National park in Indonesia

Back in the days when Lonely planet was every travelers bible and I was at Lombook we flipped though the pages for ideas what to do the last day. A pink beach came up and also some scary dragons. It was a big fail of the plan since it was a two day boat trip to the Komodo national park. No airport existed at the island Flores and city of Lubujan Bajo which is the center for traveling to Komodo national park. The place became a bullet point at my travel wish list.

How to get to Komodo national park

The national park is now accessible from Lubajan Bajo where there are all kinds of different boats bring you out to the national park. Full day excursions is the most common way or staying overnight at basic boats. A full day tour cost around 100USD (Nov, 2023) and these tours leave from the Barbour early in the morning and bring you around to 4-6 stops during a full day in the park. I booked the day tour and I could feel that was enough for me this trip. I met some nice people and it was a mix of solo travelers like myself this time and couples. Not many families or Europeans.

Padar island

The first tour stop was one of the ones I have been looking a lot forward to. A hike to a stunning view point. It was also fantastic in real life. Such an amazing view and place. And not overcrowded by tourists. October is low season but dry so could be a contributing factor to that also. Hotels are though very booked out in Lubajan Bajo but there is also a shortage of accommodation so book in advance if you stay over there.

We had 1,5 hours to spend at the island and it was enough but if I have had unlimited time I could have stayed one more hour. I started with the top and worked myself down. It was steaming hot to walk up but the hike wasn’t difficult.

There was no shortage of beautiful spots to snap a photo at. Simply said it was a wow place comparable to Tai Mahajl.

Pink beach

After the hike it was beach time. Not any beach but a pink beach was the next stop. It is actually a part of Padan island and I saw it from the top. It is one of eight pink beaches in the world. I thought it would not really be pink and that most pictures would been photoshoped but it was really pink. Fantastic. Had to google where the pink color came from and obviously it is some microscopic animals that product red pigment at the coral reefs.

Swimming to a sandbank

After the beach we settled off to open water for snorkeling and we saw some huge flat fishes from the boat. When they were gone I also jumped in for swimming to a sandbank and back. There were quite many people from the tour that didn’t know how to swim so they stayed on the boat. They really missed out something though and the water was amazing.

The lost island

The very last stop of the day was the least exciting also. Quite close to Lubajo Bajo we stopped by at an island which used to be a resort island but now the resort was left to its destiny and it was very surreal to walk around there to see the place which more or less looked like someone just looked the door to and walked out from. Beach bungalows where remains of sun chairs was standing on the terraces and a restaurant where now some entrepreneurial locals were selling water and crackers at. Strange place opening up for a lot of thoughts when I was sitting there on a beach swing at the last beach of the day.

Komodo national park was worth the wait to be explored. Before covid it was less commercialized but still it felt under buildup for becoming a tourist trap so now is a good time to go. Looks like a place worth visiting, right?

/ Pernilla that love to explore nice places in the world