Another day at sea to prepare for our next stop. The days at port can be exhausting with all of the things to think about. Language, currency, transportation, safety. The excursions offered by HAL are popular because this is all taken care of. Planning to do things on your own takes a lot of preparation.
Sri Lanka is our next stop and it is a country I knew nothing about. Yes, it’s close to India. Is it part of India? No. Anyone live there? Yes, 21 million. Colombo is our port and it is the capital. 6 million live there. Biggest export? Ceylon Tea. We are taking a class on the island to learn how to cook traditional Sri Lancan food. What is that? No idea.
With more than 60 days at sea we are getting a little irritated with some of the other passengers, especially at the gym. Treadmills are a priority. They are full of people walking slower than I walk off of the treadmill. Why don’t you take your act outside on the lower promenade and give a runner a chance to workout? No running is allowed on the lower promenade. Of course there is always the guy that takes a treadmill to do a 6 minute run. Why bother?, I ask myself. I’m surprised that some aren’t on the treadmill with one hand holding the side rail and the other holding a muffin.
Another thing is the rudeness of some of the passengers at dinner or out on the ship. Is it that they can’t hear (a good guess) or that they need to announce that they have been on this cruise 12 TIMES BEFORE AND THIS CRUISE ISN’T AS GOOD AS IT WAS BEFORE. You may know some folks like this.
Team trivia was an all time best today. We are getting so smart. Must be the constant studying out on the deck.
The evening entertainment was a split show with comedian Glenn Hirsch and vocalist Sharon Calabro. Glenn didn’t appear very comfortable at first but then seem to ease up. He made a lot of fun of the ship and the non-stop eating. “You all look….full”, he said. He then talked about all the activities on “at sea” days. “I looked at the program and saw that some of the actives take 90 minutes. Who has that kind of time between meals?” He did a 25 set and it was good. Sharon did a Karen Carpenter tribute show a few nights back that we missed. Tonight she did hits from the 60s and 70s. Tunes I haven’t heard in years. “What Do You Get When You Fall in Love?….” These covers were not a 10. Maybe a 7. She did a medley of Cher tunes. Gutsy. With some coaching she could probably pull it off. She finished her set with a Carpenters tune. This was nice. I bet her Karen Carpenter Act was great. She has a nice voice and good range.
We had breakfast as usual and Bob joined our table and we had some good laughs talking about the old days growing up in the city. Chicago for him, Detroit for me, Toledo for Terri. We all agreed that we are most comfortable in the city and the stops with the big cities were our favorites. Brenda was still asleep but she grew up in a rural area and prefers that kind of living.
Rest time over. Back to the gym and cardio workout.
After our workout we went to our deck as usual. When we arrived the area was roped off and workers were sawing away and the ship structure around the tender boat. One of the workers assured us the job would be done in an hour, at noon, by the end of the day.
Both of us are no strangers to getting the fruit basket for well thought out complaining. Terri took this one on. In a few minutes there were all kind of ship people with radios and eyes for indiscretions. After a lot of standing around they left. More phone calls and a bit more complaining. “We expect to be compensated for this” were the last words I remember hearing.
At about 2:30, the deck was clear but our cushions were not on the loungers. Another phone call, another demand. Cushions were promptly delivered and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on our usual spot. Later that evening, a ship gift card worth $50 was slipped under the door. 10 points for Terri!
We planned to have dinner with Bob and Brenda but when we showed, Brenda was not there. Something she ate didn’t agree with her. The three of us had a great dinner together and talked about plans we had for Sri Lanka and India.
The evening entertainment was the Filharmonic. Five Filipino men who sang a cappella. The group is from LA. They had a good repertoire of covers and had some originals also. Three of them sang and did an outstanding job of balance, blend and intonation. The fourth was the bassist. He didn’t actually sing the bass voice, he put the mic right up to his mouth and imitated a bass guitar. Maybe it was a washtub bass he was imitating. I didn’t care for it and as the night went on it started to wear on me. The fifth guy was the beatbox. He was talented as beatboxers go. I prefer actual drummers but I could tolerate him. The bassist I couldn’t. The mix gave them a very unique sound but if it were me I would either have the bassist sing or hire a bassist and a drummer. The other three really were very good. The covers were good. Originals, not so much. …
We are really beat up from the last couple of days. We decided to let the cardio go and only do weights at the gym.
A few more time zone changes puts us 10 hours ahead of Detroit. We are cruising in the Malacca Straight. This is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
Group trivia question of the day. How many of the 7 dwarfs had beards? How many sides does a banana have? (someone said – 2 – inside and outside–incorrect). The teams that do the best have been cruising for years. These questions do get repeated from cruise to cruise.
Our next stop is Sri Lanka. We have cooking class scheduled and Nim is my contact. He contacted me through WhatsApp about a month ago to confirm things.
We didn’t get a chance to look at bicycles in Singapore. We did manage to get into a cigar shop. A whole selection of cuban cigars. Some were $500 a piece. Since I am not a crazy rich asian and I decided to pass. Maybe Sri Lanka or India but I doubt it.
This was definitely a recovery day. Besides the gym, Terri joked that we probably burned 100 calories all day.
The evening entertainment was a Karen Carpenter tribute artist. Terri heard her warming up early and said that she wasn’t that good. We decided to pass and watched a movie instead. Lights out early!…
We had another surprise last night. Our daily program says all aboard at 4 pm, muster drill at 4:15 pm. Those who do not participate in the drill cannot cruise. Inside the program it says all aboard at 5:30 (the time given yesterday)
I went to see Hamish. He had the same surprised look that he had last time this happened. His response was “haven’t we had this conversation before?”. He wasn’t going any further with the conversation in front of his colleagues.
I was sure the ship would still be here but I didn’t want the hassle of missing another drill. The fine print in the contract gives them rights to do just about anything.
We had breakfast, grabbed our backpacks and headed out to see Danny.
Another beautiful day in Singapore. Hot and humid already. The subway system is extremely clean and air-conditioned. It is all automated. No driver aboard the trains. No one going through the doors at the last minute. A guaranteed fine if one does that. Everyone is very polite and people offer seats to the elderly and gladly stand.
We arrived at the tailor and gave Danny the news. Shipping was not a problem but fitting was. He offered to meet us at the pier and drop off the suits but I still wanted to try them on. I told him I would be back at his shop at 4, Terri would go back aboard and I would at least have some communication with the ship. If I missed the ship, I would have to stay in Singapore for 3 days and then fly to Sri Lanka.
We spent a little more time visiting some nearby shops where Terri bought some of the wildest clothes I have ever seen. Coat, vest and skirt all made in Nepal. I had a great time watching Terri model clothes from this store.
There was a Chinese Heritage Festival in China Town. It didn’t appear to be something we wanted to stand in this heat for so we headed to the subway.
We decided to visit the indoor “Gardens by The Bay”. This photo shows the domes of our destination in the lower right corner.
The Gardens by the Bay was off of a different subway line and we made a change at the Doby Ghat station. We were a bit confused after getting off at one station and a gentlemen from a tourist office offered to help us. He also offered to sell us tickets to the dome. It was Saturday and the queue at the dome to buy tickets would be long. Buy them from him and we would avoid the line. We agreed. It was noon and we decided to have lunch. He pointed out a food court in the station. In Singapore, these are called “Hawker Centres”. Cheap, good food.
Although English is one of the four official languages (English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil), the folks at this Hawker spoke mainly Mandarin. We had to order by pointing. We had chicken, rice, and a coke to drink. Food was great. No napkins but real plates and silverware. A straw was the only thing to throw away. Here we are, eating in a subway station and the hawker station was as clean as any restaurant above.
Off to the Gardens by the Bay. Walking out of the station was a blast of hot, humid air. We had a bit of a walk to do and it was hot. We knew that the gardens would be cool inside.
The Cherry Blossoms were blooming.
What a great place to spend a hot Saturday afternoon. Many families here. There are two domes, the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. This is us in the Flower Dome.
Lots to see and quite crowded. People taking multiple takes of themselves in front of flowers was a bit irritating but it was nice and cool and beautiful. About 30 minutes in this dome and on to the next.
In the Cloud Forest, visitors are greeted with this huge waterfall.
The walkway above is where we will start. Elevator up, walkway down.
Out of the windows, the “trees” from last evening’s light show.
A great experience here and a nice way to spend a few hours.
Back to the subway I snapped this photo of the Marina Bay Sands hotel we toured last night. Unbelievable architecture.
We decided to head back to the tailor. Something told me he was going to accelerate the process. We walked in about 2 pm and he said “good news, your suits are done”.
I tried on the shirt first. Perfect fit. Very high quality. 100% Egyptian cotton. Pants next. Fit like a glove. All of the pants were the same so I needed to try on only one pair. Jacket next. It looked and felt great but Terri noticed a that it didn’t hang right on one side. Danny assured us that a pressing would take care of it. I tried on all 3 coats and they hung the same. Danny called in his tailor and he made some markings. Unfortunately the jackets would have to be mailed.
We headed back toward the ship. Last stop was the duty free wine shop. Singapore was one of the stops where we could bring wine aboard without the $18 corkage fee. We made it through the subway station. I took the subway tickets back for our $10 a piece deposit and Terri went to the duty free shop. We met up a bit later and realized that that the shop was a level below and we had already gone through customs. We decided I would take all of the bags, Terri would go back through customs, down to the duty free shop, back through customs, and back to the ship.
We met about 15 mins later and were able to make the mandatory drill. What a day!
The Lido had a special dinner with local food. We enjoyed that and collapsed back in our rooms. …
Today we started the slow cruise into Singapore at about 8 am. The port is the second busiest in the world. Half of the world’s supply of crude oil comes through this port. As we came in we saw ships waiting to sail into the port.
Ian spoke on the ships loudspeakers as we pulled in describing different sights. Any time Ian speaks, the crew has muffins out on the decks. Singapore muffins this time.
We docked about 10 am and were ready for what we knew would be a long day.
Quite a maze through the customs area. They are very cautious about who they let in here. After they scanned our passports, they took digital thumbprints to run through Interpol. One of the agents explained that many people try to get into Singapore because their strict immigration policies allow them to go to other countries once they are here.
One of the signs here read “Death for drug traffickers”.
The customs area led into a large station with shops and transportation. There was a subway station here. We bought two day tourist passes for $16 each and proceeded to our first stop.
75% of the people in Singapore are Chinese, 15% Malays, 7% Indian. Singapore is one of the four Asian Tigers. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. These are high income economies.
Chinatown is large like San Francisco but very different. Not as much emphasis on teas or selling butchered meat or fish on the street.
We weren’t in there for 5 minutes and Terri was already shopping for clothes and other things. Instinctively the store owners knew what would keep me there.
After one beer we wondered into a men’s clothing shop. Another beer was offered and I was being measured for a custom tux, 2 suits and a custom shirt. Danny assured me that we could pick these up tomorrow before we boarded the ship. All aboard was 5:30. Miss that and we would have to fly to Sri Lanka.
Next stop was lunch at a Chinese restaurant. This was the food arcade.
Back Tony’s at 2pm for a quick fitting then off to Raffles Hotel. We passed by the Buddha Tooth Temple which contains a tooth from Buddha on the way.
The Raffles Hotel was established in 1887 and was named after British statesman Sir Thomas Raffles, the founder of Singapore. The hotel is currently closed for renovation and will reopen sometime this year.
The attraction for us is the famous Long Bar and the famous drink. The Singapore Sling.
There was a line outside the door. Maybe a 20 minute wait to get in. We sat at the bar for about 30 mins. Little India was next. We headed to the nearest subway station.
We browsed the shops and admired the architecture. We had to stop in to see Danny one more time at 4:30. Of course another beer was offered and accepted.
Along the way we managed to capture some of the city.
This is the Marina Sands Hotel. We have a tour of parts of it tonight. The top is meant to look like a ship. It is complete with trees, restaurants and swimming pools.
We met Danny back at the shop and then headed out for our tour. Not much time for dinner. The tour began at the Gardens by the Bay Park nest to the Hotel. Here we were to see a light and sound show.
These man made “trees” have vegetation growing up the sides and eventually will be completely covered. The show was spectacular. The opening number was John Williams Jurassic Park Theme and finished with the Great Gate of Kiev by Modest Mussorgsky. Following the show we went to the top of the hotel.
Great views of the city here. The hotel was massive and had shopping mall with all high end shops, casino, and an actual river with boats that ran through it.
Following the hotel visit we boarded a boat for a tour on the Singapore River. Originally a saltwater river separating Singapore and Malaysia, it is now a fresh water reservoir supplying Singapore with water.
The tour ended at Clarke Quay. A hotspot on A Friday night for live music, eats, and people watching.
We grabbed a subway from here and headed back to the ship. Long but fun day!…
Today we cross the equator and we will be back in the northern hemisphere. It is very warm and humid.
After the morning routine we prepared for Singapore. Passports are needed in Singapore. This is only the second time we have needed them. The ship keeps all of the passports in the office and we will need to pick them up. We will need to have them as we go through customs on both days.
We are going to buy a two day subway pass and visit the sights using that. Our first stop will be Chinatown, two stops from the station near the ship. We have a tour in the evening called Singapore at Night. We will be watching a music and light show, tour parts of the Marina Sands Hotel and take a cruise down the Singapore River.
Some of the crew are departing here and so are some of the passengers. It is possible to do a shorter segment of this cruise and this is one of the Starting/Stopping locations.
Great day to rest out on the deck. Next few days will be hectic. We have missed a few of the entertainers and chose to play a game or watch a movie instead.
Te internet has been very slow or non-existent this past week. Sometimes it takes 10 attempts to upload even one photo because it is so slow and will time out.…
Today we arrived at the Port of Semerang at 7 am. Our guide, Jamal, met us with his van and driver at 8 am. Right on time. Today we drive to the city of Borobudor to see the temple.
Jamal talked nearly the entire 2.5 hours it took to get there. We learned that unlike Bali, the majority of the population is Muslim, not Hindu. Muslims here are different than those from the Middle East. There is a heavy Hindu influence. Mosques have minarets but the structure style is definitely influenced by the Hindu Temples.
Semerang mosque
Transportation is scooter in most cases.
Many rice paddies along the way.
We arrived at the temple.
Terri models sarong.
The temple was built in the 9th century and describes the pilgrimage to the attainment of Nirvana. Jamal explained the 10 levels of the temple. The first level represents the the desire that man has. Kamahatu.
There is a story on every level depicted in carved reliefs. Jamal said to tell the entire story on the first level would take him 8 hours.
Each “window” originally contained a Buddha. Position of Buddhas hands were different depending on the direction Buddha faced.
We learned a lot about this temple and it is difficult to share all of it here. Definite “bucket list” site. Wikipedia has a great description. The temple was “lost” for a great deal of time. Buried under ash from a nearby volcano. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is being maintained and repaired.
Two other temples that are part of this site were nearby.
We started to head back to the ship and stopped for lunch on the way.
Lunch was fantastic. Beef, chicken, rice, calamari, soup. All of it was great.
The drive home seemed longer. More traffic and rain. Most of the drive showed how poor the country was. Very dirty. It is possible to be poor and clean but this is not the case here. Have trash? Throw it in the nearest river. I guess the water ways serve as the dump. Filth every where.
The city of Semerang showed hope. Nice, modern, clean. This is a photo of a building from the Dutch Colonial time.
Jamal dropped us off about 4:30. An hour to spare!…
We were up early for breakfast and hit the gym. Water is so calm that the treadmill isn’t as challenging as usual.
Nice morning out on the lower promenade. I finished two more books before I opened The Worst President Ever. I am almost finished. The subject matter makes it the worst book ever. Half of that administration should be in jail.
We did go to the main stage to listen to Ian do his presentation on Java and Singapore. We dock in Semerang in the morning and we plan to visit Borobudor. This is almost a 3 hour drive from the port. Our driver will meet us at 8 am and all aboard is 5:30 pm. I’m getting a little nervous because Ian says traffic is bad and his busses get a police escort. We have a 3rd party tour booked. No police escort for us.
Singapore is a two day stop. We had a Hop on Hop off ticket for 48 hrs but we cancelled it after we learned that Singapore has a subway. We will be winging it for 2 days using the subway. The bus is too slow for us.
Today was exotic fruit day in the Lido. Jack fruit, starfruit, mango, papaya, sugar cane and others I don’t remember.
We had a pretty good go at it. Nothing I would try again.
The evening entertainment was the Amsterdam Singers and Dancers. Very polished show once again. I really enjoy the shows they put on.…
The view from the lower promenade as we pulled into Bali.
As the pilot took us into the port I could see a group of people forming a band. My kind of people!
The keyboard instruments are Gangsa and they are played with hammers. Rows of Agung in the back. The drum in front is a Bedug. This group played traditional Balinese Gamelan music. A group of girls did some traditional dancing.
I watched this from the lower promenade as we docked on the starboard side of the ship.
Today we hired a private driver and car. We met up with June just outside of the port gates. He was about 25 and eager to take us touring. June recommenced some sites and off we went. First stop was a fabric shop.
Not much machinery here. We shopped for a while and Terri suggested I get a silk shirt. Haven’t had one since the disco error. We made the purchase and went on our way.
It was rush hour and folks were going to work. The common means of transportation is the scooter.
Next stop was the silver jewelry store. Very nice store. We did make several purchases here.
Next stop, Batuan Temple. This is one of he older Hindu Temples in Bali. It was built in 944 AD. Bali has over 1000 temples. Temples are the center of each village.
A sarong was required to enter the temple. I thought mine went well with my shoes. A donation of $10,000 rupiah (1 USD) for each was required.
June with Terri
We spent a fair amount of time looking at the temple and then headed out to a painting community. Here artisans worked on pieces of art and displayed them in a large building. The detail of the traditional paintings was incredible. Some almost looked 3D. Nothing said “buy me” so we left.
Time for lunch. We stopped at an asian fusion restaurant. It is very popular restaurant and we saw many from one of the ship’s tours here.
Onward to the Monkey Forest.
The monkeys are known to take hats, cell phones, and open back packs. You name it. We kept a firm grip on everything. We spent about 30 mins in the forest watching the monkeys climb the trees and eat bananas. A trip to a water fall was next.
Quite a climb down to the bottom and back up. The picture doesn’t capture the essence of the area very well.
Our last stop was a coffee plantation. This was Lewak coffee.
The Lewak
Lewak coffee is balinese coffee that is fed to a weasel like creature called a lewak. It is similar to a cat. The lewak digests and then excretes the beans. The beans are then harvested, dried, shelled and roasted. The final product is supposed to be a smoother coffee. I did taste it but couldn’t get past the Cat-pooh-cinno part of the experience.
We did sit down and do a sampling of 9 coffees and 9 teas. Much like China, coffee is sold by what it can do for you. Good for the skin, good for the eyes, etc… We shop by flavor. They were all sweetened and most of them tasted great. We did buy some tea but passed on the coffee.
We asked June to drop us off at a restaurant on the water. He took us to a fish place and we said our goodbyes. 8 hours of June driving us all over Bali cost us $50. I had prepaid this back in October. I thanked June and gave him a $20 USD tip. That was $280,000 rupiah. He looked quite happy.
I sat at our table and took some photos and enjoyed a local beer. Terri went inside to pick out the fish they were to prepare for her.
Couldn’t resist buying a necklace from this cute little girl. Only $50,000 rupiah!
Chicken fried rice for me.
Terri with her catch of the day.
After dinner we took a cab back to the ship. The driver had never been to the port before and got a bit lost but did manage to get us there.
We arrived at 7 am. Komodo Island is a National Park and only those with a tour can leave the ship.
It is a tender port and after much confusion we finally got aboard a tender. We were with the Captain and 4 other passengers. Everyone else was already ashore. We met up with our guide and naturalist at about 9:05. Indonesian law requires a guide and/or naturalist in front of the group and behind the group. Today we are searching for the Komodo dragon.
Each guide carries a long stick with a “Y” at the end. This is used to control the dragons if need be.
Our first encounter with a dragon was at one of the watering holes. The dragons are large creatures from the lizard family. Dragons can get as large as 10 ft long and weigh up to 150 lbs. These are male dragons. Females have a smaller head. The dragons do have a venomous bite.
Females lay as many as 20 eggs in nests such as this mound in the back of the photo. The eggs hatch in April after about 8 months. The young dragons are very vulnerable to predators and live in trees. Maturation takes 8 to 9 years.
The dragons dominate the ecosystem here and subsist on a diet of small mammals and Timor deer. They have been known to attack humans.
our guide joins us for a photo
We continued on a trail that took us to an overlook.
Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands. A similar view was had no matter which direction one looked.
There are more than 700 languages spoken in Indonesia. Our guides spoke Bahasa to each other which is one of the official languages. One of them spent the night on the island as he lives 4 hours away.
The morning on Komodo came to an end and we boarded this craft for our next stop.
Pink Beach was our destination. More snorkeling.
Terri waving
It wasn’t the great barrier reef but there were still plenty of things to see. I did take a lot of underwater video but upload speed on the ship is painfully slow.
We spent about two hours on pink beach and headed back to our wooden craft for lunch and a trip back to Komodo Island. We were each given handmade scarves from Capt. Leo and his family. The craft appeared to something they lived on. At least three rooms with bunks and 3 AC compressors aboard. He asked for our recommendations on trip advisor as this is his only means of advertising.
Back on Komodo we grabbed the next tender to the ship. A day like this can be exhausting when you are used to eating, reading and napping. We called it an early night. We have a long day planned for Bali tomorrow.…
Today we moved past East Timor into the Timor Sea.
It was nice to sit on the deck and watch the many islands go by.
Two of our trivia members were absent today. That left the four of us. We did reasonably well despite the lack of the Canadians.
Many of our servers are Indonesian and are getting excited that we are so close to home. Komodo is tomorrow. It is a national park and will only allow visitors that are on a pre-arranged tour.
The evening entertainment was a performance by Mark Kenny. Mark sang and was accompanied by three different versions of himself on the screen. He did a doo top kind of act. Part of the problem was the balance of the accompaniment voices. They were not balanced very well with his lead. He sang well but the accompaniment voices were very lame. It is a shame because he could sing quite well. Another act that finished with the music of Queen. I gave the act a 3.
We took this photo in Darwin. Hard to believe that Kmart started back in Garden City, Michigan. Hungry Jacks or Burger King? Woolworth is a prominent store in the South Pacific also.
Typical sea day routine here. Group trivia. Siderodromophobia is the fear of? Largest desert is where? Which element has the lowest boiling point? Admit it. You are right there with us on the losing team.
We had dinner with Harry and Linda. There are from Denver. We had fun talking about our trip to see the crocs.
The evening entertainment was classical guitarist Nils Klofver. Nils was from Sweden and currently lives in Shanghai with his Colombian wife. Talented guitarist. Nils started with a Bach Prelude and finished with the Beatles. Great show.
March 14, 2019 – Darwin, Northern Territories, Australia
Today we arrived at 8:00 am. I watched as the port crew tied off the ship and install the walkway.
Today we have a tour and pickup time is 10:15am. We decided to take a short walk into town before pickup time. It was a short walk but it was very warm. Not much to see but we did manage to find a jewelry store where Terri made some purchases.
We went back to the ship, grabbed some water and went back out to the port to wait for our driver. Australia, at least according to the ship, does not allow any food or water off of the ship unless the water is in a “pre-packaged” and sealed container. The ship conveniently has water for sale right at the exit. The friendly price of $5 for a 12 oz bottle was something we could pass on since no one checks anything you take off of the ship. Our backpacks had illegal water in them. Too bad about the bikes.
Our tour bus showed up right on time. The drive was about 60 mins to the Adelaide River to see Crocodiles. Our guide, Pat, supposedly knew Rodney Ansell who was the man that Paul Hogan based “Crocodile Dundee” on. Pat quickly explained the rules when we got aboard. Keep hands and arms inside. 20,000 crocodiles inhabit these waters. Not sure why they are an endangered species. Poachers face stiff criminal fines and jail time. Pat looks like he lives in the outback and enjoys the bush telly (campfire). Pat said if we did get into trouble and tipped over we were best to stay in a group. I looked around at the other folks on the boat. If that happened, we were all dead.
I was glad to see that Darwin is able to enjoy the black flies as we do on Grosse Ile. There is no amount of repellent that can work with so much exposed meat on board.
After a short ride Pat stopped the pontoon and lured a crocodile over to the pontoon. Chicken carcass, hearts and livers were used. This video also provides the non-stop lecturing that Pat did.
Some of the larger women moved to one side of the boat to see this croc. Pat warned them but they didn’t pay too much attention. We definitely leaned more to this side. We learned that these crocs live to about 120 or so. There are 2 different species here in Australia.
Pat was able to call in some kite birds and then through some chicken fat onto the water. Many of them were birds that he picked up on the side of the road and repaired and nursed back to health. More lecture here.
It was a fabulous trip and we were able to many great photos. We spent and hour on the river and worked up quite a thirst. A stop at the World Famous Humpty Doo Hotel would fix that.
Ted Egan probably said it best here.
We returned in time for dinner in the Lido. It was decorated for our send off from Australia.
Another day at sea as we are traveling about 15 knots and the water is so calm it is easy to forget that the ship is moving.
It is getting very warm. Tomorrow it is going to be in the 90s with very high humidity as we pull into Darwin. Darwin is our last stop in Australia and this will be where Terri will be able to get a tax refund for her jewelry purchases. Passport, receipts, items, credit card, positive attitude needed.
We realized that the couple two doors down from us have bicycles on board. I called before we left in January and also found a written policy from HAL that they do not allow bicycles anymore. I spoke with Hamish and he seemed surprised that I was told that. What a missed opportunity. I even found a quote from Carnival Cruise lines that they would confiscate and dispose of bicycles. So much for corporate policy.
We tend to watch Fox News right before dinner. Looks like the Libs are imploding. Quite entertaining.
We ran into Bob before dinner and he was excited to tell us about the billboard he saw. Make Australia Great Again. Going to look for a hat tomorrow.
The evening entertainment was the return of comedian Jim Short (we missed him the first time around) and an encore performance from David Meyer. Jim was from England and easily made fun of the many Americans and Canadians aboard. He also took some shots at himself and the few Brits on board. David had another great show. He opened with some Led Zeppelin. Kashmir. He closed with his own arrangement of movements from Tschaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Great show!…
Today I confirmed our activity in Darwin with the third party tour company I used. We will be back in plenty of time to board the ship. ( I’m a bit more worried about this since our experience going to the reef)
We arrive in Darwin on Thursday.
a lighthouse on one of the 274 islands in the straits
Today we cruised through the Torres Strait. It is the area between Australia and Papua New Guinea. This is an important passage through the Great Barrier Reef. The depth ranges from 7 to 15 m. Very shallow in shipping terms. There are two routes through the straits. One for small craft and one for larger ships. A maximum static draft of 12.2 m or less must be maintained. The water is vey calm here and we are going very slow through it. Ian was on the PA system beginning at 8am and described some of things we passed. This is very important area in terms of Australian defense. The reef can bar entry to an opposing navy.
Lecture time is also muffin time. Torre Strait muffins were served on deck with coffee or juice. They taste very similar to the Panama Canal and Pitcairn Island muffins.
We joined Bob and Brenda again. This time we talked about border security in Yuma, Arizona/ Mexico and Detroit, Michigan /Canada. The backups seemed a little worse in Yuma but there were lots of similarities.
Tonight was the Under the Sea Gala. My lovely date!
Backgammon was the game of the evening. Cut throat as usual.…
We did our usual routine. Breakfast, gym, deck, trivia, lunch, deck, dinner. Our trivia team lacks anyone that knows things about Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, or things of that nature. We are good at giving each other blank stares. We don’t have a good mix. We all know the same general knowledge.
Evening entertainment was percussionist David Meyer. David played the Xylosyth. a 3 octave keyboard midi controller that he used mallets to play. Most of the time he used 4 mallets but did at least one piece with 3 and one with 2. He opened with Baba O’Riley by The Who and was accompanied by the house band. It was a little odd that the lead musician was playing the repetitive modal sequence of the tune but it was a hit. David asked if anyone had ever heard of the tune. A bit funny since the tune was recorded almost 50 years ago, long before he was born. He probably didn’t realize he was talking to the aged Woodstock Generation. He did a rock set, a few classics and closed with selections from Carmen. He met his wife on one of the cruises he performed at. She is a classically trained dancer. He added her on the Carmen number but she didn’t add much since his whole program revolved about watching him and his mallets. It was a good program and we enjoyed it.…
We arrived at 8 am in Cairns. There will not be anytime to visit this city today. We have a tour leaving at 8:30 and it is an 8 hour tour to the Great Barrier Reef.
We grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed down the ramp and off the ship. This is the last HAL tour we have scheduled. The third party tour at this location did not fit our scheduled time here is was too risky with timing the return.
Our catarman was docked close to the ship. We walked a few hundred yards and boarded. Soon we were off with 82 other folks from the ship. We noticed the ship slowing down about 30 minutes into our 90 minute ride to the reef. Soon we heard, “ladies and gentleman, we are having trouble with our engine and we don’t know if we can continue on”, blaring over the loudspeaker. At this moment I was glad we paid double the price for this excursion through HAL because of the guarantee we have getting back on the ship. We tossed in the waves for about 15 minutes and then received the news that the issue was repaired and off we went. MacGyver must have been aboard.
We arrived at our snorkeling location at 10 am. We had our own gear but the tour offered full body lycra suites to protect from jelly fish stings. They also gave protection from the sun as the UV factor was high here.
We suited up and also decided to do a “snorkel safari” with a marine biologist later in the day. Another upcharge for this but we felt it was a good value.
Getting off the boat was effortless. The reef was spectacular. I had the GoPro with me but the video is difficult to upload from the ship’s slow wifi so I grabbed some photos.
The images only can provide a glimpse of what it is like to be on the reef. There are tons of fish and other creatures to see. We were required by the tour operator to wear a life jacket and this made it impossible to dive down but parts of the reef were nearly at the surface.
looking back at our dive ship
This is really a “bucket list” thing to do. Something not to be missed and something that anyone can do. The description of the tour by HAL folks listed this as strenuous. It is strenuous for most of the folks on this tour but for the average person it is very doable.
We spent about an hour out on the reef and came back in for lunch. This were most HAL folks excelled. There was non-stop eating until we got back into port. It has to be hard to sustain some the weight these folks carry around and I can understand the non-stop eating.
After a quick lunch we went with our guide back into the ocean. There were only 4 of us on this tour and I was allowed to take my life jacket off. Michael was the marine biologist and he took us out on the little motorized “Cousteau” raft. It was raining but that mattered little. We went in backwards over the edge a la Lloyd Bridges in “SeaHunt”. (maybe it was only me)
Michael had a life ring that we could grab and he would describe something and then go down to the ocean floor and point it out or pick it up and bring it to us. He must of drank gallons of sea water as he spoke and waves came crashing in but he took it all in stride. I had a few gallons myself as I treaded water and listened to him.
An hour went by very quickly. We came back in to the ship and stowed our gear. More eating was taking place. I think some people came on this excursion to ride one of the glass bottom boats while they had muffins.
We arrived back at the ship at 5 pm. All aboard was 5:30 pm and the whistle blew at 6:00 pm as we left Cairns. It looked like a very nice city to stay in if a visit to the Great Barrier Reef is on your list.
Dinner and back to the room. We were exhausted. I think Terri started a movie? I was out.
We arrived at 8 am this morning. Outside of our room is today’s activity. The hike up Castle Hill.
Walking to town was possible but we boarded the shuttle to give us a head start. From our drop off point, the top of Castle Hill was only 1.5 miles.
We found the trail and started our way up. Lots of steps. A few breaks were necessary along the way. It was cloudy and rain was moving in. The weather was changing quickly.
Parts of the trail had stairs, other parts were very rocky.
We hiked down a different trail that brought us to another side of the hill. We were able to walk along the waterfront, through town and then decided to walk back to the ship instead of taking the shuttle. We were in intermittent rain and our clothes were quite wet when we arrived back. We changed and then had lunch. We spent the afternoon off the ship and enjoyed the faster wifi. My iPad had 38 updates to download and I was able to download the more than a gig of data.
A big day out on the reef tomorrow. We decided to stay on our room and watch a movie.…
Today we passed through the Great Barrier Reef and continued traveling north towards Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
We made 4 stops in New Zealand and have 4 to do in Australia. In Townsville we plan to hike up Castle Hill and enjoy the view. In Cairns, we will snorkel over the Great Barrier Reef. In Darwin, we have a tour to see jumping crocodiles.
We did our regular breakfast and gym routine and I felt great. No more cough. Late morning on the deck, team trivia, lunch, and back on the deck. It is getting very warm and very humid as we are getting closer to the equator again.
Holland America has an area on the ship that offers guests to book future cruises. There are many to choose from and booking on the ship offers many more amenities. We have talked about other cruises and also talked about spending the Winter in New Zealand, or Australia. We will probably add more countries to the list as we visit them.
We had dinner in the main dining room and shared a table for two. Afterward was cutthroat game of scrabble that ended in a tie. I didn’t realize that was even possible.…
Terri finally convinced me to see the doc this morning. I’ve been hacking for over a month and been trying all kinds of over the counter medications with no luck. The medical center on the ship opens at 9am and I was the first patient in. The nurse took my blood pressure and said it was great. She asked if I suffered from high blood pressure or diabetes. I said no. She was all smiles and said “you are the first one I have had on this cruise that said no”. This may give you an idea of the health of a lot folks on this ship.
The doc gave me codeine, prednisone, an antibiotic and cough syrup. The visit was cheaper than my own doc and the meds were pretty cheap also. My insurance may cover them but I don’t give that much hope. The meds fixed me up fast and I haven’t coughed since. I was very impressed with the medical center and staff. Operating a place like this in international waters means the elimination of all kinds of government forms and other baloney. The doc was very frank and said I can come down and get more meds if I ran out. No visit needed!
I think serious health care may be heading out to sea. Something I never considered. The government involvement in healthcare reminds me of government involvement in education. Every problem can be fixed with some kind of form that eliminates responsibility. There are people that create forms, people that are forced to fill them out, people that collect the forms, and people that throw the forms out. No one reads the forms that are filled out. The forms are there to cover someones posterior.
Some of my teacher friends may remember staff meetings. Sign in, sign out,(that is one activity no one misses) pick up forms, and other papers. Do a necessary job related activity such as grading papers during the meeting. Find the trash can on the way out. Deposit papers. Bang your head on the nearest concrete wall and asked your self “Did this help my students”. I am sure doctors feel the same way about their patients.
I skipped the gym to give my body some extra recovery time. I enjoyed sitting outside and reading. Team trivia is going poorly. Questions are way off the wall. Did you know an octopus has a beak? I knew that aluminum was the most abundant metal found in the earth’s crust but I allowed the engineer in the group to over rule me and we said iron.
We had dinner with Bob and Brenda again. We really get along well and the conversation is interesting. We talked quite a bit about the Berlin Wall and the border between east and west Germany. Bob did some work over there before the wall came down in 1989.
The Wall was such a world icon to the failure of communism. Not allowing people to leave because the system works so well! Who would have ever believed that communism would ever be here in the USA.
The Amsterdam singers and dancers were on tonight and did a European show. Very polished and flawless. There must be quite a team that works with this group. I really enjoy watching and listening. Tonight was done to canned music but was every bit as enjoyable.
