As we will soon enter into our third month of air pollution in Kuala Lumpur there had never been a better time to escape this place for somewhere hopefully less polluted. We were nervous and hopeful as we landed in Labuan Bajo airport to discover that this part of Indonesia was also blanketed in thick grey smog. I thought I may cry with disappointment. Thankfully, after our first day that sweet sweet clear air arrived and we had green AQI levels for the rest of our holiday. Landing back in KL today to a continuing grey backdrop, itchy skin and burning eyes  has left me even more appreciative of the experience we just had in Flores.

We stayed at Ayana, Komodo Island on Labuan Bajo. This hotel was by far the fanciest place we’ve ever stayed. Parents calling their children were shouting ‘Artemis’, ‘Eli’ and ‘Bartholemew”, and there were actually life guards at the pool. The room was beautiful with an amazing sea view, the facilities were great and the whole ambience was very friendly and relaxing. Despite there being a lot of families around it was quiet and relaxed. The pier down to the house reef was where I saw my first two ever octopuses, who were holding tentacles and swimming along in broad daylight (very unusual). I thought I was going to have a heart attack with excitement as I have a great fondness for octopuses and I have never managed to see one in real life. I never saw them again after that pier sighting but it really made my entire holiday. I wish them well in their relationship and lives.

A great thing about this hotel was that they do free stuff. Free hiking, yoga, boxing, kid’s activities and a free boat trip to a small island. We went twice as the coral was top notch over there.

So, of course, the real reason we were in Labuan Bajo was to see the Komodo dragons in real life. They really fascinate me and so we took a day trip to Komodo island to find some. Now, we were there in low season and I will be honest, the queue for the boats in the morning filled me with dread. We had to get up at 5.30am and our boat didn’t leave until 8am after all the faffing. We were all fed up and I was worried that we would leave the day feeling upset about over tourism on Komodo and with another thing to add to the list of things to be angry about. However, it wasn’t actually busy in any of the places we went and they do limit the number of people allowed on the islands each day. The fee to enter is 400,000 rupiah which is quite expensive but if the money is preserving the nature then fine.

First stop, Pulau Padar. If you have ever Googled Komodo you’ll have seen this view. Supposedly 800+ steps but it really didn’t feel like that. It was an easy climb and even Ayla did it and she is 4 and notoriously fickle about walking.

Absolutely beautiful. 10/10 and we saw some cute deer.

Next stop was Pink Beach. Genuinely pink due to the coral. It was a pretty great beach. I thought it would be a disappointment and something over hyped by photo editing but it was beautiful.

Next we went to see the legendary Komodo dragons. The people living in the villages are extremely poor and it was really eye opening to see the level of rubbish and just unhygienic conditions that they are living in. Their only income is tourism and they literally live in a shared space with dinosaurs so it is all a bit of an interesting situation. The komodo dragons we saw were absolutely huge. Easily 2m long, built like tanks with claws longer than my hand. They were menacing but also quite sweet in a weird way because they were mostly asleep. However, a couple of them got into a scrap and the hissing and growling they make was alarming.  They are incredible and they demand respect just by being who they are, which they get. It was great to see the way in which people did respect them. Of course you’d be mad to approach one but people do stupid things for social media.

Loads of them had war wounds and scars all over them. It was amazing to see them and I learnt that they eat the cute deer I saw earlier in the day…

After this we went on search for Manta rat but sadly weren’t lucky this time. Tis not the season for them and that’s okay. Wild animals do what they want. We did see a huge turtle, probably the biggest I’ve ever seen. It’s actually not the one below but this was a cool photo.

I’ve been to Indonesia three times in a year and every time I go there I am blown away by how beautiful it is. It breaks my heart to think about the devastation caused by the forest fires at the moment and I really hope that we can all learn something from this out of hand situation this year. I would really recommend Komodo as a place to experience a really unique landscape and collection of wildlife . The people were so friendly as well and the hospitality was great. Ayla became famous very quickly and even got greeted in the airport on the way back!