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4 day-live on board experience in the sea of Flores

I had some previous sailing experience and I always loved it! Therefore I was really excited anticipating this LOB experience especially knowing how beautiful the scenery would be!

It was the last Thursday in 2016, at 7 o’clock in the morning we already finished our breakfast in our hotel and had our bags taken out to the lobby.  Our driver came few minutes later to take us to the harbour, where our boat-guys had waited.

After purchasing some emergency food from the accrossed grocery stores, we aboard the boat with 2 crews; one was the captain, and the other one was the crew.  After 4 days on board, we just realized that we didn’t actually need the emergency food! Pak Wawan, the crew, provided us with delicious meals and snacks all the time! Many times it was too much.. But maybe we should have taken some bags of nice tea instead, because I didn’t like the taste of the tea provided in the boat 😀

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Our delicious breakfast! Happy tummy, happy me. Unfortunately I didn’t have any good photo of our other meals, but they were always great! I particularly loved the fish dishes provided in the boat! Delicious seasoning over very fresh fish! yuum!

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Our freshly-catched fish who ended in our tummy the next morning 😀 

The three of us got a cabin with bunk beds. The captain slept in his bridge and the crew slept outside on the bench (come to think again.. I feel bad for Pak Wawan, the crew! He did all hard work and cook delicious meals too, and he slept outside!.. Sorry Pak Wawan!..)

The bed was.. okay. But it was too hot inside the cabin! And the sheets could have some laundry. Luckily I brought my sleeping bag, I finally could sleep after I put my SB over the sheets. I recommend if you would like to take a boat with cabin, you’d better take the cabin with AC, otherwise it’s soo hard to sleep in such hot small room.  Or if it’s not raining and the wind is not so bad, try to open the cabin door to reduce the heat. And always bring your sleeping bag, just in case you get similar sheets like we had 😀

But other than the bed situation, everything was perfect! 🙂

We visited many beautiful and interesting spots during our 4-day trip, I can’t recall all of their names.  However, the highlights would definitely Komodo and Rinca islands where we got the chance to meet Mr Komodo himself.  But I will save Komodo story for my next post :p

As to non-komodo places, I loved Kanawa (our first stop), Gili Lawa, Padar and Kalong islands.

KANAWA

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Posing in front of Kanawa island.

The island is so pretty with white sands and clear sea water.. I couldn’t resist myself and swam around a bit, could not find so much variety of underwater life there, but I found some starfishes and sea-through fishes. So pretty!

GILI LAWA

While it is not an easy path to hike, Gili Lawa (also known as Gili Laba) provides a stunning view with fjords-like scenery to please your eyes.

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Hiking up in Gili Lawa with this view in the back.

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Beautiful pinkish sunset in Gili Lawa.

PADAR

Even with not so easier hike than Gili Lawa, Padar also gives a stunning view you should not ever miss when you are around.

P.S.: Don’t get fooled by the beautiful stairs in the first steps, the more you hike, the more steep the track.. Wear comfortable shoes!

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sweating through the hills, but the view was worth the hike! 

KELOR

I have to say that the underwater in this area is not as impressing as some other places in Indonesia that I have visited such as Derawan island.  But maybe it’s because I didn’t dive, and was just unlucky since some of my friends told me that they found a lot of beautiful underwater animals in this area.

My best experience in snorkeling in Komodo area was nearby this Kelor island.  The corals were colorful and I found many kind of fish here.  I brought a banana with me and hundreds of beautiful fish came. What a wonderful experience to have!

– Until I realized I already swam too far from the boat and other people and the strong stream did not let me swim back to the boat – luckily I could call the captain who then rescued me 😀

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Unfortunately I did not bring my gopro with me in this trip so I could not take the pictures of the underwater.  But can you see from this photo how clear the water was? And many fish and corals underneath (which actually very colorful and beautiful)

MANTA POINT

Unfortunately we didn’t take any picture but we saw some huge mantas in this place! The current, however, was pretty strong.  Even the boat crews who usually let us swim alone were very attentive to us in this place.

The strong current in the points with huge animals is pretty understandable though.. So be careful when you’re in this area.

KALONG

I didn’t swim in this place, so I can’t tell how the underwater view was.  But the sunset and sunrise here was pretty amazing (we stayed for a night in this place).  And the thousands bats went out during twilight was pretty amazing experience!

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So disappointed with myself.  What did I think by not taking any good camera with me in this trip?.. The view was actually really amazing that night. But I only had my iPhone with me.. 

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Beautiful sunrise from Kalong island..

KOMODO RESORT

It was nice to make a stop here and stayed some time in their restaurant to have nice drinks and played cards here. I think the place is pretty nice if you want to go here but don’t want to stay on board.

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Oh now I really miss my little adventure in the sea! I will stop my story here and continue next time..

Till next time,

Dewi

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Categories: Travel

Tagged as:

dewimayangsari

Hello - I love writing random stuff from fiction to mental health to relationship to productivity to travel stories. Hope you can enjoy my writings! :)

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