes).

Unfortunately, it was close to 5pm – closing time at the cave. So… I never even went in LOL. But the snake experience was so worth it to me, anyway. What a total win!

I do wish I’d been able to stay in Flores a little longer to maybe go on another herping tour with Alfons. This herping community is so wild. Everyone seems to know each other and everyone who does it tends to be incredibly passionate about the wildlife. I really enjoy spending time with like-minded people. SNAKE PEOPLE.

Once I’d finished, I went back to my scooter and drove to a spot to check out the sunset. I cruised along the northern tip of western Flores. The scenery was beautiful. As I cruised through the winding roads, I took several bugs to the face but it was worth it. I was just smiling to myself, so happy to be on this adventure.

I stopped off the road a few times to snap pictures of the surrounding islands as the sun began to set. I was in awe. Totally beautiful scenery and very different from that of Bali (not that Bali isn’t beautiful in its own right). I then dropped off the scooter, returned to my hostel, and booked a private charter to Rinca Island the following morning.

Rinca Island

Up at 7am, I was provided a lunch and snorkeling fins from my hostel. Someone came to drive me to the harbor (which I easily could have walked to) and maybe 30min later, my private charter began.

I had considered just joining a tour, but the ones I had seen stopped at 6 places in one day. My main mission was to go to Rinca Island to spend time observing the Komodo dragons (hopefully) and if I joined a tour, I felt that time on Rinca would just be pretty rushed. I wanted to take my time. There are two things I wanted to do in Indonesia before coming here. One of them was to see the Ijen blue flames. The other was to see Komodo dragons. Because Komodo Island was closed for the next few days, Rinca was my only option. While my sailing trip was going to Rinca the following day, I didn’t care. I wanted to double my chances of seeing them. It has been a bucket list item to see the dragons for years. And I was going to see them, damn it!

There was a time where I almost didn’t go to Komodo (or Flores, for that matter). After looking at reviews online, people were saying they thought the dragons were drugged so that they wouldn’t bite people. Resigned, I didn’t want to support that at all. But a few weeks later, I decided to dig a little deeper and I found that the drugging is actually a common misconception and isn’t actually true. When my charter arrived at Rinca, I was assigned a guide and I asked him about this. He said that they don’t and I’m inclined to believe him – he seemed really passionate about conservationism, etc.

I think the reason people think they are drugged is a few reasons:

1) The dragons tend to hang out near the ranger station. This is because years ago, the rangers used to actually feed the dragons. They’ve since stopped doing this… but the older dragons probably still remember it.

2) Komodos aren’t able to thermoregulate themselves, so when it’s hot out, they are hardly active at all. My guide also explained that the bigger ones especially don’t like to use up too much energy, so they spend a lot of time just chilling when they’re not hunting for food.

3) There is a watering hole near the ranger station that the dragons can use as a source of hydration.

There was only ONE instance where I was concerned that maybe, despite the ranger denying it, the dragons actually were drugged. But first… spoiler alert: I DID SEE KOMODO DRAGONS.

The instance I’m referencing is that there is a massive Komodo dragon that was almost steps from the entrance of the ranger station. He was laying in the shade of a tree. While I saw other dragons moving around a bit – this dragon stayed in the same place from the time I got there to the time I left. However, when I returned to Rinca the following day, that dragon was NOT in the same spot, or even there. So I do feel they’re not drugged.

Okay. Moving on.

When I got to the island, I paid the entrance fee and then walked along a boardwalk. I wasn’t seeing any dragons anywhere, but I kept my eyes peeled for them. Once I got to the ranger station, I walked along the second floor (not realizing there was a ground floor) and was feeling disappointed. No… dragons..?

But then a group said, “there’s a baby Komodo over there!” HUH?

On the top of a concrete fence, a baby Komodo was perched. It was so small, it could have been a typical monitor lizard in Australia. I actually wasn’t even sure it was a Komodo dragon and was wondering if the people just thought that it was. Later, my guide confirmed it.

I eventually found my way to the ground floor, got me a guide, and we entered the walking trail. Upon entering, I was shocked to see two massive dragons laying in the shade, and maybe three or four smaller guys trudging along the area. I couldn’t believe it!

Dream, realized!

My guide explained to me that he is from Rinca Village – a place where humans and Komodo dragons have lived in harmony for many years. If you don’t already know this… Komodo dragons can be dangerous. They have venomous saliva and they have definitely killed people in the past. All the guides walked around with big sticks with forked branches at the ends, to push the dragons away if they try to rush them.

I was also taught that Komodo actually isn’t the local name for the dragons. Komodo comes from Ko Modo, which means “our culture,” but the dragons themselves were called land crocodiles. Which makes sense when you look at them. To me, they look like dinosaurs.

We observed a number of dragons. My guide shared with me that the males tend to be bigger and have broader snouts. The females have narrower snouts and they generally tend to have a little more color.

He also told me that fossils of Komodo dragons have been found even in Australia!

We then continued along the trail. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any other dragons on the trail, but we did stop at a big nest that some birds had made. What’s interesting about that nest is that the birds use it to lay their eggs… but the dragons will use it to lay their eggs as well. The following day, when returning to that same spot on my sailing trip, there was a dragon in there, simultaneously digging the hole with the birds. An unlikely symbiotic relationship going on there.

We made our way to a lovely viewpoint, overlooking the island and sea.

We took a break in the shade and then went back to the ranger station. Along the way, he spotted a fossilized shell on the ground and reunited it with another fossilized shell that was on a boulder.

Perfectly satisfied with the trip to Rinca, I returned to my charter boat.

I ended up going to two snorkeling spots before going back to Labuan Bajo. The first spot was really nice with great visibility. Lots of baby fish swimming about. The second spot was kind of lame and I would’ve been fine to skip it.

Around 4pm, I returned to Labuan Bajo. I had a shower, packed up my things ahead of my sailing trip the next morning, had dinner, and went to bed early.

Commence: Wanua Adventure

I arrived at the Wanua Adventure office just before 7am. After checking in, a group of us walked down to the harbor. After waiting for maybe ten minutes, we were guided to our boat. I wasn’t sure what to expect at all. Honestly, I anticipated something like 30-40 people but luckily our boat ended up being only 18. Yahoo!

The porters helped us load our bags and then we were sent to our cabins. While I’d considered getting a private room, it ended up seeming too expensive. Instead, I opted for the “deck class” which meant a big room on the second floor with 12 mats on the floor. Alright. This is what we’re doing. Hahaha. At least I was able to score a spot in the corner!

A while later, we left for our first stop of the day… Rinca Island, again! That experience was much of the same except that there were maybe different dragons. And instead of hiking up to the viewpoint again, I was able to go down another trail. Another member of my group and I, along with our guide, were brought back to the ranger station and he took us over to a juvenile Komodo.

The TONGUE!

The guide threw some rocks in its direction, causing the dragon to charge the rock. It was interesting to see the behavior, and to see how fast the dragons can be, but it also felt lame that he was basically throwing rocks at it lol. Still, I was glad I was able to spend some extra moments with the dragons instead of just going to the same viewpoint as the day before (where there are no dragons).

I haven’t mentioned, but Rinca Island actually has more dragons than Komodo Island – and because it’s a smaller island, the chances of seeing them is much higher.

Before leaving, we saw one of the massive dragons that had been resting get up and walk away. Yes – dinosaur, indeed. It was a good farewell, and a strange feeling to know that I will likely never see these creatures ever again in my life.

After Rinca, we stopped at a small island nearby to do some… coral planting! This was a pretty neat concept. Basically, they’re trying to build a new reef by fixing pieces of healthy coral onto a concrete structure.

We were shown how to fasten the coral to the concrete and, once done, we snorkeled from shore and were able to drop our baby coral into the sea. It was cool to see all the other coral that has been planted and how some of it has really grown a lot. Once we’d finished, we were able to snorkel around the area. Because I’ve been to so many cool dive sites lately, I was a little underwhelmed. There were also so many people snorkeling around. I was laughing to myself because the way people were treading water looked insane to me. I’m like, have these people never treaded water before in their lives? It looked like majority of them were struggling to keep afloat. Meanwhile, not to brag, I’m floating around like a little mermaid.

Once we’d finished, we went back to Rinca, but to another section of the island. We were going to Rinca Village, the place where my guide from Rinca Day #1 was from (and also, he and his cousin were the ones who created the coral planting concept! What a funny coincidence).

We walked through Rinca Village and were brought to an amphitheater of sorts. Then… the teenagers put on a show for us. They showed us what is allegedly a traditional Indonesian dance, a traditional Rinca dance, and then a more fun “pop” dance. The Rinca dance was cool because they were moving as if they were Komodo dragons, monkeys, etc. At the end of it, they made all of us get up and taught us one of the dances. And when that finished… they played the Macarena hahaha. Wild.

The locals started playing more contemporary music, and a bunch of small kids from the village started dancing with the women in the tour group. They took their hands and the kids tugged on the adults’ hands so they could lift their feet off the ground. It was honestly so endearing and sweet. A really adorable moment. When we were leaving, the kids walked us to the jetty. A small boy came up beside me and asked me about my earring. As he did so, he took my hand. Too sweet!

And then we were off! The tourists were leaving and heading back to their sailboat. I later talked with one of the other guests about the experience. We wondered how the locals felt about “performing” for tourists, etc. The complicated discussions! In the end, we figured the locals were glad to have money brought in to their village, even if that meant giving up some of their privacy. (Money for tips, for snacks/drinks ahead of the performance, if people buy souvenirs, etc.)

Once we were back on the boat, we cruised along for a few minutes. We watched the sun set, which was gorgeous.

We stayed in the area and shortly afterwards, hundreds of bats began flying across the sky. I sat on the top deck of the boat chatting with Namma, an Israeli who I came to befriend over the course of the trip. She was (briefly) traveling with her friend Eden and Eden’s mom Ona. I ended up chatting with all three of them at different points of the tour. I shared with Eden and Ona how lovely it is that Ona came to visit Eden during his time traveling abroad. (Later, at the end of the trip, I told Ona how nice it was to have some Mom energy. She offered me a hug which was most DEFINITELY a Mom hug. Much appreciated. I probably lingered a little too long haha. I needed it!)

Padar Island, Long Pink Beach, Gili Banta

Sleeping that first night was kind of shitty. I wasn’t used to sleeping on the water and the boat was rocking throughout the night. I did manage some sleep, though.

In the morning, we arrived at Padar Island for sunrise. I didn’t know much about Padar Island. I’ve seen some pictures here and there on advertisements and such and while it looked pretty, I never paid it much mind. In the dark, we hiked for maybe 15min to get to a viewpoint. A group of us (the Israelis, an Argentinian, and an Italian) sat together, watching the dawn begin to break. I closed my eyes and meditated for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, I saw Namma was doing the same.

Little by little, the sky began to brighten.

With the island now lit up, I began to explore some of the different viewpoints. It really was an incredible island, and unlike any I’d yet seen before. And that’s when I noticed… there are three different types of beaches here! In one of the inlets was a black sand beach. Another had white/tan sand. And further away was a pink sand beach. What the hell?! So THAT’S why it’s so well-known! That, and it has some beautiful geographical features.

Eventually, the sun rose above the horizon. We had been asked to only stay for a few minutes past sunrise, so we could continue along with our sailing day.

After the viewpoint at Padar Island, we sailed to another portion of the island to spend a couple of hours at Long Pink Beach. The pink was very subtle, but certainly did have a pink-ish hue to it depending on the lighting and the way the water lapped onto the shore. When we got off our dingy boat (which we were always using to transport from the sailboat to various islands), I spotted a jellyfish super close to shore. It was unlike any jellyfish I’d ever seen before! Its tentacles were so thick and had very obvious bulbs at the end of them. How cool!

We dropped off our things and then one of the guides offered to drop us off at “Turtle Point” on the dingy. I definitely agreed. We drove one or two minutes from the shore and then hopped into the water with our snorkeling gear ready. No turtles to be seen, but the coral and fish-life was pretty fantastic. So much was going on! I was hoping for a big ticket item like a cuttlefish or octopus, but no luck. Just lots of cute little fishies.

I was probably in the water for an hour, snorkeling around. The current was a little strong and I wish I’d had fins with me because they would have made the session way less strenuous. That’s probably my only gripe about the tour is that fins weren’t provided. I would have happily paid to rent them!

From Long Pink Beach, we cruised for a couple more hours until we arrived at Gili Banta. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but we were VERY well fed throughout this tour, which was very appreciated. Basically any time we came back onto the boat, there was some kind of food for us. Even if it wasn’t lunch time, there would be biscuits or some kind of small snack, etc. But there was always a breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well on top of that.

At Gili Banta, we were told we could either swim/jump off the boat, or snorkel. I obviously opted for snorkeling. Some of the sections got pretty deep and I was hoping maybe I’d see a larger creature (whale shark, manta, shark). Mauricio went snorkeling too and said the same thing. While there were some bigger fish, mostly it was just the regular stuff. Still a nice time, though! Once I got a little too cold, I returned to the boat. I jumped off from the very top one time and then dried off.

In the evening, I spent a lot of time talking with Namma, then Eden and Ona. It was a good night!

Where the night before, our boat was moored… on this night, the skipper had about 15hr of sailing to do. It was a very bumpy night. It was hard for me to sleep at all with the engine going and the back&forth of the boat. I didn’t feel seasick at all but I just don’t like the feeling of the boat rocking so much. I feel like it’s going to tip over at any point lol. I woke up absolutely exhausted with minimal sleep. Miserable!

Moyo Island, Pulau Bedil, Kanawa Island

Our day started a little later the next morning, which was a nice reprieve after getting up at 4.30am the day before. Our first stop was Moyo Island, where we’d spend time at a watering hole atop a waterfall. Um… cool!

We took the dingy to the island and then walked 15min to the waterfall. I’ve mentioned this before but I have been really spoiled with waterfalls (see: Iceland, Aotearoa New Zealand), so I haven’t really gone out of my way to see them lately. This one was awesome, though! While the waterfall itself wasn’t too impressive, the features surrounding it definitely were. They looked like a bunch of geothermal terraces or something.

We climbed along the terraces and at one point used a rope to climb even higher. It was a short adventure to the top of the waterfall. We soaked in the water for a while. The water was COLD and definitely woke me up. I was so tired that morning.

On our way back down, I was surprised to spot an Asian vine snake just at the top of the waterfall, nestled on a tree branch. I pointed it out to the others. One of the British guys had never seen a wild snake IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE. Isn’t that crazy?! I was happy that I spotted it and was able to share it with others. This was also the first time I’d seen a vine snake during the daytime. I wish I’d had my camera with me but there’s no way I was bringing that up the waterfall haha. I didn’t even bring my phone.

Back on the boat, we continued along to Pulau Bedil, which ended up being a very, very small island surrounded by a coral reef. It felt like our own private island. We could have walked around the length of it in maybe five minutes haha.

I hopped in the water right away and was glad to be experiencing some new and unusual things. I saw SO many black sea urchins, all clustered together. Usually, I see them hiding between pieces of coral, etc. Many of these were just chilling on the ocean floor. And they seemed to be vibrating their spines – maybe to attract fish to them?

I also spotted a ton of super-long sea cucumbers. They are very eerie and alien-looking. I kept thinking they were dead snakes and when they came into view, I’d do a little jump.

There was also a group of what I’m pretty certain were catfish. I don’t think I’d seen that before. Baby catfish, yes, but not adult ones. They were resting on the ocean floor, practically on top of one another.

And I saw a barracuda! EEK!

However, the highlight —- (PAUSE, I just felt an earthquake as I was writing this and I’m now shaking lol)

–

Okay. The HIGHLIGHT was seeing what I thought was a sea snake. But I’ve just learned it is actually a harlequin eel, which is still very cool looking. I admired it for a few minutes as it hunted for food.

I ended up swimming around the entire island. We were initially going to stay until sunset but it was only… 4pm? Some of the people chatted with the guides and we decided to push towards Kenawa Island to have a bonfire/party. So we did!

After dinner, we took the dingy to Kenawa Island where people were dancing, chatting, drinking (not me), watching the fire, and looking at the moon as it rose above the clouds. We went back a little before 11pm.

On our final morning, we returned to Kenawa Island to walk up the hill for sunrise. It was a very easy “hike” and the sunrise was a great cherry on top of a wonderful tour.

We cruised for another hour or two, reached Lombok, and then were shepherded into various shuttle busses to different destinations around Lombok. It felt strange for it all to be ending. Those camp-like situations, where you’re stuck with a group of people for a while, always tend to feel like that when it comes to an end. We spent 3 days together non-stop and now, will maybe never see one another again.

The bus dropped me off near Bangsal Harbor and I hired a scooter to take me to my accommodation. I wanted to have a private room for a night after the chaos of sleeping on a mat for three nights haha. I also wanted to type up this blog, etc.

I’m really, really glad I ended up doing the tour from Flores to Lombok. I made some new friends, bumped my head on the ceiling about 10 times, saw some incredible Indonesian sights, laughed with the local guides, and also just spent a lot of time chilling. I listened to music, read a little, worked on a drawing I’m very happy with (will post in a few weeks time). And I chatted with a lot of people from all over. Israel, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, England. We were a very international bunch. I do really love doing tours like that – I’ll have to seek out more of them moving forward.

Also, special shoutout to Peeano and Man for taking such good care of us!

Miscellaneous

I just looked up the earthquake that I felt a bit ago. Google says it was a 4.3 and happened like 20km away. I’ve only truly experienced one earthquake before, in Queenstown. I feel like sometimes, I’ve felt very, very slight tremors at other places (in Wellington) but the only one that was 100% was Queenstown. And this was like SO crazy compared to that. I thought people were on the roof and had fallen down and then the floor and walls were shaking. And it all lasted like ten seconds at the most. So crazy!

I’m putting these other pictures from Padar Island here because I didn’t know where else to put them lol.

And in other news… my eye seems to be back to 100% now. I’ve also been in the water, been snorkeling, etc. and it hasn’t been irritated so I’m really grateful for that!

I figured I wouldn’t have cell service on my sailing trip so I went on Airplane Mode right away, just to always be conserving battery in case the outlets didn’t work. It turned out, everybody had cell service. But because I was so sure I wouldn’t have it, I decided to just be without it for a few days. Do a little digital detox. It was nice!

Art of the Week

I wanted to draw some strawberries… and I also wanted to express something about my damaged eye. I like it! Not my best, but I’m looking forward to sharing the piece I made the other day.

Reflections

What to reflect on? Well, this has been a totally loaded post. So much has happened and lots of it has been pretty awesome. I guess I’m feeling pretty damn good. When I arrived in Lombok and turned off Airplane Mode, I saw that my visa extension was granted, which is great.

Tomorrow, I’ll take a quick ferry over to Gili Air where I’ll spend about five nights. Basically, snorkel, snorkel, snorkel. Maybe a dive. Apparently, Gili Air is where people meet their soulmates, according to a local I talked to in Ubud haha.

And from there, I’m not quite sure. I basically have until August 14th to get to Jakarta. HOWEVER, I want to spend about a week going to Sumatra to go on a multi-day orangutan trek. So I probably need to get from Lombok to Bali to Java and then ultimately to Sumatra by… August 4th? But this is good. I have spent so much time relaxing, I’m ready to be on the move a little bit more.

All good things. I’m feeling really good. I’ll feel even better tomorrow after I get a night of restful sleep in a proper bed!

Until next time, sending you all my love. x