Komodo island

History :
In 1910 the Dutch named the island in the southern province of East Nusa Tenggara is the nickname of Komodo Island. This story begins with Lieutenant Steyn va Hens Broek who tries to prove statements about the presence of Dutch troops dragon looking like a monster on the island.

Reports of his men about the giant lizard was not a figment. Steyn then killed one of these dragons and bring documentation to the Museum and Botanical Garden in Bogor to be investigated.

Komodo Island is a beautiful charm make this island worth visiting. The main attractions of this island is a close look at the only natural habitat of one of ancient animals that survived for three hundred million years.
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A tense and exciting journey you will meet and spend lots of money, here are some alternative way to Komodo Island. Arriving in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital, you can get on a plane headed Ende, and the journey continues for ten hours by minibus to the town Labuhanbajo which is the gateway to Komodo Island or the easiest option to reach Labuan Bajo region is to use the airport flight path Ngurai Rai Denpasar, Bali (available 2-3 times a flight Denpasar-Labuan Bajo every day). Travelers can also use a flight route Kupang Labuan Bajo-flight service even though this is only available once a week.

There is also a sea route, the ferry from Sape NTB ready to Labuanbajo or mengantarakan You can also use the ship Pelni from Sheet Harbour, Lombok (1 time in 2 weeks).

From Labuanbajo, a city located in the westernmost part of Flores Island is the journey continues to Komodo Island by speed boat about two hours. Each speed boat for rent with the price of one million dollars back home or you can use the cheaper timber ship, certainly takes a long time.

To get into the area every person charged 15 dollars for foreign tourists and 75 thousand dollars for local tourists for three days.

On this island you are free to look closely dragons are the largest lizard species in the world with an average body length reaches 3.13 meters and weighing up to 165 kg was free to roam.
In addition, you also can watch the various activities of these rare animals, like dragons mating occurs between May to August, the Komodo dragon was eating the deer, goats, pigs and watch the dragons bask in the street and in the branches of trees in the morning.

Komodo Island animals live and breed well. And the most frightening threats are human beings, because human beings hunt deer or wild boar, favorite food of this reptile. Now, the island's only harbor at least one thousand two hundred, dragons. In addition to the P Park, tourists can find dragons on the other islands are still covered in the Komodo National Park which is the island of Rinca and Padar, so that their overall number to approximately 2500 individuals.

The island became a national park was also stores a variety of exotic flora wood by local people Sepang which is used as a medicine and dye clothes, this nitak tree or sterculia oblongata in the believe is useful as medicines and seeds are tasty and delicious like peas.

The Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is an endangered species which can only be found in the Komodo National Park (KNP) in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Because of the unique and rare nature of this animal, KNP was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.

The park includes three major islands, Komodo, Rinca and Padar, and numerous smaller islands together totaling 603 km2 of land. The total size of Komodo National Park is presently 1,817 km2. Proposed extensions of 25 km2 of land (Banta Island) and 479 km2 of marine waters would bring the total surface area up to 2,321 km2.At least 2500 Komodos live in this area. Large dragons are usually three meters long and weigh up to 90 kg. Their habitat has beautiful panoramic views of savannas, rain forests, white beaches, beautiful corals, and clean blue seas. In this area, you can also find horses, wild buffalo, deer, wild boar, snakes, monkeys, and various types of birds.

KNP has a rich and amazing underwater sea biotica. Divers claim that Komodo waters are one of the best diving sites in the world. It has fascinating underwater scenery. You can find 385 species of beautiful corals, mangrove forests, and seaweeds as a home for thousands of fish species, 70 types of sponges, 10 types of dolphins, 6 types of whales, green turtles and various types of sharks and stingrays.

The sea around Komodo Island offers vibrant colors and exotic marine life which will enchant divers and snorkelers alike as endless schools of fish ride the waterways rushing up from deep sea vents, below them the seabed is covered with a thick carpet of florescent corals and marine invertebrates, an underwater photographers paradise.

The waters that surround the island are turbulent and teeming with unparalled marine life. A marine reserve has recently been established and this reserve is largely undocumented and remains unexplored. Komodo National Park was established in 1980. It was declared as a Man and Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site in 1986. KNP includes three major islands - Komodo, Rinca and Padar and numerous smaller islands together totaling 41,000 ha of land contains 132,000 ha of marine waters.

The corals in Komodo National park are pristine, with Mantas, sharks, turtles, dolphins, dugong, many pelagics, to the tiny pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs, frog fish, you name it we've got it. The sites vary from gentle easy coral slopes to heart pounding adrenalin rides, from the warm waters of the Flores Sea in the north to the chillier waters down south in the Indian Ocean, the underwater terrain is so varied with sheer cliff walls, pinnacles, sandy flat bottoms, underwater plateaus, slopes, caves, swim-throughs, channels, all with varying colours, sizes and types of coral both hard and soft.