Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

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Labuan Bajo: Signed up for 3-day dive trip

Breakfast was waiting outside our room when we arose this morning. We had egg sandwiches and tea.

We went into town to talk to two French people who operate a diving boat. A local told us that the French boat was returning from a diving trip today. We found Jerome and his father, the French boat people, in a local dive shop. Jerome was waiting to take Lisa, his scuba-diving client, to the airport.

Lisa was a walking advertisement for Jerome's and his father's diving operation. Lisa and her husband have been diving all over the world and they said that Flores is the best. They went on a 10-day trip with Jerome and his father. The diving, food, and service was excellent. Lisa said it was hard to come back to the noisy land life after being at peace on the sea for 10 days.

We talked with Jerome about a three-day diving trip for my dad, my sister, and me. My mom has yet to earn a diving license. Jerome mapped out an itinerary for the three days. We'll dive three times each day. They usually charge US$100 per day per diver and US$50 for a non-diver. We arranged to pay US$1000 total for the trip.

We felt very comfortable with Jerome and his father after talking with them for an hour. They're from France and they've been working on boats and diving in Indonesia for nine years. They're based in Sulawesi but they sail to various islands in Indonesia for a few months every summer. This is the first year that they've made a base of Labuan Bajo for a month or so.

Jerome was a serious amateur cyclist from age 15 to 25 or so. He raced in Category 2 and would have been professional if sponsors had openings.

Jerome's father built two boats in Sulawesi: Ikan Terbang (Flying Fish) and Ikan Putih (White Fish). They sailed here in Ikan Terbang, and that's the boat that will take us diving. The father modeled Ikan Terbang on a fast pilot boat in the San Francisco Bay called "Schpoon."

Jerome's father explained what pilot boats are. When a big ship enters a bay like the one by San Francisco, the ship needs a local captain to pilot the ship into the bay. The big ship waits offshore as pilot boats race to the ship. The first pilot boat to reach the ship gets the job of guiding it in.

We visited Ikan Terbang with Jerome after sorting out the diving itinerary. He showed us the beds, the toilet and shower, the dining table, the kitchen, and the deck. We tried on wetsuits, fins, masks, and BCDs (buoyancy control devices).

We couldn't find a place to access the Internet as we walked through town. A few places pointed us to a store named Apik, but the store owner said that his Internet Service Provider wasn't working.

We rode a minivan taxi back to the New Baju Beach Hotel. It cost 5000 rupiah (50 cents U.S.) for the four of us.

Back at the hotel, we swam in the ocean, showered, and read on the beach in shade of an umbrella-like tree. The breeze on the beach feels great on a hot day.

We met a computer science professor named Pierre Bonzon from Switzerland on the beach. He's been teaching computer science at a university in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the last year. He failed two thirds of his students in the first semester and ended up teaching a small group of nine or ten dedicated students for teh rest of the year.

We had dinner at Borobudur with Jerome and his father and got to know them better. They're anti-materialistic and they're happy to be outside of France. They love the slow, peaceful life on the sea. Jerome's father returns to France every two years and Jerome has only been back once in nine years. They love Indonesia for its people and its climate. They never took Indonesian lessons but they speak the language fluently.

We arranged for a boat to take us to the nearby island of Rinja to see the Komodo Dragons tomorrow morning. Komodo Dragons are the largest species of lizard in the world. I think they're about two meters or six feet long.

posted by Li at 3:53 AM