Komodo Island - Indonesia

[matmar]

Anyone been there? Any tips/hints?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[HEMLINE]

It's really hot on Komodo Island. Take drinking water with you as well as money.

 

There's a sort of "street fair" before you enter the national park. If you're looking for pearls and some crafts you can bargain for deals.

 

As for the dragons, you'll see them. Don't go anywhere alone.

 

There are lots of kids about. You might take some fruit for them, bottled water or treats.

[BCHappyGal]

We visited Komodo Island in 1998 to see the dragons and it was the highlight of our trip for me. We saw several as well as wild bore.

 

We also went to the "Pink Beach" to snorkle.

 

The locals were selling sourvenir type items right by the dock where our tenders dropped us off. Also could buy T-shirts at the restaurant.

 

It was great.

[matmar]

Dragon mauls boy to death...:eek:

 

See this story from the Courier Mail Monday 4th June 2007

 

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21846335-401,00.html

[simonv]

I see RCl 2,300 passenger ship now goes to Komodo. It's scary. What do they do with 2,300 people there? I've been there a couple of times on a liveaboard diving trip. There's nothing there. No facilities to handle 2,000 people. Has anyone been there with on a cruise excursion? I'm curious.

[BCHappyGal]

Dear Simon

 

WE were there in 1998 with a cruise excursion - but on a small ship 150 pass max. We were tendered to shore and there divided into groups of 10 with 2 rangers + cruise staff per group. We were then lead inland to the watering hole to see the Komodo Dragons - a 2.5 km hike. It was a wonderful day where we saw 5 dragons as well as wild boar and a few insects (spiders on their webs). Following our hike we sailed around the island to the pink beach for the afternoon.

[simonv]

BCHappyGal,

 

Dragons are interesting, aren't they? A 100 passengers I'm sure they can handle. Which ship were you on? Have they done something about the rotted ladder to the pier? It's a little scary to climb up to the pier on that ladder, especially on a low tide.

 

I'm wondering RCL Rhapsody of Sea 2350 passengers stopping at Komodo. No matter what you tell them, out of that many people, there'll be one fool who'd get too close to the dragon, never mind the dragon bite is fatal. There aren't enough park rangers to go around for 2000 people. How are they going to handle it? From the CC board, I see some are planning to go on their own. Scary thought.

[matmar]

See my pics of Komodo

 

 

Pier was fine, tendering was slow. Island hot and dry.

[simonv]

Matmar - And buggy. Nice pictures. How did they handle the crowd? Almost the entire ship must have been there to see dragons. How many people per group accompanied by whom? By the way did the ship offer snorkeling excursion to the pink beach?

[CruiseKidz]

Matmar - And buggy. Nice pictures. How did they handle the crowd? Almost the entire ship must have been there to see dragons. How many people per group accompanied by whom? By the way did the ship offer snorkeling excursion to the pink beach?

My B-i-L was on matmars cruise he said initially 500 places were available for the Komodo tour of the dragons at a national park then they upped it to 600. By looking at the pics they are very big racehorse goanas. A scaled down version can be found here in WA, I saw one on the road a couple of weeks ago.:)

[simonv]

Thanks. That's what I wanted to know. A 600 tourists are a lot better than 2,000 descending on this tiny island. Do you know if they offered snorkelling at the pink beach also?