It was hot, the kind of hot that makes you pray you be instantly teleported to a tundra somewhere in the Arctic stark naked. It was 5 p.m., and still the sun beat down on us without any mercy, watched us wince and squirm with uneasiness as we listened to the Komodo National Park Rangers give us a small briefing on the trekking options.
These were the funniest looking rangers I had ever seen. I know there are uniformed officials through Indonesia; I have seen them all over – police, immigration, security guards – even lifeguards. Yet these park rangers donned jeans, t-shirts and thongs or some kind of shoes that were not made for running from dragons.
Yes, our lives were in their hands. Founded in 1980, Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is made up of several islands, the most famous being Komodo and Rinca. Additionally, the park also serves as the last sanctuary for the endangered Komodo Dragons – who roam the park’s islands of Komodo, Rinca, Nusa Kode and Gili Motang – and is one of the world’s most sought-after dive sites. Essentially, Komodo National Park is a destination not to be missed in Indonesia. 
Trekking Komodo Island can be done through a variety of ways, from day trips to overnight trips where you stay on the island near the ranger station. I was hiking Komodo Island as part of my itinerary for the Komodo Boat Trip from Lombok to Flores, which including stops at Komodo and nearby Rinca for some Komodo dragon spotting. I learned that the rangers receive about four months of training on Rinca Island before becoming an official ranger. As we started walking, I asked one of the rangers beside me if he was scared in his first few days on the job. “Of course,” he said with a laugh. “First time I see dragon, I feel very shock! Now it’s okay.” As a means of protection, the rangers carry around these forked staffs that are not even in the slightest bit pointed. I am assuming that they would go for the dragon’s neck and capture its head somehow with them, but I am not sure how airtight the method is. Ultimately, I felt entirely unprotected walking through thick jungle where any dragon can hide and canopy itself and leap out when it smelled my terrified skin. There are a few options for day trippers looking to go out trekking on Komodo Island, with a 1 hour walk, a 1.5 hour walk or a 2 and a bit hour walk being the most popular trekking routes. Many in my group wanted to do the 2 hour walk but did not strongly protest when we were told an hour would be best. The sun was too strong and the day was too hot; the likelihood of seeing a Komodo in the wild would be minimal. A group of 23 or so of us set out with maybe three to four guides, and along the way they showed us a photo of a ranger who was recently attacked. The attack took place about three weeks ago whilst the ranger was sleeping and happened close to the ranger station. Because the saliva is ridden with bacteria, a Komodo’s bite can be lethal if not treated immediately. The closest hospital where victims can receive proper care is in Bali, which is around two hours by regular flight. 
We walked through most of the park without seeing much of anything at all, perhaps a deer here and there that seemed so incredibly out of place on this Indonesian island but made me reflect on how exactly food chains work: Dragon gets hungry, dragon eats deer. Yet still – everything made me jumpy. The slightest ruffle, a sneeze, the crack of a branch under someone’s foot and I was 10 feet in the air. Though I was walking through the park with trained and “armed” rangers and a group of 20 or so other backpackers, I felt vulnerable and utterly frightened. Along the tour I learned that there are a fair amount of villagers actually living on Komodo Island – well over 3,000 to be exact . As we walked through the forested jungle, I wondered how any could live here. Are they basically born running from the dragons? When we got back to the ranger station area, we came across three dragons that were basically led to the spot where they laid by some chicken meat tied to these trees.The dragons were not doing much when we first saw them – just lying there still as the air. 
There we were, snapping away and taking dragon selfies, the rangers directing us to the absolute closest point. 
At some stage or another, and I am not entirely too sure what or how this happened, I think one of the rangers went to stir the dragons, get them to be a little bit more interesting. It was as if there was some kind of explosion and I was running through the streets trying to find safety. Suddenly, the dragon started slithering forward with such quick determination and anger, moving toward me as if the ground just slipped away underneath it. I do not know exactly how many in the group with me were close by, but I started running toward the water screaming. A few minutes later there were about 8 of us in a delayed and surreal shock, still shaking and hearts racing. When we left Komodo, I was practically running back toward the boat. I wanted to get the hell off the island. Would this even be possible back in the States? To roam freely around an island crawling with dragons. Later that night when I was looking through my photos, I saw that there was a rainbow floating off over the hills in the distance. It had not rained that day, and I had not noticed it when we walked through the park, but it was [Rinca Island] Rinca is one of the other islands in Komodo National Park that is home to the komodo dragon. It is much smaller than Komodo Island, and all together on Rinca there are around 2,000 komodo dragons.
Yet once again we were greeted with some disappointing news that there would not be much of a chance of seeing any dragons out and about given the heat. But to spice things up, this time around we were greeted with the skulls of animals that have been victims of the Komodos, which we were told need to eat only around one time per month. 
Similarly to Komodo Island, there are a couple of walking paths you can take for trekking on Rinca, but our group was not so keen as to do the two- hour tour as we were yesterday. Yet almost immediately we saw a baby komodo dragon walking its way through the bush, and it looked relatively harmless, small and completely underestimated. 
We walked our way around the trail, and throughout the walk I was chatting with the ranger, a man from Flores who is set to get married in October. He told me that he became a ranger because he loves animals and learning about them. He also told me that about the cultures and traditions of Flores, and he explained to me that in order to marry his wife he had to pay a dowry to her family, which included both a financial sum and water buffalos. (It was not an arranged marriage, he said, those are long gone for the most part, but some customs and traditions are still in place.) We ended up at the ranger station at the end of our tour, where we saw again a couple of komodos who were lured to the air by the scent of food that lingers in the air from when the rangers cook. These dragons mostly just laid in place, and these ones who not egged on to get them stirring and moving. Additionally, we saw one dragon off in the distance walking its way through to the entrance to Rinca, and a couple of the guys saw one dragon go after a monkey. The trekking on Komodo and Rinca – more specifically on Komodo – offers some stellar views from atop hills buried deep within the forest, and seeing the komodo dragons is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can not be done anywhere else.
Yet I would soon learn, too, that there is so much more to Komodo National Park than the Komodo Dragons; its underwater world is a treasure chest that had my eyes bursting with excitement.
