Guest Houses in Komodo

I loved being able to explore the islands in the region at our own pace and away from the crowds. We did 2 nights with adventures on the first day on the way to Komodo and on the 2nd day, with a boat drop off to Le Pirate Island on the 3rd morning. Jeki is great at organising an itinerary (but with it being flexible) and at finding animals (found a manta ray from the boat and we quickly jumped in to snorkel with it). And he will organise someone else to be your guide if he has to work. It was great also getting 2 Komodo treks - in the national park (at 8am before any other tourist was on the island) as well as in the afternoon behind the village. The walk behind the village was one of the highlights from our whole Indonesia trip - we saw a huge Komodo Dragon near the village as well as a baby on a high rock. Walking through and seeing the village life was really cool. It was also great learning about the Komodo Dragons from Jeki like how the babies are born April/May and how the mating season starts in June (so less Komodos around then as they are in the hills). The guest room itself is comfortable and clean and by itself on the upper floor of the house. Luckily, the village cools down a bit at night - but there is a little fan in the bedroom. The verandah overlooking the water was actually why we chose this homestay over the others, and it was lovely to sit there and people watch and look at the view. Unfortunately, the water is quite dirty and especially at low tide there is a lot of rubbish, so that does detract from it a lot. Keep in mind that the boats that the villagers hire for guests are little and a bit slow (3hrs from Labuan Bajo to Komodo). They are comfortable to be in but they do feel the waves more and when we had some big waves behind Padar Island we were both pretty anxious. I like boats, so enjoyed everything, but my husband doesn't very much and he gets seasick.