Here dragon, dragon, dragon...

You know that episode of Sesame Street where Burt and Ernie go fishing? Burt gets real mad at Ernie because he just sings, "Here fishy, fishy, fishy" into the water, and all the fish jump into their boat. Well, this technique, disappointingly, does not work with giant lizards.

I had the occasion to go on such a dragon hunt when fellow, fellow Michaela and I booked flights to the beautiful island of Flores in South East Indonesia. From there, we were able to hire small boats to take us on day trips out to Komodo and Rinca islands, part of Indonesia's Komodo National Park. The park covers four islands reminiscent of  Jurassic Park and that contain the world's only population of Komodo Dragons - giant, man-eating lizards; the perfect tourist destination.

Our trips to the islands started with these sea-worthy vessels that only occasionally (every time we stopped) requiring one of the crew to jump in and presumably give the motor a jump start by hand spinning the propellers. The crew was great actually. The two hours allotted me plenty of time to practice my bahasa Indonesian, which went really well until we passed the pleasantries and along with them all of my vocabulary. Until then, though, I had them believing I was 'sudah lancar di bahasa Indonesia" - already fluent in B.I. This often backfired when they would tell us important things like when to come back to the boat or 'don't swim here; there are piranhas' only in B.I. Aduuuh.

Once we disembarked to begin our treks to find the dragons, we were greeted by happy tour guides armed with a long sticks which branched into a V-shape at the top like a divining rod. These sticks, our tour guide would explain, were the only defense we had against an animal who was both faster and bigger than all of us...and, oh, that have bacteria-infested teeth that result in fatal bites. Now, now, to be fair, the beasts spend most of their time lounging in the sun near the camp kitchen or eating medium-sized buffalo...bones and all. Nothing to worry about.

In fact, we only saw one dragon outside of the camp as we followed (very closely) to our guide through the savanna-like island. We came upon a part of the trail that was flanked by several old komodo nests. The nests were roped off because A) momma komodos tend to be very protective of their young, and B) daddy komodos like to dig up their own eggs for a snack. So, when our guide spotted a male komodo kicking up dirt as he dug into a nest, we were a little concerned when he lifted the rope and beckoned us to get a closer look. We were later reassured that we could easily escape the dragons by either climbing a tree (the same thing baby komodos do to avoid being eaten by their mothers) or just run in a zig zag pattern and use their poor eye sight to our advantage. Check.

Despite our tour guides' less-than-reassuring tips and tales of tourists whose only remains were their bags and a pair of binoculars, our treks were pretty uneventful. Breath-taking, yes, but life-threatening, no. Still, I was content to rethink my Ernie hunting method and just let come what may.

I was pretty happy with this find of civet poo. The first stage of what will become a delicious, $50 cup of coffee. Mmm mmm mmmm.

Our dragon hunts were followed by serene snorkeling around the hundreds of uninhabited islands that dot the Indian Ocean. The coral here is relatively untouched and famous for the large variety of sea life that enjoy them. We saw dolphins, coral fish, blue star fish, and a ton of other species that I can't totally appreciate as a non-diver. Still, it was really, really pretty.

That bit about piranhas wasn't true, of course, but on our first snorkel spot, one of the boat crew got into the water with us and kept announcing things like, 'I see shark. Don't worry; not dangerous.' Or 'Look! Barracuda! Don't worry; not dangerous.' Right, buddy. So, on our second dive, when a large school of fish continuously jumped out of the waters surrounding our anchored boat, I decided to have a little fun and tell Michaela that they were piranhas. Ha ha...you should have seen the look on her face. What I didn't anticipate was that I would actually convince myself that they were, indeed, piranhas. That was a short dive, even though the piranha wannabes didn't even so much as nibble at my toes.


All in all, I highly recommend this trip. It was every bit as beautiful as Lonely Planet said it would be. And, don't worry; not dangerous.