Rather than as a day trip from Labuanbajo, I visited Komodo National Park over the third and fourth days of a four-day boat trip from Lombok to Flores. While I wholeheartedly recommend this experience for viewing the aquatic elements of the inscribed area, it is absolutely not the best way to see the Komodo dragons if that is your primary reason for visiting the national park.

The tour stopped at a few standard beach-stops along the route within the National Park, along with up to eight other tourist boats. Some of these stops allowed for fine but not exceptional snorkeling, with patches of coral and a lot of fish, but others were stunning. For me, Komodo National Park is a 5-star destination solely due to its manta ray population. The advertising material for the boat trip promised a designated 'Manta Point', which I cynically assumed probably wouldn't actually yield any mantas. I was overjoyed to be wrong, with three of the large, graceful creatures spotted immediately. Snorkelling above these weird fish in 6-10 metres of clear water was a magical experience.

In stark contrast, the dragons were a pretty disappointing conclusion to the cruise. I am not sure if we received poor service from the park rangers due to us being a group of 30 backpackers, or if other groups departing from Flores get similar treatment. Maybe it was because we visited Komodo Island, rather than the more popular and accessible Rinca Island, as no other visitors were present. Upon arriving in the mid-afternoon, we were led to a lizard lying motionless outside one of the headquarter buildings. When it didn't react to our presence, the guide hit it repeatedly on the head with a stick until it walked away for our photo opportunities, which felt mean-spirited. After this, we walked to a 'waterhole' which held another stationary lizard, and then walked back the same way. The entire round trip was maybe 40 minutes, slightly different from the map at the headquarters offering a range of loop-walks from 1.5 to 3 hours that clearly we didn't get the option to follow.

While I understand that the weather, and the fact that dragons only need to eat once a month, meant that they weren't active, the general mood on the boat leaving was one of conspiracy, with most people deciding that the rangers clearly drug the lizards to keep them docile at set readily-accessible locations. This is obviously rather implausible, but nonetheless indicates the general disappointment of the group.