Indonesia Part 4.2 - Komodo Underwater

Living on the boat and hanging out with giant Komodo Dragons was sweet and all, but the diving was life-changing. It was my first liveaboard and i can see why they are popular. If we were to dive from the port town of Labuanbajo, we would get on a speed boat at 9am, ride for 2 hours to the best spots, dive once, maybe twice, and be back on land around 6pm... an exhausting day spent entirely in the sun or on a wave-crushing speedboat. Our lives were much more comfortable than that.

We wake up at 7 and have coffee or tea and a few bananas while Willy briefs us on our morning dive. Willy was a great divemaster and a pleasant guy. He drew us diagrams of every dive site, telling where to expect strong currents and where to look for awesome sea creatures. This is Willy.

I must admit to getting along swimmingly with Willy, and we had a bit of a bromance. Handsome devil, eh? Sorry ladies, he's taken, due to marry in 2015.

We are already at the site, having either travelled at night, or the previous evening. At 7:30 we suit up and prepare to board the speedboat, and after a 5-10 minute ride, we are diving at world class sites known for big currents, big fish, amazing coral, and awesome schools.

And have i mentioned the diving is incredible? I was fortunate enough to rent a really nice underwater camera for two days. I took lots of pictures and a few videos (!!!), here's some stuff we saw-

White Tip Reef Sharks and Lion Fish - Reef sharks are pretty docile, but they will sometimes let you get really close if you catch them sleeping, like this guy.

Nudibranches - awesome psychedelic colored slugs, like a snail with no shell. These guys are small and you have to have a keen eye to find them so it's rewarding when you do. (Second photo courtesy of Jeremy Axworthy)

Morey Eels and Yellow Box Fish

Huge Schools of Awesome Fish

Check out these VIDEOS (!!!) of Giant Bat Fish and a cute little Sweetlips family.

Blue Spotted Sting Ray and weird Giant Clams

Big 'ol Squids - this guy was fun. Check out his blowhole in the second picture, that's how his propels himself. Awesome!

Dozens of Green and Hawksbill Turtles - This guys was one notable find. It was during a night dive, which is already pretty interesting. You have a flashlight, but there's no other ambient light, so you can really only see what you shine it at. I was coming up over a little patch of coral and found this guy sleeping with two Remoras cleaning his shell (first photo). He swam away after i woke him up (second photo), but i managed to get around in front of him to get that near perfect head-on shot. Win!

Here's another notable turtle that i caught on video (!!!).

Many dives were totally mind-blowing... too many to recap. But two in particular stand out, maybe because they were our last two dives, but they were also quite unique. My favorite dive was The Cauldron.

We entered at the top of that picture, and hung out at 18-25m for about 15 minutes, and we found a shark and the above sting-ray. There was a mild current, and it pulled us slowly uphill to about 12m. After cruising along for a few minutes, we enter The Cauldron, a stadium sized depression that drops to 22m, with glorious walls and a strong current (maybe 5-8 mph) pulling you through it. We swam with six sharks in there, most of them White Tip, one Black Tip. This is also where i took the above turtle video. It was inspiring to watch the sharks patrol the reef for a meal, and they paid us no attention at all. It was this dive that i worked on controlling my breathing, to see how long i could make my tank last. I stayed down for 75 minutes and came up with 60 bars left. I had never stayed down longer than 60 minutes before.

Our last dive was also really interesting, not because of what we saw, but the terrain. After a dozen dives of beautiful coral and plentiful fish, this was a stark contrast - an extremely fast current and nothing to see. We were cruising along effortlessly at maybe 15-20mph with perfect visibility, and the only thing to look at was each other and the occasional small coral outcropping. The awesome thing about it was it truly felt like flying, like we were a team of underwater superheroes. Some people were doing the superman, arms outstretched. Others were on their backs, in a reclined position. My personal favorite was crossing my legs Indian style and floating along like i was on a magic carpet. Later, i made friends with a squid.

So yeah, i think i want to do my divemaster certification in Komodo someday. It was paradise.

~Kev

Indonesia Part 4.1 - Komodo Liveaboard

On August 1st, with exactly ten of our twenty vacation days behind us, therese and i boarded the Jaya Liveaboard dive boat. Our five night itinerary would include thirteen dives in some of the most exciting and impressive waters in Asia, in and around the Komodo/Rinca National Park. Nine passengers, three dive masters, and five crew members cracked open cold beers and started getting acquainted. We passengers were all about the same age and like-minded- two from san fran, a dutch couple, an aussie dude, a brit chick, and a swiss girl. We were having a good 'ol time. But as the boat pulled out of the harbor, we got some bad news from Jeremy, the lead dive master; there were engine problems. DUN DUN DUHHHHHHNN.

We all decided to hang in there and give it a try the next day. As a consolation, all the beer we drank that evening was on the house, and we would be treated to a few dives while we chilled out. But the next night, engine still no worky. By this point, we were all getting to be pretty chummy. We were all so chill hanging out with each other, that we all agreed to give them one more day to fix the engine. The aussie, Mark, and i played a little impromptu concert for everyone. He's a pretty awesome guitarist and singer, and i improvised a hand drum out of a 15 gallon water jug. Then we all got drunk.

Day three - we did a few more dives (my first muck dive... saw nudibranches, huge crabs, harlequin shrimp and the rare ornate ghost pipefish) and hung out on the boat, reading, relaxing in hammocks, enjoying good food and working on suntans. Long story short- the engine would not be fixed, and we would all get complete refunds. We were all dejected. Excitement had been built up and released many times over three days, but it was now official. The trip was cancelled.

In a flash of brilliance, we started researching other options. In the span of two hours, the nine of us had decided to fly to Komodo the next morning and were confirmed for 4 nights on the Mona Lisa, a much nicer boat than the Jaya. The price would work out to be roughly equivalent, the diving equal, both in quality and quantity, and best of all, we kept the team together! In addition, the Mona Lisa had hot, fresh water for showers, private bathrooms, and was not infested with thousands of tiny cockroaches, as the Jaya was. Unfortunately, we would not be able to bring our amazing dive masters with us, and we said sad goodbyes to Jeremy, Adam and Malin.

Actually, the whole Jaya ordeal turned out to be pretty sweet: we got four nights accommodation, three free dives, meals, beers, and awesome people to hang out with on a cool boat, all for free. AND we would still be able to do the Komodo diving on a better boat with the same awesome people. WIN!

After a five hour layover in Bali spent almost entirely in the luxurious Starbucks (where i posted Indonesia Part 3.2), we made it to Labuanbajo, Flores, and eventually the Mona Lisa. The next four days were an amazing blur of relaxation, diving, reading, frolicking with sea creatures, jamming, eating delicious food, trekking to the Komodo Dragons, drinking coffee and beer, and loving life. I could have spent a lifetime there.

The Speed Boat

The Mona Lisa

The Relaxing

The Dragons

Six feet long, poisonous, free to roam the island, the Komodo Dragons are awesome creatures to see. The whole national park is a self-sufficient, undisturbed ecosystem. The dragons are at the top of the food chain and feed off monkey's, deer, buffalo, and whatever they can find. We visited during mating season when they pair off and go into the forest, and you are not guaranteed to see any while on the trek. We saw ten. And some monkeys.

The Extra Shots from Rebecca's Camera

... in addition to the one above where mark and i are passed out at the table. Too good not to use. The first one is our tour guide in Komodo, armed with his stick to defend us from an attacking dragon. He was pretty chill though, and about 14 years old.

Above, from left to right: Sarah (brit), Anna and John (more brits), Mark (the aussie), Rebecca and Tom (from san fran), Kev and Therese, and Stephanie (the swiss).

~Kev

Indonesia Part 3.2 - Reef Bungalow

On our second day at Secret Island Resort, therese and i rented a two-person kayak. Neither of us are terribly experienced kayakers (?), but we decided to have a go. There is an uninhabited beach island near Gili Gede that we decided would be our destination. We left early and started paddling. Here's our little island, as see on the drive home:


The journey out there wasn't too bad and was only about 45 minutes, but they were exhausting. The island itself lived up to our expectations. I collected some shells, we walked the island, and went swimming on our private beach.  The pictures from the island and the journey are on therese's camera, which is out of commission at the moment. Actually, it had been a pretty unlucky island for me. In just two days, i managed to:

• Cut my toe up on a cement step.
• Break a chair.
• Break a hammock.
• Walk directly into a tree.
• Capsize our kayak in the open ocean, losing the rented snorkel gear.
  
• Break therese's camera.
• Fall down the slippery, coral covered stairs on the reef bungalow, after dropping my camera lens cap into the ocean.
• Lose the lawn chair for the reef bungalow. (Actually, it just blew off in the night.)
  

With all that poor luck, it was still amazing. On day two, we had the honor of occupying the very special Reef Bungalow, the only of its kind in Bali or Lombok. It's a beautifully decorated and quaint bungalow at the end of an old wooden dock. Never a night passes when this bungalow is vacant, and we were lucky to find an opening. It was, without a doubt, the single most unique and enjoyable place i've ever stayed on my travels. I wish we had time to stay a few more nights. It was also the best night of sleep we had since we started traveling. The breeze kept the place cool and the mosquitoes away, while the sound of waves lapping at the bungalow floor was the perfect ambient noise. Enjoy the pictures, it was truly a secret paradise.





The three days at this resort ended up being less than $200 total, including food, drinks, kayak rental, and some lost snorkeling gear. That's a bargain.


~Kev