This story begins in a pretty strange place. A non-place, actually. The virtual realm, the elusive land of left and right swipes, of shirtless mirror selfies and gruellingly unoriginal bios („Here for a good time not a long time“ (please stop)). 

Well, yep, I met one of my favorite people in the world on tinder. Balinese tinder, to be exact. 

I’d been back in Bali for a while, mindlessly swiping with no intention of meeting up with anyone, until a blue haired girl with a camel in her profile pic asked if I wanted to get coffee. 

Which is how I found myself at Milk & Madu one morning, making plans to go stay on a boat with a complete stranger for a week. Oh, and we were leaving the next day. 

Which sounds a bit.. spontaneous? Dumb? Insane even? (You call it insanity I call it having an adventurous spirit;))

Well, we both agreed we were sort of sick of Canggu and Komodo seemed like the perfect antidote. 

Look don’t get me wrong, I love Canggu. But it tends to suck you into its comfortable little bubble, and before you know it, you’ve spent months in a what feels like a fog consisting of Bintangs, way too much traffic, long nights at Pretty Poison and Mason, and, if you’re one of the motivated ones, the occasional, frustratingly crowded surf. 

So bright and early the next morning, (after almost missing it) we were on a plane to Labuan Bajo.

Since we hadn’t had much time to plan the trip, all we really had was the WhatsApp of a random boat captain, and naturally that guy’s office was our first stop.  

Alright before we get into all that, I should tell you a little bit about Hazel. Born and raised in the Philippines, she is now a musician/ freelance travel consultant, so basically, she travels for a living. She changes her hair color pretty much weekly, brings her ukulele absolutely everywhere, and can barter better than any Indian street vendor I’ve ever seen.  

Those talents happened to come in handy when she somehow managed to serenade said boat captain into giving us a massive discount on a private boat + crew. The boat tour was starting the next day, so we had a day to explore Labuan Bajo. Which we didn’t do much of, opting to hang out at our pretty little hilltop hotel with a stunning view over the bay instead. 

We had a whole lotta exploring ahead of us after all. 

Part 2 coming soon!