‘To travel is to live’. Hans Christian Andersen.
Kangaroo island. This was a desolate small dorp so we decided not to go to town because of the bad reports. Despite the name of the island we never saw any kangaroos. There was a cold spreading throughout the ship and I think Lesley may have the beginnings. I have no idea why this port was chosen by previous passengers and I certainly voted against it on this occasion. This is Chinese New Year with lanterns and Chinese paraphernalia in the dining room where there is no need for formal dress as opposed to the waiter service in the other dining room where formal dress was required. I’m looking forward to going to Adelaide tomorrow. The entertainment tonight was awful and I left; Lesley thought it was wonderful.
‘TRAVEL in the younger sort, is part of EDUCATION, in the elder, a part of EXPERIENCE”. Francis Bacon.
Adelaide was a lovely city with nice wide roads and well laid out. Our tour took us to Cleland Park where we saw lots of different animals, and hand fed kangaroos. The quiche for lunch was absolutely fabulous and the views from Mount Lofty over the city were superb . The population is 1.2 million. The stores and malls were much the same as anywhere else with Target and Woolworth’s. The port where we docked is neglected with vacant decrepit factories. Apparently two passengers were removed in handcuffs from the ship probably due to drugs and their state room was taken apart particularly in the ceiling. On the dock there were hundreds of new cars because the car industry has been withdrawn from Australia and all cars are imported.
‘To travel is to live’. Hans Christian Andersen.
Albany was the last place in Australia for troops going to World War I. It is a one horse town. At last the gangway was flat and short. Why is it that physically disabled people are given priority while I have acrophobia and no one pays any attention to that? The bay we entered was very nice and possibly second only to Sydney. And the shore side Café had free Internet. The town population appeared to double when the ship docked. I don’t understand why the ship goes to these crummy places when over 800 voyagers are repeating and want to go to other ports. On the other hand some passengers liked small places. I personally like historic buildings and architecture. My suggestion is a different route for 2020 round the world voyage but I’m not sure if I really want to go on another.
‘No more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sundrenched elsewhere’. Isabelle Eberhardt.
‘Another day at sea and we arrived at Fremantle. We disembarked from deck three but the gangway was short and covered so not so anxiety provoking or perhaps I am becoming desensitized. Fremantle is a port, the town is small and pleasant with some old buildings. Some of the warehouses have been converted and there are several new buildings. One of note is the roundhouse which was originally a prison. We took a train to the city of Perth. On our tour there we visited several millionaire residences and went on to Kings Park which was beautiful overlooking the Swan River. The Perth skyline is very impressive and there are several motorways connecting the city. It has beautiful new architecture with glass buildings and sensibly is not overcrowded. The bus service is free in Fremantle and Perth and although they are 12 miles apart the buildings are almost continuous. We stopped off at the beautiful Cottisloe beach on the way home. Perth has a population of 1.4 7 million and the beaches were quite clean. Lesley felt that if she was 20 she would move there. “It’s got everything”. Again hundreds of cars were lined up on the wharf being imported. So that was the last of Australia and the next part of the voyage I hoped it would be a lot more interesting and different from Western society.
‘Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road’. Jack Kerouic.
Entertainment that night were the so-called divas singing again to screeching levels. I suppose 75% of the audience had a high tone sensorineural hearing loss and could not hear the high notes. Hearing aids proliferated. In fact there are very few places on board free of unnecessary so-called recorded music and even in the library people talk loudly at each other. In any event I lasted about five seconds for the entertainment. Even Celine Dion’s recording was screaming, like bagpipes welcoming tourists; awful. I have tinnitus so probably suffer more than most.
My emotions and feelings for the first part of this around the world voyage were really unremarkable in that it seemed to be same old same old. I hope the next part will alleviate that ennui.
There were three sea days to Bali. My only claim to fame on the whole voyage was doing a sport in which I have zero interest and zero talent, golf. I happened across a lot of men standing in line down a staircase and then I realised Lesley was officiating at the men’s putting. I stood in line and when my turn came the course was to putt from several steps up the staircase down to the deck where the hole was. I putted in a desultory fashion and the ball trickled towards the hole and just at the moment critique the ship lurched and my ball fell in the hole! A hole in one! I thought I was wonderful alas Lesley did not agree. In any event I resigned at the top of my game and resisted attempts to reproduce the miracle. I also turned down the offer to buy everyone on board a drink as I am told is the custom after a hole in one. Drinks for 1600 people would wipe out my budget and more!
The Capt. informed us we would be passing through pirate territory so we had to make some preparations. So we arrived at Bali the port being Benoa with a flat gangway, hurrah! We went on a privately organized tour but were delayed so missed the dancing we were supposed to see. We saw some weaving of cloths but as usual on the tourist trip it was a rip off. The thing that comes to mind is the struggle with the horrendous traffic overwhelming the road system with the incessant buzzing of motor bikes and scooters which apparently outnumber the actual population. Indonesia is a country with 70,000 islands but only 7000 are populated. The population is said to be 270 million and is said to be the third most populated nation. We were warned not use a credit card as the likelihood of this being copied was high. We then went to Sangeh monkey forest which contained interesting architecture with many temples, a distinctive green mould on rocks and hundreds of macaque monkeys. These are small, long tailed and omnivorous. Their main foods are sweet potato, banana, papaya leaf, corn, cucumber and coconut. One tried to pick my breast pocket, another sat on my hat on top of my head. I hoped they did not carry rabies, so far so good. We then had a long trip to Kintamini a beautiful place overlooking the slopes of Mt Batur where we had lunch. Perhaps this is not the ideal place for me because there was a huge drop right next to where we were supposed to eat and the buffet meal consisted of noodles which I don’t eat. So I didn’t and was not in a good mood particularly as there was no air conditioning in our minibus. Although we saved more than $200 by not going on the official ships tour it really was not worth it. We had been advised by a fellow passenger who thought she knew it all to go on the private tour but given the rest of the expenses this was not a good idea. Our second day in Bali we visited a temple, Daya Tarik Wisata Tanah Lot, renowned we were told for the wonderful beach. We envisaged stretches of white pleasant sand but were more than a little disappointed to find minimal amounts of our expectations and mainly rocks. This was a total waste of time. The only excitement was a large branch of a palm tree fell down 2 feet away from me, a narrow escape. We had to pass a lot of vendors on the way out and were almost physically attacked to buy cheap T-shirts and other rubbish. The next stop after a one and a half hour drive was to see some rice fields and a nice restaurant for lunch. However given the previous experience we took sandwiches fruit and water from the ship as nobody told us not to. After lunch the next stop was another temple, the Royal Temple,Taman Ayun built in 1634 AD in the reign of King of Mengui to worship the royal ancestors and evoke prosperity for the people of the kingdom. The entrance fee only allowed us to walk around and not go inside. This was another unnecessarily long trip. The business of tourism was overwhelming and aggressive with physical contact from the vendors to persuade a transaction. I vowed to myself not to repeat the Bali experience.
‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving’. Lao Tzu.