FINALLY!!!
Finally on the boat heading out to the Land of the Dragons.
First stop, Rinca.
If not for some insignificant twist of fate in history, the dragons would have been called Rinca Dragons instead of Komodo Dragons. Who knows why it happened, but Komodo Dragons was the name given to these extra large lizards. And these extra large lizards can be found on both Rinca Island and Komodo Island.
Sadly, it turns out that the dragons are too busy fucking to make an appearance for our cameras. It was mating season... yeah... what the fuck... literally... fucking dragons.
We encountered a total of 6 dragons on Rinca (wait till you get to tomorrow's post). There was one waiting at the dock to welcome us... AND give us false hope for the day... 4 at the ranger station and 1 in the wild. None of them cared to fight, fuck or eat for our cameras... lazy fucking lizards. We saw more water buffaloes than dragons. We even took the longer 2 hour trek, in the hopes that we would encounter more dragons.
There is the old cliche about the silver lining... And we found our silver lining when we returned to the boat. We had prepared ourselves for a simple single-burner cooking from the boat captain and assistant (I even brought my own salt, pepper and spices), but like everything else that Rickey had promised. It turned out to be the opposite. The food was incredible. Captain Mat is a talented chef. We did not eat simply during this trip. Captain Mat wowed us at every meal with his culinary skills. All you could hear during mealtimes was the 5 of us going....'wow', 'delicious' , 'sedap', 'mmmmmm'. I would go back on this trip just to sit at Captain Mat's table and eat his kechup manis chicken and his incredible chapchye.
Post lunch was a short boat ride to Pantai Merah for a lovely afternoon of snorkeling.
Captain Mat finally brought us to a safe harbour for the night and we had another view of a spectacular sunset over the Flores sea.
Finally on the boat heading out to the Land of the Dragons.
First stop, Rinca.
If not for some insignificant twist of fate in history, the dragons would have been called Rinca Dragons instead of Komodo Dragons. Who knows why it happened, but Komodo Dragons was the name given to these extra large lizards. And these extra large lizards can be found on both Rinca Island and Komodo Island.
Sadly, it turns out that the dragons are too busy fucking to make an appearance for our cameras. It was mating season... yeah... what the fuck... literally... fucking dragons.
We encountered a total of 6 dragons on Rinca (wait till you get to tomorrow's post). There was one waiting at the dock to welcome us... AND give us false hope for the day... 4 at the ranger station and 1 in the wild. None of them cared to fight, fuck or eat for our cameras... lazy fucking lizards. We saw more water buffaloes than dragons. We even took the longer 2 hour trek, in the hopes that we would encounter more dragons.
There is the old cliche about the silver lining... And we found our silver lining when we returned to the boat. We had prepared ourselves for a simple single-burner cooking from the boat captain and assistant (I even brought my own salt, pepper and spices), but like everything else that Rickey had promised. It turned out to be the opposite. The food was incredible. Captain Mat is a talented chef. We did not eat simply during this trip. Captain Mat wowed us at every meal with his culinary skills. All you could hear during mealtimes was the 5 of us going....'wow', 'delicious' , 'sedap', 'mmmmmm'. I would go back on this trip just to sit at Captain Mat's table and eat his kechup manis chicken and his incredible chapchye.
Post lunch was a short boat ride to Pantai Merah for a lovely afternoon of snorkeling.
Captain Mat finally brought us to a safe harbour for the night and we had another view of a spectacular sunset over the Flores sea.
Captain Mat's Boat
The Labuan Bajo Harbour
Photographing the photographer
Beautiful boat that we were not on. Though I bet they didn't eat as well as we did.
We saw a dolphin on the way out.
Locals heading back to Labuan Bajo
The InLaws
Rinca or Komodo, we could not tell
The first Dragon, inviting us to the island.
The InLaws
Guard Post on Rinca
Ranger HQ, Komodo National Park, Rinca
Horfun and Audrey
Our 2nd Dragon.
Rickey telling stories of 'how it used to be the last time he was there'. The rest of us soon learnt that if we took the opposite of what Rickey said, we would not be disappointed.
Rinca Water Buffalo
Photographing the photographer
The ONE dragon we saw in the wild on our trek.
A Water Buffalo having a great time in the waterhole. Why, cos there were NO Dragons hunting him.
Horfun completed the mission, and both treks on flipflops. She put all of us to shame.
Turtle Island?
Not the boat we were on. Bet they didn't eat as well as we did though.
My FIRST underwater shot. Shooting underwater is tough.
Sunset over the Flores Sea, we had docked in a safe bay off Rinca.
2 comments:
so nice to see some of the old team...I swear I will be back to enjoy one of those trips one day! and the game of course. Love your photos. We are off to our new home in New Orleans (Nancy got a gig at Loyola University) we will be enjoying the weather which is so similar to Singapore...please say hello to all! Really miss it there.
Allan
Gotta join you all one day. You never find any archaeological sites!
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