Saya Jatuh Cinta dengan Taman Nasional Komodo

The Map

Akhir Oktober tahun lalu salah seorang teman mengajak berkunjung ke Pulau Komodo, dan tanpa berpikir panjang saya langsung meng-iyakan ajakan tersebut. Wow, Pulau Komodo! Kalau tidak sekarang ya kapan lagi? Berhubung biaya yang harus kami sediakan tergolong banyak, maka trip ini kami jadwalkan di bulan Maret, tanggal 22 - 25 tahun berikutnya.   

Berdasarkan penelitian (ya kali deh), salah satu cara termurah dan memuaskan untuk menikmati keindahan kepulauan komodo adalah dengan live aboard. Informasi mengenai live aboard ini banyak sekali terdapat di internet, dan ada beberapa tipe trip yang ditawarkan dan kebanyakan adalah diving trip yang pastinya lebih menguras kocek. Kami memutuskan mengambil regular live aboard (2malam menginap di kapal dan 1 malam menginap di Pulau Kanawa), pick up/drop off point di Airport Labuan Bajo untuk 20orang. Biaya yang kami keluarkan juga tergolong murah, hanya 1500K IDR tiap orangnya. Dikarenakan jadwal penjemputan di Airport Labuan Bajo agak pagi, saya dan beberapa orang teman memutuskan untuk menginap semalam di Bali dan berangkat menuju Labuan Bajo menggunakan pesawat keesokan paginya. 

2 Weeks Indochina, What a trip! -Part 3-

Wow, third part! Okay, I did told you that this day is a horrible one? Well, there’s a story to complete it. Since we bought bus ticket from an agent, so they gave us transfer to the bus stop. But the crazy thing is, the tuk2 driver doesn't have any idea where’s the bus stop location is! So he took us (me, my friend and 2 other tourist) wander around the city searching for the freakin’ bus stop! Feeling a bis desperate because we have passed the bus departure time, all of us can only pray and leave it to the driver. But thank GOD, we finally got to the bus stop and succeed cathcing the bus to HCMC. Made it to the bus, now it’s time to sleep! Yes, I spend most of the time sleeping in the bus because I knew that we’re gonna facing something big tonight, so I need my energy.

We reached HCMC at 1900-ish, the good thing is that the bus stop is located nearby our former guesthouse, which means only few feet away from our HCMC-SR bus company! Aware that we might need an english speaker Vietnamese, we walk to our former guesthouse and ask for help to the receptionist. She was shocked when we told the story and agreed to help us. After few phonecall, she told us that we can go and ask for our money at 2300 when the driver came to the office, which means another 3.5hrs! So, we decided to get some dinner around the corner and look for wifi so we can contact our family back in Indonesia. Around 2230 we walk to the bus company, yet unfortunately the driver hadn’t arrive yet. So we wait there and try to calm ourselves. After waiting for a while, the driver finally arrived, and somehow by the he talked, I sensed that he didn’t trust us. He kept on saying “there’s only 2 of you, why are you asking us to return for 3 people?”. My friend so pissed, she talked back to the driver with high tone, and by the way she looked, I knew she’s really angry with the driver. It’s already past midnight, I really tired but it seems there’s no good end in this “gimme back my money” drama. So, I decided to take over and talked to the driver, and not so long after my explanation, he gave us our money back… YEAAAYY!! Not long after that, we’re on our way to the Airport. It’s passed midnight, the airport is closed, so the only place we can rest was the chair in front of the terminal. We manage to sleep for 3-4hrs that night, and continue it during the flight to Hanoi.