The first direct flight from Saigon to Bali just launched in May 2019. Before, you’d have to fly to either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur first. Then, you’d need to take two more flights to Bali and then on a smaller aircraft to the city of Labuan Bajo. That’s quite a few flights for just a weeklong vacation.
Upon arriving to the dive center in Labuan Bajo, we were informed that the company had expanded and now had two different liveaboard boats. One housed all the people who were staying in dorms and the other had the private rooms. Since I had booked a dorm and they had booked the suite, we were told the day before we would be on two separate boats. The whole point of going together was to dive together. So, after some discussion with the owner, he proposed that he could put a mattress down on the upper deck of the boat where I could sleep. I received a discount since I was virtually homeless for four days. The two biggest difficulties I had to contend with was the wind and the sunrise. At random points of the night, the wind would pick up and slam the sun tarp against the wood beams. It was loud. And, of course, the sunrise at 5:00 something marked the end of my sleep each night. However, what’s better than sleeping under the stars surrounded by the isolated Indonesian islands rocking gently back and forth on a diving boat?
The diving was absolutely incredible. Komodo is known to be one of the best spots in Southeast Asia. There are strong currents that flow through the islands, which brings an amplitude of sea life and nutrients for the coral to thrive. The currents, however, make for some difficult diving. I improved in recognizing up currents and down currents before even jumping into the water. If there is an up current, the water is perfectly flat. If the water is very choppy, most likely there is a down current.
Each day, we went on three different dives, totaling fifteen dives in five days. On the first two dives of the day, we mostly went between 25-30 meters (83-100 feet) and had the average dive of about 48 minutes. The third dives were a bit shallower considering we had to cope with avoiding decompression sickness. On the first night, our third dive was after the sunset. I’ve only completed one other night dive on my last liveaboard in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia back in the Summer 2013.
The videos will pretty much speak for themselves, but here are the most interesting sea life I saw: garden eels, juvenile ornate ghost pipefish, scorpionfish, trumpetfish, triggerfish, sweet lips, green turtles, Pikachu nudibranch, dragon seamoth, zebra crab, decorator crab, zebra eel, arrow crab, flounder, mask ray, feather star, crocodile fish, nudibranch, shrimp, white tip shark, black tip shark, blue spotted stingray, cuttlefish, lionfish, bamboo shark, mobula (…) ray, moray eel, mandarin fish (most colorful fish in the world, very tiny and shy), giant trevoli (…), big eyed trevoli, stonefish, and saving the best for last, manta ray.
We went on three different dives where we saw manta cleaning stations. The first spot was south of Komodo. Our dive instructor had not been to this spot in about a year. We were very lucky to be able to travel to this part of the islands. Usually, bad weather does not permit dive boats to travel that far away. Also, there is no guarantee that we would actually see manta rays at the cleaning station. We saw a few within the first two minutes of the dive. We ended up doing two different dives consecutively at the same reef. Our third manta dive was the last dive of the trip on Friday. There seemed to be a smaller chance we would spot manta rays at this spot. About ten minutes into the dive, we saw seven rays circling a cleaning station. We stayed for fifty-five minutes to watch the tiny fish clean the mantas as they elegantly flew through the sea. Some of the mantas would leave and sail into the blue only to reappear flying directly over us. Seeing manta rays is definitely something to check off the bucket list.
After this trip, I have now reached 66 total dives and 47 hours 35 minutes underwater. I am incredibly grateful for these diving experiences I’ve had over the past six and a half years. I experience the feeling of true weightlessness and get to see a completely different world from our own. Along with the dives, the connections and conversations I have with fellow divers have broadened my perspective and allowed me to meet people from all around the world.
Along with the diving, we had a few other experiences during the liveaboard. On the first day, we sailed to an island with guides who showed us the wild Komodo Dragons. They are extremely dangerous. One bite will release venom into your bloodstream, and it will take days if not weeks to die from the bite. It doesn’t seem like a good way to go. After diving on the third day, we took the dinghy to a short hike up one of the islands to view the sunset. Our dive instructor and some of the crew were nice enough to carry up a cooler of beers so we could enjoy the sunset peeking its head below the islands in the distance. During the last night on the boat, we were meant to sail on the dinghy to a beach where we could enjoy the sunset. Since the tide was up, it was impossible to get there. Instead, we turned the motor off and let the tide drift us around as we watched the sunset. In one of the pictures, if you look very closely, you can see a dolphin fin underneath the sunset. I was proud to have captured that shot.
After diving, I spent two more nights in Labuan Bajo. During my full day on the island, I went for a ninety-minute full body massage and sat poolside with a few cocktails. After dinner, I went to the only happening bar in town with some of the divers I met along the trip. We listened to good reggae music and drank some Bintang beers to celebrate a beautiful week of diving.