Indo, Let's Go

Remember those tear off stripes you found on campus bulletin boards and telephone polls? You know them, offering items like room for rent, guitar lessons, landscaping. Well, that is pretty close to how we ended up on a boat with 3 other families sailing through Eastern Indonesia.

What really happened was two ladies Amanda goes to the gym with and have children at Green School invited us at a school function. They had one extra room for a family, we wanted to see the Komodo Dragon, sure why not! Hope we like these people (we loved them).

We flew into Labuan Bajo, Flores Island, Indonesia to board our boat. Named Ciela she boast 4 cabins, a roof top deck ideal for sunset viewing, a family dining area, and most importantly kids could jump of her from anywhere! 20 feet down into the Flores Sea anytime we set anchor, yippee! All of the meals were included. The boat was perfect for our adventure, the food, eh, we ate it.

We all settled into our cabins, chilled the Bintangs and wine and set sail. The first evening was really to get us deep into the islands. Dinner was fun, kids were happy being up late, all good. Then the English Speaking guide rolls in to drop the itinerary for the next day.

Ok, we will depart at 5am. Uhm, clear throat, uhm, did you say 5am? Buzz kill. So much for that lovely sleep while swaying to the gentle ebb and flow of the sea.

4:50am hit and alarms bells start going off. We grog towards the coffee, whip up some toast and Nutella, drag children out of bed and step into our small boat which transports us to Padar Island. We were going to beat that sunrise! It was a tough hike, 20-30 minutes, straight up hill. As you near the midpoint of the hike the beauty of the island sets in. It was a half moon shaped island with multiple distinct bays. Pink sand in one, white in another, black in yet another. It was a magnificent view as daylight broke through. Up up we went to the top of the mountain. Right on queue a beautiful sunrise burst over the western islands. Stunning, worth the wake up.

After sunset the obligatory Indonesian vacation kicked in for everyone. Posing for Instagram. Forward stare, then hand on hip, maybe a gaze into the sunrise, peace sign – why not! Oh, is that drone above? Welcome to Indonesia, the un-ending Instagram pose capital of the world. Down we went then back to the boat.

Our next stop was Pink beach. Lyla has been talking about this beach for 6 months. It was pretty as advertised. The red corral slowly erodes and turns the sand a gorgeous pink. To the chagrin of our guide we shoveled some into a water bottle to bring home….he wasn’t that thrilled. The children snorkeled away over a bed of bright colored coral, schools of fish and crystal blue waters. The colors were so bright, you sensed how alive the ocean was.

Back to the boat we go! Oh, I forgot. More posing. This time crews sat on the beach with drones delivering Instagramable moments. Ya know…..slowly walk under the drone along the beach. Lie on your back while the drone races into the air. Arch your back and lift a knee while it comes barreling back to you. All to the calm sounds of the drone crew yelling “1-2-3; change pose” over and over again. It’s funny….guess I’m just old.

5am sunrise, Pink Beach, check, check, time to see the Komodo Dragons! We step off the boat onto Komodo National Park, form a line, grab a tour guide, off we go. Finally, we’re going to see the famous beast! Our nature tour quickly turned into an amusement park line. Walk a few feet, insert bad joke by the guide here, walk a few more. Build anticipation that we may not see the rare beast. “You’d be lucky if you do” quips the guide. “Perhaps you’ll see one in maybe 3 minutes” he teases. We look on with excitement, shall I say, we play along with excitement. 100 feet in front of us we can see the group ahead. They just boarded the ride at the amusement park, I mean, they are taking staged pictures of the Dragon. Who would have known we would find him there!?!?!

It was our groups turn, we queued for our Instagram photo. Translation, stand 15 feet behind the animal with your hands outstretched. The guide positions himself low to create the illusion that you are right behind the Komodo Dragon, hands pressed upon his back. Yup, did that one for about 15. Kind cheesy. Disneyland Dad jokes aside, it was cool to see a Komodo Dragon. Being so rare and so remote from home you begin to ponder if you’ll ever see another Komodo Dragon again? Makes you reflect a bit. Sure was an intriguing animal. It was also hot and time to get back to the boat, children were now unamused by the feared beast!

Heading towards dinner the fear started kicking in for Amanda and I. The big day on this boat was 3 – hour long scuba dives. Yup, 3 hours underwater, 50 feet below the surface. We have a total of 3 dives in our life, 2.5 years ago……we were nervous as(insert euphemism here).

The pre-dive discussion to review safety and our dive path ended with a simple question from our dive master Ardi. What are your goals for the day? In unison, Amanda and I blurt “to make it back to this boat.” Panic was kicking in.

Gear on, breathing test, equipment test, time for our first dive. Siaba Basar we go. Ok, we’re at the edge of the boat, grasp your weight belt with one arm, mask and breathing apparatus with the other, big step and into the sea. The dive was 50 minutes or the first person to have 60 bars of oxygen remaining. For Amanda and I it went something like this:

• Ok, am I breathing, is this working?
• Don’t forget to depressurize your ears?
• Am I breathing, what if I stop breathing?
• Where’s Amanda / Where’s Shaun / Where’s the instructor?
• Time to descend. Why does everyone else look so cool? I’m spinning end over end like an astronaut in space!
• Check air, shit, I am burning through air……
• Is there water in my mask? Blow the water out, ugh.
• It’s only been six minutes?
• Uh oh, too much air in the BCD, I’m floating to the top……I can’t get down, is this supposed to be fun?
• Oh, pretty fish – pretty corral
• Where’s Amanda? Ha, her turn to randomly float to the surface, bye babe!
• Take some videos on the GoPro, that will calm you down – nope
• Breathe, just like your doing Headspace

That cycle continued until our favorite part. Ardi signaled the dive was over and we floated to our safety zone, 5 meters deep for 3 minutes, to ensure our lungs and heads wouldn’t explode by coming up too fast. Boarding the boat we exchanged a loving look that expressed, “love you, we did it, do we really need to do the next two dives, champagne time.”

To the experienced divers in our group the second dive was well, lame. Called Makassar – aka Manta Point, it was a barren dive with a swift current. No manta, nothing to see here folks! We saw no manta rays. Amanda and I didn’t care, we finally felt the panic leaving our body. The strong current pushed us along and we focused simply on slowing down our breath, drifting horizontal, using our deep breath in to lift us up, exhale to lower you down. We needed that dive, we remembered how too scuba and the panic left us.

Dive 3 was Batu Bolong. Ardi claims it will be like an aquarium for 60 minutes. “Whatever Ardi,” I think, just get us back on the boat. Gear on, safety check complete, into the sea. When the bubbles clear, Ardi was right! For an hour we drifted along a rock wall alive with coral, fish, lobster, sea grass, colors and more colors. It was stunning! Through a crevice amazing, glance out to the deep and watch a large school of fish amazing, ascend and feel the warmth of the sun while it lights up the sea amazing. It was a world class dive, we loved it.

The final day was spent jumping off the boat, snorkeling around, hiking into a hill and diving into a dark pool of water in a cave (totally normal). I can go on for hours about things but it was the people that mattered most.

We joined this boat with people we didn’t really know. Heck, we were introducing ourselves to some of them as we arrived at the airport! You pronounce it………not an uncommon phrase for us. We left with friends. Michael and Thomas played guitar, Alberto delivered amazing underwater photos, Natasha and Marina told tales of the mother land and corrected our terrible Russian, Anchi was fabulous and the kids all got along so well. Our hodgepodge group become fast friends and we’re forever grateful for that.

I guess sometimes you just need to tear off the strip of paper and take that guitar lesson, rent that room, try that landscaper or say yes to that boat adventure!