Today I boarded a flight to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores.  Labuan Bajo is a small town which is one of two starting points for all boat trips to Komodo and Rinca Islands.  I knew I was in for an adventure when I boarded a small plane right on the tarmac.



During the flight I was treated to some spectacular views from up above.  I saw tons of islands all over the place.  I like these because they remind me of the layout of Hawaii.



I also saw a few volcanoes.  If you look closely you can see the cinder cone still and this one had a lake inside it.



After flying for about an hour we all of a sudden land in the middle of a empty field with nothing but trees.  This is Komodo airport in Flores.  It serves about 10 flights a day at most.  The only thing they do to planes here is load and unload them.  There is no fuel or food for the planes.  It is a small 2 room airport.



I now knew I was definitely in for an adventure.  Luckily I had done some research before I came so I knew the names of a few hotels I wanted to check out.  My biggest goal for today was to first get a place to stay and second book a trip to see the Komodo dragons.  So I went to one hotel, but unfortunately they were out of rooms.  Then I started to think this town is tiny what if there are no rooms available anywhere or only expensive rooms.  Luckily I found a room at the next hotel I went to.  So it was no big deal after all.  I actually got a bungalow.  It looks decent.



But this was by far the worse place I had stayed for so many reasons which I will get to throughout the next few blogs.  Upon inspecting my bed I found gecko poop all over it.  They didn't provide towels which is not that big a deal since I have my own towel, but because of the humidity here nothing ever dries.  So I didn't want to get my towel all wet and then have to travel with a wet towel.  I had booked a 2 day/1 night boat tour to Rinca and Komodo so I figured I could live without showering one day.  Although I did my best to clean up in the sink and used deodorant.  Labuan Bajo is a very small town.  There is nothing to do here.  Basically you come here just to board a boat to leave.



This is downtown Labuan Bajo.  Unfortunately I arrived about 10am and boats leave at 8am so I was stuck here for the day.  I walked the town and there was nothing of interest.  Although I did book my tour for a couple hundred dollars cheaper than online or in Bali.  If you ever plan to see the dragons fly to Labuan Bajo and book your tour there, but limit the amount of time you actually have to be in Labuan Bajo.  Anyways, after booking my tour and walking the town I still had most of the day left.  There was no accessible beach nearby so I was stuck.  It was a very boring afternoon.  I spent part of the day watching movies on my laptop.  I have never been so happy to have that thing with me.  It is a pain in the butt to carry around, but it was well worth it for times likes these.  Plus I can blog and email easier.  So the sun finally started to set and I caught this amazing view from the hotel restaurant.



After snapping this picture I decided to sit down for some dinner.  Little did I know it was going to take over 1 hour to get my food.  I thought it was because of the big group (20+ people) that sat right before me, but I learned later that the service just sucks at that hotel.  Eventually I was able to eat and then I went off to bed to prepare for an early start tomorrow.