Riung with no dragons
Panulirus
CR and KN Williams
Fri 26 Aug 2011 12:58
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8.24S 121.02E
Friday 26th August,2011
Went on a couple of trips here which were fun
although the lorry was not too comfy for the first and the fishing boat made
us very wet on the second.
First was to a village where the children did a
welcome dance which lasted less than 10mins and was excellant. They laid on
delicious food and were altogether charming; sadly I cannot download the video
of the children dancing.
Second trip was to see bats and Komodo
dragons.
 First we had a trip in a fishing boat to see a load
of bats and then went on to see the dragons, getting off the boat was
a trial
 but once on dry land we only had a small mountain
to climb before arriving at the place where the dragons were; their table
manners might leave a little to be desired.
 Getting 50 people to shut up proved an impossible
task and by the time we arrived the dragons had legged it, not to
return.
I wondered whether the guide had a lottery ticket
for the length of time he could keep 50 tourists silent and motionless under the
hot sun; 45 mins was the winner. Thankfully the first to arrive managed to take
a few photographs before the rest of us scared them off.
The Riung anchorage is now almost empty (we decided
to spend an extra day doing almost nothing). The Regent paid a special visit to
one boat (not us) and someone saw the awful Blair's gin palace on their way out.
Thankfully they stayed well away from the hoi poloi and have now gone to earn
another dishonest penny no doubt.
K
Sitting for 45 minutes with wet knickers staring at
a dead goat was interesting 'adventure tourism'. Hopefully we will see some
dragons in Komodo in a few days.We then went to a lovely beach for snorkelling.
Keith has already had his swim for the year so sat in the shade with a
Bintang.
He dumbfounded me by leaping overboard at 6
a.m. to try and free the remnants of rope from our propellor. We both failed and
found a local lad with a scuba tank who spent 25 minutes underwater cutting the
stuff off. His 8 year old daughter Stefi came too and drank some revolting
cherry fanta I bought by mistake and was very happy with a notepad and pen (I
bought lots in Darwin). We keep seeing her round the village and she grins and
waves.
We are probably moving on tomorrow but will be sad
to leave this place. Found a lovely restaurant too.
C
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