Komodo Island, Indonesia

This is Komodo Island, one of the few islands in Indonesia where the Komodo dragon lives in the wild.  On this island there are about 1,200 of the fearsome beasts.  The island is lush and beautiful.  Tamarind trees with their own vines snaking around their main trunks line the pathways, but except for the surrounding ocean, there is very little water.  

Several of the dragons lounging around the "waterhole."  There was no water evident but Latif, our sweet but practically impossible to understand guide, said that after a heavy rain it will be filled.

Komodos are the largest of the lizard species growing up to ten feet long and weighing more than 150 pounds.  They are slug-like, evil-looking, prehistoric creatures that can run twelve miles an hour if provoked.  They only eat about once a month, like snakes, but it must be quite a meal!  They live on deer, water hogs and even water buffalo, each munched in toto at one meal! Apparently, there is a sufficient supply of these animals on the island to keep the dragons satiated.  Because of their size and carnivorous personalities, they clearly dominate wherever they live and are considered very dangerous.  We had three guides with our small group and they carry large forked wooden sticks which they would use to jab an animal should it become agitated.  None of them did, but we were told to stay behind the guides at all times.

This picture was taken by Latif and looks like we are right behind the dragon, but it's trick photography.  We are actually about 15-20 feet behind it and several guides were at the ready with their wooden spears just in case.  The video below shows the one time we actually saw one of the dragons mobilize to action.  The way they stand on all four feet illustrates how fast they must move if motivated.

We had to walk through the inevitable market at the end of the guided tour, otherwise it was impossible to get to the ship.  Of course, I love markets but this one wasn't much--cheap trinkets, "pearl" jewelry and replicas of the dragons in all sizes.  Some of the vendors were selling lengths of cotton fabric in bright colors, and when I expressed a mild interest, they literally came out of the woodwork and at least twenty villagers were spreading out fabrics in my path, begging me to buy this one or that.  I finally chose a fairly interesting island looking print and bargained the vendor down to a fair price, much to the heartbreak of the others. It will probably end up in the drawers holding the rest of my fabric purchases from Asia.

When we got back to the ship, the surrounding waters were full of small dilapidated boats containing mostly boy children and young teen-agers screaming '"Money, money, money", and "please, please."  It always breaks my heart to see this but we had been warned sternly not to throw anything over the side because it just encourages them.  They hung around until they could no longer keep up with the departing ship.

Can you see the small boy in the red shirt near the back of the boat?  He spotted me looking out at him from our veranda and called and called to me to throw money. 

Tonight is our second to last night on the cruise and we are having dinner with our trivia teammates--a couple from Las Vegas, one from near Melbourne, another from Canada, although neither was born there, and a lady from England.  I like them all and it saddens me that we will probably never see them again.  You never know, though...

Tomorrow the hideous packing process will take place, but earlier in the day we have a tour of several large temple complexes, one Islamic and one Hindu.  Looking forward to that.