Travel and experience living like a local

Where do people go in Indonesia? Bali. More and more people are going to other islands, which is great. Komodo being one of them. The most popular ways to go to Komodo are either doing a boat tour from Lombok to Labuan Bajo, stopping off at Komodo and other islands like Padar, and then flying back from Labuan Bajo to Bali, or, flying to Labuan Bajo and doing a 2- or 3-day boat trip around the small islands there and then flying back out of Labuan Bajo.

So, which did we do? Neither. Instead, we opted for a much more local experience. I saw that you could actually go and stay on Komodo Island. Believe it or not, there is a very small village.

We stayed with an amazing host family for 3 nights. Very basic, but has everything you need. A bed, electricity, water (sometimes) and a hole for a toilet. There will be improvements made in the future, with the upstairs guest room having its own bathroom for instance.

Jecki and his family were so lovely, his wife cooked us breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. The food was delicious. We even got packed lunch for our day trip.

How did we get to Komodo island without a tour you ask? Local boat. A quite stressful experience at first, we weren’t sure where it was leaving from, or what boat to look out for. We asked around and no one knew of this boat we were talking about, this is how little people know of the village on Komodo Island. Eventually we found a woman and her family who were getting the same boat and so we followed.

What’s that that they say? It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Well, this journey was quite something. I hadn’t been to South East Asia in 4 years and it brought me right back to when I first started travelling. This was a relatively large wooden boat, where we all sat on the floor, for a 4-hour journey across to Komodo. There were a lot of people, a lot of supplies and luggage coming back from Labuan Bajo and not a lot of space. My arse has never felt so hurt. The local boat varies in price, I guess it’s depended on who the captain is, if he’s nice etc. we paid 50000 IDR (approx. AU$5each) the way there and 100000 IDR each on the way back. You can also talk to Jecki and he can organise his private boat to pick you up.

We went to all the famous spots as you would on a tour, but for a fraction of the price, with a local and Jecki made sure we got to the spots before/after it was crowded. Jecki is a ranger for the National Park and very knowledgeable. Also, there are Komodo Dragons just behind the village, no need to pay entry fees for the ¨National Park¨.

I would highly recommend this experience to anyone! And it’s nice to support a family.

Somewhere else I would recommend is going to this hidden waterfall on Flores Island, Nobo Perlamping waterfall. Rent a scooter from Labuan Bajo and it’s about a 45-minute ride. We didn’t intend on going here, first I wanted to go to a different waterfall, but couldn’t find the path or have any idea how to get there. We carried on riding and came across a sign for this one and then some local villager followed us down the path until we had to get off the scooter and carry on by foot. He showed us the way, at first, we were kind of reluctant, but in the end I’m glad he did as I think we would have gotten lost. He invited us back to his house where he made us coffee. All of this and he didn’t speak a word of English.

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