Muara, Brunei to Hong Kong, China

March 6, 7 & 8 – Three great days at sea to watch movies, chat with fellow cruisers, go to the evening performances and just generally have a good time. Tomorrow we are in Brunei. Actually to be fully correct the State of Brunei, ‘Abode of Peace’, Malay Negara Brunei Darussalam. Longest country name I’ve ever seen. It’s an Islamic sultanate on the Island of Borneo. It shares the island with The Malaysian state of Sarawak, which surrounds Brunei on all sides. The largest part of Borneo, over half, is occupied Indonesia. The current sultan’s name is His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’zzaddin Waddaulah the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. We just call him Haji. We have been warned that the country is very Islamic and that we’ll all have to wear long pants or dresses and shirts with sleeves. That’s not good news as we are only 4 degrees north of the Equator and the weather will be hot with 90% humidity. Double Yikes!!

March 9 – Here we are in Brunei. The entry for yesterday will be the last time I’ll use the full name for either the country or the sultan. This morning I got up early to get breakfast and prepare to video the musicians and dancers that were to welcome us into the port. We were supposed to pick up the pilot at 7:30AM, be docked by 8:30 and cleared to disembark the ship at 10AM. As we approached the entrance to the harbor the ship slowed to a stop and then just sat there for an hour. The pilot had not come out. At 8:45 the pilot came and we got underway. Apparently he brought the immigration officials also as there’s a lot of paperwork to land here but we were still cleared to disembark the ship by 10AM as scheduled.

We skipped seeing the major city here and went straight to the rainforest. Brunei shares the Island of Borneo with parts of two other countries, Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact Brunei only occupies about 1-2% of the land on Borneo. However, the land it occupies has about 95% of the island’s oil reserves. This is a wealthy place. Everyone has a car, there are no taxes, and education, healthcare and most other public services are free. The government builds you a nice home when you get married and after paying a small amount based on your income for 10 years, the land and house are yours.

The country is divided into 4 sections and we will be in 3 of them to get to the area of the rainforest where the Dayak tribe we will be visiting resides. The Dayak people are very short. The tallest man I saw was about 5’4”. The women are smaller, about 5’1-2” or less (right). The Dayaks are also known as the “Headhunters of Borneo”. This is what they were called in articles in newspapers and adventure magazines 70 to 80 years ago when journalists began coming here. Headhunting was ended some time in the mid-twentieth century. No one is very specific about when the last head was taken. I’m hoping that’s not because the date keeps moving forward!!

The Dayaks live in “Longhouses” (above left) and have for several hundred years. The longhouse we will be visiting is over 100 years old. It has been moved twice due to various geological events. They take it apart and reassemble it in the new location. The house itself is a large rectangular structure up on stilts. In the front, it has a set of five stairs leading up to a small covered porch. The porch has benches built in along each side for sitting down to take off your shoes. Each set of stairs has a separate little porch. From this porch another set of five stairs leads to a long continuous veranda. In this particular long house there are 12 separate living spaces arranged like town houses, so there are 12 sets of steps and porches but the veranda itself is not divided at all.

Directly across from the upper stairs is an entrance to the house proper so there are 12 doors. However they all lead to a large common room that extends the entire length of the building. Directly across from these doors are the doors to the 12 separate living quarters. The large common room is carpeted with large loose bamboo mats. Here a small band and four young girls dancing (left) greeted us. The girls were sisters ages 15-18 and they were very cute. Their costumes were very colorful and consisted of many pieces.

A long skirt was the simple part. Above the waist they had a sort of sleeveless shirt, a vest and a large collar. On their heads they had a hairpiece that was attached at the back of their hair and was flat facing forward and shaped like a square with one of the corners pointing down. Attached to the two downward sloping sides were silver and gold colored metal pieces that looked like flowering grass plants. They wore a wide decorated belt around their waist. One girl was proud of the fact that her belt had been her grandmother’s. Over this belt they wore chains of various sized metal disks. There could be 3 to 5 rows of the disks in the chain belt. From this metal belt strings of metal disks were attached that dangled loosely so they could strike each other and ring as the girls danced. To add to the body music they also wore metallic arm and ankle bracelets that rang together as they moved.

The band consisted of one man playing what looked like bronze British navy hats, short cylinders with sloping sides, a flat top and a large ball in the middle of the top (right). To play them he struck them on top of the ball. They were setting on a divided large wooden tray on the floor. They were different diameters to create the various notes. Just behind him was man playing a long narrow bamboo drum. On his left was a woman playing a gong and on her left was a man playing an instrument that looked like a circular bronze seat cushion that was hanging from the same frame as the gong. The music was quite pleasant. There were 8 bronze hats in the tray so I’m assuming that they work on the same octave as we do or at least a similar 8-note scale.

Then the chief came out and played a wooden, guitar like instrument shaped like a very long necked, flat fronted wine bottle (left). He wore a headdress with long, probably 3 foot plus, feathers around the crown, sort of like an American Indian headdress. After that, the second in command gave us a blowpipe demonstration. He hung a dartboard across the common room and shot 3 darts into it before offering us a chance. I was ready. Diana brought a short blowpipe back from Peru and I’d been shooting it across the living room into the back of one of our chairs. His pipe was about five and a half feet long and the darts were about 6 inches. I shot one into the triple area directly in the center of the board. I didn’t use quite enough air and it dropped about 4 inches crossing the room. Only one other man would try it and he did well also.

The Dayak weave in split bamboo and they had some of their wares for sale. Diana bought a cylindrical container and a men’s hat I’m going to wear on Sultan of Brunei night on the ship. They also have cockfights and on the way to the bus we passed two men with fighting roosters. One of them was huge.

As we were leaving the chief offered us a taste of his wine (left). He said it was papaya wine. It tasted like sake so I suspect that rice is involved somehow. It was fairly strong but not unpleasant. Being a Muslim country, Brunei is officially ‘dry’. However an exemption is made for the native tribes to allow them to make alcohol for their own use. Visitors coming into the country can bring in 12 beers and 2 liters of alcohol for their own use. It has to be consumed in private. No public drinking is allowed.

After that it was on the bus and back into town. On the way we stopped at a small display of the various animals, birds and plants of the Bruneian rainforest. Our guide had a cicada and was it every a big one. He let us hold it (right). If you put a little gentle pressure on their back they make their noise.

After that it was on to tea at the Empire Hotel. Our guide claims that there are only two 7-star hotels in the world, the Empire Hotel here and one in Dubai. I have to admit, the hotel was impressive. A huge atrium, all glass on one side and about 10 floors tall. All the floors are open on the atrium end and are terraced with each floor being shorter than the one below it (below, right). The staff was very friendly and their English was perfect. They had a human chain of guides about 10 feet apart to direct us to the tea spot. It was one floor down from the lobby and on a little peninsula over looking the atrium. Through the glass side we could see the gardens, pool area and the ocean. Very beautiful. After that it was back to the ship. We arrived late and the ship had to be held for us. It was a long, hot but fun day. Dress for the evening was formal and the theme was the Sultan of Brunei. I wore my white dinner jacket with my Newfoundland tartan tie and the bamboo hat Diana bought from the Dayaks (Below left). It was a big hit with the staff and passengers as well. Nothing like something unusual to spice up formal nights.

March 10 & 11 – Two more ‘at sea’ days to charge up for the port of Hong Kong. My Tai Chi is proceeding nicely. I love some of the breathing exercises like the lotus or green dragon. They are short enough to learn easily but long enough to be fun. The regular tai chi sets are fairly long and require days and days to learn. We started a new set in Sydney and have had 13 sea days since them and I think we’re only about half way through learning the entire exercise. I really enjoy it and hope I can keep it up when I get home.

March 12 – First day in Hong Kong. It’s very cloudy and raining off and on. Diana is headed to the Li River on an overnight trip. I’m staying in Hong Kong to explore. She’s going to write a report of her own on that trip. Right now I’m going to stick to my time in HK.

I took a morning tour of Victoria Island. Perhaps a little review of the geography would be helpful. The area generally referred to as British Hong Kong is made up of three main sections, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The ship is docked in Kowloon, not in HK proper. Kowloon is directly across Victoria Harbor from HK. Kowloon is on the mainland and is connected to mainland china by the New Territories. The, ‘so-called’ New Territories were given to the British in the 1800s after they defeated China in the Opium Wars.

Editorial Note: Here in China they have a different sense of time than we do. For example, my tour guide this AM said that his father recently came to settle in HK from the New Territories. I found out later that this had happened over 60 years ago. This is ‘recent’ in the Chinese mind. Another time a guide refereed to a building as ‘new’. The truth is the building was over 400 years old. The Chinese have a much longer view of history than we do. They also have a much more patient view toward the future. If they are fairly certain something will happen they are willing to wait patiently for several hundred years for it to happen. They are content to wait as long as they see the future potential in the circumstances. This is probably one reason why Taiwan has been tolerated for such a long time. Thus after 200 years the New Territories are still ‘new’ in the Chinese view on things.

Technically, the British did not have to return Hong Kong Island in 1997. The lease that expired that year was only on Kowloon and the New Territories. The island and HK city were not leased but were owned outright by the British. However, if they had not given that back as well the Chinese could have cut off their electricity and water supplies. This, as well as diplomatic factors, caused the British to return all the land to China at the same time. Three years later the Portuguese gave back Macao with little fanfare or notice.

The tour headed around the island and made a stop at Aberdeen. This is the fishing port that is famous for the live aboard sampans and other boats. There are thousands of them. I understand that there are fewer every year as more of the people get regular land jobs and abandon the sampan way of life. We took a tour of the harbor on a sampan (above left) piloted by a woman of indeterminate age. She could have been 40 or 70, I couldn’t tell. She was a very skillful helmsman and gave us a great ride. One of the landmarks of Aberdeen harbor is Jumbo Restaurant (right). It’s the world’s largest floating restaurant. It’s six stories high, granted only 3 of them run the full length of the restaurant, and I estimate it’s about 250’ long by 25-30 feet wide. It has it’s own fleet of boats to transfer people from various spots on land out to eat. As you might guess it’s mainly a seafood place. We also saw part of the HK fishing fleet, houseboats and other assorted vessels. A great ride!

We reboarded the bus and continued to the southern side of the island to the Deep Water and Repulse Bays. Deep Water Bay is the site of the harbor for very large ships. Repulse Bay has very nice, broad sand beaches and a Taoist area at the east end. The Taoist area has images of several of their gods (left), some large some small. Most are very attractive. Lot’s of the locals, most of them female, were lining up to touch and rub one of the plainer, smaller, ugly ones. I inquired and was told it was the “money god” (below right). I guess in Taoist theology, as in life, if you’ve got the bucks you can attract all sorts of women. When the person finally arrived at the statue they would place their hands on the top of its head and rub all the way down the face, neck, shoulders and chest. The truly devout (or money hungry?) would rub all the way down to its feet. It was fun just watching the action he was getting. There were many other gods represented, all of them more attractive and colorful than ‘money man’.

After that it was up to Victoria Peak for a view over HK. Well, Victoria Peak was above the cloud level so absolutely no view was available. Our tour included entry to Madam Trousseau’s Wax Museum. I posed for a picture with Humphrey Bogart and Chiyonofuji. Bogart was dressed in his white jacket outfit from Casablanca. Chiyonofuji (below left) was in his sumo belt and standing in a pose from the sumo ring entry ritual. He’s one of the best Yokozuna that sumo has ever seen. In fact, since his retirement, he has formed his own dojo and has trained several very successful sumotori, including one who also made the rank of Grand Champion or Yokozuna. This is a pretty good record as there have only been 30 or 40 men promoted to that rank in the history of sumo, several hundred years. He is one of the lightest men ever to reach the top of the sport. They had several nice displays. One had Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler standing side by side.

After that is was back to the ship. I spent the afternoon walking around Kowloon going into camera shops looking for a replacement for my broken digital. I went in several stores from large chain stores to small kiosks. Usually the further you are from the ship the better the prices but in this case the little shop just off the pier from the ship had the lowest price. I want to look around tomorrow to get an idea of prices in HK.

In the evening several of us went to a little fishing village on the Kowloon coast to have a seafood dinner. Just walking to the restaurant was fun. We were in a narrow walkway with fruit and seafood markets on either side of us. There were a few restaurants mixed in. I got the idea that when you order something the restaurant goes out to the fish shops and buys what he needs to make your order. All the fish are alive in the markets. The variety was amazing, from huge grouper to very small shrimp, it was all there. Amazingly, even with all the fish stalls and the small space there was no fishy smell at all. Wonderful.

The fish being cut up in the picture on the top right is a monkfish. The stick like things in front of the fish are razor clams. There are also some scallops and a giant clam on the table. The top left picture is a display of shellfish and crustaceans. They have a large variety of crabs. The lobsters are the Spiny (clawless) variety like we have on the west coast of the USA. There appear to be several types of these one of which has a bluish shell. The fish tank in the picture on the bottom left is the most colorful display of fish I’ve ever seen in a fish market. There were two fruit stands mixed in with the fish markets. The large fruit to the right of the pineapples in the bottom right picture are durian. This fruit smells so bad when cut open that it is forbidden to eat it in public places and you can’t even carry them on aircraft or trains. It’s white inside and has a custard-like taste that is very nice, but the smell is terrible. I guess it’s like my people’s Limburger cheese. Smells rotten, tastes great!

After that we went to the Temple Street night market (right). During the day vehicles use the street, but in the evening it is closed and vendors of all sorts set up stalls to sell everything from jewelry and clothing to electronics and DVDs. I bought a few small things. The picture on the right is a display of beaded handbags. Then it was back to the ship.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005

Fremantle/Perth, Australia to Bali, Indonesia

March 1 – Ouch, two ports in a row again. I don’t know if I can stand the strain. Today we are in Fremantle/Perth. Fremantle has the port and a short way up the Swan River. It’s not a river actually but an estuary. The original founders did not know that and it seems very river like. When they arrived the English found hitherto fore unknown Black Swans in the estuary, thus the name.

I was eating lunch as we were arriving. Late arrival today at Noon. I looked out on the pier and there were about 20 Red Hats waving and cheering as we sailed by. (In case you don’t know what Red Hats are I’ll explain. They are women over 50 who get together and just have fun. They wear red hats and outfits of some shade of purple. The hats have to be very red and the more outrageous the better. Large feathers and flowers are favorite hat decorations. They often carry red fans or feather boas as well as wear red shoes. Their only purpose is to have a good time. I think there are about 20 chapters of Red Hats in Irvine. They pay no dues, etc and they keep the groups small by closing them when they reach a certain number. The idea is to open another group. This keeps management at a minimum when organizing events and the like.) When we disembarked the ship there were the Red Hats (left) on the pier greeting us as we came out of the terminal. They seemed to be achieving their goal of having fun.

We took a tour that drove us to Perth and had a city tour and then we boarded a riverboat for the trip back to Fremantle. It was very pretty. Some of the real estate along the river was impressive. The most expensive home in Western Australia belongs to the daughter one of the partners who discovered iron ore in the Kimberly range. I thought it was a hotel. It was huge. Should have been, it cost $54 million Australian to build.

Perth (right) is a large city. On the waterfront they have a new carillon (below on the right) that houses the bells from St. Martin in the Fields in London. They were a gift from England to Perth for their 100-years of federation celebration. It’s very modern in design, steel and glass with dark red tile, clamshell shaped enclosure at the base. The sound of the bells was wonderful. I wonder why they were willing to give them up.

On the way back to the ship from the river cruise we got a tour of Fremantle. It’s the most well preserved port town from the 1800s. Most of the old building facades are still standing, most with very modern buildings inside. The downtown area has one street closed to traffic as an outdoor shopping mall. The main street that allows traffic runs perpendicular to and bisects the mall. It’s known as Cappuccino Row for all the cafés, coffee shops and bistros located there. It was doing a very lively business for the middle of a Tuesday. Our guide told us that a large portion of the population was Italian because of the wine grapes and Portuguese because of the fishing. It has lots of Italian restaurants and pizza shops. Very different from Adelaide and Albany where the predominant group, other than the English, was German.

Fremantle, where we docked (right), was the site of the 1987 America’s Cup competition after New Zealand had won it in 1982 in the USA. You may remember that Dennis Connor won it back for the USA down here. It’s a great place to sail, as there is mostly always a pretty stiff breeze. The ocean breeze that cools things off around here is called the Frebo Doctor. Frebo is what the locals call Fremantle. Aussies seem to shorten any word over two syllables. They would agree with me that San Francisco should be called Frisco. I told you, I love these people.

March 2, 3 & 4 – Three very restful, enjoyable days at sea. Every so often the chefs put on a desert show buffet. You can eat everything but they have a half hour period for viewing and picture taking. This one emphasized desert and appetizers. There was an impressive dragon ice carving that was the largest I’ve ever seen on a ship. They used 3 of the large blocks fused together by rubbing the edges with salt and then refreezing them. The tuxedo strawberries not only looked good but were delicious as well. The chocolate tree with meringue doves was a nice touch. They are also getting much better at making rice for sushi. It used to be way to gummy and not properly seasoned. The chef in the blue hapi coat made replacements as people ate the sushi. The egg penguins were very hard to photograph and I never did get the white balance properly corrected. Their heads are olives and their hats are pepperoni. The chess set is a cake surrounded by chocolate boxes with chocolate mouse inside. The ice dragon is three large blocks of ice fused together. Usually the carvings are out of one block. This is the largest I’ve ever seen on a ship.

They really put themselves out for these performances. The staff is allowed to come up and mingle with the passengers as they go through the buffet and you can see that they are quite proud of their work and appreciative of the compliments they get and the admiration on the faces of the passengers. When you pause to take a picture of their work they are very happy.

March 5 – Today we are in Bali, Indonesia. We tried to come here in 2002 but unfortunately the terrorist bombing occurred just before we arrived so HAL switched the port to Broome, Australia and we sailed right past Bali. In fact, I took some pictures of the bay where we anchored without knowing it was the place we were supposed to anchor. There’s a small oil facility of some kind there and the tanker ships made a nice picture with the volcano in the background.

Bali Island is one of the thousands of islands that make up the country of Indonesia. Unlike much of Indonesia, Bali is mostly Hindu with some elements of Polynesian culture added. This is probably why the Islamic terrorists exploded the bombs on Bali. It was an attempt to ruin their tourist industry, a major portion of their economy. The Balinese people have great respect for other people and are very warm and welcoming.

The port here is small so we will be anchored offshore and using the lifeboats to tender into the pier. This always creates a huge bottleneck in getting ashore.

Bali is a very exotic place. Almost all the architecture looks like Hindu temples, even the private homes. The traditional Balinese home is really a compound surrounded by a wall. The front gate looks like a Hindu temple gate and, in fact, each home has a family temple. It usually occupies the highest point in the property as that is considered the most holy spot in the compound. It has three shrines in it, one to Brahma (the creator), one to Shiva (the dissolver or destroyer) and one to Vishnu (the preserver). Each town has three community temples, a separate one for each of these gods. Of course, Hinduism has about 2,000 gods but these are the big three to the Balinese. One other important god is Ganesh (the protector) the son of Vishnu. He is shown with an elephant’s head and is usually the first thing you see when approaching a business or home.

There are other buildings in the compound, one for the family area, one for sleeping, one for the children, one for the kitchen, one for the toilet and one for visitors, sort of a spare room. These buildings are not large by US standards but there are so many of them that the family has lots of space. Their concept of the family is a lot more inclusive than ours. The way we count families there would be 2, 3 or more living in one compound. They consider uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc as members of the immediate family. This is why the house pretty much has to be a compound.

Those of you who have attended my class on the Jewish calendar probably appreciate how much more complex it is than our Gregorian calendar. Well let me tell you, the Jews have nothing at all on the Balinese. They actually use two calendars, the Hindu saka that everyone uses and the wuku, which is unique to Bali. The wuku calendar, which is used to determine festival dates, much like the Jewish calendar, has 10 different types of weeks that range in length from 1 to 10 days and they all run simultaneously. The intersections of the various weeks determine the holy days. You can’t do it in your head.

Unfortunately we were on tour all day so I had very little time to walk around and get pictures of the locals. Our first tour was to a Barong Dance and then on to Mt. Batur, the major volcano on the island.

Our first stop was at a temple in Klungkung (above left). Here we saw the Barong dance. The orchestra, called a gamelan, was an interesting collection of gongs, bells, cymbals, drums and xylophone-like instruments made of bamboo. The sound was very pleasant. We sat under an awning like shade looking at the front of the temple which was about 20 feet above us setting on a series of terraces with life-sized statues of various gods and a wide stairway up to the temple’s main door. The performers came out of the temple and proceeded down the stairs to a large terrace about 5 feet above ground level. This lowest terrace served at the stage.

The first to enter was the Barong (above right), a large shaggy creature that is half dog and half lion. He personifies good and protects the village. He danced about; I guess I should say they danced about, as there was a second man in the rear half. It had a red wooden mask for a face and the only sound it created was a clacking noise when the front actor snapped the mouth open and closed.

Next, two women danced down the stairs and onto the lower terrace (left). I believe this was a welcoming dance. Their way of saying, “Thanks for coming.” The women were attired in beautifully colored silk dresses. They wore upside down heart-shaped hats made of Plumeria blossoms. The smell must have been wonderful for them. Their hand gestures and body movements were very precise and they must all have double-jointed fingers, as the positions they attain are totally impossible for me.

Since this is a morality play with good and evil, next comes the rangda, an evil witch with long hair and saber-like fingernails. She attacks the village and is driven off by the barong. Good triumphs again. There are some humorous parts. One man is always whining and crying (right) over his circumstances, he’s a riot. His is constantly berating his assistant for things over which he has no control. This is all in Balinese of course but you can follow what’s going on by the gestures and the facial expressions. There’s a prince and his attendant, the prince’s wife or consort and her attendant, a white monkey, two red monkeys, and a group of villagers

From there we drove up to Mt. Batur and had lunch on the patio of a restaurant (right) that had a wonderful view of the mountain and the valley in between. It was getting cloudy quickly and that should have given us a hint of things to come. The lunch was delicious. Various Indonesian and Balinese dishes (below) toned down for US tastes but they did provide 4 different spicy sauces to zip them up to local standards. It was served buffet style, which is great because you get to sample small amounts of lots of dishes and then go back for bigger servings of the best ones.

From there we drove part way down the mountain to Tampak Siring and the Temple of the Holy Spring. The temple is over 1,000 years old and is on the site of a spring that produces large amounts of water that constantly flows from the mountain. People all over the island come to this site to bathe in and drink the water. As we arrived there it started to rain. It steadily increased to monsoon level and then stayed that way for 2 hours. There was spectacular lightning and thunder, sometimes so close it was simultaneous. Appropriately, we all got thoroughly soaked at the Temple of the Holy Spring (below left). Umbrellas were worthless as the wind was swirling the rain from all directions. I was wearing my poncho and managed to keep most of my upper body and cameras dry but my legs were soaked. I couldn’t take video because those cameras are very sensitive to moisture. It was almost impossible to get still photos (below right) because rain instantly got on the lens, obscuring the picture and causing the auto focus to mess up. The rain was coming from every direction and it finally got in around the neck of my poncho and soaked the front of my shirt. The rain was flooding the temple’s terraces and turning them into lakes. The stone stairways looked like waterfall cascades. The water got so deep that it was over my shoe tops and that led to some very soggy socks that squished for the rest of the day. Ah, the rigors of travel. Fortunately it was very warm so the soaking was more of an inconvenience than a discomfort. The vertical streaks you see in the picture are huge raindrops falling too fast to be stopped by the shutter. You can see the tidal wave Diana’s shoe has set in motion.

After leaving the temple we went to the ancient village of Ubud. This is an artist’s village with painters, wood carvers and weavers. We stopped at one dealer for each of these items. Diana got a woven circular box with at carved lotus blossom and turtle on top. It cost 100,000 Indonesian Rupiahs. This is not bad because the exchange rate is 9,000 to $1.00. They gave us a discount and we only paid 85,000 or $9.50 for a very nice box. I bought a hand woven and hand painted tie made of silk. This was very expensive, 55,000 Rupiahs or about $6.15. Yikes!! Diana bought some small carvings at the wood store. I’m not even sure what they are. Almost every shop has a shrine to Ganesh and Diana posed with one for a picture (right).

We booked an evening tour to a Kecak dance that was to meet on the ship at 6:30PM. Our morning tour was supposed to get back at 5PM but we were an hour and a half late. Our bus arrived at the pier just as the first tender carrying evening tour passengers arrived. So we just went from one bus to the other and missed dinner. Ouch, that hurt! Actually, I had enjoyed lunch so much that I wasn’t really hungry at dinnertime.

The evening play was similar to the one we saw in the afternoon but it had a large candelabra made of plant stalks and leaves that supported 12 to 14 fairly large torches arranged like Christmas tree lights. There were no musical instruments. Rather the first event was the entrance of a large group of men who formed three concentric circles around the candelabra. They chanted ke-cak over and over and that is how the dance derives its name. They did this with hand motions and then sat down in the three circles. They provided the accompaniment of the play as they chanted various other words, always returning to the ke-cak chant that sounded for the whole world like they were saying, “Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck”. I began to wonder if he was ever going to show up. Chuck, that is. It was fairly dark so my pictures are only so-so. The video will be better.

The characters (left) are much the same as the Barong play but the story is different, there’s no Barong or whining man and the chanting men replace the musical instruments. The two red monkeys, the white monkey, the prince, his assistant and consort and the long haired, long finger nailed witch were all there. In this version the monkeys drive off the witch not the Barong.

After that it was back to the ship and on to three days at sea heading to Brunei.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005

Melborne, Australia to Albany, Australia

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005

Feb 22 – These days at sea are getting to be very relaxing. We’ve settled into a pattern. Diana is taking beginning bridge classes in the AM and watercolor painting classes in the PM. I vary activities by the day but always start with tai chi and the morning coffee chat.

Feb 23 – Today we’re in Melbourne, Australia. In the morning we’re taking a city tour and in the afternoon we’re getting out of town to the Blue Dandenong mountains, a resort area just out of town.

The city tour was interesting. We stopped at the botanical gardens, and generally rode around looking at the sights. Pretty boring actually but it did give us a feel for the place. The population is about 3.4 million and the city is very cosmopolitan. Traffic is terrible. They have four seasons. The winter gets down to about 40 degrees and the summers up to 105 degrees. A little hot for me. The people are very friendly.

The trip to the mountains was much better. We stopped at a bird sanctuary on the way up. There were only two types hanging around while we were there, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and the Crimson Rosella. The cockatoo looks like you would expect with a bright yellow crest. It’s a large variety, about 18 inches tall. The Rosella is a parrot that makes a bell-like sound that had me looking for metal plates hanging in the trees until I figured out the source.

On the trip back down the mountain we stopped in Olinda Village. It had a lot of small shops with various wares. Some sold soap and oils, others Australian made carved or painted items. Diana bought a pair of Aboriginal rhythm sticks. I went in to a bakery to get a coke and on the way out I spotted something I’ve been searching for since New Zealand, Melting Moment cookies (left).

I discovered them in 2002 when we were in the Bay of Islands. We had lunch at a sheep ranch and there was a desert table with many very attractive offerings. Only a plate of nondescript looking cookies remained untouched. I knew they were home made so I took a couple to be polite. One bite and I was hooked. Melting Moments, yikes!! That plain looking, drab cookie was one of the best non-chocolate deserts I’ve ever had. It was a sandwich style cookie with the outside cookies made of shortbread and the filling was light lemon cream. They were fantastic. I mentioned them to several other people. Not a very wise move as when I went back to get some more they were all gone. I asked the lady of the house what they were and she told me Melting Moments. She had baked them herself and I told her they were the best thing I’d tasted in a long time.

The bakeries version was almost as good as the home made ones. They that is very good indeed.
After that it was back to the ship for dinner and sail away. When I got to the dinner table one of my tablemates had a surprise for me. They had stopped by the casino in Melbourne, something I had not had a chance to do, and gotten a $1 chip for me. Very thoughtful. I bought some good tea in Sydney and have intended to give Eric and Evelyn some to see if they like it.

Feb 24 – Another restful sea day. I’m feeling tired and don’t do much all day except read, eat and relax.

Feb 25 – Today we’re in Adelaide. This is a seriously beautiful city! A military man laid it out as a planned city and his plan pretty near perfect. It is exactly one mile square and is bordered on all sides by a park about 400 yards across. They call the areas of the park terraces and name them by the side of the city they border, for example, the North Terrace or East Terrace. Then in the city itself they have five of what they call squares. We would call them a park. The squares are laid out exactly as if you were looking at the face of the dice that has 5 dots, one in the center and then one in the center of each quarter of the city. They have wide streets and pretty good traffic flow. If they would just do a better job of timing their traffic lights, the traffic flow would be great. I was very impressed with Adelaide. I liked Sydney and Melbourne, but I think I would live in Adelaide if I moved to Australia.

We are on two tours again today, one am and one pm. I don’t like to do that but Diana likes to be going all the time. One tour that lasts all day is much better because you don’t duplicate the trek to and from the ship.

In the AM we are headed out of the city to an animal park. Diana just can’t get enough of the Koalas (above) and the Wombats. In fact almost any marsupial sends her into a state of euphoria, Wallabies, Kangaroos, whatever! This was a nice park and most of the animals were approachable. The exceptions were the Dingoes, Wombats and the Tasmanian Devils. The ‘roos and wallys were right out in the fields. There seem to be many varieties of each.

On the way to the park we stopped at Mt. Lofty for a view back over Adelaide to the coast (left). It was very clear, no sign of the smog we saw in Melbourne. We could see the city and its surrounding parklands and also the superstructure of our ship in Port Adelaide. It was probably 25-30 miles to the ship from atop the 2,100-foot mountain. The ship could be clearly seen with binoculars or a zoom lens. Very good visibility indeed.

After we returned to the ship for a quick lunch we headed back to the mountains and the historic city of Hahndorf. There’s a lot of German influence here in the Adelaide area. In the middle to late 1800s when the move to start a unified Germany was underway there was a second round of religious persecution that drove many people to emigrate abroad. Much like the disputes in the late 1600s that sent my ancestors packing to the Pennsylvania, USA. This time the dispute was not between Catholics and Protestants but among Protestants of differing dogma. Many of these people went to the USA following the example of the Pennsylvania Dutch. But others, seeking a less structured place where more opportunity existed and more land was readily available came to Australia.

Hahndorf still has many of the original stone structures built by the immigrants. In many ways they look exactly like those built by the early German settlers of Pennsylvania. Stone houses built essentially of stone recovered from clearing the fields for farming. I found some locally made Mittewurst in regular (beef and pork mix) and Kangaroo (beef and kangaroo mix). This type of sausage is cooked and then smoked so I don’t have to worry about refrigeration. But we will have to eat it on the ship, as it’s tough to bring meat products into the USA privately. We then went to the Beerenberg Strawberry Farm to get some strawberries and cream. They were very good. The farm produces a wide assortment of jams and jellies. I bought a small jar of Rose Petal Jam. We’ll have to have some with tea some afternoon.

Then it was back to the ship where they had a local show come aboard to give us a taste of aboriginal dance and music. They were very good as well. Robert, our Australian Tai Chi instructor, said they were the best he’s seen in a long time. At 11PM we cast off for out two-day trip to Albany, Australia across the Australian Bight. The waters of this area have a reputation for being unpredictable and rough. I’m sure that’s going to make everyone happy.

Epicurean Note: On our anniversary we ate in the upscale restaurant on the ship. Reservations are required and it usually costs $20 per person to dine there. Our travel agent included eight vouchers for dinner there during the cruise. The pictures below are (left to right): Huge ocean prawn with cappuccino sauce, halibut with crabmeat and the chocolate volcano. The first two are pretty self-explanatory but the volcano is a cross between a flourless chocolate cake and a chocolate soufflé. One of the best deserts I’ve ever had. The picture really does not do it justice.

Feb 26 – Another very restful day at sea. We started a new tai chi in Sydney and it’s coming along pretty well. We do several exercises to warm up. My favorites are the lotus and the green dragon. It’s the only exercise system I’ve ever really enjoyed.

Feb 27 – Ditto, except that today we had part two of the Australian wine tasting in the afternoon. They had a Lindemans Shiraz that was very good and a Cabernet from Rosemount, the Estate 2002, which was excellent. Tomorrow we’re in Albany (Al-bany, not All-bany as in the USA). It’s a small town and it’s the first time a Holland America ship has called there.

Feb 28 – Today we are in Albany, Australia. This is a really small town. They say that the population in about 30,000 but I think they’re including people from the surrounding countryside. The pier is right downtown. We’re on a very short tour today, only 2 hours. First the driver gave us a short tour of downtown Albany. That took about 10 minutes. It’s a very quaint place in a nice way. Nothing appears to be ‘put up’ for the tourists. Perhaps that’s because they just recently dredged the harbor and now it’s deep enough to accept smaller cruise ships like ours. They are not yet used to having a lot of tourists descend on them like locusts. It’s still a novelty and everyone was very friendly. “Are you off the ship?” they would ask, even though it was fairly obvious with our shorts, cameras and all. Anyone and everyone is ready to strike up a conversation. A very straightforward and open lot these Aussies. I really like it here.

Our tour headed out to town to the Torndirrup National Park (above & right). This is on a very rocky coast with sheer cliffs, blowholes and natural bridges. It was impressive. Early this morning we had a pretty rough patch of ocean starting at about 2AM. It woke me up and then rocked me back to sleep. Well, not the same waves are breaking on the coast and it is awesome. The breakers hit the rocks and the spray was shooting 100 feet in the air. The sight and sound was awe-inspiring, the raw power of nature on display. There was a large, granite natural bridge that the waves were breaking under creating the largest blowhole I’ve ever seen. I’m sure the place is always beautiful, but when these large waves are rolling in, it’s not only beautiful, it’s breathtaking.

After reluctantly leaving the show of nature’s power at the park we arrived at Whale World. This is a preserved whaling station that did not cease operations until 1978. They have retained the processing plants, the storage tanks and the maintenance buildings as well as the Cheynes IV, a Norwegian built whaling ship. The ship was one of three still operating when the business closed. The ship has a curved hull and one large screw for power. It looked very much like a child’s bath toy rather than a working ship. I’m sure it didn’t look very toy like to the whales.

When we arrived back in town the driver asked if we wanted to be dropped off anywhere special or if we wanted to go back to the ship. Diana and I opted to be dropped off downtown for two reasons. First, Diana has been on a mission to leave at least one lipstick in every country we visit so she wanted to buy another replacement. Second, our port lecturer has been talking about the Australian’s love for meat pies and I wanted to get one. I asked the driver if there were any good restaurants near where he was dropping us and he said that there was. I asked if it served any meat pies and he said, “Mate, every place in Albany serves meat pies!” We shopped at K-Mart for a lipstick. Yes, it is the same K-Mart. Then we stopped in at the Sails Café for a bite to eat.

Diana ordered what turned out to be the last peppered beef pie (right) so I ordered the chicken and fennel pie. Diana’s pie was in the traditional Australian dough and form. Mine was in a filo dough crust more in the shape of a turnover (below left). We shared the pies and both were great. I’ll never figure out how they keep the crust so flaky with all the liquid inside the pies. Amazing!! I’m pretty sure they were freshly home made. They would be a very different product if they were frozen or held for any length of time.

Diana’s peppered beef pie was filled with beef in very tasty gravy. No filler vegetables or anything else. They said it was a beef pie and that’s what it was. Mine was a chicken breast with fennel stalks and had a creamy garlic sauce. Both were delicious. I asked the girl at the counter what they drink with meat pies and she said, “I like mine with tea.” I remembered the lecturer saying something about meat pie and tea so that’s what I had. Went very well together.

While I was waiting for Diana at the shuttle bus stop I had time to wonder down the street. I came upon a tea and spice shop. They had all sorts of locally made chutneys, relishes, pickles and other interesting food items. As I was turning to leave I spotted a pedestal cake plate with a plastic cover, just like the old roadside diners used to use for displaying pies. Under the cover were what appeared to be Melting Moment cookies (below). They were large, about 3.5 inches across and about 1.25 inches thick. I asked the proprietor if they were indeed the cookies in question and he answered in the affirmative. I bought two and carried them back to the bus stop. Diana ate hers immediately and pronounced them the best yet. Very close to the ones we had at the sheep station in New Zealand in 2002. When I ate mine later I had to agree. They were absolutely great!!

Compare this one with the one I bought in Melbourne. This one is much larger and had a more homemade look.

After that it was back to the ship as sail away was at 2PM. When we made it out of the harbor and across the bay the big breakers were still waiting for us. I guess the Australian Bight got a nip at us after all. Thankfully they did not have a dance show scheduled for this evening. I’m sure they would have had to switch it to another night and move that entertainment up. The performer was a ventriloquist and he was very good. Did most of his act without a dummy, just tossing his voice in the air. He said he did it that way because he didn’t want the distraction so we could concentrate on his lips to see that they didn’t move. His thrown voice was very clear, not the usual speech impaired dopey voice most of them use. It was uncanny. The ship was rocking like mad and he was staggering all over the stage, which he managed to work into the comedy of this act. Very impressive. We’re in Fremantle/Perth tomorrow so we’ve got to get to bed.

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