In Reply to: Bali, Lombok, Gilis and Kodomo in10 Days posted by Sean on Friday, 27. August 1999 at 18:27 Bali Time:
Komodo is not the easiest place in the world to get to and I suspect you will get hung up in the Gilis and have a hard time getting there but here are a few options.
The easiest way to get there from Gili is to book a sailing boat trip which takes 4 days 4 nights and costs about 350,000Rp. The boats stop for snorkeling along the way at a variety of places and you spend one day treking on Komodo and Rinca (where the dragons are) before finishing your trip in Flores. Flores is lovely and worth a look, but if time is an issue you can head straight back on a 1 and 1/2 day overland trip or see if you an find a fishing boat that's going back. At minimum this will take 6-7 days. The other way to go is fly from Mataram to La Bonbaju in Flores and arrange a boat over to Komodo and then fly back. So, those are the options. I took Reef Expedition which was much better than I expected and they leave Saturdays and Wednesdays. Have fun!