The first leg of my trip was vacation. I went to Indonesia, flying into Bali where I met up with my friend Luke. We spent one night in the Denpasar area near the airport in a very nice guesthouse, then flew out the next day to Labuan Bajo, on the island of Flores.
Labuan Bajo is the gateway to Komodo National Park, and also the takeoff point for some really great diving. We took advantage of both, diving our first day and then taking a 2 day/1 night boat trip that included tours of Rinca, Komodo, and Padar Islands, as well as trips to a couple of nice beaches and snorkeling. I did a "discovery dive," since it was my first time, where the instruction basically babysits you through the whole thing, and it was absolutely amazing. The reefs we saw were simply breathtaking (not withstanding my initial struggles to figure out how to breathe through the regulator).
The boat trip was also excellent, although the Komodo sightings had a bit of a "packaged experience" feel to them. Although I went to see the dragons, I think the highlight was really the snorkeling. We snorkeled near a famous pink beach on Komodo Island (not so pink now that tourists have stolen a lot of the pink sand), and at Manta Point. The reef near the pink beach was gorgeous and very close to the surface, so snorkeling could give you the full experience. At Manta Point, we lucked out and saw a huge number of manta rays. They are just astonishingly large.
Once back in Labuan Bajo, we rented a motorbike to head into the mountains a bit and see a waterfall, Cunca Wulang. Our guide was very friendly and spent most of the walk to and from the falls teaching us little bits of Bahasa Indonesia. He also showed us where we could jump off the cliff into the gorge, from a height of about 8 m or so? It was highly exhilarating... After that, it was back to the airport to return to Bali.