During our time in Indonesia, we stayed on a boat with 30 people or so for 4 days and 3 nights in order to travel from Lombok to Flores Island.
We like to refer to this time of our lives as "hellboat".
The boat was about the size of our scuba liveaboard in Thailand, but the boat in Thailand housed about 15 people--HALF the number!
Each day, there was a different hike and animal to see. The most interesting (but also saddest) was the whale shark -- there were just so many people in the water, most of them thrashing everywhere, and someone poked one of the whale shark's eyes D;;;
Thankfully, the food was edible and had vegetarian options. But Eric started having diarrhea halfway through and the boat was so shaky one night, he could barely walk to the bathroom.
What drove Eric over the edge was that we couldn't escape the smokers. Indonesia is known as having the highest percentage of smokers in the world and on top of that, the tourists are mainly from european countries where they love to smoke too. Even though the boat was mostly exposed to the air the smoke could be smelled from everywhere depending on wind conditions.
Overall, we don't recommend this experience unless you like touristy sites, socializing and sleeping like sardines on the top deck with 25 other people who will step over you to exit the room :0

Music:
Deep Sea Resting by Saira Ridley: https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/a...
Pictures by Across the Great Valley: https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/B...

00:00 - Day 1: Getting on the boat
01:13 - Day 1: Sunset Hike
02:23 - Day 1: Diary
03:44 - Day 2
05:04 - Snorkeling with Whale Sharks
07:29 - Done with whale shark
09:22 - Day 2: Day Time Swimming
10:58 - Day 2: Fishing
14:06 - Trying to get to the toilet
14:27 - Day 3
14:40 - Day 3: Sunrise Hike
15:59 - Day 3: Komodo Dragons
18:53 - Day 3: Pink Beach
20:45 - Day 3: Sunset Hike on Padar Island
22:14 - Day 4: Reef Sharks & Landing in Flores
22:48 - Day 4: Quick Island Hike
23:14 - Day 4: Snorkeling w/ Reef Sharks
25:14 - Quenching Our Thirst via Coconut
26:27 - Day 4: Arrived in Flores!