Temple of Borobudur, Java, Indonesia                   Friday,            March 4, 2016 Yesterday we visited the Temple of Borobudur in Java, Indonesia. On the long (2+ hour) trip to the temple, we learned a ton of geographic and historic facts about Indonesia and the islands and neighboring countries, but I can’t remember much of it. Suffice […]

Java, Indonesia                                                          Wed. March 2, 2016 Tomorrow we land on the island of Java, the most populous island on earth (140 million people), and the place that was heart of the English and Dutch trading posts in earlier times. In fact, the Dutch East India Company (or so we have been told) was the first […]

Balinese dancer at the pier in Benoa. Rice terraces at Jatiluwih  

Bali, Indonesia (4,000+ miles from Sydney) Tuesday March 1, 2016 5 p.m. local time We sailed into Bali (Benoa Port) on Sunday and came through every known type of vessel in the busy port, from party boats to parasailing motor boats to cruise ships – a glorious sight. We docked and could here drums, bells, […]

Indonesia                                             Saturday Feb 27, 2016 6pm local time Well, we’ve officially entered Indonesia, and we’re sad to leave Oz behind (especially since my favorite advertisement is from Oz, for flip-flops called “Slappas”).   We’ve […]

Food, Glorious Food!                                                                                               February 27, 2016 I was able to take a short tour of the main kitchen for the ship (tours of various places are offered to guests when time permits), and thought you might enjoy some of what I learned. The ship holds 1,000 passengers, and crew of 655. The staff of the […]

Just in case you wonder why there are no posts from Thursday Island, it’s because we couldn’t stop there on our way to Darwin.   The sea was a bit rough, so the tender boats could not safely ferry people to the island. And plans for Bali and Shanghai have changed; we will have less […]

Darwin, AUS                                    Friday, Feb 26, 2016 (2 pm local time) Yesterday we visited Darwin, at the “Top End” of Australia. Darwin’s proximity to Asia and its position at the top of the outback country give it a very […]