Selamat Datang! That means welcome in Bahasa. Welcome to my new home. I have now been in Labuan Bajo for a week. For those curious of where the heck that is, yes it is still in Indonesia. It is in East Nusa Tenggara province, on the island of Flores, and the closest port to getting into Komodo National Park, a World UNESCO Heritage Site that is home to the Komodo dragons as well as the best diving in the world. When I first got here, I had no clue where I would be living. The place that I intended on living was sold two days before getting to Bajo but no fear because Facebook Marketplace works out here too! I stayed in a hostel called Ciao for the first couple of days while looking for a room. It was at the top of the town and overlooked the harbor, the Komodo islands, and gave us a stunning view of the sunsets. The staff was so nice and helpful that they even let complete strangers borrow their scooter to go check out potential rooms. It was a great first impression of the type of people I was going to encounter while living here.
Now, to describe the town. It is, of course, developing at a much slower pace than Bali but is supported by the tourism industry as well, mostly for the diving and dragons. There’s not much else to do here other than those two things, it’s more of a passing through town. The main part of town is two streets, an upper and lower road that create a one-way loop, so I have circled this town hundreds of times already. The main mode of transportation is by motorbike (scooter). America needs to get on this scooter train because it is so much quicker to get around, especially on small windy roads. Road to Hana? Perfect for scooting and would solve so many problems. Scooting also teaches you to be a more defensive driver because if you want to go anywhere, you have to just do it or you will wait forever. The laws here also seem to be more optional. Red lights are treated more like stop signs but accidents don’t really occur as well, so they have figured out quite the system. Currently renting a scooter for 1.2 Million rupiah a month ($80) but if the price is right, buying one and then reselling is the more ideal option. There are a lot of street vendors and small warungs (local restaurants) for food and the supermarkets here are more like the size of a 7-11. Every evening there is a night market that has mainly fish *yum my favorite!* but is where I assume a lot of locals eat and make their wages. The popular spot for divers to hang out is a dive shop and restaurant called Blue Marlin that has incredible views for the sunset as well. The food is more pricey there and by that, I mean around $5 for food rather than $2 but when you don’t have an income, that adds up real quick.
I’m sure you are all dying to know about my living situation. For starters, I am paying $333 for four months…that is one-third of my rent for ONE MONTH that I was paying for the last year. But that comes at a cost as well. The apartment is one room/bathroom, basically like a studio, minus a kitchen. Yep, no stove, no fridge, no hot water *you’re probably thinking this sounds a lot like my living conditions in China although the China house was waaaay nicer* but there is AC! And bugs. There are a ton of mosquitoes and I have been eaten alive pretty much every night. Currently looking for a mosquito net to put over the bed so I don’t go mad scratching my limbs off in my sleep and swatting the air for the buzzing around my head. And now for the bathroom, the most important conversation piece. Just like in boating life, if it doesn’t go through you it does not go into the toilet. This is the part of my life where being a boy would be so much easier to pee because toilet paper is not needed. Most (<–key word there) places do provide it and for other businesses, there is a handy dandy “bum gun” provided at your convenience. Still very unsure how I feel about this device. The place that I live in does not provide one so the shower head suffices especially since it hung at waist level anyway, maybe for that reason. Efficiency at its finest! The mirrorless sink is on the outside of the bathroom in the room and it drains directly behind the room outside. Luckily with or without a mirror, I wouldn’t do anything different. Though, have you ever flossed without a mirror? I had not until last week and it took way more brain power than I expected. My dreads will become actual dreads if I don’t take them out soon but everyone in this town recognizes me because of them so I’m very indifferent about removing them. So that’s the gist of my little home for the next couple months! At the moment, I am eating out for every meal and I hate it so I will start to try to make at least a couple meals with the little camping stove which will probably prove more than difficult but I am up for the challenge!
Another question you are probably thinking. What the heck are you doing out there? And my answer would be the same as it was before I left. Good question. I am still trying to figure that out. We all know that I am used to being insanely busy that I don’t have any extra time. Well, now I have the opposite. Originally I applied for a diving internship out here where I would be the social media manager for a dive shop and rather than getting paid, I would receive unlimited diving and probably my divemaster. I wasn’t sure I could do the heavy social media thing for 6 months and I would be placed on a different island than I was already living so I didn’t pursue it further. I do have to say that I am super jealous of the friends out here who are with Paradise Interns and get to dive every day if they wanted to (and they get breakfast and lunch on the boat)! l have been on two dive days and already spent 4 million rupiah, which is still a crazy good deal, but not something I can do for the next 4 months. I thought maybe when I got out here, I could find some work at the dive shops cleaning gear or the shop, and in return, I could dive with them. But even to work at a dive shop out here as a foreigner you have to be an instructor, a step above divemaster because the locals get priority. Totally understandable and the last thing I want to do is upset the people in this town. So now I am looking for things to get involved in because I get stir crazy on the days that I am not out diving. I am unable to really get in the water unless I go out on the boat which is a huge bummer. There is a small beach that I have come across that is my new hammock/yoga/possible silks spot but I can only spend so much time there. Every Friday there is a beach cleanup with a company out here called Trash Hero that will be a part of my weekly routine. They bring local school children out to help clean up different areas around the island to protect our oceans and environment. They also have free water fill stations at different shops in town, if you have the water bottle, to encourage the disuse of plastic. I also think I will do my divemaster here. Rescue was always in the plan and I didn’t ever want to do my divemaster unless I could work it off like some other countries do. But the diving is incredible out here and that would make the most sense, rather than paying for my diving by the day. I also think I would become such a better diver because of the currents and navigating the huge number of dive spots that are out here. If I wanted to pursue a job in diving, this would be the best experience for it. The diving out here is more than amazing and I won’t try to describe it to you this time because, well frankly, words would not do it justice. I have seen black and white tip sharks, spotted eagle rays, blue spot stingrays, turtles, thousands of fish species new and old, and wonderful coral that is so beautiful it looks fake. Two days of diving (6 dives) and I’m hooked! I have also met some really cool people on the boat. Anna, from Sweden, was my buddy for the week! We met on the first dive day, with Uber Scuba and she ended up extending her trip there from 3 days to a week because she fell in love with the place. Sadly, we have now parted but that is another friend to meet up with somewhere around the world 🙂 Highly recommend anyone to take a visit out here, especially all the scuba divers. You won’t regret it!
Pro tip: check every atm for card scammers! I am currently down $5000 from two days worth of transactions being made on my card when I used a new atm and forgot to check. No worries, I have contacted my bank and they are making a claim but it definitely happens and they are very sneaky so I’m glad I was able to catch it sooner rather than later. I had gotten a text from my bank asking if I had made the transaction *as I was walking away from the atm so naturally, I replied yes* and once my bank cleared it, that same day 33 more transactions of the same amount were made without my bank contacting me because I had said yes the first time. Props to them though because they did a very good job of confusing me and my bank to thinking nothing was wrong. No reason to fret because I can’t change the past and what has already happened. I have another card and will be extra careful about the places I use it.
The Travelling Cookie 