There are 17,000 islands in Indonesia, and they are spread out over a huge area. So the four day & night live-aboard boat trip I took from the island of Lombok to the island of Flores was ideal, as it allowed me to visit lots of different places while still moving myself east the whole time. It was no luxury cruise –13 backpackers sleeping side-to-side on the deck of the boat (just like the one in the pic here) that had a simple squat toilet with great ocean views when you looked down– but it was an awesome time, as we made lots of snorkeling, hiking and beaching stops at turquoise-bejeweled islands large & small.
The real gem of the trip, though, was a stop at the island of of Komodo, home of the Komodo Dragon, the world’s biggest lizard, and one that will actually attack and kill humans. I found the locals (including the park ranger who gave us the tour!) hawking wooden dragons much scarier than the real dragons, but it was actually a little creepy when the dragons started to come at you like this one. He gave some people a scare and it was kinda cool that you had to take an armed guard with you to the toilet, even if he was just armed with a forked stick.
UPDATE:
Here’s a video of the dragon coming after us
Komodo Dragon from Tim Gillons on Vimeo.
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