2015-05-28
On plane to Frankfurt.
Watched Kuchibiru ni uta o (くちびるに歌を)
It appears that the Japanese students are more mature than the Western.
I now remember that being on the plane is rather dry, in terms of
breathing. Also, my mouth keeps foaming and I tried not to swallow as to prevent building gas in my stomatch.
Currently on the way to Frankfurt:
Altitude 11274m, 630m/h,
1837km from Frankfurt,
air temp: -53celsius.
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Now flying over Turkmenbaschy
596mph
alt: 10366m
-56F
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2015-06-16
Komodo Island Trip
06/14: Woke up at around 4:30AM, on the 15th of June, left Solo with Willy at around 5AM in Tom's car.
7:55AM Garuda Indonesia flight to Bali. Time took: 58 mins.
In Bali, Kuta city, we stayed at the Royal Eighteen Resort and Spa, Room 219.
Swam at roof top modern designed swimming pool. Willy got sun burn. I had a little.
Had lunch at cheap restaurant nearby, had dinner next door. Avoided near beach or main road pricey restaurants.
Walked around Kuta beach & Kuta city at night. We went to buy Sun Lotion at Circle across the street from where we stayed.
Back in room, saw the beginning of X-Men's Day of Future Past. Attempting to sleep at around midnight-1AM.
Willy couldn't sleep, perhaps due to the hotel tea he drank. I made myself coffee. I slept, supposedly snored. Willy recorded it.
I heard him snored as well. My snores appeared consistent. However, his snore was rather inconsistent, strange at times and perhaps louder.
I didn't mind, merely curious.
In the morning, we had to skip the 7am free breakfast and took a Bluebird (trusted taxi in Jakarta/Bali) to catched an actually 1 hour delayed 8:15AM Wings Air flight to Labuan Bajo in West Flores (East Tenggara). Saw lots of volcanic figures below from the plane.
Pak Victor was our tour guide.
The boat we used was made of wood, equiped with usual daily need such as shower, sink, lunch table, stacked beds, charging stations, roof area and even air conditioning in our room of 4 beds of which I am typing from right now.
We passed through lots of beautiful islands. Our first stop was a Rinca Island bay where we got off the boat to join a park ranger for a medium tour around the beach area. Saw a few Komodo dragons, a buffalo, monkeys and Scrab bird (chicken-like, I may have erred in spelling). I am not much fan of the dragons, though they are only found in this area of the world. Our next stop was Pink Beach at around 5:30pm where we swam for less than 20 minutes in order to catch the flying foxes (Kolang) in the evening at 6pm. It was a test swim. We shall be going back to the Pink Beach tomorrow. Though Pulau Payar has more abundant fishes, this Pink Beach certainly has the most living corals that I have ever seen! Incredible.
We had great lunch and dinner on the boat. We stayed on the boat overnight where we watched the flying foxes in a Komodo Island bay. At around 10:30PM, I had to take the Nikon camera and shot incredible Milky Way photos. Other than the slightly light poluted night at Tawang Mangu, this is my very first shooting of the Milky Way. So dark environment is rare to find, I could actually see the vague Milky Way with my naked eye. With the camera at 4 secs exposure, the photos looked amazing. The only downside was that I had to shoot this from the boat which though very steady, could not produce serious firm shots for exposure more than 4 secs.
I enjoyed the starry sky from the roof. Contemplated the awe of God as well as the fear of the Lord from the late evening to the dark lonely sky.
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2015-06-17
Woke up at around 6:30AM. Went to the roof to take a premature sunrise. Some tour boats were leaving the bay, supposedly to Komodo Island.
After breakfast, we headed for Komodo Island. Took medium track. Saw some birds: Emperor Pigeons, an eagle, white parrots, wild chickens, an oreole, blue tailed bird, heard the golden whistler, noisy "something" bird, golden-web spider, etc. A Komodo dragon walked in our path as we followed it back to the beach. Willy was extremely let down at a blurry video shot he took of the dragon walking on a bridge towards him. I couldn't care less, they were just lizards to me, I've seen a lot of monitor lizards in the back of Chung Ling High School.
Then, we headed for Pink Beach. This time, though the tie is higher, but there's a strong current towards a dangerous rocky zone by the beach. We were adviced to swim away from the direction of the current. I got frustrated trying to shoot some videos via my older Samsung Galaxy Note I. Though the water-proof pouch we bought in Penang did help prevent water from entering, the phone's screen however could not sense my touch. This is likely due to the electic sensors unable to read my touch due to either the sea water outside of the screen or the touch of the pouch on the phone's creen in random places. Later at the second beach, I decided to risk my newer Samsung Note III and thought I was smart enough to control the phone's camera via bluetooth control from my Pebble watch. Strangely to me then, every time I entered water, the Pebble connection to the phone was lost. It appeared that bluetooth or perhaps any radio do not propagate properly in sea water medium. I realized I could just activate the camera above water and then quickly take some underwater shots before the bluetooth connection expired. Soon, my phone stopped working, due to some water I've inevitably allowed in whenever I took the phones out to check them.
At times, I got so frustrated that I decided to just enjoy the wonderful LIVE! corals and fishes instead of meddling with my camera. I should have bought the sports camera in U.S.
Willy had chest cramps at Pink Beach a day before. Today, he wore an orange life jacket, and we finally swam to the beach. I took some pink sand for sample. The pinkishness of the sand is caused by dead red coral remains mixing with white sands. I hope this can go through custom going back to U.S. While I was either examining the coral or collecting sand sample, I noticed Willy had left the beach but as I tried to find him, I was shocked that he has somehow drifted towards the direction of the current heading for the rocky area. I tried to call, wave at him and eventually decided to swim to him in the freaky current, I was rather scared. Then, a staff from our boat took a canoe to rescue him. The staff asked me to stop swimming to him so knowing Willy would be in better hands, I decided not to risk myself further and swam against the current toward the bigger boat. When we were on board, Willy complained that his jacket had opened, goggles broke loose and had consumed much sea water. We're just glad that he's safe. I felt a little guilty as Nadia had asked me to take care of him. I did consider someone who's used to swimming pool may not be experienced enough to face the challenges of the sea. Even I had to struggle against the current. Nonetheless, after having lunch, we headed for a more relaxing, current free, "Karava" beach which was 1.5 hours away. It has a French resort on it. I saw tons of large star fishes and many live corals and fishes as well.
The differnces between these snorkling trips from that of Pulau Payar was that it has less fishes, but the live corals were more plentiful and closer to the beach, meaning located at more shallow area. I wish I could also take underwater photos in Pulau Payar as well, but we forgot to bring the waterproof pouch and I had even forgotten that we've bought that pouch at one time.
As we were leaving our last beach, Willy felt cold breeze in the water and had leg cramps. Ever since the Pink Beach incident, I took care to keep a closer distance from him at all times, even though this beach has no strong current as the other one. We slowing swam to the beach, used to the pier to cross other parked boats toward ours.
The trip ended with an hour ride from Kanavor Island to Labuan Bajo.
We were then driven to Luwansa Hotel, showered, ate the included each 100K Rupiah set dinner. I had Asparagas soup, Grilled Mackerel, boiled potatoes, fruit cocktail and coffee. Willy had tomato soup, well-done beef steak, fries, banana split and tea.
At midnight, I am out here typing this diary and looking for stars to shoot. We're supposed to meet Pak Victor in the morning at 8AM, after the included hotel breakfast.