Diane

Today was lots of fun, so well organized and once again I felt 100% safe on an excursion. I went on the snorkeling and skull cave excursion.

The van had comfy seats and air conditioning. We didn’t really need the air conditioning as the weather was mild but the cool air felt nice. We drove thru the countryside for almost an hour and half to get to the dock where we got on small boats. The small boats took us to the resort. At the resort we could hangout, go swimming in the pool, go canoeing or go snorkeling. Almost everyone chose to go snorkeling. The equipment was provided. There were four(4) vans of about eight(8) people each that went on this excursion. All the vans stuck together during the drive.

The two organizational bits I really liked were the megaphone so we could all hear the guide and the siren indicating it was time to stop snorkeling and come in for lunch.

I was almost the first one into the water- that hardly ever happens. After about 30 minutes I got out to get my camera and might have been the first one out of the water too.

After snorkeling and lunch, we boarded our small boats again and were boated to a different island where there was a skull cave. Turns out each island has it’s own skull cave but this one is very easy for tourists to get inside and see the skulls.

There are many stories about what the skulls are but our guide told us the ‘true’ story. The skulls are from slain warriors from other tribes. In the cave we went to there were about 300 skulls separated into three piles- the largest pile was the ‘winner’. The large holes in skulls are from clubs, the small holes are from spears. Only the skulls are in the caves, the rest of the bones aren’t- pretty sure the rest of the body was eaten.

After skull cave, we boated back to the dock to catch our bus for a hour and half drive back to the ship. We were the last group to get back to the ship and got there shortly before it was time to leave.

When asked about the road conditions, our guide said they are 95 percent and he didn’t know what happened to the other 5 percent.

There was hardly any garbage along the roads and we saw a number of schools and churches.

The houses are raised off the ground to protect against pigs, dogs, animals and flood water. The guide said that if a man had a raised house and a garden it proved he wasn’t lazy and was a good worker. That made him an excellent husband choice for the local ladies.

Today’s excursion was “Bird Watching at Variarata National Park”. It involved an hour and a half bus ride to the park, some driving around in the park, an hour or so walk on a muddy trail and then an hour and a half bus ride back to the ship.

The excursion description suggested the bus would have no roof and no air conditioning, the roads would be bad and there would be lots of bugs. The bus did have a roof and it was cool enough with the breeze that we didn’t need air conditioning and there were no, well maybe one or two, bugs in the forest. The roads were ok but did have a number of potholes.

I enjoyed the drive and the views of the countryside and liked the walk and the multi-species forest in the park but I was in the minority. Almost everyone was upset with the muddy, slippery conditions & tree roots on the trail. A number of folks slipped or fell and one woman broke her ankle.

We were at the park about noon so I didn’t really expect to see very many birds but others really expected to see some of the specialties such as the cassowary (a huge emu sized bird with fist sized claws that could eviscerate you) and the Raggiana bird-of-paradise (a beautiful bird with amazing tail feathers that is the national bird of Papua New Guinea and usually displays early in the morning and again in the evening). We did see a pretty cute owl.

This is the first excursion I’ve been on that I didn’t feel 100% safe. There was lots and lots of garbage along the streets and graffiti was everywhere. In Bali there was garbage and graffiti but not to the extent as here.

Abandoned/wrecked cars were frequently seen along the road and in the fields. There were no scooters but lots of walkers along the highway. The vans drove very fast so that was a bit scary too. I did like all the Pepsi signs.

The other thing I noticed was there were no temples, shrines, offerings or churches which we saw everywhere in Bali and West Timor. I only saw a couple of missions(that were not thriving) on the drive.

Many folks waved was we drove by and there was lots of yelling- I couldn’t tell if they were saying ‘hi’ or something on the order of ‘tourist go home’. It sounded happy anyway.

Men and women chew betal nut here. Betal nut is a seed of a palm that is a stimulant as well as carcinogenic and turns the mouth, teeth and gums red.

Another very quiet day and I didn’t even get to the “Ladies Pamper Party”. I did enjoy phone calls to home and we went thru some beautiful aqua seas.

It rained pretty much the entire day today and the only thing I did was to go swimming in the ship’s pool while it was raining. Neither the air or the pool water was cold. There had been so much rain that the pool was overflowing and the water was sloshing from side to side was we traveled. It made for pretty fun swimming.

Today we were at dock in Darwin Australia. It’s our second visit of the cruise. I enjoyed the Territory Wildlife park last visit so this visit I enjoyed the cell service and speedy internet and walked into town to get my glasses fixed. It was a rather quiet day with rain.

A quiet day today at sea. I did enjoy the “Ladies Pamper Party” which was a fancy title for a DIY facial.

Such a wonderful fun day in West Timor- a country I’ve never heard of before. Everyone was so happy to see us and had such big smiles.

The day didn’t start off too well since we disembarked the ship just as it started to downpour. We got soaking wet even with umbrellas and I heard that someone slipped on the wet cement and broke her arm. There was some confusion as to where to get in the vans so it took a bit longer than expected to get everyone loaded up and on the road. I thought two couples were going to get into a fight in the van. Once we were on the way, everyone calmed down and were happy(mostly) to be in West Timor.

We had a police escort and 4-6 vans were in a group. The guide said they usually only get 100 or so visitors a day and today they had over 500 so they wanted to be sure everyone was safe and take care of.

Excursion description: “Drive to Baun Village (approx.1hr15min). Enjoy traditional dances and performances in Baun Palace (approx.2hrs15min). Drive to traditional smoked pork process (approx. 15min). Visit (approx.45min). Drive to Dekranasda Souvenir Center (approx.1hr). Shopping time (approx.1hr). Drive back to the port (approx. 30 min).”

The drive thru the country was amazing- it looked very much like Bali but there were no temples, shrines or offerings but rather Catholic/Protestant churches. The homes were made from concrete blocks and not wood/aluminum and had glass windows. And a number of houses had a satellite dish.

We went to the Baun Palace in the Amarasi Kingdom about 25km south of Kupang where we saw the King and his wife and one of his children. He is the 14th generation of kings. We were welcomed to the village with a welcome ceremony then we saw a traditional dance. After the dance we watched women demonstrate traditional weaving. I purchased fabric that was made with natural dyes- the king’s son said it was a very good choice.

It was pretty fun, they were taking pictures of us while we were taking pictures of them. They even had a drone for pictures and one of the young men had a stabilizer for his phone/camera. On the way out, two young women asked me if they could take a picture with me- I said yes and more happy smiles appeared.

On the way back to the ship we stopped at a pork smokehouse that is famous. Folks from the big city of Kupang come up to get the smoked pork and we had a delicious sample. It reminded me of the Texas BBQ restaurants. The owner was chewing betel nut (a widespread cultural practice with elders) which turned his teeth & gums bright red. The owner was videoing all of us in his shop and his workers were also taking pictures of us while we were taking pictures of them.

Our last stop was a cooperative weaving store. I found a piece that I really liked and purchased it. It turned out it was from the guide’s province. He took a picture of us with the fabric. The shop keepers took a picture of us too. Everyone was smiling. A wonderful end to the day.

Since I had such a great time and had great views of the Komodo dragon on the last visit to Komodo Island, I didn’t go out today. I just stayed on the ship.

I spent much of the day trying to get flights for my trip to Madagascar later this year. I’m spoiled with fast internet at home and it’s just not the same at sea in the middle of the ocean. And then I noticed my glasses had a screw was coming out. I tried to fix them but was unsuccessful. Since I had a spare pair, all is good and I’ll see if I can get them fixed when we are in Darwin in a few days.

Oceania Riviera(the ship we are on) has artwork on pretty much every wall. Quite a few pieces are frankly disturbing to me. I did like most of the glass work that is around.

Our ship holds 1250 passengers and has 15 decks, 2 regular dining rooms and 4 specialty dining rooms- Jacques (French), Tuscana (Italian), Red Ginger(Asian Fusion), Polo’s (Steakhouse). It also has a pool, hot tub, spa (with another hot tub), pickle-ball court, putting green and more.

Today is the end of one of the cruise segments so lots of folks are leaving the ship. There were lots of folks in line with their luggage waiting to get off but they had a shorter line for those of us with excursions. Caused some tensions with the folks in the long line.

Jennifer and I decided to go on the “Balinese Arts & Crafts” excursion so we could enjoy some of the fabric craft. We ended up on separate busses going to the same places and we had fun when we got back showing off all the goodies we had purchased.

The excursion description: “Drive to Bona Village (approx. 1hr). Visit (approx.30min). Drive to Kemenuh Village (approx. 15min). Visit (approx.30min). Drive to Batuan Village (approx.30min). Visit (approx.30min). Drive to Celuk Village (approx. 15min). Visit (approx.30min). Drive to Tohpati Village (approx. 15min). Visit (approx.30min). Drive back to the port (approx.45min).”

We visited craft centers for batik, painting, silver(purchased a necklace), wood carving and bamboo furniture.

some odd & interesting information about Bali from the various tour guides on my excursions

• Kids are named by birth order- there are four names. A prefix is added to indicate if the child is a girl or boy
• If you have more than four children they get the birth order name with a suffex added.
• Every house has a temple and every village has 3 temples so there are more temples than houses in Bali
• Bali uses it’s own language as well as the Indonesian language
• Bali is 90 percent Hindu while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim. The Hinduism that is practiced in Bali isn’t quite the same as practiced in India- in particular Balinese will eat cows
• Indonesia has the fourth largest population- after India, China and US
• over half the income in Bali is from tourism
• About 10 years ago the government changed and there is now an emphasis on education. Almost every village has a free school now where before the schools were a distance apart and it was expensive to go to school
• Very few go to University- it’s expensive to live away from home and go to school. They only stay one or two years and likely study hospitality(to support all the tourists) or Mechanics(to service all the scooters)

Today we are on the southern section of Bali and my excursion was called “Discover Bali” and my second excursion was a cultural show that included a fire dance.

This is the description of the “Discover Bali” excursion from the Shore Excursion handout. “Drive to Tohpati Village (approx.30min). Visit to see the batik artistry (approx.30min). Drive to Barong Dance (approx.30min). Watch the performance (approx.45min). Drive to Singapadu Village (approx. 15min). Visit Balinese House Compound (approx.30min). Drive to Singapadu Temple (Pura Puseh) (approx.10min). Visit (approx.20min). Drive to Bali Bird Park (approx. 15min). Visit (approx. 1hr). Drive back to the port (approx.45min).”

The drive around the area was as interesting as the stops. There were little shops all over and each would have certain items for sale. I saw shops for Pilates, grass(lawn), wood furniture, pottery, rock slabs, dirt, all sorts of fruit, very colorful drinks in 5 gallon buckets, all sorts of food and much more. There were lots and lots of motorcycles on the roads. Temples and shires with their offerings were everywhere. Telephone/electric wires were also everywhere.

Many of the statues in the shrines are ‘dressed’ in black in white checked fabric. The black & white checks symbolize balance. The guide gave us some examples of balance:

• black & white
• positive & negative
• plus & minus
• right & wrong
• ying & yang
• left & right
• good &. bad
• push & pull

One of the villages we past thru is known for it’s stone carvings- there were many, many different figures but the one that surprised me was that they had Moai. Now that I’ve been in Rapi Nui (Easter Island) I seem to find Moai everywhere- or maybe it’s because we’re in the islands that gave rise to the ocean travelers that ended up in Rapi Nui.

On the first excursion, we stopped at the Bali Bird Park, a Batik factory, a Dance performance, a Balinese House compound and a temple that dates back to the 15th century and is still operational. The bird park had a komodo dragon- they are much scarier in the wild.

On the second excursion we stopped at a silver shop (where I a purchased a plain silver necklace) and the Bali Bird park(again) where we had dinner and watched the cultural show and fire dance.