July 25 - Final foreign Day of the Trip

The funnel waterfall in The Jewel.

Our transport to Tokyo.

July 25 Day 161

                We got up super early and went to find a cab.  The stand was empty but along the adjoining street came several and we were soon on our way to the airport.  The roads were fairly clear and we made the short drive quickly.

                We got ourselves checked in easily and quickly and so were able to cross the street to visit The Jewel, recommended by a friend.  It was a large round building full of shops but at its centre was an area with plants and stadium seating around a huge, tubular waterfall.  You could see the sky through the ceiling and shuttle trains quietly came and went well above where we were.  A few people were sitting there in the pre-sunrise quiet and the space was really quite something.

                We explored by going down, which had shops and a food court for several stories around the clear tube that the water was draining into.  A few people were sitting around it and it was definitely worth the visit.

                Back at the main terminal, there was lots of space and cool sculptures all over the place.  Many of the shops were actually open at this early hour and we managed to find a non-international chain store that sold amazing stuffed pastries and excellent coffee.  As the sun rose, we explored an open cactus garden with names and facts throughout and then headed to our gate.

                Our trip had a 7 hour flight connecting to a 9 hour one.  We had the same video system on both flights and quickly got through the films we wanted to see, followed by vaguely interesting ones and finally the leftovers we had never heard of. (The Guilty was the definite find on the system.)

                We transferred in Tokyo and had time to walk around the airport.  Meg got intrigued when we saw “showers” on a map of the airport so we followed the hallway to them.  They weren’t just showers, for about $20 we could rent a room for an hour.  Desperately needing naps, we signed up and had a nice rest, with Meg getting her shower to boot, a great service.

                We got our wake up call on time and made our connector, where the movies really stated to run out, as did our tolerance for being on a plane.  One interesting side effect was that we crossed the international date line the other way and landed before we took off.

                Elaine was there to meet us and we were well taken care of in British Columbia, visiting relatives with a loose timeline to accommodate our accumulated jetlag and exhaustion.  After a fine week there, we returned to Toronto to find the house and car in great shape and our cat tolerating our presence.

                The trip was great and left us lots to process in the months to come.  We hope to integrate many of the things we leaned and to not just fall back into the ruts we left behind.  The problem is, once you plug back into your lifer you tend to fall into the same patterns, be they positive or negative.  As of the end of September, we have both kept off the weight we lost on the trip but haven’t created the time for regular meditation that we’d planned to.  We have gotten rid of many things from the house but only time will tell if we start to accumulate them again.  Meg has been good about eating vegetarian but until she gets into a regular work schedule it’s hard to see how we’re going to change the way we’re living.  At least we’ve received lots of inspiration and motivation to do so.  

July 24 - Giant glowing trees

Giant waterfall in the rainforest dome.

The walking platforms in the rainforest dome.

The trees and crowd just before the show.

July 24 Day 160

                We got up in the rain and decided to try our breakfast coupons at the second place.  This spot was right in the metro station, a 2 minute walk from us.  This place had minimal food for their coupons, the boiled egg was just that, no toast or anything.  It was so unsatisfactory that we took our remaining coupons and had a second, and superior, breakfast at the place we went the day before.

                Meg wanted the morning off and I was planning on going to the botanical gardens but it rained heavily for most of the a.m. so we both had some down time.  We talked to the woman who had to clean the rooms and found that she was aware of some of the problems with the Vietnamese women but didn’t know about the durian.  She checked a bag of produce that they had left on the shoe rack ,pronounced it liquefied and tossed it.

                Before heading out to the Gardens By The Bay, we decided to try some proper hawker food and one of the best places was supposed to be close to us.  We expected to see stands on crowded squares of streets, but these hawkers had been organized into a big mall with a plaque explaining its existence.  It was essentially a very large food hall and each stall had a fairly large menu rather than the “one thing done to excellence” that you associate with hawker stalls (like in Thailand).  Meg and I each picked a place that had a line and a “Best of Singapore” award but we were both unimpressed with our selections.  The food hall by the museum remained superior.

                We got onto the subway and were soon at the correct station.  It was a longish walk to the Gardens but it took us through some parkland, including a lake with giant dragonfly sculptures.  Along the way we went by a Chinese and Indian garden and stopped to have our pictures taken with the supertrees.  These are huge, treelike frames with plants growing up them.  Later we found out that they were vents for the subway but their shape and scale make them to be quite surreal.

                The outside gardens were impressive and free, but the two domes were the real draw.  Considering how much effort must have gone into them, they weren't particularly expensive.  As a bonus, we had a “free prize” coupon from one of our tourist pamphlets that was a pack of postcards.

                The first structure we went into was the flower one.  It was huge and very crowded.  We went to the desert area because it was full of succulents and less full of people.  They had Alice in Wonderland statues throughout the display, titled using a pun that I forget.  All the plants were healthy, many of them were odd and there were tidbits of information here and there.

                We went through an olive grove, a Mediterranean garden, a Winnie-the pooh themed sculpture area and a few other groves.  The centre area was packed and that’s where the orchids were.  They had them growing individually, in shapes, in clusters shaped like fireworks and in all colours.  People were posing for pictures and expecting the people in the crowded path not to walk in front of them.  It was busy and too crowded but the orchids were nice.

                We took a break at an overpriced coffee shop and sat outside for a bit.  A popular jogging trail ran by the gardens for people were always dashing by.

                We saved the rainforest  xx fr last and made the right decision.  The main entry hall has a high waterfall spilling over a gigantically tall frame covered with plants and with wild wooden statues of monkeys spread throughout the foliage.  Both of  the domes had these elaborate and fun statues spread throughout them, sometimes obvious and sometimes tucked in amongst the plants.

                We showed up just at the watering time, which meant that we walked through a fine mist as we went up the ramp around the huge plant mountain.  The path took us into a huge open area with ramps overhead and a line to wait in.  This was the elevator line, which took you up about 8 stories to the northern rainforest area that you could work your way down from.  It moved fairly quickly and in less than 10 minutes we found ourselves at the top.

                This area had high altitude or cold climate rainforest plants including a nice assortment of insect eaters.  We noticed that many negligent parents were present as there was a boy handing plants clearly marked “do not touch” and his parents were doing the blind eye thing.

                As you headed down you walked out over three ramps at differing heights that gave amazing views of both below and the incredible plant mountain in the enclosure.  As you came down, you had opportunities to poke your head out behind the waterfall or go through a display of stalactites and cut stones.  The scale and setup of the place was truly impressive.

                As you got lower you were funneled into an environmental display area which had funky multimedia presentations but really simplistic messages.  The same for the gigantic theatre, which had a huge screen but an earnest, corporate feeling environmental message.

                More interesting was that on the way out you went through the large secret garden.  This included very primitive plants, endangered ones and others that were hard to find.  Scattered along the path were tiny orchids with magnifying glasses attached to the railing to let you fully see them.  There were descriptions all along the path and several large sculptures at the end perfect fr the selfie crowd.

                Emerging from the secret garden we walked around the pavilion for a bit, taking in its hugeness and looking at some of the plants we missed.  In both places, we got re-entry stamps that we ended up not using, but it was nice to have them. 

                Leaving the are, we took about a 10 minute walk down the waterside jogging path to Satay by the Bay, a pricier hawker area pretty much solely serving park patrons.  The selection was large ,but not nearly so much as our lunch place.  The food, however, was excellent and my stay and baked chicken/ vegetable bowl were both really good.  Beer was on offer, but it was overpriced even for Singapore so we stuck to juice.  Behind us were a table of business people and Meg noticed how the women in the group fed the men and wondered how sexist the culture was if you lived here.

                We walked back through the free area of the park, waiting for the sun to set and the sound and light show to begin.  We went by a lake, some smaller (but still huge) giant trees, a mushroom garden, a trimmed garden, a primitive garden and a statue of a giant floating baby.  We then followed the hordes down to a patch of grass close to the giant trees to grab a spot for the show.  As it got dark we watched the people climb on the ramps up in the trees and wondered why they’d want to come down from their perch (which they paid extra for) just before the show.

                The show was quite something.  It happens twice a night and we got the impression that they had a wide series of shows from the way they presented the one we were at.  We saw the waltz program which started with ominous Carmina Burana pieces and ended with a Cancan.  Throughout, the trees were flashing with light and projections in time to the music, which was edited seamlessly from piece to piece.  You got the impression that whoever programmed it had a lot of fun doing so.  Other than a sobbing baby who was taken away soon into the program, everyone seemed to enjoy it and seeing something of that scale outdoors on a warm night was excellent.

                The walk back was crowded with people and not well signed, so we toured around the gardens a bit before heading back towards the subway.  Most people crossed a pedestrian bridge to try and catch a nearby show which  had just started but from where we were you could only see bits flash through as we were on the wrong side of the buildings.  We had to get packed and ready for tomorrow, so back we went to the station.

                The line for tickets was long and we seemed to be the only ones who saw a sign indicating that there were more machines 100m away at the other end of the station.  We walked to these and encountered no line up at all.

                Getting back to our place was a snap by now and we didn’t have any loud neighbours, which was a bonus.  We packed our stuff in a foreign country for the last time and slept well in preparation for the longest travel day of our trip.

July 23 - Museums and the Heart of Singapore

July 23 Day 159

            

A very interesting statue downtown.

The merlion fountain.

Singapore slings at their birthplace.

    We got up and headed out to find breakfast.  Our hostel gave us 2 breakfast passes for each day for two places so we went to the one that was further away (a 5 minute walk) but had more interesting choices.  We had the Singapore breakfast, which was similar to an Indonesian one, with rice and packets full of oily sauce, nuts and dried fish.  Along with one of their coffees, it was pretty good.

                The breakfast place was on the hawker food street, which our guidebook said to avoid, but was nicely set up with an elevated roof for rain protection and lots of seats on the pedestrian street.

                We went back to our room, freshened up and then went down to try out the Singapore subway system.  We weren’t going to take enough trips to make the daily pass worthwhile so we got single fare cards, which could be recharged and used up to 6 times.  About every 3 times you used it you got a 10 cent discount but you were still bound to the machines.

                We got to the stop close to the national museum and were trying to orient ourselves outside when someone stopped and helped us out.  We found this to be a pattern in Singapore, if you were checking a map or closely examining street signs someone would stop and actually give you real advice to send you on your way.  We were used to being in countries where if you asked for help people were friendly and told you something but would consider it rude to say they didn’t know a place, so the advice was often more random than helpful.

                We arrived at the museum just before the afternoon tour and so waited around a little while until it started.  The woman who gave us the tour was amazing, covering hundreds of years of the area’s history in a little over an hour.  From Raffles advocating for the city to become a major port to the Japanese invasion to the unsuccessful joining with Malaysia, we got it all in brief.  The displays were clearly set up with many fun multimedia areas and detailed text for people more interested in specific topics.

                Singapore walks many lines, politically.  Only one party has been in power since independence and the first president was a labour lawyer who stayed in power for decades.  You’d think that this would make the country what we consider leftist but the government brought business to the area by allowing them to operate tax free.  They have the death penalty and famously strict laws (jaywalking and gum chewing among them) but have crated a huge amount of social housing for residents.  This housing was also intentionally racially mixed to help combat racism.  It’s an interesting place.

                After the tour we went back to the mall by the subway to get lunch at a food hall.  The place we picked had surprisingly delicious lunches with all you can imbibe drinks and ice cream, so we pigged out.

                Back at the museum we revisited the history galleries that we had toured and found that our guide truly was excellent, most of the interesting stuff was on the tour.   On the top floor was a history of unions in Singapore which was presented as huge amounts of texts covering every year since independence, a bit much for anyone not immersed in Singapore unions history.

                Much nicer was a spiral walkway that led down to the main floor which had a seamless digital display of plants and awkward digital animals moving through various ecosystems as you waked the corkscrew path to the bottom.  Once there, you could stare up at the ceiling and walls in the core and see digital flowers falling to the ground around an don you.  People were lying on the floor taking it all in and at least one person seemed to be asleep.

                Back on the top floor were a series of rhythmically swinging chandeliers and a cluster of rooms covering each decade of Singapore’s independence.  Outside of these rooms were several engaged couples using the building to get their pictures taken and dodging school groups and tourists.  The rooms were all set up well with the highlights being an amazing three-level zoetrope of athletes lighting the olympic torch and a bunch of cars modified into couches in a simulated drive-in theatre showing old tourist promos for the city.

                On the way out was a display on packaging which wasn’t as interesting as I was hoping.  This is where I met up with Meg, who had gotten in trouble for napping in a rest area and was dodging the museum staff who caught her.

                We had researched Jakarta city tours before leaving our room and found most of them to be ridiculous ($90 per person was about average) except for one that operated on tips.  We showed up early because of eh subway’s efficiency and hung out in a nearly deserted mall to kill time.  While looking at a map on a food hall table a woman came over and gave us a 15 minute overview of everything we should check out in the city, another example of the local attitude.

                We met up with our group and guide and started a simple walking tour.  The group really was from everywhere and several people had been on a previous tour with the organization, which was a good sign.  Our guide was approachable, organized and spoke clearly, all of which was good.  He used his tablet to show historical pictures of what the city used to look like and pointed out historic buildings and modern landmarks.  We spent a long time in a fancy hotel sending postcards and a few other places, but he went over the stated time so that meant we didn’t miss anything. 

                We saw statues of famous Singaporeans and the fountain of the merlion spouting water from its mouth.  There was a concert hall that looked like a durian and colonial buildings in such perfect shape we figured they had to have been newly redone for their upcoming 200^th anniversary.

                Our last stop was in the old parliament chambers where he explained the government and answered questions.  Here we found out that to avoid traffic problems most cars are taxed to cost over $100,000 plus a hugely expensive ten year permit.  This policy, combined with the creation of a fast and efficient transport system, is why Singapore’s roads aren’t congested.

                We thanked our guide and Meg took note of the portable PA system he used for her own purposes as a frequent Toronto tour guide.  We noticed that we were close to the Raffles Hotel and so headed up in that direction.  Along the way we met our guide and one of the female participants and wondered if she had participated as a friend or if the guide got lucky.

                Raffles Hotel has to be one of the most expensive in town but was under renovation while we were there.  We could look in, and the grounds did look really nice.  The bar was open but our guide warned us that it was extremely overpriced and named a more affordable bar that had just as good drinks.  We decided that we would splurge anyway.

                The Raffles bar is famous for having the first long bar (the length of a large room) and for the creation of the Singapore Sling.  This drink was made for the ladies, so that they could appear to be enjoying a fruit juice while actually getting sozzled.

                The bar was nice enough but not amazing.  It was renovated first but the upstairs bit was not yet open.  We sat at the bar and ordered our overpriced drinks, mine the classic sling and Meg the virgin one.  In front of us was a huge bag of peanuts in the shell and you were encouraged to toss the shells on the floor.  The staff were very attentive and the manager came over and chatted with us for a bit, which was a nice touch.  On the ceiling were a series of hand fans that moved back and forth.  We were told that they used to operated by staff members but now were hooked to a machine.  The drinks were excellent, with the virgin one having a tasty but different flavour from the classic and we stretched out our time there to crunch lots of peanuts.

                On the way back we noticed a couple where she was in a form-hugging outfit and dressed really strikingly ad the guy looked like he rolled out of bed and threw on dirty and ill-fitting jeans and a t-shirt.  Meg has a whole rant about dolled-up women with scruffy guys.  Contact her if you want to hear it.

                The subway got us back quickly but it was late and we were tired after a busy day.  We settled for a very touristy restaurant close to our hostel that spread across 2 or 3 locations.  They had a special on whiskey and wine was reasonably priced but beer was very expensive everywhere in Singapore.  The food was unremarkable but filling.

                We went to bed hoping the Vietnamese girls would be better behaved tonight.  Things were fine until about 3 am when someone came in with luggage to join the group and we could smell from inside of our room that she brought a durian with her.  Fortunately the room quickly went back to sleep and so did we.

July 22 - Arriving in Singapore

July 22 Day 158

                                               

                                We got up, had breakfast and were initially worried that our drive wouldn’t be available as several other groups were leaving at the same time as us.  We got an English speaking driver we were familiar with and the airport was a really short trip.  On the way he told us that the world cup of boxing was going to have matches held in Labuan Bajo and that he was an enthusiast of the sport.

                The airport was new and well laid out.  We had to buy our flights separately even though they were on the same airline as when they were combined the website added $1000 to the charge.  The woman at our desk was able to check our bag on to Singapore so at least we didn’t have that to worry about.

                The flights connected in Bali and Jakarta, so it was a long day of airports.  At least they were generous with the food so that we were fairly stuffed when we landed in Singapore.

                Customs took awhile as they didn’t like that we filled out our cards in pencil so we had to redo them.  Next to us was a high tech security gate where everyone who went through had to give fingerprints on top of swiping their cards.

                We were late getting out so Meg lobbied to get a cab, which turned out to be a short ride for $25, so not ridiculous.  The cab had to drop us off a block away since we were staying on a pedestrian street in the heart of Chinatown.  The street was nicely lit and there was a Tintin shop on it, who knew?

                The hostel office was across the street from our room and was fortunately still open.  The woman who showed us in gave the spiel at an impossibly quick rate, probably her twentieth time doing it that day.  Our room was very simple, with a bunk bed and a shared washroom but it was one of the few affordable places we looked at in the city.

                Tired from our trip, we settled in and went to bed.  The only problem was that the dorm next to us had a bunch of very young Vietnamese women who came in late and were very loud.  Once they settled down we got back to sleep, though.

July 21 - Downtime in a strange town

July 21 Day 157

                After the boat trip we thought it was wise to leave an unplanned day before flying to Singapore and this was it.  Initially, the plan was to visit any area we missed on our boat trip or wanted to revisit but with the ground still swaying under our feet it was destined to be an unambitious day spent in the town of Lubuan Bajo.

                We had breakfast in the open hut by the kitchen and talked to an older guy with good English whose job it seemed to be keeping the students under control.  We then walked downtown and found that it was small and didn't go too much further than the restaurant where we ate the night before.  We had to turn right when we hit the harbour and saw stalls that probably hosted a night market but was quite inactive in the morning.

                We passed a graveyard that was a dumping ground for BBQ equipment and various garbage.  on the way back we stopped into a small church and talked to a woman there who Meg eventually donated her pencils to, groups of children looking for gifts had not been finding it.  Meg also speculated that the churches in town were quite boxy so as not to call attention to themselves in a Muslim country which has not always been friendly to Christian groups.

                We had no trouble finding our way back and settled in a cafe to do some work on the computer and take a break.  It was still having difficulty charging but we managed to get some stuff done.

                Walking back, we tried to locate a good restaurant mentioned in the guidebook but the town didn't match up with the Google map.  We found a better map at the closed tourist centre and managed to find the place on a quiet sideroad and get a reservation for dinner.  On the way back we had a solid lunch at a local place that had more staff than customers but was willing to revise their dishes to Meg's vegetarian specifications after going through three different staff members before getting one with enough English to understand "is there meat in this?".

                Back at the hotel, Meg napped while I tried to get stuff done.  A summer student was in reception instead of the guy who spoke English and  was trying to print to plane tickets I had e-mailed them.  He was spending a long time staring at them and seemed relieved when I asked to sit at the computer and try to figure it out.  The printed had a pile of papers on it as well as a fair layer of dust but made the right noises.  I had three flights to print out and managed to get the first two done when the printer ran out of paper and no one knew where more might be.  I put my other tickets in again to get two sided print outs but the printer couldn't handle the small picture that was on the e-mail and the e-mail wouldn't let me delete the picture so I gave up.  Printouts were often necessary at airport as security before entering the building required them and wouldn't let you get to the desk without them.  At least we would be alright in Indonesia.

                Back at the room we packed and relaxed until dinner time.  The restaurant was fancy and had a reputation of being one of the best around.  The food was very well presented and was very good up until dessert.  The desserts were fairly plain and the staff had trouble understanding what was wrong with Meg's cafe au lait when it was given to her sans coffee.  Considering how many staff were constantly walking through the place it took a long time to pay our bill as only one person worked the machines.  The first one didn't work and gave us the old wrong PIN error which we knew was the machine's fault. 

                Much of the restaurant was taken up with a large bar which could have been shrunk  to create more table space.  People were even eating in the group room on the side which still held a pile of furniture at one end.

                We had our lights with us for the dark walk back to our room.  We packed for our big travel day, ordered a nice early breakfast and went to bed.

The grounds of our hotel.

July 20 - A piece of paradise and then onto dry land.

July 20 Day 156

                I got up early and did my usual stubbing my toe and banging my head on the way to the bathroom.  Because of the low ceilings and sills on the floor, both of these things happened to the passengers on a daily basis.

                We had breakfast and then headed to our one major stop for the day.  This was a small island where we would snorkel and then land and enjoy the beach or hike to the top of a hill.  Like we did on the waterfall hike, we put our dry stuff in a box which was rowed over to the beach for a later pickup.

                The snorkeling was the best of the trip, with pink stingrays, clown loaches and a wide assortment of other fish in good quantities.  We walked around the nice beach which was on a narrow spit so there were two sandy strips facing in different directions.  We decided to put on our shoes and look at he hill but the path was very worn and people were slipping and crawling as they came down.  Our British friends were among them but said the view was worth the hassle so up we went.

                Going up was slippery so we wet slowly but they weren't kidding.  The water was all shades of blue around us and the setting of our small island surrounded by other ones with lots of white sand and lush vegetation.

                We carefully picked our way down the hill with many short slides and Meg sending time on her backside and getting help from our other boatmates who were going down with us.  We bypassed the souvenir stand although some of the komodo statues were pretty cool and put our dry stuff back into the box.

                We took our time snorkeling back to the boat and the colourful fish were still there.  We changed into our dry stuff back on the boat and started backing for the end of our trip.  We had lunch and were just about to head to port when the Romanian couple crawled out of the water.  They had been missed in our pre-lunch head count and might have been left behind if they had swum any longer.  They reported following some sharks and the crew made them a quick lunch as our regular one was completely devoured.

                n the way to port we organized a tip envelope for the crew and said our goodbyes.  Getting off the boat was tricky as we docked next to other boats and had to walk through narrow spaces on occupied ships to finally get out. 

                Meg was tired so we negotiated a cab to our hotel, which was probably for the best as it would have been a 20 minute walk.  The gardens were lush but the setup was strange with reception being in a little hut in the garden.  The place was huge with nice porches on all the rooms and we enjoyed a proper shower and airing out of our stuff after four days on our boat.  The internet didn't work in our room and you had to go to an open hut where the staff hung out to get it to work.  Our laptop was starting to get ornery as it wouldn't always take a charge when plugged in and was sitting at less than 20% power much of the time.  We also had a tv in the room but were told that the reason we couldn't get any reception on it was that it didn't work.

                After a rest we decided to explore the town and find somewhere to eat dinner.  We stopped by the kitchen, where they really wanted to know what time we would like breakfast.  They explained that they were training a bunch of students from the local high school and needed things to be organized.  This explained why we  didn't have any towels in our room and the woman who showed it to us and carried our bag would not accept a tip.  Almost comically on time, there was a loud crash in the kitchen as one of the trainees learned a loud lesson.

                Finally, one of the English speakers on staff showed us a shortcut from the hotel that took us down a dark alleyway and across a few lawns before hitting the road.  We had no map and followed our intuition to figure out which way was downtown and we turned out to be correct.

                The stores at the beginning of our walk were practical shops aimed at locals but gradually became more trinket/diving shop/ restaurant as we continued.  Someone had ripped off the town with cheap metal panels that covered gaps in the sidewalk but were bent, flimsy and in various states of destruction. 

                By the time we got to our restaurant everything was very touristy and we met our British friends.  They had booked a dive for the next day and had eaten at a local hotel that they said was okay.  We wished them well and went to our recommended place which had various dishes in trays that you could combine how you wanted.  We had no idea how long they had been out there but when they brought out a fresh tray of curry I grabbed that and everything was good.

                The food was nice if a little pricey for Indonesia and the juice we ordered took forever to get to us.  While we waited we watched cloud of mothy flies cluster around the streetlights and wagered whether the people stopping into the dive shops across the way would purchase a trip of not.

                Once our juice came it was delicious, heavy on the fruit, light on the water and sugar.  The walk back was warm and we took our time.  One side effect of having our boat trip was that for a solid week afterwards the room or street that we were on seemed to move like waves underneath us until our bodies adapted to being on land again.

                We found our shortcut back, being careful not to touch a stray, stripped wire that hung down in our way.  Back in the room we climbed into our bed that seemed to be moving like a lifeboat and floated off to sleep.

The view from the top of the hill.

We don't know why these were here, but they made for a good picture.

July 19 - Komodo dragons - drugged or not?

July 19 Day 155

                The boat was stopped when we got up and indeed, the remaining days were calm and no more seasickness was to be had.  Our guide suggested to us after breakfast that we could go to Komodo Island first, while the other boats were at the Pink Beach and beat the crowds.  This sounded like a good idea to us, so off we chugged.

                The island had a proper dock and we went to the receiving area, which had some rules, a big dragon statue, washrooms and other cabins and a large map of the area.  We had three guides with our group and had to decide whether to take the long, short or medium path.  We opted for the long, figuring that would maximize our chances of spotting the dragon.

                We walked along the path with guides at the front, rear and middle of our group.  The island was hot and arid with lots of brown grass and dust.  We were shown a komodo nest, which was a big mound of dirt.  We were told that upon hatching the dragons live in the trees for two years to keep from being eaten by their parents.

                The guide at the back kept going off the trail to look for dragons and we left the long path to go to a likely area but what we got was an hour long hike that was very hot but dragonless.  We saw some wild pigs running away from us and were told that they had been brought to the island as dragon food, lucky them.

                As we came back to the park area we walked by two deer who just looked at us even though we were only a few metres away from them, making us wonder if there was something wrong with them.  Beside the main cafe were two dragons and speculation was that they were drugged and kept close to services do that tourists could be sure of at least seeing something and then spend their money on overpriced food.  They were pretty sluggish but the guides stayed between the tourists and the beasts.  Not having seen them in the wild, it was hard to tell how sluggish they were compared to normal but their location was awfully suspect.

                We walked back through the gauntlet of souvenir vendors and made it back to our boat, disappointed but safe.  We headed back to the pink beach which our sister ships had left but others were exploring.  Our guide pointed us in the direction of he best snorkeling and said that we could walk along the beach if we wanted to.  The snorkeling was good, with the highlight being a cluster of rainbow parrot fish and the beach was nice but unspectacular.  The pink colour was subtle, nowhere near as impressive as PEI beaches.

                After docking in the area for a bit we headed out in late afternoon to XX Island, which was famous for its sunset views.  Our transfer to the beach was slow as our boat could only do 4 people at a time but other boats helped once they landed their own passengers.  We saw deer walking along this beach as well and they also let us come close to us as they munched on discarded coconuts and other organic waste.

                The path up the hill started off very well set with clear steps and the occasional platform to view the surroundings.  We stopped off just before the path got rougher on a high platform with and almost 360 degree view of the area.  people coming down from the higher perch told us that it was slightly obstructed and we had the better view anyway, which consoled us.

                The view was quite spectacular.  The strangely shaped island allowed you to see three bays of varying hues of white and blue with the cloudy setting sun behind.  The air was clear and cool and it was a spectacular place with lots of space for everyone from the various ships to stake a decent place.  We hung out and chatted with the two British guys and took some nice pictures.  The only drawback was that the German-New Zealand contingent from our boat with the visible buttocks sat next to us with their Bluetooth and chainsmoked, but we didn't let it ruin the moment.

                We went back down before it got too dark and met the woman I had spoken to on the boat in rough seas the day before.  She and Meg hit it off immediately and Meg gave her extensive career advice that she seemed to appreciate.

                We walked by the docile deer and waited our turn to be shuttled back to the boat.  After such a busy day the dinner feeding frenzy was more voracious than normal and little was left.  This might also have been due to the fact that no one was seasick and everyone was eating.  We compared notes for the day and it turned out our boat had made the wrong decision as the others had seen several dragons on their hikes after we had left the island.  Oh well.

                We went to bed at a decent time, as fatigue not sickness guided the decision.  There was no motor to drown out the people on the open deck but our earbuds worked wonders and we slept well once again.

Meg greets the symbolic dragon.

I bravely crouch in the vicinity of a real one.

The three bays, count 'em!