Back home, in Labuan Bajo.

Kuta, Bali is still horrible, but it helped a lot that I had a good hotel - Eden, with swimming pool and a nice flatscreen tv with some nice selection of tv channals. So all in all, my one night stand in Kuta was good. Had an early morning, up at 6 (nice practice for Labuan Bajo) and had a breakfast before I took a taxi to the airport. Check in and the rest that follows when one take a plane this days went without any problems. I am also this year flying Sky aviation, as I also did last year. I was so lucky that I got a jet engine this year, nice ride. But I must mention that this jet is a russian made airplane, and the one Sky aviation was testing when they wanted to buy it, they crashed, and if I remenber it right all the passangers on board was killed on impact, that is something to think about when I fly back to Bali with them. Well, I knew it before i was buying the ticket anyway.

To get back to Golo Hilltop and Labuan Bajo is a sort of coming home, this is the third year I am here, and I like it. They have reduced the dinner menu, so it is now necesary to go downtown for some dinners, since it gets a bit boring to only eat nasi goreng or something simular every day, even if it is good. The town is still not really nice, and it is under construction many places, and is sort of unfinnised, but it have growned on me, and I like it more and more. Anyway, it is not the town I am coming for, it is what is outside on the ocean, some of the most fantastic diving in the world. I have not seen anything better anywhere I have been so far.

As the other years am I diving with the company Dive Komodo, I have always been happy with them, so why change when you have a good thing going. I have maybe said it a year ago, but anyway, I heard about Komodo for the first time in 2011 (the year of the eartquake and tsunnami that hit Japan when I was on Gilly T) when I was diving on Gilly Trawangen from a

finnish dive buddy, and later saw his photos of the Manta Rays, and just had to go here myself to experience this diving. Then, in 2012 I found my way down here after my hike to Everest Base camp. Loved the diving here in Komodo, and have just kept on coming back, and I do not think this will be the last time. The diving here is a full day experience, even with only 2 dives a day, it is a long way out to the divesite, and the boat is not going very fast. It does not matter, it is nice to be on the ocean between beautiful islands, the temperatur is more pleasant then on land and one got to do some great diving, every one of them after mine opinion. I have also this year seen manta rays, maybe more than ever before. What was new this year, was that it was a lot of manta rays surface feeding on Manta Point (Karang Makasar), 10-20- 30 or so of them, and I was for the first time of my life snorkeling with them, and they came closer than ever before. I had 3-4 around me, and they kept on coming toward me, only to turn around me with only centimeters clearing. They could have tuched me, but it was like they chosed to awoid my in a gentle way. Just check the video. :-)

It looks pretty amazing, or what do you think? It was.

To be on a dive holliday is just like being at work, but a bit more fun I guess, even if work is good too. The typical day is up at 6:15, breakfast 6:30 with some internett, getting on the scoother at 7:15 for the 5 minutte drive down to the divecentre, walking for the boat around 7:30/7:45, then about 2 hours boat ride out to one dive site. In the water around 10:00 for the first dive, 1 hour under water and 1 hour surface break and moving to an other divesite, 1 more dive for 1 hour, lunch on the boat after dive 2 while we start moving back to Labuan Bajo where we usualle are arund 16:00, which bring me back to the hotel around 16:30. The lunch on the boat is just fantastic, it is made on the boat in a kitchen that most likely are very simplen, but the food coming out of it is great. A good meal after 2 dives the food highlight of the day. Back at Golo Hilltop am I often spending some time by the pool, till around 18:00, shower and dress for dinner that I eat at the hotel or downtown, back to the room around 20:30, prepare the camera and go pro for the day after, blog a bit and go to bed to read for a while, usually around 21:00 and lights out at 22:00, since I by that time are pretty tired. I have been out on the dive boat 5 days in a row here in Labuan Bajo, and got 10 dives out of it, plus the dives I had on Nusa Lembongan during 6 days of diving there I got a total of 22 dives in Indonesia this year. I even got my dive nu. 600 during my last dive here in Labuan Bajo, that took place on Castle Rock in North Komodo at was an amacing shark dive, lots of sharks around, white tip reef sharks and some bigger grey reef sharks out hunting in the current. Great fun!

Today, March 19th, on my last day I went down to the diveshop to pay my bill for the diving. A very nice bill, with a very pleasent discount since I am a sort of frequent diver with Dive Komodo. But, when I was down there I also got some disturbing news about my Sky Aviation flight tomorrow, that they might not fly, or at least they have not been flying out for 2 days. I got help from Ingerid and Judith, the owners of Golo Hilltop, and they called around for my, also tried to get me a new ticket with someone else, but everyone was fully booked, and Sky Aviation said that at the moment will they be flying tomorrow. What happen tomorrow, I will find out tomorrow. But really hope that they are flying, since I have a connecting flight from Denpasar to KL.

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