Two islands east of Bali, the water turns a deeper blue, the hills go dry and golden, and dragons — actual dragons — walk the beaches. Labuan Bajo is the doorway to Komodo, and it is having its moment. Go before the moment finishes.
A decade ago this was a fishing town with one road and a jetty. Today the harbour fills with wooden boats bound for the national park, and the sunsets have developed a following of their own. It is still early, though — the crowds are a fraction of Bali's, and the wild things remain genuinely wild.
Padar, before the heat
The climb up Padar island starts in the dark and takes half an hour. From the ridge, three bays curve away in three directions — one white sand, one grey, one rose-pink — under hills that look drawn rather than grown. It is the single best sunrise in Indonesia, and we do not say that lightly.
Komodo does not feel like a day trip from anywhere. It feels like the edge of the map, ninety minutes from your morning coffee.
The dragons
On Komodo and Rinca, the world's largest lizards — three metres, armoured, unbothered — own the trails. You walk with a ranger, at a respectful distance, and the encounter is nothing like a zoo: it is their island, and everyone present understands the arrangement.
Pink sand, turquoise water
Crushed red coral turns the beach at Pantai Merah softly pink, and the reef just offshore is some of the healthiest easy snorkelling in the country — turtles, mantas on a good day, coral gardens a few kicks from the sand. Afternoons here do not need improving.
Boat or land?
You can base in a harbour hotel and day-trip by fast boat, or sleep on the water aboard a wooden phinisi and wake up already inside the park. Both are good; the boat is the one people talk about for years. Either way, three days is the right length — two feels clipped, four starts repeating.
Our Labuan Bajo journey is taking shape now, priced plainly like everything we run. If you want to be among the first, say so — early travellers get first pick of the boat.