From Lombok to Labuan Bajo. A three night and four day journey by boat.
Read on for my honest and no holds barred review of this trip by Wanua Adventures.
I left the beautiful and relaxing Gili Islands to spend four days travelling for four days from Lombok to Labuan Bajo stopping off at the Komodo National Park Islands en route.
Sounds great? Well the trip is far from a luxury cruise. It involves sleeping on thin mats side by side and sharing two toilets with around 30 fellow travellers. Oh and without WiFi (shock horror). Why?! Because it sounded like an adventure! And if there’s something I crave when travelling it’s a hint of adventure.
Here’s my day by day account of the trip..
Day 1. The boring day. Now bear in mind day one is mainly spent driving to the registration point from Senggigi (or your base point) to Mataram where the sellers will try and sell alcohol to you at inflated prices and then to the port- Bangsal Harbour, which from Mataram took a gruelling three hours. In the heat inside a squashed mini van.. not pleasant. We got on the boat sometime around 3.30 and set sail around 4 to our first stop- to watch the sunset on a small island.
Sleeping conditions. One word- basic. One room with small gym mats pushed together and a sheet and pillow each was our home for the next three nights. Luckily we didn’t have any snorers in the group. However, sleeping was still a challenge. Over the course of the next four nights the space started to resemble something more akin to a refugee camp. 
Day two- sea sickness takes over the ship– Our first stop was Moyo island, a small island in the Flores sea. We walked up to the Lady Diana waterfalls named after the late English Princess who used to visit this island. Well if it’s good enough for a Princess… Pretty sure her mode of transport was rather more stylish and luxurious than ours mind.
It was also a good opportunity to stretch our legs before getting back on the boat for the longest stretch of our journey. This day was going to be our main travel day consisting of an epic 18 hours of sailing until our next destination!
The captain warned us that the waves would be intense and that he had sea sickness tablets. He wasn’t wrong. By 6pm everybody without exception was laying down in their bed, okay on their mat to be precise! The boat was rocking so vigorously that it was impossible to walk around the ship- you had to crawl and even then you were sliding around the deck. Going to the toilet presented a challenge in more way than one. Most people fell at least once and one woman got quite a bad foot injury from her fall.
The sea sickness and nausea really wasn’t pleasant. We all took tablets. I don’t usually get car or sea sick but after so many hours of intense movement I started to feel nauseous. Everybody looked pretty miserable by this point and wondering what the hell we had signed ourselves up for! During the night the ship seemed to rock so far to each side it seemed a miracle it didn’t topple over.
Day Three. The pink beach and komodos.
Today we woke up feeling much fresher. Today was our first proper day. Our first stop was Manta Point. A stop where one would assume manta rays were swimming in abundance. Unfortunately this stop felt more like manta harassment than manta point.
About ten boats were pulled up in one small area and the sea was littered with ergh humans bobbing around in the water searching for manta rays.
Poor things – no wonder they didn’t appear. It also didn’t help that we didn’t go in Manta season which is November- March. Anyway this sort of thing doesn’t appeal to me- organised wildlife tourism- I may as well go to an aquarium. One German saw a brief glimpse of one manta promptly swimming away as he jumped in the water and that was all our group got to see. We then pulled up a bit further away from manta point for a swim.
Komodos!!
Our next stop was the famous Komodo island! The volcanic islands of Komodo, Rinca and Padar in the Komodo National Park are home to around 6,000 Komodo dragons. These giant lizards which can grow upto three metres in length are only found in this region and are under threat from poachers who come to steal the eggs.
It is rumoured that the Komodo Islands will close to visitors for a year in January 2020 to allow the Komodo population to increase see article here which is one reason I wanted to visit, to see it while I can, but the Guide seemed convinced that this won’t happen. “They stop tourists coming and the locals will be very angry and destroy everything here including komodos. Tourism is the only income for people here.”
Getting to Komodo island…
We got off the boat and walked through the entrance archway somewhat reminiscent of Jurassic Park.
A guide greeted us with his forked stick apparently to defend us but in reality was used as a Komodo poking stick, and gave us some information before he walked us around the island.
During the walk we encountered a few Komodos. However this part also didn’t sit right with me- each Komodo we saw was hiding in the foliage surrounded by around 30 tourists or more with cameras.
The guides were prodding the Komodo with their sticks to come out of hiding so that people could take better photos. This wasn’t the experience I signed up for! I wanted to enter the island and explore. I wanted to see a Komodo by chance (or not after all they are wild animals or so I thought)… Not walk around a signed footpath with large groups of annoying tourists and pushy guides. Again I don’t find this pleasurable and I’m sure the Komodo dragons don’t either. I was almost hoping they would attack.
After around 30 minutes we reached the end of the circuit to a cafe. Thank goodness! I was craving something other than rice and noodles- boat food gets repetitive. However the guide was ushering everyone to head to the “local market” which we later realised was his stall where he wanted to sell us pearl necklaces and wooden Komodos. Hmm no thanks! Me and another girl decided to ignore him and stay at the cafe. The guide didn’t seem to care and disappeared leaving us without a guide so we had to make our own way back to the boat. So much for not letting tourists wander anywhere without a guide. By the cafe sat three rather still Komodo dragons. We suspect these may have been dosed up on something as they didn’t move even with people getting close for photos. It made sense why our guide kept telling everyone who wanted photos “don’t worry you see Komodo up close later..” hmm.
Snorkelling at the Pink Beach..
Our last stop was the famous pink beach. The islands in the National Park really are incredible. The sand in each bay is a different colour depending on the minerals in the rock, the coral or shells . This particular beach had a pastel pink hue. The snorkelling here was incredible. Beautiful colourful coral with turtles and a wide range of fish. I hiked up a small hill for a view over the bay.
Party night: Tonight was our last night. We all had plenty of alcohol left – we had been pretty ambitious and brought beers, spirits and cocktails on board. However, the conditions of the sea were not conducive to drinking alcohol. I had one lemon radler beer on day two and felt sick. I still didn’t feel like drinking on day three despite it being “party night”.
Our boat pulled into a bay as the sun set along with some other boats and people started drinking, jumping off the boat roof and playing games. Finally we could relax. As darkness fell and the stars emerged we made our boat into a nightclub using a flashing torch, a Spotify playlist and portable speakers. We fell into bed exhausted at the grand time of around 10pm!! It felt much later I promise haha.
Day 4: Padar Island.
Our enthusiastic captain started singing loudly and playing music at 5am to ensure everybody was up for our first activity of the day- trekking up Padar hill to watch the sunrise. Our small “speed boat” shuttled us to the shore of Padar in small groups and we hiked up what seemed like thousands of steps and then rocks as the sky lightened and the sun emerged. The formation of this island is really interesting. The Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean come together and as a result the land is being eroded from different directions forming bays. Each bay has different coloured sand. It makes for a perfect photo… it is another Instagram spot with Japanese precariously posing in dresses etc. But I managed to walk away from the crowds and find a few quieter spots to myself.
Rinca Island – come here for the Komodo dragons!
Next up was Rinca island. This was another chance to see the Komodo dragons. I much preferred this island to Komodo island and the Komodos seemed to be roaming around more freely here.
The Komodos:
Facts about the Komodo Dragon:
The guide told us about the Komodos- the largest living lizards in the world. These animals are carnivorous and eat deer, water buffalo, wild boar and given a chance humans.
The females can lay around 30 eggs at any one time. The eggs take 8-9 months to incubate. The Mothers lay their eggs in a giant mud nest, cover the eggs and wait nearby for a few months. After this time the Mother leaves the nest. As a result not many eggs survive due to predators- wild boats and other Komodo dragons. Even their own Mother sometimes eats them.
When the eggs hatch the young Komodo dragons have a natural instinct to climb the trees where they remain for 2-3 years. After this time they come to ground and further hone their hunting and survival skills. The dragons never have any help in learning these skills, they have to raise themselves and protect themselves and are generally solitary animals until mating season. There are more males than females and the males will fight and kill each other in mating season. However the females don’t actually need males to reproduce- they can lay and hatch eggs without a man! Girl Power!
It is no wonder then that they can be aggressive in nature- it is their survival instinct. They have long forked tongues which they use to smell. They can smell blood from 12km away. Women are advised to tell the ranger if they are on their period or at least keep close to the ranger. The dragons attack their prey by knocking them over and shredding them with their sharp teeth and knocking them out with venomous saliva. However attacks on humans are incredibly rare. But possible. It is for this reason that tourists are banned from exploring the Komodo islands without a Ranger guiding them around.
After a 2km walk around the island we headed back to the boat. We had a two hour cruise until our final stop – a swimming point. After this was another three hours until we glimpsed civilisation. I had a brief taste of how real explorers must have felt when they finally reached land. By this point we were all more than ready to leave the boat!
Practical Information:
Cost of the trip: 2.3 million Indonesian rupees. At the time of booking this is around £100.
What the Wanua boat includes:
Three nights and four days on the boat with very basic sleeping facilities (you can pay more for a cabin)
All meals- breakfast, lunch, dinner. All basic but tasty food e.g. mie goreng (vegetable noodles).
Snorkelling gear
National Park entry fees
Fresh drinking water and a reusable plastic bottle each
Coffee and tea.
Tip: Keep in mind that the boat has nothing to buy e.g. no soft drinks. In my opinion they are losing out by not having any coke cans or beers on board to sell).
Does the boat trip provide value for money?
In my opinion yes it does. Just go in with very basic expectations and be ready to make the best of the situation. For example take sea sick pills each day- don’t wait to feel sick. Take books so you’re not bored during the long sailing. Take some games- uno, a deck of cards. Go up on the deck during the day and look at the view. Chat to your travel companions.
Like I said sanitation is very basic. Our boat did have a basic shower head (in the tiny toilet) but no soap or proper sink. Our sink was a barrel of sea water no soap provided. Take shower gel, hand sanitiser and medicine just in case!
What to bring on the Komodo boat trip (packing list)
Sea sickness tablets
Basic first aid kit
Hand sanitiser
A small backpack to keep by your bed with a change of clothes, pyjamas, basic toiletries.
Snacks- chocolate will melt (I speak from experience) so crisps/chips, sweets/candy are better options.
Soft drinks- coke, sprite etc.
Games e.g cards
A book/kindle
Swim suits
Shorts
Towel
Sarong
T-shirts
Suncream
Hat
Sunglasses
What I enjoyed about the Komodo boat trip:
I liked the fact it is a bit of adventure even though it’s an organised tour. It’s a different experience, you get to meet new people, it feels like you’re doing something more exciting than the norm.
Sailing when in calm water was a lovely relaxing experience. Just sitting on the deck and observing the passing scenery.
Not having any access to WiFi and having everything planned for me was a good chance to let my brain relax and fully live in the moment. It was so nice not thinking about anything other than the present.
The staff – Fendi, Midoon and the others really worked hard to make it a fun experience for everyone. They even amended food orders e.g. when I half jokingly complained about the bananas in everything they made me pancakes without them. The food was all vegetarian- this was a relief for me. They also did vegan/gluten free options for those who requested in advance.
What I didn’t like about the Komodo boat trip:
The lack of concern for the animals, e.g. on Komodo island the guide didn’t care when tourists were crowding around the komodos. In fact they were encouraging it.
It is very much a tour so not really adventurous. All boats visit the same stops at the same time. It can feel quite busy.
Feeling very sea sick on the second day.
How it could be improved:
Fewer boats allowed to visit sights- stricter limits on tourist numbers
Vary or manage the stops so you don’t have all boats at the same stop at the same time.
Visit Rinca instead of Komodo island. This just felt far too set up and touristy.
Should I go on the four day Komodo boat trip from Lombok to Labuan Bajo?
Honestly, if I was to do it again I would probably fly straight to Labuan Bajo from Bali/Lombok, and do a trip to Padar and Rinca and other National Park Islands from there. You could do it in one or two days and probably have more time to visit the best spots and do it at different times to the others. However this would work out more expensive but less time consuming. After all two days of our trip were essentially just being in the car/on the boat not seeing anything.
It was a fun and exciting experience but let’s just say I opted to take the plane out of Labuan Bajo.
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