Island Hopping around Komodo

March 2014

Being able to speak Bahasa Indonesia enables me to communicate with the local people anywhere I travel in this nation of 17,000 islands. My first geography lesson in elementary school gave me very little ideas of what those shapely floating lands on the map were actually like when you step on them. My eyes began to open when my uncle flew me from Java to the island of Sumatra in 1979. The sky was clear..and I could see what was underneath the plane! Then with a friend I flew to Bali and then by boat, we hopped on to the next island of Lombok, east of Bali. I could see the mountain afar from the ferry deck. From then on, I got fascinated by the possibilities of discovering more islands and perhaps ... countries.. If my father had been a sailor, I wonder how many islands I would have stepped on. As an Indonesian, growing up in the much competitive city, our idea of traveling was to go out of Indonesia..... a place that would require a passport! That said, we were not encouraged to get to know our nation's geography in the real sense, by our parents or teachers. Rather, just like many young people, especially those who major in English, we were enamoured with the dream of visiting an English speaking country. And here I am, after dozens of passport stamps and so many countries later ..... I revisit my childhood dream.... island hopping within the Indonesian archipelago, by traditional boats, small boats, big boats....any boat... The only way to forget how awful the ozone layer has now become (I am taking some responsibilities in that I do travel quite a bit by plane).

These photos below are small islands between the islands of Flores, Rinca, and Komodo where the last dinosaurs live.

Komodo - the last dinosaurs

March 2014 Our journey began in the city of Semarang, island of Java where three of us (Neneng, Anggie and I) hopped on a bus to travel 12 hours to the eastern tip of the island (the Ketapang harbor, in the town of Banyuwangi) to catch a ferry to the westernmost point of Bali island (Gilimanuk harbor). The overnight journey was rewarded by the greeting of sunrise which we enjoyed with a cup of coffee on the ferry deck to Bali. Short, 45-minute ride, perfect ! The bus was also with us on the same ferry, continued our journey to Denpasar, the capital of Bali. Bali is always a nice hub to go island hopping on this huge Indonesian archipelago. After enjoying the tourist capital of Indonesia for 3 days, the two of us (Neneng and I) flew 2.5 hours on Wings Air to Labuan Bajo, island of Flores. Labuan Bajo (LBJ) is the nearest airport to get to dragon island. The town is building a new airport terminal at the time, but we still had to use the old and inadequate structure, where I couldn't possibly drag my suitcase on the unpaved road from the tarmac to the building. Kind of neat, actually, since I have never seen anything like this before. A porter carried our suitcase on his shoulder to the building while I looked around for our contact person. In this town, though remote from civilization, has begun to attract so many italian investors. I am lucky enough to know someone who owns an italian restaurant in the town. We spent the evening at the restaurant while getting my bearing. In the meantime, we met a group of single women travelers from England and Russia who joined us at the bar. We agreed to meet the next morning to share a traditional boat to take us for an overnight trip to the island of Komodo. Playing with the Komodo dragon Komodo crossing