Komodos? Dragons? Huge “Lizards”? What the heck is a Komodo dragon? Well, they are the largest living lizard and their home is in the Komodo islands a little east of Bali, Indonesia. There are a total of around 2200 of these “dragons” and their average length is 10.3 feet or 3.13 meters and they weigh around 366 pounds or 166 kg. Komodos can run on average around 13 mph or 20 kph but its hunting strategy is based on stealth and power. They can spend hours in one spot, waiting for a deer, boar, goat, or anything sizable (like me!) and nutritious. 
I went on an awesome 10 day liveaboard with Mermaid 1 this September 2010. The crew was just amazing and the dive crew the same. John was my dive master and one that I would dive with each time I come back to Mermaid 1. He taught me a lot of things on diving and helped me expand my diving skills and helped push my envelope in diving. I learned what real current was and also did an amazing drift dive with strong current that showed me it is nice to be bald not having to worry about hair in my face! But one thing I would have to disagree with John (Mr. Englishman) that football is American football and “European football is soccer. But you didn’t hear that from me! đŸ™‚
Mermaid staff picked me up from my Kuta hotel and we picked up 3 more divers before we hit the boat. Was shown my room (just me in it….yeah!) and then we were able to get our dive gear squared away. About an hour later we had our safety and welcome briefing as we left the harbor. We sailed all night to Angel Reef at Moyo Island and did our first dive there. Over the course of the days we dived at places like Sangeang Island, Gili Banta for exhilarating dives at Tanduk Rusa for the big fish and then over to Crystal Rock to check out awesome soft corals and other cool fish. Then we spent an magnificent morning at the Komodo National Park island (one of the 3 main ones, a total of around 9 other smaller ones)and took tons of pictures. Yes, we looked like tourist! The rest of the trip was full of diving for cuttlefish, loads of reef fish, ribbon eels, turtles, pipe fish, mantas, variety of sharks, and a lot more macro things.
Check the thumbnails out!
It was a breath of fresh air though to meet other Americans since most Americans do not travel and visit Indonesia, let alone remote areas of Indonesia or the far South East of Asia. Food was awesome but I must admit I had my fill of rice even though I was raised in Indonesia for 19 years. I was ready for that big, fat, juicy American steak and fries. I did loose 2.5 pounds on my vacation though…hence why I need more vacations!
Cheerio,
Diving Doug
aka: Doug Gulleson
