I'm trying something new here by uploading a video to this site. It may take forever but lets see if it works. If it does, I hope you are as amazed at how magnificent the Komodo is as I am. The video starts slow because I had to position the camera far enough away from the dragon to be safe. They are wild, they do attack, they are poisonous and they do kill people. The last attack was in February. This massive dragon stopped on the trail to look at the park ranger who was with me, I had my chance and took it. I have no way of editing out the minute or so where the dragon looks frozen on the trail looking at me and the ranger but, if you wait, you'll see him walk right over my camera with the ranger and myself in the background.

So, what else.... I'm at this point in my trip where I've decided to recharge. It's so peaceful here in Gilli, the food is good, my room is clean, I have a hammock on my porch, a big bed, nice shower (built for smaller people because I am a giant here :) My bungalow is surrounded by vines, jungle vegetation and hundreds of wild flowers- this could be the perfect retreat. The people are great here too. They follow a chieftain law here before a government law so some pretty strange things happen here like for one, There are no motorized vehicles except for boats. Instead, taxis (or Taksi) are actually horse drawn carriages- Nice! Marijuana is still not legal here but it's tolerated and everybody local sells it where in the rest of Indonesia trafficking can easily put you in the grave also I don't get this but the pot sellers whisper in the streets but at almost any restaurant or bar you can buy a magic mushroom shake (so if you ever come here and get a side of sauteed mushrooms, ask if they are magic! So, you can imagine that the locals are somewhat Rastafarian islanders. They're also Muslim. There was a party till 430 at rudy's beach pub and disco last night that got pretty wild. The guys who work at y hotel were there late but had to work this morning early. When I saw them at coffee (when I got up)they were looking pretty rough.. one of the said that he needed to go to the mosque!

My plan right now is to sip fruity bevs, study Indonesian, write if it comes to me and soak in the sun. Tough life, I know. But, the next leg of my journey will be to hike an active volcano and hopefully travel to Sumatra to see Lake Toba and Orangutans