Labuan Bajo, Flores - Photos now loaded (Mar. 11-13, 2015)

Mar. 11, 2015 - Will load pics later......WiFi too sketchy

Upon reaching the destination of Labuan Bajo, and being let off the boat, at the pier, I visited several dive shops on the way into town, to see if I could secure one for today. I ended up sharing a room last night, with Julia, the girl from Finland. We got a twin room that was owned by the dive shop I found to go diving with. It was really nice, had a fan, free drinking water, a towel and clean beds, but was a bit far out of town for convenience. Julia is not a diver and wanted to move to a closer location for tonight, which I was fine with too. We paid $5 each for the twin room, and they refunded us our money for the second night, which we did not want. Instead, we went to the only hostel in the town, Cool Corner Hostel, owned by a nice man named Gregorius. I’m not sure if that’s really his Indonesian name, but never the less, that is the owner. He speaks really good English and is very sweet. The hostel is on room with 5 bunks, an air conditioner, and free drinking water. It’s nothing special, but at least has air con, which many places do not, and it’s hot for sleeping. So, we ended up there, paying $5 per night as well.

Anyway, Julia got up early with me, we brought all our bags with us, and went to the dive shop. I was diving for the day, and she was going to have a day to look around, do some research, and sleep from our trip. We booked into the hostel on the way to the dive center, then ate the included breakfast from the dive centre guesthouse, which was delicious. It was unlimited banana pancakes, omelettes, toast, coffee or tea. A totally great breakfast for a day of diving. I said goodbye to Julia, and took off with the divers, to walk down to the pier, to get on the boat. I was super excited to see what Komodo had to offer as far as diving went, because it is in the top ten dive places in the world.

I wasn’t disappointed once I went. We started off with a muck dive, which is basically a dive to look at macro organisms in the sea. It focuses on coral, small shrimp, vegetation, etc. It was a bit boring, but I was happy to start off with this dive to get used to the currents and conditions here. This area is a lot more advanced with the dive conditions than anywhere else I have dived. The currents here can be quite strong, and drift diving is a usual thing in these parts. Sometimes, the drift dives, though relaxing, can be very fast.

Anyway, the first dive served to orient me to the area, and I was fine after that. I went down with quite a few other people, but we managed to stay down for about 50 minutes or so. Although the visibility was decent, there weren’t a lot of big, or interesting things to see on this first dive. 

The second dive was amazing, though. It was called Batu Balong and is basically two huge rocks in the middle of the ocean, that are hit with a very strong current. The current is then split and goes around these two large rocks, with a steep drop of reef on the ‘soft’ side of the current. Here is where the most beautiful and numerous fish live, without being attacked by the strong current. It’s just amazing to see this fish soup of a reef. Everywhere you look, you see colourful fish and amazing shapes, textures and groups. It is so lovely. The only negative part was, that on this dive, we had one guy who used all his air in 29 minutes. I was really ticked off that we had to come up, and felt totally ripped off that I had half a dive at the best spot, so far. Anyway, something that can’t be helped, though I had told the dive shop about this happening several times before and they had assured me that if someone had to go up early, they could be sent with another Dive Master. This didn’t happen. 

In any case, the third dive was the most incredible. This dive, though a bit short because of the diesel breather, boasted large Manta Rays, circling above our heads. The site, Manta Point, is known for the numerous Manta’s that frequent the place. They were majestic, and incredible. I was astounded to be that close to them and to see how truly massive they were. These ones were about 4 meters across with black tops, and white underbellies. There are some that have black on their bellies, but we didn’t see any of these ones. 

I talked to a nice girl from England, Sarah, who was also looking for a dive shop, when I was. She settled on going with the same one, Paradise Divers, that I had. She was in a different group, one with more experienced divers, so she had much longer dive times. I was wishing that I could be in her group. In fact, the next day, we were both going diving with them again, and I asked about changing groups. They agreed because the Dive Master had told the owner that I had a lot of air left, and that we had come up early on two of the three dives. I was happy because this is a really poor situation when you are spending so much to dive, and not getting anywhere near your money’s worth. The owner apologized and guaranteed me that I would be with Sarah, and two Dive Master’s for the next day’s dives. I was happy with that.

After the diving, we just ate something, then crashed into bed, because we had to get up early again to do three more dives. I was excited to go again, as this area is by far, the best I have seen so far.

Mar. 12, 2015

Today I got up, ate breakfast at the dive center again, with Sarah, and took off to do our diving. Today, we were going to three new sites, called Castle Rock, The Cauldron, and another one that I can’t pronounce. All three were great, but the most challenging one, was the Cauldron. It is a very fast drift dive, with the current, then a quick turn to the right, to get around a corner before hitting an extreme down current into the black. The turn and getting over the rocks etc, was super tough, and suddenly we were being thrown around, clutching onto coral covered rocks so as not to fly away with the current. It was really tough to stay calm and think about what you were doing, as the conditions had changed so suddenly and were quite extreme. Even the two Dive Masters that were in our group said the current was very tough to maneuver and they hadn’t expected it to be so challenging either. After we got around that corner, which took about 15 minutes to creep along the bottom and over the rocks, to finish, the current was no more, things weren’t flying, and we were serene and fine. Well, a few reef bites and Fire Coral burns along my exposed body parts, but I didn’t freak out, concentrated on what I was doing, and didn’t have to be picked up by the boat somewhere way down current because I had lost my grip and been whirled around by the current. It was the most challenging dive I have ever done and I was really proud that I made it through, didn’t have to be rescued, and then found out that divers with over a thousand dives considered it a tough dive as well. After the fact, I thought it was a very cool dive and was happy to have gone through the experience, though it was mighty scary while doing it. You can’t believe how the currents can whip you around like a feather when they are strong. The regulator gets blown out of your mouth, while you’re trying to grip onto anything that doesn’t come loose when you hold onto it. While you are doing this, you also must watch to see that you don’t grab onto a poisonous Stone or Scorpion Fish, which look like the rocks at the bottom. Crazy, but incredible experience!

Our last dive was nice and relaxed dive at a place that had large sharks, lovely Box Fish and other colourful species. I was happy to have an easy dive and just enjoy the scenery after being through the Cauldron. Interesting name for it, isn’t it? I’ve always liked cauldron’s so maybe that’s why I didn’t fear it, though there were times I could feel the panic starting to wake up, deep down inside me. Thank goodness I am good on my air, because I could imagine going into that, and being low on air. You would definitely feel the panic rising. 

When we got back from diving, Sarah and I headed for the showers and met up a little later to go for some dinner. I saw Julia at the hostel, and she joined us for dinner and a couple of coolers, with John, the Swedish guy from our boat tour. He was also staying in the hostel with Julia and me. The four of us found some comfy lawn chairs outside a supermarket, looking onto the main street. We sat there for an hour or so, drinking our drinks and chatting before going for dinner. John was going diving the next day and was excited to hear our tales of the crazy diving we just had. 

Beautiful sight from the boat

Fishing Village on island

It was a fun day, with lots of action and excitement, beautiful scenery and lovely ocean experiences. The diving is great because they give you a nice lunch on the boat, as well as water, coffee, and tea, plus cookies and crackers. You are well fed and taken care of during your diving time. I am hooked…..lol.

Mar. 13, 2015

Today I got up slowly, sleeping in until about 8:30. It was nice not to have to worry about getting up to be somewhere today. I was happy to have a lazy morning. I took my computer out onto the front porch, overlooking the street, to write up some blogs. I felt so far behind, and didn’t want to neglect it a bit longer, or else I wouldn’t have done them at all. I don’t know when the pics and info will get posted, but that’s ok, because at least the memories are written so that I can have them. 

Sarah wasn’t staying at the hostel, but was at the hotel directly across from the hostel. We agreed that we’d meet in the morning whenever we arose, to figure out further diving for the next days, together. She is a great dive partner and uses about the same amount of air as I do, if not a bit better than me. She is an Educational Psychologist in London so we have lots in common to talk about. She loves to dive and travel, and work with kids. It’s a good match and we seem to get along well. I decided not to return to Denpasar as soon as I thought I might. I had booked a ticket to go back to Denpasar on Friday, March 13th, but luckily couldn’t pay for it because their website is terrible. Anyway, I didn’t end up confirming the booking and paying for it, so I rebooked today, with a travel agent, and bought a ticket back to Denpasar for March 18th, instead. Why leave paradise when you can stay? It’s cheap here, there’s amazing world class diving and Sarah is a nice friend to do stuff with. She is flying back to Denpasar on that same flight so we can go together to the airport and share taxi costs. I am happy to be staying here. It’s lovely, and the people are nice. I feel very safe here and the community is small and intimate. A great place to plant myself for a few more days and dives. 

Hotel pool that we went to

Sunset that night

Sarah and I booked three dives tomorrow, with another dive shop to see what they will be like. Then we took a taxi to a hotel, just outside of town, that has a pool right on the sea, with lounge chairs and umbrellas. We bought some drinks and munchies before we left, so we didn’t have to buy them at the hotel. No one was by the pool except us, and for $5 each, we were allowed to sit all day, use the pool and the WiFi, though it never works. That’s Indonesia for you…..it’s a running joke. Even the locals, in general conversation with you, ask how your connection is today because it is so often poor.