Komodo is one of those places that sounds exotic to almost
all westerners and is rarely visited by people from the US because it is
difficult to get to in the best of circumstances. This is why it was high on
the places to visit list before we left Singapore to head to the US. We had
seen numerous photos, read various articles, and even had family members who
had been to Komodo tell us that we simply had to go see the Dragons of Komodo.
So after a few months of research and trying to figure out
work schedules we settled on a trip that was all by boat from Bali to Komodo
with a few additional island stops along the way. What we didn’t fully
comprehend was how good the scuba diving was going to be and how much diving we
were actually going to do.
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| Bali - nice relaxing day before boarding our boat |
We hopped a quick flight to Bali and spent one night and
morning soaking up the familiar relaxing feel and wonderful food of the island
before boarding our home away from home for the week – the Queen Scuba. By the
way I highly – very highly – recommend the Queen Scuba and crew for a live
aboard. The boat was well equipped for diving, eating and sleeping, the staff
and dive guides were extremely knowledgeable and professional, and the boat
itself was comfortable and good sized to meet our needs.
After boarding we got a quick introduction to the boat and a
summary of what to expect for the next six days.
In short form it was as
follows: (see photos of the schedule board to confirm).
6:00am: Wake up to “Wakey, Wakey”
6:30am; Scuba dive #1
7:30am Breakfast
Nap
10:00am: Scuba dive #2
12:00pm: Eat lunch
Nap
2:30pm: Scuba dive #3
4:00pm: Eat snack
6:30pm Night scuba dive
7:30pm Dinner and possibly a single
beer
10:00pm Sleep
All the passengers including me laughed at this schedule not
realizing it wasn’t a joke. In fact it was amazingly fun and easy to get into
for six days. We did 4 dives most days (a total of 2o dives) and always got to
go night diving (so fun) at a variety of locations and at various islands along
the route from Bali to Komodo.
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| Day 3 (indicative of the rest) - note the 6:20 Wakey |
The rest of this post
will be photos of the various islands and coves we stopped in addition to a few
underwater photos from our travel mates (our underwater camera flooded and
broke on dive #1 of the first day.
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| Before leaving port the crew made an offering |
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| Queen Scuba - our home away from home |
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| The Dive Sites are almost endless near Komodo |
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| One of our favorite dives "Shotgun" and we saw Manta Rays |
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| Sunset with our dive dinghys and gear |
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| Strong swirling current - typical of many of our dives here |
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| Charles getting ready for a Night Dive |
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| Carrie and Charles enjoying the diving |
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| Very large school of fish |
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| Sea Turtle |
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| Razor Shrimp |
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| Harlequin Shrimp |
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| Bob Tailed Squid |
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| Nudibranch - very large one, larger than a wide open hand |
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| Cowfish |
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| Our land based outing to see Dragons! |
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| There be Dragons on this island |
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| Our last sunset near Komodo |
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| The last night of the cruise - no night dive but we had happy hour |
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| Our handwritten tickets - no flight number just seats |
The last few photos are from Jimbaran Bay including a fresh and flavorful seafood dinner on the beach as well as our amazing
villa at the Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay in Bali, which I highly recommend and
was a very expensive but very worth it splurge after a tiring six day live aboard.
It seriously was one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.
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| Seafood at Jimbaran Bay |
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