Australia, Komodo
Island, Bali, Singapore
We were up
on deck at sun-rise to experience the sail - in to Sydney, entering through ‘The Heads’, the great rocks that divide
the land so Sydney Harbor can be accessed.
It’s a long and somewhat twisty passage, sailing by lovely homes and
neighborhoods fronted by jaunty marinas before sighting the city skyscrapers,
and finally, the wonderful Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We achieved almost full daylight at just the
perfect moment to get great views and pictures of these two icons. This time, we sailed right under the Bridge
for a new cruise terminal located on an island further into the harbor. A bit disappointing not to have the rock star
parking place right in between the Opera House and the Bridge like we had on
the first trip, but new rules are in place.
Only the biggest ships get that spot, and only if they can’t fit under
the bridge.
So, we took
the shuttle to Darling Harbor to set out walking all over the city, as we love
to do. Sydney has wonderful old
Victorian buildings blended with marvelous modern skyscrapers. The city center is dense with restaurants,
offices, condos, and multi-level arcade malls.
It just hums and bustles with activity.
The arcades in the old buildings are just beautiful to be in. They have stained glass ceilings, mosaic
tile floors, wrought iron railings, intricate clocks, vast chandeliers, and of
course, lovely shops and cafes. The best one is the Queen Victoria building
containing the finest examples of all of the above! We made our way down into The Rocks area near
the Harbour Bridge, the oldest part of Sydney, then walked around Circular Quay
for lunch outdoors with a view of the Bridge and the Opera House (there was a
jetboat parked right there…we were tempted!).
After lots of Kodak moments at the Opera House we veered up into the
Botanical Gardens and wound a long long way through the city back to the
shuttle point.
We enjoyed
the sail-away at dusk and sighed that we had to leave. I think I could live there!
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| Sydney Skyscrapers |
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| Queen Victoria Building |
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| Arcade in Queen Victoria Building |
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| Atrium of Queen Victoria |
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| Front of the Opera House |
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| Opera House and Harbour Bridge |
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| Opera House from the sail - out |
We had a good
panoramic tour around Brisbane
before boarding our paddle wheel steamboat (The Kookaburra Queen!) to cruise on
the Brisbane River. Niece Julie Morrow, living there at the time,
had shown us all around the city in 2011, and we remembered a lot, but they had
just had devastating floods and the city seemed a little subdued. This time it felt busy and alive, booming
with construction everywhere. It’s so
clean and everyone is genuinely friendly - similar to Sydney but smaller and
more manageable.
We had a
lovely relaxing cruise on the meandering river, taking us under the Story
Bridge near the city center, past all the skyscrapers, condos, apartments and
eventually by beautiful riverfront residential areas. Queensland architectural style is pleasing and
comfortable looking, but can be very elegant as well. We saw some wonderful homes from average to
palatial in size. All are very well kept
and artfully landscaped along the water’s edge.
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| Brisbane Skyline |
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| Kookaburra Queen |
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| Along the Waterfront |
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| Riverfront House |
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| Old and New |
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| War Memorial |
At Cairns, we took the old Kuranda Scenic
Railway train up through the rain forest to Kuranda, a small community at the
top end. The train was lots of fun,
passing through 15 tunnels and across 40 bridges with some great waterfalls
along the way. The rain forest is
extremely dense there and the mountains pretty rugged, so the construction of
railroad itself is pretty fascinating.
The last waterfall was a series of cascades of varying sizes a good
distance down a rock escarpment – really beautiful and frothy since it’s rainy
season. After the train we shifted over
to old US- built Army Duck vehicles.
They were built by women in Detroit during WWII and meant to last 3
years, but here we were, all aboard the DUKW (don’t know what that stands for)
in the rainforest in Australia! Anyway,
we tooled around some tracks for a while and then got into the river for a
little paddle around a lagoon. Our
‘ranger’ was a blond Aussie woman, maybe in her late 30s, with ratty dreadlocks
halfway down her back. No one to mess with, that’s for sure, but she was very
good telling us about and pointing out all the ‘nasties’ there are in the
Australian rainforest. You wouldn’t want
to go mucking around out there, even if you could, without knowing what you
were doing, that’s for sure! They’ve got 'way more than their share of bad biting and stinging plants and animals. At the conclusion of the duck trip, we looked
around a little park at koalas (we held one, awww), wombats, dingoes, kangaroos
and wallabies, a cassowary, Tasmanian Devil, some big nasty looking lizards, and
a few more typical Aussie animals . No
crocs this time, or at least we didn’t see the ones they said were there.
Cooktown, near the top of Australia, is not
much, just a place to break up the trip up around Cape York on the way to
Darwin. We had to take almost a 30
minute tender ride to see the not-much, too! Anyway, we drove out of town to the middle of
nowhere to see the Lion’s Den Pub, dating from 1875, when they mined tin in the
area. There are years and years of
memorabilia hanging all over the walls and ceilings: signs, caps, hats, shirts,
writing, license plates, ties -
anything! An ancient pool table and
piano and other motley accumulation of old furniture, even a stuffed lion,
overflows the place. And, there are
deluxe accommodations “out back”, consisting of two corrugated metal buildings
with 10x10 rooms that have metal bunk beds in them and very questionable
mattresses. No telling what kind of
Australian nasties you might get with your bill there! Pretty amazing conglomeration, but the sign
said ‘Live Band Saturday Night’! We
didn’t wait around to find out, but if you ever saw the pub in WalkAbout Creek
in Crocodile Dundee you will know exactly what The Lion’s Den Pub looks like. On the way back we saw the Black Mountain,
that looked suspiciously like it would be just as treacherous to climb as the Black
Volcano in Nicaragua, back in January.
It was just a really big pile of big black rectangular granite boulders
that eroded that way for some geologic reason.
And people and animals have frequently gone missing in the area, so, no
climbing going on for us there. Back in
Cooktown, we took pictures of the few colonial buildings, but it was so hot we tendered
back to the ship after a pretty short while.
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| Lions Den Pub |
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| Lions Den Pub |
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| We are not making this up - , 'nasties' included! |
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| Pile of rocks known as The Black Mountain |
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| Downtown Cooktown |
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| This is making Cooktown look 'way better than it is (hotel) |
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| Also Downtown Cooktown |
Darwin, in the Top End of Australia, has a
bigger harbor than Sydney’s, so we took a short harbor cruise. The most interesting thing I saw was a
crocodile trap, so you might guess about the rest of the trip. There are about 30 traps all around the
harbor and they catch about 5 crocs per week.
The gate was raised on this one, so it was empty. The technique for removing the croc is to
pull it out by its tail, throw a towel over its eyes so it calms down a little,
and wrap masking tape around its jaws. Masking
tape – are you kidding? Dangerous job
but somebody’s got to do it, right? So
it was just a little surprising that just one of the rangers is missing just
part of his hand. Anyway, we also heard
the story of the WWII bombing of Darwin by the Japanese, so that was
interesting. We walked into Darwin and
had a terrific lunch, just mac ‘n cheese and marinated olives for me, and fried
calamari and Scotch eggs for Al. If I
could make food taste like that I might even start cooking again! We were walking back to the ship through the
Esplanade Park, but got caught in a torrential downpour and scurried to the
shuttle. Too late! We were shoe – squishing drenched.
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| Darwin Harbor Cruise |
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| Darwin from Harbor Cruise |
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| This is just pretty |
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| Nice old fixed up building in Darwin |
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| Croc hides - really big ones |
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| Sailing away from Darwin |
We had beautiful sailing for a day and a half through the
Timor Sea enroute to Komodo Island. We had very close views of Timor, Rinca,
Flores, and many smaller islands, all green, volcanic and dramatic. We spent most of the time watching the
scenery from our deck – lovely and perhaps the most relaxing time we’ve had on
the ship. Komodo dragons are only found
on 5 islands in the Komodo Island group. These islands form the Komodo Island National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. About 2000 fishermen and their
families live on the island in metal shacks raised on stilts ( above the
dragons) at the water’s edge. The only
thing to do on Komodo is see the dragons, and no one can go ashore
independently - you have to go in an escorted group. We were warned repeatedly
not to wear red and not to go if we had any open wounds. We weren’t sure how the dragons felt about
stripes, so we dressed neutrally to be on the safe side; no open wounds, so we
went ashore at our assigned time, had a short safety briefing, and started our
walk accompanied by 3 guards carrying long forked sticks. The ranger pointed out a bit of flora along
the way and we saw a really, really big dragon nest on our way to the man-made
watering hole(there's no natural water supply on the island). Some years ago, the rangers
were providing food for the dragons, so they no longer hunted. They decided to pipe in water to form a small
pool where deer, chickens and wild pigs could come, and the dragons started to
hunt again. Of course, it works out well
for tourists because the dragons hang out there now and that’s where we saw 4
big males! They weren’t doing anything
much except looking prehistoric and ugly, but it was pretty neat. They sense everything through their forked
tongues, which weren’t flicking around too much, but every now and then they
did a little flicking and drooling.
After a lot of pictures we moved away and then suddenly there were 2
more big males stalking towards us through the woods – pretty rapidly. They can move pretty fast when they want to, I guess! The guards quickly herded us back into a
tighter group and got between us and them, forked sticks at the ready, and then
made threatening moves toward the dragons since they seemed to still be bearing
down on our little group! They got
pretty close, but ultimately decided the watering hole was more interesting
than us and our forked sticks and turned away.
That was it, but more exciting than first 4 big boys we saw. Komodo dragons aren’t poisonous but have a
lot of bacteria in their mouths, so their bite always causes infection, very
bad news for people, since there’s no hospital on Komodo Island. The park superintendent himself lost a foot
because there was one under his desk that bit him and he couldn’t get help
quickly enough, but hey, who left the door open anyway! They bite their prey but release after
causing the injury, follow the blood trail until the deer or whatever weakens
and falls, then whoever’s around can dig in.
They consume everything, even the bones.
So Komodo was certainly an unusual stop for us!
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| Sailing in the Timor Sea |
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| Opposite Komodo Island |
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| Komodo Island |
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| They came up to the ship for money, but they were nice about it! |
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| Dragon Nest |
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| Some of the locals |
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| Chillin' out |
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| Mingling with the natives |
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| One of our guards |
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| C'mon - take a guess! |
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| Walking away from us - now that's close! |
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| Hollywood Headshot |
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| Komodo Island Harbor |
Bali is never what people expect, and we
were not especially looking forward to it,
but were pleasantly surprised to find some things have greatly improved since
our last visit in 2011. First and
foremost, it’s quite a bit cleaner and there are no more Javanese street
sellers swarming tourists at every stop.
They must have banned them or something.
We were really bracing ourselves but
that problem has been eliminated, thankfully! The streets and medians, temples and other
points of interest are beautifully landscaped and well-groomed. Even public ‘happy rooms’ are greatly
improved in quality and cleanliness. The traffic is still very bad but the
drivers are patient and careful, and
since no one can go very fast, there aren’t too many accidents, even though
there are thousands and thousands of motorcycles (the family car). Sometimes up to 4 people aboard! One big change this time is that we docked
at Benoa, a commercial port, instead of anchored in front of a nice pretty
volcano. From Benoa, almost every trip
requires passing through Denpasar (the capitol) which has the worst
traffic. So it was a long slog to get
anywhere. And Bali is very, very flat
until right close to the volcanoes in the east and west sides; from Benoa, it takes
over well over an hour to get into the these parts of the island where it
starts to get pretty. But there are
temples, temples temples everywhere – family temple for every house, village, district, market, every trade group,
building, and so on and on. Even groups
like tour guides and lawyers have their own temple. It’s pretty crazy how many there are. As you go along, there are small offerings
everywhere (flowers, candy, incense on small flat woven baskets), as it’s common for Hindus to pray and make
numerous offerings throughout a day. So,
there’s always something to look at during a long drive.
First day, we chose to travel into the countryside to see
villages where they live in the traditional way (no electricity or indoor
‘happy rooms’), rice terraces, and the Water Temple that is in almost every
picture of Bali. After poking along
through busy roads for an hour or so, we
arrived in quieter, more rural districts of small villages with rice terraces
everywhere, stair stepping up the mountain slopes. All rice farming is still done by hand and
since they grow mostly jasmine rice, they get 3 crops per year. We saw terraces in every stage: recently plowed under, tiny new plantings
fully flooded, thick and grassy, and finally, tall, yellow, and ready for
harvest. The overall perspective is
lush, verdant, rich and green green green.
They were harvesting as well, which means cutting the plants by hand, one at a
time. Out in these areas, life is pretty simple and work is very hard. The
people carry baskets on their heads and wear conical hats in the fields while
they work. We feel like we got a feel
for the quieter, more serene Bali of the postcards .
It started to rain and then poured, so visibility was greatly
curtailed as we drove up the volcano to Bratun Lake to see the Water
Temple. By the time we got there it was
torrential, but they handed out slickers and we took our umbrellas, literally
wading in water over our ankles to get to the Temple, which was beautiful, but
very small. Too bad, it’s been on the
list since our first visit in 2009. At
least we’ve seen it, though.
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| Greeters |
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| Family Temple in the front yard |
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| At the Water Temple |
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Water Temple - the water god was listening!
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| Gate at the Water Temple |
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| Rice Terraces |
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| Rice Terraces |
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| Temple Offering |
Day 2 turned out perfectly fine - hot, but blue skies. First stop was at a very nice batik shop where we could watch the hot wax
process as well as shop. Their goods
were high quality, a great example of why Indonesian batik has been declared a UNESCO
Cultural Heritage tradition.
Another 45 minutes drive brought us to the Mengwi Royal
Temple, formerly the private temple of the Mengwi Royal family(1850s?). Surrounded by a very large moat, it’s a large
area divided into 3 sections, each accessed by an elevated ornately carved stone
gate. The first two sections contain grassy expanses with various structures
such as a bell tower, a fountain, and a raised justice court with an
intricately painted and gilded ceiling. We
couldn’t enter the last section since it’s an active public temple, but could
walk around the sides and overlook dozens of individual shrines, altars and
thatched pagodas of varying heights – beautiful and very extensive. Quite a special treat.
Onward to Tanah Lot on the southwest coast of Bali to see 2
temples, each situated on big rock outcroppings just off shore in the Indian
Ocean. Wow, these are both
spectacular! Small but gracefully
perched upon high jutting black rocks, with jagged cliffs and a black sand cove
between them, waves crashing in. At low
tide, worshippers can walk across a smooth shelf of rock to reach Enjung Galuh,
but it was high tide when we saw it. Access to Batu Bolung is by crossing a long span
of rock with an archway beneath, it allowing waves to crash through. Very beautiful
spot.
Singapore is fabulous. We took a brief drive through town to board a
small ‘bumboat’ for a cruise on the river.
Bumboats were used in the 1800s to off-load cargo from the East India sailing
ships that crowded Singapore’s harbor.
They transported the goods to warehouses (‘go-downs’) along the shore,
where Chinese sailors would often go to the wrong floor and were told to ‘go
down’. Having little understanding of
English, they thought the buildings were called go-downs. Anyway, there are still numerous original brightly
painted go-downs along the waterfront, nowadays full of cafes, providing
wonderful contrast to the soaring forest of skyscrapers all around them. Many
remnants of the British Empire – customs house, banks, and government buildings
are larger and more imposing than we’ve seen in other former colonies as well. Shipping-related businesses comprise most of
Singapore’s economy, and of course, all major banks have a presence. It seems like each has its own skyscraper,
unique and interesting. Naturally, there
are many of the best hotels, also. Of
course, visitors need something to do, so there are some big casinos, too. One of these is a group of three towers
topped by a boat-shaped structure that lays across the top of all three, with
an infinity pool that has the swimmers feeling like they’re swimming over the
edge. Some of the structures have lush green
garden spaces tucked into the corners or up the sides, but all are incredible and
stunning architecturally. Blue skies provided a gorgeous backdrop to the
sparkling skyline.
We stopped at an ornately carved and painted Chinese temple
where Buddhist monks in saffron robes were chanting a ceremony at one of the
altars, while other worshippers were lighting incense sticks and praying. We briefly visited the Arab sector where there’s
a large golden-domed mosque, and lots of Middle Eastern restaurants, shops and
markets. Finally, we came to Raffles
Hotel, famous and gracious, dating from British rule and East India Company
times. In fact, the EIC governed
Singapore in the early days and Sir Stamford Raffles got busy fast, and pretty much
organized the whole place from the beginning, leaving a permanent mark, even
though he was only there for about 18 months.
This place just exudes atmosphere - wide, spacious colonnades and
fountains outside, lots of white paint and carved, dark wood in the interiors, a
feeling for how the British adapted to living in the heat of Asia without
giving up their standards! The Long Bar is closed for renovation, so Singapore
Slings were served in the Billiards Room and Bar, not as much atmosphere as the
Long Bar, but white and woody and clubby nevertheless. We had them once before
in the Long Bar, so it was kind of interesting to see this one.
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