Komodo Island is located between Sumbawa and Flores Island, it is the part of East Nusa Tenggara, one of the province of Indonesia. I read that the people here are Melanesian and their religion is 90% Christian.
East Nusa Tenggara or Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is different from the rest of Indonesia, it’s geographically, ethnically and culturally a border area where the transition from Asia to Australia and Micronesia takes place. The islands of NTT have apparently always been separated from the Asian landmass by deep sea-beds or deep-sea trench which also marks an eco-boundary, named the 'Wallace Line' after the 19th century naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace.
Along our journey with the boat, we did pass by massive of mountainous islands which was dry as the result of hot dry winds from Australian continent. Only small amount of the islands were being populated or vegetated, as they have difficulties to find natural water sources. We heard from our dive guide, Sebastian, that on some islands, only goats and boars could survive the dry climate, some people put their goats in the island and come to retrieve them when they need the goats. Goat thieves? Sebastian said they are welcomed if they could travel through the sea, and, successfully chased after the goat in the mountainous area.
Roughly 57 percent of NTT territory is hilly with mountains rising to 2427m (Gunung Mutis) in Timor and 1792m (G. Kelimutu) in Flores. Mount Kelimutu has become a favourite mountain climbing destination, with its three crater lakes of different colors. The highest mountain from all Nusa Tenggara is Mount Rinjani 3726m , it was rumoured that there is a frozen lake on the top, my previous dream mountaineering destination.
Okay.
Basically Labuan Bajo airport arrival hall consists of only a room. We could feel the hot and dry sun outside when we posed for picture in front of the plane. It’s not a destination of everyday, have to make the best of it. Sebastian, our dive master was waiting for us outside. We waited for our baggage and started to spot the six Westerners, four Dutch and two German. Almost all of other passengers were Caucasians.
When we were freed from the waiting room. We gathered around the big van of GK. Our luggage was put behind the van and miraculously on top of the van, we had maybe around twenty to thirty huge luggage?
So we introduced each other. Names and names, tried to memorize them well, but time would tell.
We had a short ride to the seaport. Along the way, some of the part of the city looked like small road in Serpong. We went through dusty roads and saw the tanned hard working villagers.
I was quite in shock when Sebastian informed us that we only had him as dive master because other was not feeling well. I read articles and articles about the advanced diving condition in Komodo. 1 against 10 was not a good idea, at all.
I wasn’t comfortable, the only things that could ease my mind, a bit, is that I suspected that the rest of the diving group were experienced divers.
From the car, we could see MV Tarata, our vessel in sight. It is a medium bugis ship and we were wondering, where could we sleep? We boarded the ship while the crew helped us with the belonging. Upon touching the ship, we had to surrender our slippers and shoes. Barefoot was the way. We explored the boat and found the cabins below. Honestly, I was quite surprised to find that the boat didn’t have entertainment facilities except few books and no-signal TV.
We had 3D2N experience of live on board before, which the ship had abundant movies and home theater to enjoy, and even massage chair. So, we kind of expected it to have the same or more quality for a week stay on boat.
All of us gathered in the dining room and Sebastian briefed us and introduced us to the crews; the cook and assistant, the cabin keeper, the captain, the dingy man, the compressor man, the engineer. After the briefing we started to assembly our gear and fixed it to the tank, then we went to the cabin and assembly the camera.
Me and Hubby brought empty casing with tissue paper, his standard procedure for first dive, to make sure the casing is still reliable. I was more than relieved that I didn’t have to take picture on the first dive. Pressure.
We jumped from the big boat and went down for the first dive site, one-hour journey from the seaport. I must say my first day impression was quite bad. First, one to ten dive master, lack of boat facility, and now, what kind of dive site was that?! The first dive site condition was really bad, comparable or worse than our weekday short diving getaway to West Malaysia. I was cursing and swearing in the water, after coming all the way and paying good sum of money…
Another sad thing was Frog’s camera was flooded. I felt very sorry for him.
So first dive left me mud headed. I only could cross my finger and hoped for a better tomorrow. We still had one night dive, and luckily, the night dive was better. We started to see more things as we embarked to the real sea. Cute little tiny polka dot crab, huge lobster, Spanish dancer, Octopus, Moray Eels ridden by a crab, Imperial Shrimp, few types of Nudibranch.
East Nusa Tenggara or Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is different from the rest of Indonesia, it’s geographically, ethnically and culturally a border area where the transition from Asia to Australia and Micronesia takes place. The islands of NTT have apparently always been separated from the Asian landmass by deep sea-beds or deep-sea trench which also marks an eco-boundary, named the 'Wallace Line' after the 19th century naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace.
Along our journey with the boat, we did pass by massive of mountainous islands which was dry as the result of hot dry winds from Australian continent. Only small amount of the islands were being populated or vegetated, as they have difficulties to find natural water sources. We heard from our dive guide, Sebastian, that on some islands, only goats and boars could survive the dry climate, some people put their goats in the island and come to retrieve them when they need the goats. Goat thieves? Sebastian said they are welcomed if they could travel through the sea, and, successfully chased after the goat in the mountainous area.
Roughly 57 percent of NTT territory is hilly with mountains rising to 2427m (Gunung Mutis) in Timor and 1792m (G. Kelimutu) in Flores. Mount Kelimutu has become a favourite mountain climbing destination, with its three crater lakes of different colors. The highest mountain from all Nusa Tenggara is Mount Rinjani 3726m , it was rumoured that there is a frozen lake on the top, my previous dream mountaineering destination.
Okay.
Basically Labuan Bajo airport arrival hall consists of only a room. We could feel the hot and dry sun outside when we posed for picture in front of the plane. It’s not a destination of everyday, have to make the best of it. Sebastian, our dive master was waiting for us outside. We waited for our baggage and started to spot the six Westerners, four Dutch and two German. Almost all of other passengers were Caucasians.
When we were freed from the waiting room. We gathered around the big van of GK. Our luggage was put behind the van and miraculously on top of the van, we had maybe around twenty to thirty huge luggage?
So we introduced each other. Names and names, tried to memorize them well, but time would tell.
We had a short ride to the seaport. Along the way, some of the part of the city looked like small road in Serpong. We went through dusty roads and saw the tanned hard working villagers.
I was quite in shock when Sebastian informed us that we only had him as dive master because other was not feeling well. I read articles and articles about the advanced diving condition in Komodo. 1 against 10 was not a good idea, at all.
I wasn’t comfortable, the only things that could ease my mind, a bit, is that I suspected that the rest of the diving group were experienced divers.
From the car, we could see MV Tarata, our vessel in sight. It is a medium bugis ship and we were wondering, where could we sleep? We boarded the ship while the crew helped us with the belonging. Upon touching the ship, we had to surrender our slippers and shoes. Barefoot was the way. We explored the boat and found the cabins below. Honestly, I was quite surprised to find that the boat didn’t have entertainment facilities except few books and no-signal TV.
We had 3D2N experience of live on board before, which the ship had abundant movies and home theater to enjoy, and even massage chair. So, we kind of expected it to have the same or more quality for a week stay on boat.
All of us gathered in the dining room and Sebastian briefed us and introduced us to the crews; the cook and assistant, the cabin keeper, the captain, the dingy man, the compressor man, the engineer. After the briefing we started to assembly our gear and fixed it to the tank, then we went to the cabin and assembly the camera.
Me and Hubby brought empty casing with tissue paper, his standard procedure for first dive, to make sure the casing is still reliable. I was more than relieved that I didn’t have to take picture on the first dive. Pressure.
We jumped from the big boat and went down for the first dive site, one-hour journey from the seaport. I must say my first day impression was quite bad. First, one to ten dive master, lack of boat facility, and now, what kind of dive site was that?! The first dive site condition was really bad, comparable or worse than our weekday short diving getaway to West Malaysia. I was cursing and swearing in the water, after coming all the way and paying good sum of money…
Another sad thing was Frog’s camera was flooded. I felt very sorry for him.
So first dive left me mud headed. I only could cross my finger and hoped for a better tomorrow. We still had one night dive, and luckily, the night dive was better. We started to see more things as we embarked to the real sea. Cute little tiny polka dot crab, huge lobster, Spanish dancer, Octopus, Moray Eels ridden by a crab, Imperial Shrimp, few types of Nudibranch.
posted by aping at 4:59 AM
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