And there, alongside the cafe, surrounded by about 30 adventurers, were two apparently sleeping komodo dragons. This, as it turns out, was not looking for dragons - it was killing time. Not once did he ever appear to be looking at anything else than the trail itself. My wife and I, independently of each other, noticed that the guide was only looking at the trail and not scanning each side of the trail for the dragons. After a short introduction to the island by a National Park guide, he began to lead us on an ‘hour’ trek looking for the dragons. Most of the tours follow the exact same itinerary. My wife and I took a daily tour package to six different sites from Labuan Bajo. The dragons are cool, but not $1000 per person cool. We had a great time, but I would find it hard to try to tell people it would be worth going if the fee is raised to $1000 per person. Hopefully the Indonesian government chooses to keep the entrance fee for the park at a reasonable rate. ![]() Business would probably dry up if the majority of people traveled all the way there and never laid eyes on a live dragon. It's so difficult to see them in the wild (especially with a group of other noisy, chattering tourists spooking them away), they want people to not feel cheated and walk away without ever laying eyes on a live dragon. I kind of understand why the locals bait them and train them to hang around the restaurant. They will only see the ones laying in the shade next to the restaurant where they have basically been baited to be there. The guide kept repeating that we were really lucky to see a dragon, which kind of reinforces my belief that the majority of people won't see them while walking around. Anyway, we got some great videos and pictures of the dragon before it decided to turn and walk off into the woods. The dragon walked up to the cameras and inspected them, as well as licked them. He had us back up down the trail and did the same thing with a couple other cameras we had. He grabbed some sticks from alongside the trail and propped my camera up taking a video. He quickly told me to open the camera app on my phone and give it to him. About halfway through the walk, the ranger pointed down the trail and we saw a dragon walking towards us. ![]() We got to see lots of wild pigs, deer, and Guinea hens. ![]() He explained a lot about the dragons and the other animals on the island. The park ranger that was assigned to us did a good job giving a history of the park and the island. Having read other reviews where people basically said you won't see the dragons on the trails, only laying next to the restaurant, I didn't want to take the very long trail, so we opted for the medium distance trek. Upon arrival at the island, you get to pick one of three trails to walk. ![]() About a week prior to our trip to Bali we decided to go ahead and book the side trip to Flores. We visited in the middle of March 2020 and the fees were still roughly 400,000 IDR per person. We were hesitant to book any flights to Labuan Bajo or a place to stay because of all the uncertainty surrounding the visitor fees for Komodo National Park. We were going to be in Indonesia so we decided we wanted to see the dragons as this might be the only time we would ever get the chance.
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