Sawali Bay, Komodo Island, Indonesia

Sunday, March 17, 2019

My first visit to Indonesia, and it starts with a visit with the world’s largest lizards. I first met this species at the San Diego Zoo. I was so impressed with them there. Now, I get to see them without a wall between us!

Where am I?

So, what’s been happening?

Komodo island is, in its entirety, a national park. As such, it has very limited infrastructure. For example, there is no docking ability for the Amsterdam, only a small concrete pier exists at the park entrance. Therefore, the Amsterdam anchored just off shore and we used tenders to get to the pier on the island. Well, at least a few of us did.

Indonesia is very careful about this island and its environment. Nobody was allowed to off-board the Amsterdam unless they had pre-purchased tickets to the park. Tickets could be purchased aboard ship and via the internet. In any case, if you didn’t have a ticket in hand, you were not allowed to leave the ship.

Once we reached the island by tender, we were immediately greeted at the pier by somebody representing the tour company that sold our ticket, as well as a park ranger. We stayed in the company of these two throughout our tour. They were there not only as guides and to protect us from the wildlife, but also to protect the wildlife from us. The rules of the park were very strictly enforced.

Almost immediately upon arrival we started seeing wildlife. Pictured here is a deer laying on the beach, seemingly unbothered by our presence. We learned that, unlike other places in the world where deer tend to hide in the forests, the deer here prefer to relax in the open. This is because the deer can see approaching Komodo dragons more easily in the open.

And, since I’ve mentioned dragons, the Komodo dragon is what I’m here to see. It is the largest lizard in the world, it is venomous, it can run at about 12 mph, and it kills things.

Here, on the island, these scaly beast are running around in their own habitat. They are not on leashes. They are not in cages or in any other way encumbered in their movements. The park rangers are only equipped with a stick having a small forked branch at the end. So, if you want to commune with large poisonous lizards in the great wide-open, this is the only place in the world where you can do that.

We met a group of lizards near a watering hole about 800 feet into the park. Fortunately for us, these lizards must have had a meal lately because they did not seem all that interested in us. Still, the rangers drew lines in the dirt to indicate just how close we could get to these “monsters” without risk of serious injury.

In the photo above, the guy in the yellow pants is one of the park rangers trying to protect me from doing anything stupid like getting closer to this big male Komodo Dragon. No worries; I had no desire to get any closer!

Our walk through the park was about two miles long and, in our case, included a little side trip. There was a couple in our small group (seven people) who were geocachers. Geocaching is a game played around the world where small containers (called caches) are hidden so that others may have the thrill of finding them. Cache hunters are only provided with GPS coordinates that they obtain via the Geocaching app. The actual cache could be hidden in a tree, under a rock, or in even more insidious places.

In our case, the cache was hidden somewhere at the top of a high hill in the middle of the island. Fortunately for the geocachers, they found their cache! Fortunately for the rest of us, we got to see this tremendous view of the forest and the bay below.

Along the walk back down the hill, we didn’t see any more Komodo dragons, but we did see some other wildlife, like these brightly colored snails.

• 

• 

At the end of the trail there was a small “shopping mall” waiting for us. This mall was nothing more that a string of tents where those few people who are living on the island try to separate tourists from their money. And, they’re pretty aggressive about it, too!

I did buy a couple of items there. First, our park ranger, Dedy, has a family who had set up a table in the “mall” and I wanted to reward him for a job well done so I bought this Komodo dragon from them.

The second purchase was far more important to me owing to the heat and the humidity (both very high!) That’s me and the four gentlemen that must have seem me coming from a mile away!

After about 2 1/2 hours, our visit to the island was over and we tendered back to the Amsterdam. I had a fun visit to Komodo, and was never bitten.

SO, anything else?

Of course!

March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, and even in this part of the world (or, at least aboard our ship) a celebration is a requirement!

For this celebration we did a pub crawl, visiting four different bars around the ship, having a different drink at each stop (we didn’t get to choose our drinks) and being entertained in a variety of ways. Here’s Michael (you met him earlier) setting up one of the bars for both our drinks and our entertainment. Michael and his colleagues had set up pint glasses (with one type of liquor) and on top of those they set up shot glasses (with another type of liquor.) At Michael’s command, a bartender pushed the shot glass at one end into the next shot glass in the progression. In the end, the shot glasses tipped each over like dominos and dumped their contents into the pint glasses, creating our drink at that bar. Wish I had the video!

Here’s one very short example of the entertainment. (I’m sorry I didn’t record more of this performance, but I was not focused on that task at the time.

Four bars, four strong cocktails, and I was done for the day!

Komodo Island has been a fun stop. It was a long day (starting at 6am and continuing until midnight) but so full of exciting and fun adventures. Glad I was here!

Anything else interesting?

Yes! I’d like for you to meet my traveling buddy, John. John and his wife are passengers aboard the Amsterdam. I met John one evening during the Cigars and Cognac event and we struck up a great relationship. A couple of weeks after meeting John, I was invited to and became a permanent member of his dining room table (where, I might add, he reigns as king!) I’m so happy to be a part of the amazing Table 64!

Unfortunately, John and his wife, Patricia, will be leaving the Amsterdam in Singapore in order to continue their adventures in Thailand and China. In the mean time, John and I enjoy a Bintang on Komodo Island in an effort to beat the heat.

So, what’s coming up?

Tomorrow, it’s Bali!