Indonesia has 2 amazing, endangered animals... the orangutan, which I saw last month & the huge Komodo dragon. (Remember, the thing that ate Sharon Stone's ex?) Of course, had to see them too. With time running out on my visa, flew east to Flores, the island next to Komodo.

First day found 2 Irish girls who'd chartered a boat & joined them for a day of island hoping & snorkeling. Brightly colored fishes, electric blue starfish & tons of coral. Wonderful!

Next day got on a boat for a 3 day cruise back. Not exactly a cruise boat, pretty small... & it was just myself & 3 Dutch couples. Unfortunately, conversations quickly slipped out of English & into Dutch... so I mostly hung with the crew... who were all too eager to entertain the single girl. Got to drive the boat, sit on the mast, hourly neck massages & nightly serenades.

But what I really enjoyed, was just sitting on the bow, watching the flying fish & a million different islands pass by. That whole area of Indonesia is amazing... bright green islands, both big & small, with rolling hills, the occasional volcano & everywhere, turquoise blue water... a true tropical paradise. But what struck me the most, it was all uninhabited... hundreds & hundreds of miles of nothing but nature.

The boat took us snorkeling everyday & we got to play Tarzan over a waterfall, but, by far, the highlight was a trip to Rinca, the island next to Komodo & home to a slightly larger dragon than those found on Komodo island. And these guys were big! They're around 10ft long & weigh about 300lbs! We saw 5 just sunning themselves & another 3 while trekking around the island. Nothing terribly exciting... no wild chases or big kills but still, way cool!!