As the boat parked on the shore just off Padar island, I could already appreciate why so many people praise Padar island so highly. The clarity of the turquoise water and the purity of the sand just beneath us as we were crossing the little wooden bridge to get from the boat to the island … ah, they were just unreal. At that point, I hadn’t really been to an island so isolated and secluded before so I hadn’t really experienced a place so so beautiful, yet so deserted and untouched.
I was happy! You know, that pure “Ah, I can’t believe I’m actually here” kinda happy.
I was in the middle of the sea, far away from the busy land, the bullshit, the haggling, the dirty streets and the nonstopping motorbikes bursting fumes into the air. I was with just a few people, maybe 15 altogether and we had the whole island entirely to ourselves. Even though we got to call it ours just a short hour or so, for humble non-pretentious me, that was more than enough!
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WHERE IS PADAR ISLAND?
Pulau Padar is actually only about 30km away from Labuan Bajo. It took us around an hour to get to it but even though the distance might not be huge, it still feels pretty isolated and totally pristine.
Padar island is part of the Komodo National Park, which actually I didn’t know until I took the trip. Back in the days, in fact, the island was home to the famous Komodo dragons which were sadly driven away from the island due to lack of food and increased hunting.
To get to Padar island you would need to get a boat tour either on a daily trip from Labuan Bajo or a liveaboard with one of the many agent companies that will happily harass you with their offers as soon as you step foot on the main street in Labuan Bajo 😀 .
WHEN IS BEST TO VISIT PADAR ISLAND?
When I visited Padar island, I took a daily trip which got us to the island just after sunrise. Sure it would have been nice to see the sunrise from the island but unfortunately, that’s a perk you could get only on a liveaboard trip.
For me personally, the views were breathtaking enough to leave me wow’ing with excitement even though we didn’t visit during the golden hour. However, if you have the time and budget to do a liveaboard, definitely do that as it’ll almost guarantee you to be at the top of Padar either for sunrise or sunset and I can just imagine how much more mesmerising the views from the top would be. But like I said the views we got were pretty impressive already, just look at the photos …
WHAT IS PADAR ISLAND LIKE?
Padar island is a small hilly island surrounded by three turquoise bays with different coloured sand beaches – pearly white, black and light pink. But unless you do the short 30 min hike to the highest point on the island, you would never know.
When we visited in August, Padar island felt very desert-y due to the lack of rain during the months following the end of the rainy season. Different shades of brown were covering the majority of the land, making up for a surreal contrast with the beaches and the intense blue colour of the water.
I have however seen lush green covered photos of Padar island during the rainy season between November and April so depending on what colour you wish to see the island in, you might have to plan according to the seasons.
THE PADAR ISLAND HIKE
As soon as we got off the boat, there were two main trails we could take to go for a little hike. The path to the left was the one that everyone immediately rushed off to which is also the famous route surprisingly covered, at least initially, with manmade stairs. You could totally tell that it was the beaten path.
So what do we do? We go to the right 😀 ! Of course. We headed to the right first to take on the views from the somewhat lower hill on the island but mainly to give the other people time to hike up, take in the views and start going down by the time we headed to the hot spot.
Trekking on the right path was tricky because there was no real path so we had to hold onto dried out grass, rocks and anything else we could to keep us moving forward and up. It was challenging but that made it all the fun. It took us about 20 min to get to the top and indulge the views from this different angle. I sure hadn’t seen photos of Padar from this particular spot so I was pretty pleased with the somewhat unanticipated good views.
As we only had about an hour or so to spend on the island, we rushed down after a few minutes and a dozen photos to hike up to the popular viewpoint. After about 30 min of hiking up, constantly turning around to take a photo and sipping on water as the sun was starting to make it more and more challenging to keep on going, we had finally reached the top.
Now that was a moment I’ll remember forever! The views were like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. So many different shades of blue and brown were covering everything in the horizon, wherever I was turning my head to. It was beautiful, tranquil, almost unimaginable and an absolute privilege to be standing up there indulging on views I once only dreamt of seeing with my very own eyes. It was a humbling moment of realisation that there is truly nothing more powerful and beautiful than the sheer nature and its unreal creations.
My friend I met in Java and who I did the Komodo tour with had to literally tell me a few times to hurry up unless I wanted to be left behind. As I was spinning my head around trying to encapsulate all the views in my memory, a number of times the thought of being left behind here didn’t seem that bad at all. But remembering that even the Komodo dragons were driven away from the island due to starvation, I unwillingly started to make my way down 😀 , stopping again every few steps to take a photo.
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