Location: Komodo, Indonesia. Beware, here be dragons.
Asia
Here we have another culture change. We started the cruise with south Pacific islands – either French or English speaking – but very much small tropical islands. Then we entered the Anglo-sphere with New Zealand and Australia. Sure, everyone talked about their indigenous populations, but every port we visited were proper cities. Now we are entering Asia from the south. This is the part of the cruise I am most looking forward to.
Komodo
We did a day-visit to Komodo Island and Komodo National Park. Indonesia does not play around here – you must be part of a group and use local guides to enter the park and observe the Komodo dragon. These lizards can bite, kill and eat folks.
We had three guides with our group of 15. After an hour of humid hill climbing the guides showed us a Komodo dragon nest, which is the entire dirt hill in the picture. Seems mom buries 15-30 eggs and patrols the area to make sure other animals don’t eat the eggs – including other dragons. The nest was about three feet tall and 10 feet in diameter.
We walked another 30 minutes and came upon the dragon glade. Each dragon was about eight feet long. The guides no longer feed the dragons (they did so years ago), so they hunt the local deer and other wild life.
Nap Attack
Tourist Alley
Here in Komodo was our first exposure on this cruise to the gauntlet of tourist crap. At the end of the tour the guides released us into a 200-meter row of tents of Komodo locals all selling the same carved wooden dragons, t-shirts and bead necklaces – which you must walk thru to get back to the port.
If you make it out of the tent mall you then wade into the maze of children selling you the same stuff, calling out “Hey, Poppa.”
I understand different cultures have different expectations of the relationship between seller and buyer. And these folks live on an island national park, so if you don’t speak English (or other tourist language) at a high enough level your only chance for more cash are selling to the visitors. But I have never enjoyed these experiences.
Next: Bali, Indonesia
Your nice & nephew will be relieved to hear you survived visiting the land of Komodo dragons, though they still think you are crazy for going to such a dangerous place!
I’ve seen them in zoos, but being able to see them in the wild would be a highlight of my life. Totally not envious of you or anything.