Saturday Maarten told about the trip to the Komodo Islands, but actually his story didn’t have an end. And there’s a reason why, it’s because the boat trip to the Komodo Islands took two days, which means that still half of the story has to be told. And maybe it’s also the most adventurous half as we got some bad weather during the night and also when we arrived back at Labuan Bajo.

But, before I come to the arrival back, first things first. As just said, it started raining on Saturday evening, which meant for some people who wanted to sleep at the upper deck that they had to move to the cabins downstairs. Luckily I picked one of the ‘beds’ (which was actually just part of the space we normally sat during lunch, dinner, etc) on the lower deck which could be kept dry by hanging around some canvas and towels.

Beforehand I was somewhat afraid that I maybe wouldn’t sleep at all, but it luckily didn’t turn out like this, even while I heard from some people that Michael snored very loudly, but as I had my ear plugs in, I didn’t hear anything.

We woke up quite early by the crew of the boat as they already wanted to set up the breakfast, but due to this the view I had when I opened my eyes was also definitely the best view I ever have seen while waking up. On both sides of the boat I could look to the very green hills of some of the Komodo Islands.

After we had breakfast we went more into the Flores Sea to a place where there were lots of mantas and we were the lucky ones to be able to swim and snorkel with them. And some even had the luck to touch them, unfortunately I wasn’t one of the lucky ones.

Around lunch time we came close to Labuan Bajo and got another two opportunities for snorkeling, swimming and relaxing on the beach. There was a nice variety of coral reefs and fishes present, however it was also visible to what extent the area is already damaged and polluted due to tourism activities and the bad waste management in relation to these activities.

We went back to the boat because there was bad weather coming up and just when we arrived at the boat the hell opened up itself. Luckily by the time we arrived back at Labuan Bajo it already almost stopped raining, but this is also Indonesia: in 5 minutes it can go from hot and sunny to lots of rain and heavy wind.

And with the arrival at Labuan Bajo harbor also these two days of amazement came to an end. For some people who got seasick this trip was sometimes a battle of surviving, but I think all in all (almost) everybody really enjoyed the trip as we have seen beautiful nature, the Komodo dragons, did a lot of enjoyable activities and the crew of the boat was amazing; they were so nice and helpful and the food was also delicious.

It was an amazing boat trip and a fantastic first week in Indonesia. However, from now on the real work starts: from tomorrow morning onwards it’s research time.

Written by: Jimmy Krugers