Indonesia Part 3 – “Hunting Komodo by Camera” with Perama Tour! - english version

We spend five days on a boat from Lombok to Komodo and Flores and back. We slept on the deck, we had western toilets and a fresh water shower, which was cold, but, better than nothing, we would say! ;)

Our boat

Our boat

Day 1:

The trip started at 7am. We had to take the Perama boat from Gili to Lombok. There we already met our first travel mate Jeannette from Switzerland. We all were so excited what happened next! We paid around 250 USD (meals included) each for the five day boat trip. A few days earlier Marleen looked up Perama on Google and found all this strange stories, from that the crew isn’t nice, that there are rats on the boat till that one boat sunk years ago!! But, well – let´s go!! :)

We picked up a few people in Sengiggi and the last ones in Mataram. In total we were 23 people!

The first stop off our journey was a pottery. They showed us how to make a pot for plants. The woman is this doing her whole life, every day!! 

pottery

The second stop was a boat build industry, but there didn’t one at this time, so we had only a little coffee brake there.

Around 3 o’clock we finally arrived at the other end of Lombok, where to boat was already waiting for us! It made a good first impression ! :) The luggage was loaded and off we went.

Tin

Our tour guide Tin introduced us to his crew and showed us where we would sleep.












Quickly we made ​​friends with most of the other people. There were two couples from Germany, the two young girls from Denmark, Kelly, Leanne and Rosie from England, the New Zealand couple Steve and Nicole , and many more ! :)

After an hour drive we arrived at the " Perama island", we had time to swim, snorkel , play volleyball or just to relax. For dinner we had fish and local food and corn cobs on an open fire ! At 9 pm we went for the first night on the boat! :)

Perama Island

Perama Island sunset

Day 2:
We survived the first night. We slept on about 5 centimetre thick mats and a pillow was provided. Soon it became fresh with the wind, and long pants and a Hoddie were needed to sleep! Thanks to the tablets we didn´t become see sick either! :)

Breakfast was toast with jam and peanut butter and fresh fruit!

The first stop on this day was Santonda Island. Here we snorkelled. In the middle of the island is a small salt water lake, where we let ourselves drift - beautiful! :)

salt water lake

Back on board, we had lunch -local food- and went on. 

Second stop was Tanjung Batu Besar, here again we snorkeled and let the sun shine on our bellies!
In the evening there was again very tasty local dinner and overnight we went to the highlight of the trip, Komodo Island!

Day 3:
The last night was very windy and raff on the boat. Those who have slept on the front of the boat WITHOUT canopy, had to look for a new place to sleep very fast, the swell was hard! We didn´t notice any of this, since we were sleeping peacefully in the back.

We are there: KOMODO ISLAND, the highlight of our trip ! Komodo Dragon in the wild we would get to face today, everyone was very excited. After breakfast, this time there were pancakes with fresh fruit, we set over to the Island around 7 am. We were divided into two groups and at the end it turned out that we, the first group had really good luck! We saw a baby Komodo Dragon and a female, hard to find and see. A thank you to Rosie, our English woman, she saw the little baby dragon in the forest! Even our guide went blindly past it! : D The female we found on the top of a mountain! At the end of the two hour tour we came back to the starting point, where three more Dragons were waiting for us. We were told that they often reside in the vicinity of the kitchen! That was really scary; we came really damn close to the voracious animals! As a defence and for keeping the Dragons away our two tour guides had only a long stick, which did not inspire any great confidence! : D But everything was fine eventually.

Komodo Island

Komodo Island

Short info about the Komodo Dragons:
They can be up to 3 feet tall and run up to 20 km / h fast. Since Komodo Dragon are cannibals, the babies live on trees for the first three years and feed on the insects living there , otherwise their parents would eat them! Also, one should be careful with open wounds, because these animals can smell blood up to 5 - 10 Km ! They kill their prey by the bacteria in their saliva. About a week after an animal has been bitten, it dies. The Dragons pursue their prey for the whole time.

Komodo Island

As a small giveaway and recognition during the tour there was a shirt of Perama - nice touch! :)

Another stop on this day was the Pink Beach with a fantastic snorkelling spot! :)

Underwater world

snorkeling

Around 4 pm we arrived in Flores, where then most of us left, because not all had booked the five-day tour, a real shame! Steve, Nicole, Leanne, Kelly and Dickie and a few more stayed on Flores. We had a two hour stay in Labuan Bajo. At 18:30 we had the goodbye dinner on the boat. 

Flores

Afterwards we partied until midnight with the old and new participants.

Fabio, Steve and Dickie

Kelly, Nicole, Rosie, Leanne and Marleen

Day 4:
At 5 am the boat was leaving Flores to Rinca Island, another island, one out of four, on which one can still see Komodo Dragons. The other two islands besides Komodo and Rince are not accessible for Tourists, since there is no ranger that offers a guided tour! Here again we saw a baby Dragon, this time in the tree! And around the kitchen some more again! : D The 1.5 hour circular walk around the island was just beautiful.

Rinca Island

Kevin, Nina, Rosie, Marleen and Fabio

Komodo Dragon on Rinca Island

Then we went to Gili Laba to relax on the beach, snorkelling or swimming in the water! And here we had the best snorkelling in our entire travel. The coral was so colourful, from green, to blue, to red, pink and purple to yellow, it was just beautiful! We even saw some little seahorses! Our tour guide was really right: that snorkelling spot is the best of the best! THANK YOU!!

Back on board at around 2 pm, we had lunch and the longest ride before us, 18 hours until the next morning! I guess you ask yourself now what we did the whole time. Actually, not much. Either reading on the deck, sunbathing, chatting or what most people did: Sleeping :D Yes, if you have to get up to 6 am almost every morning, so it´s nice having a nap ! ;)

Day 5:

Mojo Island

Already the last day of our trip has begun. The last night on the boat was as always relaxing! In the morning at 7 am, we have arrived at Mojo Island. There, the highlight was a small waterfall where you can jump into the water from with a liana! That was great fun! :)

Fun at the waterfalls

fun at the waterfalls 

Back on the boat we enjoyed our last breakfast and went to our last stop, a small island. And this island was really tiny, walking around it only took five minutes. This was the last chance for some relaxing on the beach.

Mini Island!

Probably the biggest highlight was the 50 dolphins, which came unexpected out of nowhere. They were swimming and jumping out of the water next to our boat for about 10 before the disappeared as fast as they had appeared before.

dolphins around the boat

At around 5 pm we all arrived happy and satisfied in Lombok!

Thanks for the nice trip!

It wasn´t until 9 pm before we finally reached Sengiggi. Jeannette and Rosie had booked a room in the same hotel as us so the four of us enjoyed a last beer together by the pool.

Perama has really organized everything so we did not miss anything! The whole trip was super well organized from the start to finish. The food was great, the crew and the other participants were awesome, too. Everything we have read negative about this tour on the Internet, we cannot confirm! Perama has done a great job! Top Value ! A great experience that we can only recommend - it was worth it ! :)

The next day we drove back along with Rosie to Kuta Bali. Rosie flew back to London on Sunday and our flight goes on to Cambodia - our next adventure on the list.

Goodbye Rosie!