On the east end of Sumbawa lies the seaport of Sape. You can take the
ferry from here to Labuanbajo in Flores. It leaves in the evening and
gets to Labuanbajo pretty late in the nite, around 3am.
You can try to get some sleep on the way over if you can get
used to the seats on the ferry and stretch out on 4 of them.
As far as I
know the ferries do not stop in Komodo on the way over but it might be
better to base yourself out of Labuanbajo anyway as there is a pretty
established tourist infrastructure there.
It is easy to organize transport to Komodo and Rinca from Labuanbajo.
There are also a number of scuba diving shops there that go to the
islands between Komodo and Flores. Some include a stopover at Komodo
and ther are plenty of boats available for charter in town.
A good place to stay and wait for the ferry is at the Loseman Mutiara
at the docks. You can leave your bags and take a dokar to the market
(about 5km distant) and have a look around.
There are many small horses
that are used to pull carts for passengers and cargo. The fare is
around 5000 rupiah if you are the only passenger.
The lonely planet claims that the people call the dokars Ben Hur
but I didn't run across anyone that called them that. There is a lot of
good info in the lonely planet however and most travelers use it as a
reference at least in well traveled places.
That market is very interesting with many dokar creating a traffic jam
in the morning. There are a lot of vegetables and fish for sale but no
rumah makans or places to eat down there.
Near the docks there are a
few restaurants that are pretty good. They are all within walking
distance of the Mutiara (rooms 25,000 per nite)
There is a lot of boat building going on along the beach and most of the
houses near the pier are up on stilts. There is even a mosque on
stilts.
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