Let me explain. I started scuba diving this past April, when I got my PADI open water certificate (1st level) in Honduras.
And since
1) Indonesia has some of the world's best diving and untouched reefs; I wasn't going to miss it!
2) I've been hearing lots of great things about "liveaboards" where divers live on a boat for a few days and get taken to cool places in the ocean for daily dives.
3) I wanted to continue my diving education by getting an Advanced Open water certificate (2nd level)
4) Komodo national park, which consists of mainly 2 islands west of Flores, is the world's only home to the legendary komodo dragons - the largest lizards in the world!
I put all those things together, and headed to Flores for a 4 day 3 night liveaboard trip in the Komodo islands, to get my advanced diving certification with my instructor Tom!
It was really not a difficult life to get used to:
Wake up, have toast breakfast, amazing dive see some turtles, have hot breakfast served, chill on boat, 2nd amazing dive see some sharks, have lunch served, chill on boat, 3rd amazing dive see some mantas, have delicious snack, chill, see beautiful sunset, night dive see octapus and sleeping turtles and fish, come up to a sky of beautiful stars and milky way, delicious dinner served, chill and talk, sleep, rinse, repeat.
All with hilarious and fantastic company from all around the world.
With unlimited soft drinks and chips.
Here were some special highlights of the trip, with pictures when above water!
1. My personal cabin with a hot shower and everything! It was like living in luxury after dorming for so many nights!
2. There was a doctor on board! (Yves from Switzerland was hilarious. His friend Phil as well.) Lol this is random, but since my motorbike accident had happened only the day before, I was kind of worried about soaking my wounds in water for hours at a time. Adil had told me it would be okay as long as I kept it clean, and I was glad there was someone else on board who had painless antiseptics (I had been using 70% alcohol. Not the funnest).
3. The NIGHT DIVES! Seeing the colorful corals light up under the light of my torch, the bright polyps extend out to feed at night, and the hundreds of sleeping fish hiding in cracks - so awesome. I also saw turtles sleeping with their "cleaner" remoras on top of their shells, and a giant pink octapus squirm around - they really move weirdly! Also it's always cool to wave your hand in the dark to see the bioluminescent plankton sparkle like fireflies.
The best part about the night dive? Surfacing to the brightest sky of stars and a mystical haze that is the milky way.
4. The most mind blowing dive: I held on to a rock in a strong current, at a place where all the schools of fish were being pushed to by the current. There, I watched an army of 15+ sharks in action as they hunted, sending the schools of fish in synchronized scatters. Then, I let the current carry me through the most beautiful soft coral garden roaming with colorful fish, like an aquarium gallery ride. To finish off, I watched a giant green sea turtle chomp away at some corals (I love turtles), and he later ascended all the way up to the surface with us for some reason! Amazing, amazing, amazing.
5. We went to see komodo dragons! Was refreshing to be on land for a while, with all my fellow dive geeks - we made so many diving references while hiking it was great. We also saw FOUR dragons! Including a pregnant one! Apparently it was mating season for these giant lizards, which is usually a difficult time to find them. Lucky us! :)
3. The NIGHT DIVES! Seeing the colorful corals light up under the light of my torch, the bright polyps extend out to feed at night, and the hundreds of sleeping fish hiding in cracks - so awesome. I also saw turtles sleeping with their "cleaner" remoras on top of their shells, and a giant pink octapus squirm around - they really move weirdly! Also it's always cool to wave your hand in the dark to see the bioluminescent plankton sparkle like fireflies.
The best part about the night dive? Surfacing to the brightest sky of stars and a mystical haze that is the milky way.
4. The most mind blowing dive: I held on to a rock in a strong current, at a place where all the schools of fish were being pushed to by the current. There, I watched an army of 15+ sharks in action as they hunted, sending the schools of fish in synchronized scatters. Then, I let the current carry me through the most beautiful soft coral garden roaming with colorful fish, like an aquarium gallery ride. To finish off, I watched a giant green sea turtle chomp away at some corals (I love turtles), and he later ascended all the way up to the surface with us for some reason! Amazing, amazing, amazing.
5. We went to see komodo dragons! Was refreshing to be on land for a while, with all my fellow dive geeks - we made so many diving references while hiking it was great. We also saw FOUR dragons! Including a pregnant one! Apparently it was mating season for these giant lizards, which is usually a difficult time to find them. Lucky us! :)
6. The foooood. Four meals a day, plus a delicious snack (like fried bananas or fresh baked bread with chili salsa), and unlimited sodas and chips, on a boat. Need I say more?
7. During deep diving training (as a part of my advanced training), Tom brought down with us a chocolate Bang Bang bar to show me the effect of pressure on the packaging. I saw it get all crinkled up. Then I ate the Bang Bang. Underwater. It was saltylicious.
8. Did I mention I was living on a boat? Just being there, seeing the view around us every day was phenomenal.
The 4 days flew by. And here I am, enjoying my last sunset in Flores, on land again.
To be honest, I am so glad that this trip is coming to an end. Maybe I've found my limit to solo travel - perhaps a month. Or perhaps it has to do with the location and circumstance. I feel that I'm becoming less easily.... awe-struck. That it is starting to take more to excite and amaze me. I'm being saturated by all these wonderful experiences that I've stopped trying to capture each moment and being amazed by them.
I find myself thinking a lot about orientation, and what I have to get done before then (I barely have any time - I have to move in 14 hours after I land in NYC, and have to immediately go off on a first-year camping trip, which I'm super excited about!)
Anyhow, I cannot be more glad I (with some help from my dear friends Paige and Adam) made the decision to take this trip. I am now more ready than ever for medical school! Come at me :)
Except I have a bajillion things to do before it starts that I can't do right now on the other side of the world.
But I'll worry about that after I land.
Right now I'm looking forward to spending my last two days in Bali with Julia, the German girl I met back in Yogya. We both leave on the night of 8/11, and we both need a break from traveling (vacation from vacationing... call us spoiled!), so we booked our private little house together on a hill in the south of Bali as a treat to ourselves. We plan to spend our last two days relaxing and getting ready to go back to our real lives!
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