Our second day at sea began before dawn at 4:30am. We boarded our dingy boat in the dark of what was still night and stealthily rode past other liveaboard boats (some still not awake yet) towards the shores of Padar Island. Padar Island is home to the viewpoint that, besides the dragons themselves, defines the Komodo Islands. We hiked up the seemingly endless set of large stone steps to the highest viewpoint on the island. The darkness obscured the views as we hiked but we could already tell that they would be epic when the sun finally rose and revealed them. 

We found a nice spot at the top on a large rock and waited for the sun to rise. The whole sequence was beautiful – from the pre-rise bright sky illuminating the boats dotting the bay below to the sun peering above the islands in the distance against a burnt orange sky. With the sun risen, the views were now clear and visible all around. It’s easy to see why this island is famous – the views are incredible and it feels like you’re looking at a post-card. We were lucky with the weather and visibility when we were there. We spent the whole walk back down to the beach admiring the neon green undulated peninsulas rolling out into the water like the branches of a tree. At times, we had to navigate groups of people waiting to take the perfect picture at the famous viewpoints. Back down at the beach, we marveled at the few deer that live on the island foraging on the beach – very different from the landscapes we’re used to seeing deer roam back home in the suburbs of Chicago. 

Already a full morning under our belts, we enjoyed breakfast accompanied by coffee and settled into another nice cruise to our next stop, Komodo National Park, where we would hopefully see the dragons. The cruise was peaceful and beautiful as always – we passed the time by chatting with one of our friends from the Embassy about life back home in Alaska where she was from and covering our bodies with a towel to avoid the sun burn.

For how much we built up seeing the Komodo dragons in our head, the stop at Komodo Island was not one of our favorites on the itinerary. We were told we were going on an hour long guided hike around the island with one of the National Park rangers (the only way to visit is to be accompanied by a ranger). We saw a smaller Komodo dragon a few minutes into the hike and it’s methodical movements and long slithery tongue were super cool to watch! This was probably the highlight of our time on Komodo island. From there, we learned a few interesting facts about Komodo dragons, including that they only eat once a month, and proceeded on a brisk 20 minute jungle walk until we were back on the shores again (well short of the hour we were promised). When back on shore, we spotted another humongous Komodo dragon laying on the beach looking very docile and barely moving. The dragon had a number people surrounding it posing for photos – it all looked and felt wrong to us for some reason. The guides said the dragon had just eaten and wasn’t moving because it was digesting its food. The skeptical side of us thinks maybe they always keep one fed near shore to keep visitors happy since it’s pretty rare to see them naturally on land (we were lucky to see the smaller one on our jungle walk). 

 Unlike Komodo Island, our expectations for our next stop, one of the two pink beaches, were lower. The beaches get their name from the red coral in the sea that breaks down and washes on shore giving the beach sand a pink hue. We had heard that the beaches are not as pink as they appear on heavily edited social media pictures. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find that the beach did in fact have a nice pink hue (maybe managed expectations helped), particularly when the waves receded back into the sea. The layers of slightly pink sand, light blue shallow water, dark blue deeper water, and neon green islands in the distance made for a really neat backdrop. The beach was also very small and secluded with barely anyone outside our group there. We really enjoyed this stop and spent some time walking and admiring the beach and doing some snorkeling which again wowed us with what we saw (including clown fish swimming in sea anemone!). 

Continuing our activity-filled day, our next stop after lunch was at Manta Point, a section of the Flores sea where groups of mantarays circle in search of food. We loaded up the dingy boat with our snorkel gear and headed towards a patch of dark blue water where other dingy boats and groups of snorkelers were circling. Panji spotted some mantarays in the water soon after we arrived and told us all to jump right in. We were a little disheveled from the sudden entry, but once we regained our composure and looked towards the sea floor we saw two mantarays. It was a little nerve-racking at first watching the mantarays make their graceful wave-like movements as they effortlessly flapped through the water with their stingers trailing. Although it didn’t seem like they were moving fast, and despite our best efforts to follow them, within 30 seconds they were out of our sights towards some darker invisible patch. Panji was able to spot a few more from the dingy boat after a more involved search and again we swam with them until they quickly disappeared. 

As if swimming with the mantarays weren’t awesome enough, instead of hopping right back in the dingy boat and heading back to the Elbark we let the strong current carry us up a spectacular ridge line of coral reef under water for more snorkeling. This was perhaps the best snorkeling we experienced on the trip – large schools of colorful fish swimming above more vibrantly colored coral. We just floated on top of the water with a birds eye view of the reef and fish below as the current carried us towards the boat. 

Our last stop of the day was catching the sunset at Taka Makkasar – a tiny island near Manta point that was really more of a glorified sandbar with nothing but a flagpole boasting the Indonesian flag to mark its presence. While most other stops we made during our three day liveaboard were well attended, we basically had Taka Makkasar to ourselves at sunset (shoutout to Panji and the crew for thoughtful planning). The sunset wasn’t the most colorful, but it did provide a darker, more ominous shade of light that made for a beautiful contrast against the clear and shallow blue water surrounding the island. Jessie spent a few minutes playing a makeshift game of soccer with Joshua, the German couple’s 6-year old son, that seemed rigged in his favor from the start but was still fun. Then, we both enjoyed a romantic stroll around the small island to soak in the moment.

One final surprise of the evening on our way up the stairs to bed was the clear black sky lit up with a blanket of stars unlike anything we had seen before. Unfortunately, those things never photograph well with our amateur photography skills and iPhones, but then again some things are better kept in memory.