3 days on a boat!

Brooke warming herself by the BBQ watching the sweet sweet tuna cook!
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we decided to have a night in Sengiggi before spending 3 days on the Perama boat in order to enjoy some mod cons such as air con, hot fresh water (gita gili only had cold sea water showers), using an ATM, internet and most importantly bacon!

We found a great place to stay and sengiggi was fine for a night but it's a bit like a quiet slightly decrepit tacky Spanish resort so I wouldn't have wanted to stay much longer – plus everything seemed so expensive and loud after gili air

We had a few drinks with Brooke and Craig and shared our fears about what the next 3 days would hold, we'd all opted for the cheapo choice of sleeping on the deck rather than getting a cabin. Ben and I were only taking the boat one way – getting off at Flores – so we only had 2 nights on the boat but brooke and craig were doing a round trip and therefore had 4 nights

Perama Island beach
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We’d booked with Perama as they have a very good reputation in Indonesia, the company was set up with the aim of providing good, reliable, safe travel at an affordable price and I’m pleased to say that's exactly what they do!

the boat when we got to it after a bus trip across lombok was a bit smaller than we were expecting but once we were all on (25 peeps in total) it didn't seem too bad – and once I’d had a snoop round and seen the cabins I was quite glad we'd opted out!

The only problem at this stage was the American – every trip has to have one I guess and Marla was as stereotypical as they come! loud, arrogant, abrasive and pushy – by the time we got to the boat I’d already witnessed her drag a stranger away from her food in order to take a picture of her with Ronald MacDonald!

The crew doing their dance
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We had a few hours sailing and then our first stop was an island east of Lombok which is in fact owned by Perama, it's a gorgeous little island where Mr. Perama's business partner lives and we had a lovely afternoon lazing on the beach and snorkeling

I didn't really fancy snorkeling to begin with as they were quite a few jelly fish around but everyone kept yapping on about how great it was and then Ben told me I had to come out in his serious voice which means there's something good – and then I found Nemo! And Marlin And Coral all living together in an anemone!!!!!! They really do look just they way they look in the film – such vivid white stripes. They were in this big strip of reef which had a drop off (I was too scared to go over to that though!) and all the fish were so colourful – it was simply amazing!

blase hog
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we stayed on the island for the evening and had a delicious tuna bbq for dinner and then our guide gave us a talk about how fantastic Perama are and all the good work they do with poor farmers and then all the guys from the crew got together and sang the “we love Perama” hymn which was a little weird and then they sang “oh carol” which was even weirder! Then they got up and did this Indonesian dance which had an element of line dancing to it and was very entertaining – especially when they opened up the floor and this Dutch guy proved to have the dancing skills of one legged duck!

Monsieur Komodo
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After a very pleasant evening at Indonesian butlins we returned to the boat to find that our beds had been made – by which I mean they had covered the floor with an inch thick piece of rubber, 5mm lino and plastic beach mats!! Fabulously pointless – needless to say we didn't get the best nights sleep and it wasn't helped by the fact that the engine broke down in the middle of the night!!

Our 6am wake up call was a joy and soon we were all up and off too our first stop of the day – a small island with a huge salt water lake or locked in piece of water as Ben chose to describe it just now!

our boat
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the lake was very pretty and it was lots of fun squidging through the algae to get in and out – I was swimming around being brave for quite a while but then once people started getting out and I realised I was more of a target for huge crocodiles and mutated fish the enjoyment waned

we headed to the beach for some snorkeling but the combination of huge amounts of dead coral underfoot, a snorkel mask that periodically stopped working and flooded my mouth with seawater and the 1km swim to get to anything worth seeing made it a short and unpleasant experience!

getting from the big boat to the beach
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we ended up spending the rest of that day on the boat as we had a slow sail along the coast of Sumbawa and a random stop to pick up the captain who it turned out had gone ashore with the engine to get it fixed, then it started to rain and by the time we got to our second stop the aptly named “Don-go beach” it was proper monsoon style so we headed it's warning and carried on sailing

Unfortunately the amount of time we'd been on the boat combined with the choppy water was making a few people feel sick – including Brooke. I should mention at this point that Brooke is utterly adorable, kind, thoughtful, funny, open minded and basically a delight to spend time with.

monkey on red sand beach
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Craig however is awful; I had thought to begin with that he was a tad judgmental, a bit patronizing with Brooke and somewhat clingy but generally acceptable. But the more time I spent with him the more I had to listen to conversations such as this:

Brooke: Oh god I feel awful I just need to sit quietly

Craig: Brooke, Brooke, Brooke do you feel sick Brooke? Brooke are you going to be sick? Brooke do you want some water? Brooke? Brooke Brooke you should drink some water if you feel sick, Brooke Brooke?

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Brooke (calmly whilst breathing deeply): I'm ok just don't talk to me for second

Craig (upset); ok ok god I was just asking

Craig: I mean I was just wondering if you're going to be sick, Brooke, Brooke are you going to be sick? cos if you are you should have some water, do you want some water? Brooke, Brooke do you still feel sick? Brooke, Brooke, Brooke are you going to be sick Brooke?

I swear if I thought it would have shut him up I would have been sick! He went on like that til she went to the toilet and then he followed her and probably carried on through the door!

Absolutely painful!

So unfortunately the second day wasn't great but the bad weather meaning we didn't stop also meant we were running ahead of schedule so we had a lie in on the third morning – 6.30am! - and had plenty of time to enjoy the spectacular scenery as we approached komodo island

The island itself is huge and even though komodos could easily kill and eat children there is a village and plenty of people living there – the komodos are protected so the only animal they have to fear is themselves as big komodos eat baby ones. They hunt by jumping out on their prey and biting its leg, the bacteria from their mouths gets into the animals blood stream and it gets sick and dies, this can take over a week during which time the komodo has been following the animal waiting for it to keel over!

We were told not to worry as our guide would have a special stick to protect us if any komodos attacked – it was in fact just a stick

We wandered through the jungle for a while and I was coping to begin with but it all started to close in a bit and things were tickling me so Ben got a somewhat curt reply to his enquiry as to whether I was ok – something along the lines of no of course not I’m freaking out

But then we got to some open fields and walked up to a fabulous view point over the bay, funnily enough a group of 25 people tramping along a well worn path near the beach failed to spot any komodos and the guide said that we would carry on to the rangers station as sometimes the odd komodo hung out there scouting for wild pigs that eat the rubbish

They were in fact correct and we ended up seeing about 4 different komodos – and we also witnessed a complete show of apathy from said komodos when a wild pig casually strolled by leading us to believe the komodos were somewhat domesticated!!! But it was still awesome – they’re huge and very Jurassic – and we got to hang out there for a while having a beverage and watching then stroll around flicking their crazy forked tongues around

Then it was back to the boat an on to Red Sand beach – which did indeed have red sand from the ground down red coral.  I must point out at this stage that all these trips to beaches and islands had involved transferring from the big boat to a little boat out at sea and vice versa, as I’m sure most of you can imagine this was not a task I relished and I continued to be all over the place even at the end of the last day!

Anyway – red sand beach was beautiful, gorgeous sand and even though I couldn’t enjoy the snorkeling as the water got too deep and you couldn’t see too well I still had loads of fun digging a hole with a coconut husk!

Then it was back to the boat and a short journey on to Flores and the port of Labuan Bajo where our boat trip ended!

Oh my god I have totally forgotten to mention the food!!!!! It was fabulous – breakfast was just toast but lunch and dinner were always a buffet style affair with chicken, fish and veggie dishes – lots of curries and just yummy tasting sauces on things, very impressive!