Labuan Bajo 2023 Part 3 - 3 Days 2 Nights Diving Trip With Chakana Liveaboard

Photo credit: Lukas Rissing @thestudypacker

A live-aboard experience is one of the highlights of Labuan Bajo. It has been on my bucket list for a while but every time I tried to go, something just didn't work out.... until now! The opportunity arose to join an impressive-looking boat this year and the dates matched Miss Kiki's holiday perfectly, how could I not take this rare chance! With less than a month to prepare, we booked plane tickets, accommodations, and whatever equipment we thought we might need. So off we flew to Labuan Bajo with little preparation and a lot of faith. ;) You can read the first and second parts of the trip in my previous posts.

After we checked out of our hotel on the third day, we went to the pier and hopped on to a dinghy that took us to Chakana Liveaboard, a 47-meter-long phinisi-style yacht that was going to be our accommodation for the next two nights. My heart raced as we approached the pretty boat and spotted a group of staff excitedly waving to welcome us on board. As soon as I set foot on Chakana, bagless mind you, they served us fresh towelettes and a Pink Beach mocktail that actually looks like the Pink Beach we saw the day before!

On the dinghy going to Chakana

Staff with welcome drinks and towelettes

The Pink Beach

Outdoor Lounge

Indoor Lounge

We were gathered in the indoor lounge area along with 13 other guests who were going to be our shipmates for the journey. First, we had a welcome briefing and room assignment. The staff efficiently distributed all of the luggages according to the cabins. There are 9 cabins in total. Four of them are suites with ocean-view windows, two of which are completed with a private balcony. There was a family suite that we occupied, and the rest are double-type. Each room has an ensuite toilet and shower, and the towels in the rooms were folded like crabs or manta rays. So cute!

On the Chakana, we get served 5 meals a day. Light breakfast, breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Plus there's Indomie made to order and warm drinks after every dive/snorkel! The trip that we joined was actually a diving trip, but even though we don't dive, we were still able to go snorkeling near the dive sites so it was a lot of fun! I think we wouldn't have snorkeled some of the places we did if we had gone for a leisure trip instead. We had some free time before the first dive/snorkel, so first we explored the boat and its facilities.

On that first day, there were two dives scheduled. Snorkeling was possible on both sites, but I only went on the first one. Miss Kiki, on the other hand, went on the second one only. The first site was just outside the National Komodo Park. That was my first dip in the water and it was pretty nice. We had a guide from Chakana with us at all times. The second site that Miss Kiki went to with DH and the guide was apparently a lot more interesting. She spotted some black-tipped reef sharks, bamboo sharks, and turtles amongst others. She was super excited about that!

Our first night aboard Chakana was pretty smooth, we woke up just in time to catch the breathtaking sunrise. That day there were 4 dives scheduled but because we didn't dive we had 3 snorkeling trips on the day plan instead. Miss Kiki and DH both agreed that these were the best snorkeling spots we've done so far and they kept talking about this trip for many months after. :D Miss Kiki got to practice her skin diving skills she learnt the previous year during our trip to Sumbawa, and also got a new experience of sunset snorkeling complete with a flashlight! Check out some of the underwater photos we took.