We added the Labuan Bajo stop into our trip so Kye could tick off a childhood dream from his bucket list! We only spent 2 days here, the flights, trip and entrance cost us roughly £200 each but was well worth the money!
To start we caught a tiny plane from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo. We arrived collected our bags and got our free transfer from the airport to our hotel. We were staying at Komodo Boutique Hotel. It was a ten minute drive from the centre but offered a free shuttle to wherever you needed, which was perfect for us! The hotel was basic, clean and provided breakfast for £10 each a night!
Once we had arrived we started googling tours to the famous islands we wanted to visit! I picked up a leaflet from the airport and gave the company a Tripadvisor search. They had great reviews and used a fast boat which meant you visit more islands then most of the tours. It was £65 for the trip and £15 roughly to get into Komodo Island. We booked into this trip via email and couldn’t wait our day of adventure! The whole day trip started at 6am – 4pm! It was a great full day.
We had some delicious food in one of the restaurants in the town and headed back to our hotel via the free shuttle for an early night ready for our 5am wake up call.
The day had come for the long awaited trip to Komodo Island, Kye was over excited lol! Firstly we arrived at the dock and climbed onto our little speed boat, it normally seats 12 people but only 5 of us had booked. Which meant it was very spacious, comfy and even had a toilet!
Our first stop was Padar Island, I’ve seen many photos of this island and really couldn’t wait to visit! We climbed the viewpoint which took roughly 10-15 minutes. From the top you see a tremendous view of the three beaches. 
It’s definitely not a view to be missed! We spent a little while at the top just admiring the beautiful views and getting to know our tour guide and the family of 3 on our trip. The water from above was crystal clear and luckily we had a blistering hot sunny day! One of the beaches is even called Pink Beach as the red coral has died the sand slightly pink. 
Second stop was Komodo Island. We had 2.5 hours on this island, it was huge! Firstly we met our ranger who gave us a safety talk and introduced himself then we set off for our medium trek. As the Komodo Dragons live in the wild you cannot guarantee when you visit that you will see any, but we got lucky and seen 5 in total. I can confirm they are huge, scary and everything else you imagine lol!
We seen 2 young females and 3 males (one which was bloody humungous!!) they walk around very slowly, but for sure pick up their speed when they have seen something they like the look of! They are really strong built animals so they’re walk is really bulky they have such swagger lol! The are continuously sticking out their tongues as this is the way they smell their prey!
Our ranger was very knowledgable and was able to answer all of Kye’s questions (I can confirm there were millions😂) he carried a stick with him, to protect himself and us incase of an emergency. Seeing the size of these dragons and the size of his stick I didn’t fancy the chance of anything going wrong. The Komodo dragons can pick up speed very quickly so if you’re being chased by one the key is to run in zigzags as this will slow the Komodo’s down. Although when you’re panicking I’m sure you would forget this! 
We were lucky enough to come across a nest, we didn’t see the eggs but were told they babies would hatch some time next year. Once the babies are born they need to quickly run upto the top of the trees otherwise their mum will eat them, yeah you heard me right! Only the young Komodo dragons can climb the trees as they are small and don’t weigh no way near as much as adults.
Being on this island we all had eyes in the back of our heads 😂 our ranger explained that no women are allowed to work on this island as they menstruate, the Komodo’s are attracted to this smell and it can be very dangerous. At this point I thought I’d better not mention I was currently on my lady time 😐 thankfully I survived!
We even managed to get some photos posing behind the dragons as they cannot move quick enough backwards. We seen one male which looked very skinny, this freaked Kye out as he knew the male was ready to eat!
Komodo dragons have around 60 different types of bacteria in their mouths, so when hunting for food they only need to bite their prey once for it to die. From the time of the first bite it can take the animal roughly up to a month to die, but for a human we would die within a week if it treated. The Komodo dragon will bite its prey and follow it around until it dies, once it has it will then eat the animal in one sitting (normally dear or buffalo) so very big meals!
After leaving Komodo Island our guide told us the weather & water was perfect to try spot some Manta rays. We got to Manta Point where the baby Mantas hang out, we were super lucky and seen 11 in total. I was completely amazed and really couldn’t believe how big they are! The baby ones wingspan is only 3-5 metres long but the adults can grow upto 8 metres!! Of course me and Kye jumped straight into the water with a local to snorkel with the beautiful Manta Rays! One day I really would love to scuba dive with them!
Our next stop was a beautiful little island called Taka Makassar the sand was pure white and the water was so blue! Absolutely beautiful and a lovely way to spend an hour! Me and Kye did a bit of snorkelling then just chilled on the beach playing in the water. This island really was dreamy and super hot! ☀️🏝
We had one more stop (Kanawa Island) before our trip was over, nobody snorkelled at this point but we all chilled in the restaurant had some food/drinks and spoke about how amazing the day had been! We did spot many starfish which were super cool! Before we knew it our day trip was over, but we had the best day! Me and Kye both said it was probably the best trip we had done!
We had a chilled evening, grabbed some food in the centre and packed our bags ready to depart back to Denpasar in the morning. We had an early flight so we were back in Denpasar before noon, back with the lovely Mumma Arie! We had a complete chill day; blogging, catching up with family & friends, sewing badges onto our big backpacks and just relaxing it was well needed! We did also book a boat to our next destination.. but where are we heading?
Find out in the next blog 😁🏝
paigebetty 