Komodo Trip Report
I took my first trip back to Asia in many years on September 14, 2016. I flew with Singapore Airlines and was extremely happy with the service. I flew Premium Economy from JFK to Denpasar Bali. I am a pretty big guy but flying Premium Economy made it manageable. I am roughly 6’5” and north of 300lbs. One of the main reasons I had not been back to Asia was the long flight. In total I was in transit about 36 hours.
Singapore Airlines took good care of me. The seat was really comfortable and the in-flight entertainment and food was really good.
I flew Garudu Airlines from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo and spent the night in the Jayakarta Suites Komodo-Flores; a fairly decent hotel that provided a pick up at the airport.
The crew of the Nusa Tara picked me up around 10 am and we boarded the ship shortly after that. Here is the website Grand Komodo
I can’t say enough about this company; a really great local operation. The Nusa Tara had three cabins with two bunks each. The cabins were small but efficient with a shower and a toilet in the cabin. The crew took really good care of us. There was plenty to eat, great dive guides and well-kept rooms. When we first got up in the morning coffee and toast was ready, we did our first dive, by the time we came back our rooms were made up and breakfast was ready. The day continued with diving, eating and resting. We did four dives a day including a night dive every night. Oh and when these guys say night dive they mean night dive. None of this diving at sunset, we boarded the dingy way past sundown and did real night dives.
We were supposed to do a check dive the same day we boarded but one of the guests was delayed and we could not leave the harbor till late so we motored into position for the next day of diving.
I am going to hit highlights instead of each individual dive or this will get way to long. Manta Alley and Taka Masar provided more mantas than I have ever seen in all my years of diving; groups of 2-4 mantas at time with a total of around 20-25 mantas between both dive sites.
Current City with ripping currents but more fish on one reef than I have ever seen before; Castle and Crystal rock close together were so full of life. There were sharks and huge schools of damsel fish just beyond belief.
We dove macro at night with Kris our lead guide pointing out one great macro shot after another. I have no idea how he found the stuff he did but it was one creature after another.
We went to see Komodo dragons in the wild from our boat and also on land on the island of Komodo. The ranger station there was a great stop on the last day after our last dives.
If I had to some this trip it would be to say; this was not a vacation it was an adventure.
Thank you Grand Komodo and the Crew of the Nusa Tara!
I took my first trip back to Asia in many years on September 14, 2016. I flew with Singapore Airlines and was extremely happy with the service. I flew Premium Economy from JFK to Denpasar Bali. I am a pretty big guy but flying Premium Economy made it manageable. I am roughly 6’5” and north of 300lbs. One of the main reasons I had not been back to Asia was the long flight. In total I was in transit about 36 hours.
Singapore Airlines took good care of me. The seat was really comfortable and the in-flight entertainment and food was really good.
I flew Garudu Airlines from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo and spent the night in the Jayakarta Suites Komodo-Flores; a fairly decent hotel that provided a pick up at the airport.
The crew of the Nusa Tara picked me up around 10 am and we boarded the ship shortly after that. Here is the website Grand Komodo
I can’t say enough about this company; a really great local operation. The Nusa Tara had three cabins with two bunks each. The cabins were small but efficient with a shower and a toilet in the cabin. The crew took really good care of us. There was plenty to eat, great dive guides and well-kept rooms. When we first got up in the morning coffee and toast was ready, we did our first dive, by the time we came back our rooms were made up and breakfast was ready. The day continued with diving, eating and resting. We did four dives a day including a night dive every night. Oh and when these guys say night dive they mean night dive. None of this diving at sunset, we boarded the dingy way past sundown and did real night dives.
We were supposed to do a check dive the same day we boarded but one of the guests was delayed and we could not leave the harbor till late so we motored into position for the next day of diving.
I am going to hit highlights instead of each individual dive or this will get way to long. Manta Alley and Taka Masar provided more mantas than I have ever seen in all my years of diving; groups of 2-4 mantas at time with a total of around 20-25 mantas between both dive sites.
Current City with ripping currents but more fish on one reef than I have ever seen before; Castle and Crystal rock close together were so full of life. There were sharks and huge schools of damsel fish just beyond belief.
We dove macro at night with Kris our lead guide pointing out one great macro shot after another. I have no idea how he found the stuff he did but it was one creature after another.
We went to see Komodo dragons in the wild from our boat and also on land on the island of Komodo. The ranger station there was a great stop on the last day after our last dives.
If I had to some this trip it would be to say; this was not a vacation it was an adventure.
Thank you Grand Komodo and the Crew of the Nusa Tara!
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