A Retrospective on Impossibly Magnificent Waterfalls, Man-Eating Dragons, and Shark Encounters.
Well, the whole trip (minus the spearfishing bust) was tremendous, but the last leg may have been my favorite. Here is a photo journey from the adventures of our last 3 days in Indonesia, specifically in Labuan Bajo and Komodo, including the following adventures:
1. We visited a real version Olmec’s Temple and it blew our minds. No joke, this waterfall is 300 ft high and 120 ft deep in the middle of the pool. To get there, we had to:
A) Ride 90 minutes on a nearly flat-tired scooter including 30 minutes on what a trip advisor contributor mentioned as a “pretty bad road” but in reality was “the worst road ever” and veritably looked as though it had been blown up by TNT just hours before our arrival as well as every day before that, since forever. I cried and got off the scooter twice.
B) Put our lives in the hands of a stranger named Nico who said he’d be our Guide for $7 – the advice doesn’t lie when it tells you that if you want to go to the waterfall you have to get a guide and to not worry because they’ll just pop out of the bushes on the Death Road and find you. That’s exactly what happened. Nico ended up being the coolest (he ripped an entire pack of cigs on the hike there and back and called Kevin Big Papi the whole time and wanted a lot of pictures with him) and he and his family were amazingly kind and helpful to us. Their family and their neighbors have almost nothing, which was a little hard to take in as a privileged-as-you-can-get tourist who is just popping by. Despite this, they have a lot of love and are warm community, incredibly welcoming to hokey sightseers like us and rearers of enchanting kids – they were all so polite and curious and adorable. There was one little shit who inexplicably glared at us on our way out and attempted to punch me in the arm (Kevin sped up just in time) but I suppose every neighborhood has their Scud-Farkus-in-the-Making.
C) Hike in 2 miles on a dusty, hot-as-dang road until we got to the actual jungle and then hike in more 1.5 miles, basically straight downhill (super fun going up on the out hike…) where you cannot see anything around you except for mosquitos the size of grapefruits.
This was all rewarded, though, because once the jungle opens up, the waterfall is preceded by an obscenely beautiful jungle farm and rice-paddy in the middle of truly nowhere that is shepherded by just a few families who live in huts surrounding the area and who offer you fresh coconuts and coffee (boiled water on a fire with coffee grinds poured in… legit) when you walk through, and then the WATERFALL. One of the more insane, surreal, and magical things I have ever seen in my life. If you can imagine a tropical jungle waterfall in the middle of nowhere that is the most mystical treasure that you could ever behold, this is it. And you get to swim in it! Wildly cold, and you cant swim directly under the waterfall because it might suck you in under the cave and then you die, but glorious, regardless. Few people actually get back to see it because it’s pretty hard to get to and Labuan Bajo, already 30 miles away, is just starting to make a name for itself on the tourist map, and it felt pretty amazing to take in something this amazing all by ourselves. Nature is sweet, guys.
2. We went to Komodo National park, where we had the unforgettable experience of seeing – and posing inches away from at the command of our tour ranger – Komodo Dragons. These things are unreal. Up to 200 lbs and 10 feet long, capable of paralyzing and killing large game (and humans!) with one bite. Yet the ones we saw, except for an amazingly active and wiley one in the woods – preferred to spend their days sunning themselves and accommodating photo ops with tourists like ourselves. Despite how dangerous these lizards can be, the guides march you around only carrying a 5-foot stick with a “Y” at the end to fend off any lizard attacks, and they gleefully encourage you to stand a foot away from them so they can take 75 pictures of you. Our guide was not only hilarious and super smart, he called Kevin and me his “most lucky group ever” namely because we saw 3 rogue lizards outside of the ones that everyone saw and one lizard actually yawned for like 5 seconds when our guide was taking Kevin’s photo, giving him the most amazing photo op of all time. He said he’s never even seen that happen before. Padar Island, also part of Komodo National Park, was beyond gorgeous and now we have a Padar selfie after short but brutal hike.
3. During our snorkeling stop to Manta Point, we didn’t see any Mantas but we did see two 100 lb-ish fish that swam right next to us, three green turtles, and, wait for it.. a M-F-ing 8 FOOT SHARK. We don’t have any pictures of me swimming next to the giant 100 lb fish because I was all like “cool let’s go take pics!” and then when I dove down to swim under them I swam right over an effing shark instead that was headed the other way. I remained exceptionally calm, swam back up, tapped Kevin on the shoulder, said “I don’t know what kind but I saw a shark and I’m upset and I’m swimming back Immediately” and then I left kevin in the dust because I’m a horrible person and swam back to the boat. When we told them that we saw a shark it was not the greatest sign when they stopped laughing, said “um where?” And then would only talk to each other in Indonesian for a few, but they did say after that that they think it was probably a Reef Shark from my description which was “it was grey and long and had some white on it and was 8 FEET LONG AND I COULD HAVE TOUCHED IT.” Yeah that or a Great White. I’m not an idiot now take me home.
Anyhow, pretty much the most adventure-filled trip of all time. Seeing as my stomach quit the trip 4 days before we did, I am somewhat happy to finally be home and also am newly amazed at what my digestive system is capable of. Enjoy the photos and go to Indonesia as soon as you can!