I have just spent the most incredible week on the island of Flores in Indonesia. The island is in the eastern part of the country, very near to the Komodo National Park which protects a group of hundreds of small islands and the waters surrounding them. The park is famous for 2 reasons: the Komodo dragon lives on 2 of these islands, their only natural habitat left; and the marine park is one of the top diving destinations of the world.

Getting to the town of Labuan Bajo on Flores, which is the gateway to the park, was somewhat of a challenge. The weather can be very changeable making boat and air travel unpredictable. It is also peak season in August, making flights extremely full and there is no logical booking system in place! However, on Thursday I boarded a small propeller plane and flew over the spectacular islands of Lombok and Sumbawa to reach Flores. The landing was quite hair-raising as the airstrip is essentially pasted onto the side of a mountain, which the pilot flies straight towards before banking sharply between 2 peaks and landing. It felt like we were about 20 metres from the trees as we were approaching! Thankfully I'm not a nervous flier...

Upon arrival I was approached by one of the many guides, Jeffry, and I negotiated a ride into town and some help finding accommodation, a necessity at this busy time of year. My backpack and I were hoisted onto the back of his motorbike and off we sped down the dusty road into the town of Labuan Bajo. The setting of the town is spectacular, on the water overlooking the many islands of the park. I got a double room in the most basic hotel (5 pounds a night) which was decent and clean and in a brilliant location right on the waterfront. The two guys who ran it were really lovely and looked after me brilliantly, helping me with anything I needed and making sure I had breakfast every day (banana pancakes!), no matter how early my dive boat was leaving. That evening Jeffry drove me up to a restaurant called Paradise where everyone congregates to watch the sunset. It was incredibly beautiful. I also treated myself to a palm wine cocktail - delicious!

The next 4 days I spent diving in the marine park and every single day was better than the one before. It was amazing, the best diving I've ever done. The coral was pristine and so dense you could spend an hour looking at 2 square metres and you wouldn't get bored. There were so many fish it was like an aquarium, and there were a huge number of species I'd never seen before. They were also enormous, like they were on steroids or something! I saw lots of reef sharks and turtles also. The highlight, however, was on my last dive when I got to see manta rays. Ever since I was little I've wanted to swim with them - it was a dream come true. I don't have words to describe how magical it was. To me they are one of the most beautiful and graceful creatures in the world, and to see them in the wild and so close (one swam over my buddy's head 3 metres from me!) was just breath-taking. I will never forget it.

My final day I spent dragon-spotting on the island of Rinca. I had met another girl at my hotel who wanted to go so we hired a local boat to take us to the island, about 2 hours away. We spent 3 hours on the island looking for dragons and trekking across the arid hills. We saw several in the wild as well as lots of monkeys and a couple of water buffalo. The dragons actually kill and eat the water buffalo which is amazing when you see how big they are! Mind you, the biggest dragon we saw was 3 metres long and looked seriously dangerous. The guides are very careful about how close you can get. It was fantastic seeing the ones in the wild, as well as being able to watch up close the lazy ones which lie under the huts of the guesthouse. Most of them congregate under the kitchen hut - even though they're not fed they're drawn by the smell. On the way back, the boat stopped at a little uninhabited island with beautiful white sand where we sorkelled and lay on our private beach for the rest of the afternoon - bliss!

I am really sad to be leaving Flores as I've had the most incredible week. The diving was sensational, the dragons were awesome and I met so many lovely people. Diving is fantastic when you travel alone because it is really easy to meet people, it's an instant community.

I'm heading to Sabah in Malaysian Borneo next, so much more to look forward to! First stop, Kuala Lumpur.