W1801 – In The Raw

In my last post, W1801 – Night and Day, I described the first two tours we made during our long stay in Yangon, Myanmar. We stayed in Yangon for 48 hours, from late afternoon one day to late afternoon two days later, giving us two nights in port. Our first two tours were taken on the first evening and second morning, and if you have not read that post yet I would encourage you to do so first before reading this one, as I will be comparing and contrasting what we saw on our tour on the third day in this post with the previous two tours.

For a majority of the shore tours offered by Fred. Olsen it could be said that when taking the tour you are very much in a little bubble – you go from A to B in the security of a private coach, and only get off to walk around or see an attraction before returning to the coach again, usually with little or no contact with the local people.

Carol and I have done a few tours that buck this trend, the tours we did in St Petersburg, Russia and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia come to mind, where the coach is only used to take us to and from the city, and the majority of the day we travelled around by public transport, and we went to proper local markets rather than one set up for the tourists.

Our first two tours in Yangon could be considered ‘bubble’ tours – we were taken by coach to and from two Buddhist pagodas and a park, and apart from photographing some of the locals visiting the Shwedagon Pagoda, we didn’t really get to get the local people and their way of life. We therefore chose our final tour in Yangon to rectify this, choosing a tour called ‘Local Life by Trishaw’.

The tour set off from the ship at the same time as our tour had done the previous day, and as it was following the same route into Yangon for most of the way we set off with some trepidation, remembering how slow and congested the route had been then. However to our surprise and delight we made much better progress, and about 75 minutes after leaving the ship we arrived in the centre of Yangon. I only bothered to take photographs from the coach on the last part of our journey when our route was different to before:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our coach was taking us to the riverbank, where we were to leave it for virtually all of the tour. We were catching the local ferry that takes everyone too and fro across the wide river there, as there is no bridge available. I noted that we entered the ferry terminal building through a doorway marked ‘FOREIGNER ONLY’, but once through the building we joined a huge throng of local people slowly boarding the huge ferry which had two decks for its passengers. Although it was a passenger ferry, there were a few locals boarding it with their bicycles, and even one riding his motorcycle! There was also people – both adult and children – trying to sell their wares – mainly fruit or snacks – to the passengers, as we boarded and on the short ride across the river. There was quite a cacophony of noise and bustle of so many people on board – it was very much like all life was there, and I think it was a bit of an eye-opener to Carol ahead of her upcoming first visit to India.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It only took around ten minutes to cross the river, and then we slowly made our way ashore amid the throngs of local people, some laden with large bags – I noticed one lady balancing one of hers on her head whilst the rest were over her arms.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was a very short walk from the ferry to where a long line of trishaws and their drivers were lined up waiting for us. We had ridden on trishaws in Singapore (see W1801 – Electric Views), but these were quite different. In Singapore they were quite modern – electric-assisted – and carried two passengers side by side in some comfort. These were much older and more basic affairs – purely mechanical drive – and carrying just one passenger in a rather narrow seat. We were allocated to the next free trishaw in the line – Carol’s driver didn’t seem to speak any English so they just communicated by pointing and gestures, whereas mine did have some English and we were able to communicate that way. My driver took a photograph of me with my camera, and then we all set off in convoy. We were headed for a local market in a nearby village, and to start with the road was quite busy with other traffic – there were a lot of horns blaring and cars & motorcycles swerving around us – one again it was a gentle introduction to Carol of what lies ahead in India. Gradually the other traffic lessened, and it became quite peaceful as our trishaws made their way towards the village market. Needless to say the road was quite rough and bumpy in places, and let’s say we were very aware of the primitive suspension on the ancient trishaws!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A few minutes later we arrived at the local market, and our local guide told us that after looking around the market on foot, we would resume our tour on the same trishaws, but we didn’t need to remember our drivers as they would remember us. The first stalls we came to in the market were selling household goods – anything and everything from charcoal to soap to pots & pans, and then there were some selling brightly coloured cloth. After this things got a little more challenging when we reached the larger area selling meat, fish and vegetables. Let’s just say there was quite an aroma in the air, and quite a population of flies on and around the food, especially the raw meat and fish, which you can’t actually see in my photographs. There were a couple more things that I thankfully have not seen in my supermarket back home – live chickens on the counter next to raw chicken meat, and a dog up on a counter helping itself to some raw meat!! Carol and I were equally happy to reach the end of the food stalls, and emerge outside to where there were a few more stalls selling fresh flowers.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When we went up onto the road a local man pointed at me and gestured to follow him to his trishaw – to be honest I wasn’t sure it was the same guy who had driven me before, and indeed it wasn’t – my real driver found me and led me to his trishaw – I assume the other guy was trying to cash in on our tour by poaching people from it. Once everyone on the tour had been matched up with their own drivers we set off once more, this time heading for the village pagoda. They took us on quite a long route through the village, it was so peaceful bowling along, and great to be able to see the villagers and their houses at close quarters – both Carol and I absolutely loved this part of the tour – we really felt we were immersed in the village rather than viewing from the bubble of a speeding coach.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When we reached the pagoda we all alighted the trishaws so that we could walk around it. As on the previous two days, we had to remove any shoes and socks before entering. This pagoda was on a much, much smaller and simpler basis than the huge ones we had seen before. The stupa was merely painted in gold paint, without jewels and precious stones adorning it. Carol and I both felt much more comfortable here than when we were looking at all the real gold and extravagance of the other pagodas. There was one thing though we weren’t so sure about – in a room up some steps on display was a mummified monk – the accompanying sign listing in great detail about how his body had been found not to have deteriorated and how one eye had reopened after being buried for over 150 years.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leaving the pagoda we remounted our trishaws, which took us back to the ferry terminal – on the way we got to see more of the village and it’s people.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After giving our thanks and saying goodbye to our drivers, we made our way down to the jetty to wait for our return ferry. As we waited two sweet little girls came up to us and tried to sell us some snacks – they were very friendly, and practiced their English on us while I took their photograph. They came with us onto the ferry, and there they asked to see their photographs, posed for some more, and kept asking if we wanted to buy their snacks. One of them seemed to really tak a shine to Carol. As we left the ferry she took firm hold of Carol’s hand, and said that she wanted to go home with Carol so that she could learn better English. She accompanied us all the way back to our waiting coach, and seemed quite upset when Carol had to board the coach without her. We were sorry that we did not have any small amounts of local money we could have used to buy some snacks as they had worked so hard trying every trick in the book to get custom from us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had expected this to be the end of our tour, but when we re-boarded our coach our local guide told us that we would be going to a nearby restaurant for a light lunch. We had to climb some rather dingy stairs to reach the restaurant which was on the first floor, and we wondered what we were going to find. Actually the restaurant was lovely, with high ceilings and lovely cool air-conditioning. For our lunch we were offered the choice of fish & noodle soup or chicken & noodle soup, but after seeing the flies on the chicken and fish in the village market Carol couldn’t face either – although of course it was most unlikely that the soup ingredients had come from there – so in the end both Carol and I opted for potato cakes instead.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One of the ladies on our dinner table on the ship was on the same tour, and she commented that it was a shame that the room had air conditioning rather than the old-fashioned ceiling fans which might have looked more in keeping. As we left our room in the restaurant we were allowed to look in and take photographs of their other room which did have ceiling fans instead of air conditioning, and feeling how much hotter and more humid it was in there we decided we had been in the better room.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To reach our coach our guide led us across some busy roads, fearlessly stepping out into the traffic and holding it up while we crossed. Once again we had a congestion-free ride back to our waiting ship, where Carol and I were glad to rest up in the cool of our cabin.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Doing three different tours on the three days meant that we had three different local guides, who of course during the long drive into the city gave us quite a lot of information about Myanmar, and of course there was quite a bit of repetition over the three days. One thing that I did notice though was that just one of them wanted to talk about politics and the current political situation – talking about the former military dictatorship, and the struggle to regain democracy in the country – and also how that is made so much more difficult as the current constitution stipulates that a certain percentage of the government must be from the military, and that percentage is sufficiently high that the required majority cannot be reached to change the constitution – so even now the military are holding on to power.

Carol and I loved our time in Myanmar and we felt that our choice of tours had been ideal and that we had seen and learned a lot about the country in the short time we had been there. Clearly a lot had been done since the dark days of the military dictatorship and isolation, but there is plenty more to be done, both in the big things like restoring full democracy, and in the smaller things like sorting out all the rubbish and litter which give visitors a poor impression of a place.

Later Carol and I went up on deck to watch us set sail towards our next port of call, Cochin in India, which we will reach after four days at sea. Our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

W1801 – Night and Day

In my last post, W1801 – Towering Inferno Two, I described our hot and steamy tour to get to know better the local life in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from the port of Port Klang. After leaving Port Klang that evening, we had two and a half days at sea sailing towards our next port of call, Yangon in Myanmar.

Yangon is the former capital of Myanmar, it was superseded by Naypyidaw in 2005. With a population of over 5 million people it remains the largest city and the main economic hub of Myanmar. Our stay in Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) was to be the longest on this around the world cruise – 48 hours from late afternoon to late afternoon two days later – so we were to spend two nights in port.

We therefore had the opportunity to go out on tour the evening we arrived, and on each of the next two days. Fred. Olsen were providing numerous tours to choose from, including a couple of overnight tours, but as neither of us had been to the country before or knew much about it, we decided to book one of the ship’s shorter tours for each of the three available slots.  In this post I will describe the tours made on the first evening and second day for reasons which will become apparent, the contrasting tour on our final day in port will be the subject of my next post.

During the second full sea day the Captain had announced that we would be sailing at top speed to Yangon as we had a medical emergency on board, in the hope that we could dock earlier than planned. He did say that as the port is tidal this might not be the case, which is in fact as it turned out, so it was mid afternoon as originally planned that we sailed up the wide and muddy-looking Yangon River towards Yangon itself.  It was extremely hot – around 38 degrees up on deck – and the banks were hazy in the distance. As we sailed upstream we were passed by the hospital ship of the Myanmar Navy:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once again we docked in a commercial port some distance from the city, another possible contender for that mythical coffee table book of ‘stunning’ ports that Fred. Olsen visit that Carol and I joke about from time to time. I noticed and was a little bemused by the large flags on the quayside, but we did appreciate the band and dancers there to welcome us. After we tied up there were some delays, so it was at dusk which was around 6pm before the gang plank was lowered to the ground and the officials started to come aboard. Meanwhile Carol and I were having a very early evening meal in the café, which had opened early especially for those going out on an evening tour.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The tour we had chosen was to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda – a vast complex of Buddhist pavilions and shrines, with at its centre a huge golden stupa or tower some 326 feet high, covered in real gold, and topped with over 6,500 diamonds, rubies and other precious stones. It is the single most important religious site in all Myanmar, and it stands on the top of Singuttara Hill, which has reputedly been sacred since the beginning of time. There are records of a pagoda on the site since the 6th century, and over the centuries pavilions and shrines have been built and rebuilt, gilded and re-gilded. At night the complex is floodlit, and we thought it would be an amazing experience to see it both at night and by day.

Our evening tour on the first day in Yangon was therefore to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda.  There were four coaches on our tour, plus a couple more doing a different one, and we all set off from the ship in convoy with all the hazard lights on the coaches flashing, and with a police motorcycle escort. The police held back the traffic for us at road junctions, so we made good time and it took just over the hour for us to reach the Pagoda complex. Until we got close to the city, everywhere seemed very dark with just occasional dim lights making it very difficult to see anything at all that we were passing, and our local guide told us that currently only around 40% of the country has mains electricity, which rather surprised and shocked us. He did say that they are working hard to get the rest of the country connected up over the next 10-15 years. Once we reached the city everything was much more lit up, and that was certainly true of the Pagoda complex.

The pagoda, which covers some 46 hectares, has four entrances, one on each of the four cardinal directions – north, south, east and west. We entered via the south entrance, where we had to remove our socks and shoes before we were taken up in a lift to a walkway which led across to the platform that surrounds the main stupa.

The main stupa is octagonal, and on each corner there is a shrine, one for each day of the week. Yes, you read that correctly, in the Myanmar calendar there are eight days in a week, Wednesday is split into two at noon. Most locals will pray at their day shrine when visiting the pagoda – the shrine corresponding to the day of the week that they were born on – and may light a candle, leave flowers or pour water over the shrine.

Neither Carol or I were prepared for the size of the pagoda or how much there was to see and admire there. We had around two hours to explore, and by no means did we have too much time. We totally lost count of how many statues of Buddha were there, many with coloured flashing lights creating a halo around his head. The pavilions and shrines were so detailed, it was hard to know where to look – and for me to photograph – next. Although it was long after sunset, there were still sparrows flying around under the bright lights. Here is but a small selection of the countless photographs I took:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Although it was well into the evening, there were lots of local families with young children there, here are some of those that we saw:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In one pavilion there was a display of photographs taken when thousands of monks were attending the pagoda at the same time, and nearby there were close-up photographs of the diamond orb and weather vane at the top of the main stupa, showing how encrusted with jewels and precious stones they are:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All too soon it was time to descend in the lift back to the southern entrance, restore our footwear and return to our waiting coach. Before returning to our ship, we made a brief photo-stop at a nearby park where we got more distant views of the pagoda:

With little traffic around, we made very good time on our return journey to the ship, and we both went straight to bed as we had any early start the following morning.

Our six hour tour the following morning was to take us to three of the best tourist attractions in the city. We had to check in at 7:50 for an 8:15 start, but even this was not early enough, for our police escorted drive into the city got snarled up in the morning rush-hour traffic, and this time it took around two hours to return to the Shwedagon Pagoda – the first stop on our tour, which was our chance to see it in daylight.

This time we could see what we were passing on our way to the pagoda. As we left the port, there were some very simple dwellings by the roadside, as well as some basic cafes serving the workers at the port. In the fields behind there were the stalks from a recent harvest of rice – our guides told us that a lot of high quality rice is grown in Myanmar, some of which is exported as far as Africa.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As we travelled along we saw lots of motorcycles, usually with many people balanced on them, often including young children. We watched in horror as we saw one well laden bike topple over, spilling everyone onto the hard and dusty ground:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We also saw lots of local busses, each one seemingly jammed full of people enduring a hot and slow ride into the city. We passed a train station for the ‘Circular Train’, but we were a little concerned at the state of a nearby bridge carrying the rail track:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once we had crossed a large bridge carrying both the road and the railway over the river we entered the city, and the standard of buildings generally improved. The traffic was still very congested, and progress continued to be slow despite our police escort. Further on there was major construction work taking place for a big new bridge, and I was interested to see that although bulldozers and other machinery was in use, the stone chippings were being arranged by a whole gang of workers with small baskets – a reflection I guess of how cheap the labour is there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I did notice one billboard for a movie which demonstrated how the ever invasive American culture appeared to be invading even this country, which until comparatively recently was closed to the West:

During this long drive our local guide told us lots about the country and the way of life there, about the pagoda, and the Buddhist monks – much of which was a repeat of what the guide the night before had told us. We were told that the monks can only eat before noon, and that they do not cook anything themselves. Instead they go out to local houses, where the residents usually donate cooked food to them each day for their breakfast and their lunch. In addition local people usually make regular donations to their pagoda, to pay for its running costs and for maintenance, such as the regular re-gilding  of the stupa, usually done every five years. While not wanting to criticise other people’s beliefs and religion, both Carol and I, and many of our fellow passengers we talked to, felt uneasy at very poor people making these contributions, and at so much wealth being tied up in the gold and jewels adorning the stupa, when there was clearly so much poverty and need in the country.

As a result of the long slow drive there, our guide told us that we could just have half an hour to look around. While this was disappointing for those of us who had seen it all the night before, there were plenty on the tour who were seeing it for the first and only time, and for them there was no way they could do the pagoda justice such a short time. Carol and I were very pleased we had returned in daylight, as everything looked quite different in the bright sunshine, and we could see so much more detail in the carvings, fretwork and buildings generally. Once again I took countless photographs, here are just a selection:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leaving the pagoda way too soon, we then had a 15 minute drive to our second destination, Chauk Htat Gyi, where there was an absolutely vast reclining Buddha – some 66 meters long. There was a special viewing platform down at the feet end of the statue, from which you could look along the length of it, but it was still very hard to see it all properly at once and take in just how big it was.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From there we took the coach to a large park containing a big lake. On the lake was a large golden royal barge. Our tours book had said that we would be having refreshments inside the barge, which was one of the things that had attracted us to the tour, but it turned out we just got to view the barge, partially obscured by trees, from a distance across the lake, and our refreshments were just one can of a soft drink. Needless to say nearly everyone on the tour were not happy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our return to the ship was much faster as it was no longer rush-hour time. In the port we passed dozens and dozens of busses all parked up:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We returned to the ship just in time to catch the main restaurant for lunch before it closed. Carol and I then enjoyed a quiet relaxing afternoon in our cabin, resting ahead of a busy next day, and thinking about the astonishing Shwedagon Pagoda that we had seen by night and day. I did though find the energy to pop up on deck to take some photographs of the beautiful port surroundings. In the distance I spotted another example of mass manual labour, with a human chain of people moving gravel from one place to another on a construction site using small baskets.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The following day we took our final tour in Myanmar, which made a good contrast to the previous two tours, and which will be the subject of my next post.

Postscript

A couple of items which may be of interest:

• In my recent post W1801 – Electric Views I described the Crew Marathon which raised money for orphanages in Thailand and in the Philippines. I have since found out that the marathon raised a total of £2871.23 for these good causes.
• Readers who have sailed on Black Watch may be familiar with a small swimming pool on the fore-deck (‘the pointy end’) which the crew just occasionally got to use – well not any more as over the past few days it has been cut up into chunks and removed!

  

 

W1801 – Towering Inferno Two

In my last post, W1801 – Electric Views, I described our visit to fabulous Singapore, where we saw more of the iconic destination by electric boat, electric trishaw and from the Sands Skypark on top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. The crazy cruise itinerary meant we left way too soon, in the late afternoon of the same day, on our way to our next destination, Port Klang, the port which serves the capital of neighbouring Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur, which means “muddy river confluence” in Malay, has grown from a small sleepy Chinese tin-mining village to a bustling city of some 7 million people in just 150 years.

We had a day in Port Klang on our around the world cruise last year, and from there I had taken a very long 9 hour tour to see the best tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it is so frequently called, this is documented in my post W1702 – Towering inferno. I remember that it was extremely hot and particularly humid in KL, and with getting stuck in traffic jams on the way back to the ship it had been a desperately long and tiring day. Both Carol and I had been very unsure whether we even wanted to leave the ship this time around, but after seeing the port talk on board this cruise we decided to book a ship’s tour after all.

The tour we decided to book was called ‘A Taste of Local Life’, and in a similar way to the great tour that Carol and I did in St. Petersburg last year, it was designed to show us what life is like for local people in the city. There were three main elements to the tour, visits on foot to the Little India and the Chinatown areas of KL, and a visit to the iconic Petronas Twin Towers buildings and the vast shopping mall inside them.

Although our tour was not due to leave until 8:45, our check-in time was listed at 8:05, strangely allowing much more time than had been given the day before in Singapore, despite the latter being renowned for the delays from the rigorous immigration checks. However we had a much longer wait than that as we were late docking, and our tour eventually set off an hour later than planned.

It is about a 75 minute drive by coach into KL, and like last time I found nothing of note worth photographing. Like last time, our local guide was very enthusiastic, and talked continuously for the whole time about Malaysia, it’s history, it’s economy and it’s political system. The coach dropped us on the edge of area once known as Brickfields, now known officially as Little India – it would only pick us up again at the end of our day in KL.

Our local guide led us on foot through Little India, telling us about the various shops we passed and the wares they sold – both Carol and I were astonished at the quantity of gold in some of the shops. He also stopped various local people and interviewed them, and helped us to understand about them – where they came from, their ethnic background, way of life etc.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next he led us into a modern shopping mall so that we could use the facilities there – I was surprised to see one of the shops there in a majority Muslim country – and then on to a metro station where we caught a train for just a couple of stops, and alighted close to where the two rivers that flow through KL, the Klang and the Gombak merge. Here we had great views across the rivers of the Masjid Jamek mosque and the Mahkamah Perusahaan courthouse, once the former colonial administration buildings.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From here it was another short walk to the Central Market, the same huge covered market that I had visited on my tour last year. I found it an interesting place, full of stalls selling all sorts of different things, unlike some markets where everyone seems to be selling the same things and you wonder how they can all pay. However by thus time Carol was really flagging in the heat and humidity, and all she wanted to do was sit down with a cold drink and an ice-cream. This did the trick, and she soon got her mojo back and we did wander around a good part of the market before our time was up.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From the market our guide led us on foot to Chinatown, where he showed us comparison pictures of how it used to be, and how it is now. He warned us against buying things there as he implied either they would be genuine fakes, and/or they would not last very long, so we all just walked through ignoring the hawkers doing their best to sell us their wares. On the way through I was surprised to see signs for a hotel, but in the unlikely event we should ever come back to stay in KL, I don’t think this will be the place that we would choose!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our guide then led us to another metro station, taking a short diversion on the way to see a Hindu temple. I was also impressed by some Street art I saw on the way.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This time it was a slightly longer train ride – four stops – until we reached our final destination, the simply vast shopping mall close to the iconic Petronas Twin Towers buildings – the Suria KLCC. Here there are 320 shops spread over six floors, many of which are international designer brands. Neither Carol or I are much interested in shopping, and so all we splashed out on was a bar of local chocolate – Carol said she had to try it for research purposes! – and a top for Carol that was reduced in the sale at Marks & Spencer – how sad are we? We did venture through to the lobby of the Petronas Twin Towers, where there were models of the two Mercedes Formula 1 cars that are partly sponsored by Petronas, and outside to photograph the twin towers themselves and the other impressive buildings in the area.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our coach collected us from outside the twin towers building, just as there was thunder and lightening rumbling around. However it was dry there, we only encountered rain during the long drive back to our ship, and fortunately by then it was dry once more. I was also very relieved that we had a pretty clear run through without the traffic jams of the previous year, presumably because this time we were visiting on a Saturday rather than a weekday.

It had been an interesting tour, our guide was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about how ethnically diverse and tolerant the country is, despite the majority being Muslim. It was also good to see some different areas of the city like Little India and Chinatown, and the tour made a good contrast to the tourist-based one I did last year.

We were both very relieved to get back onto our air-conditioned ship and have a refreshing shower and rest after such a hot and sticky day. Our ship did not sail until late into the evening – we now have a couple of days at sea en route to our next port of call, Yangon in Myanmar, where we will be staying for two nights. Our adventures there are likely to be the subject of my next post or two.

Postscript

I really don’t want this blog to be a place where I keep having a moan, because so much about this epic cruise that is so wonderful, and the crew work so hard for us. However there was an example of where things aren’t done right in Port Klang which I do feel I need to mention.

The tours in Port Klang are long, they have to be because of it’s distance from KL, and often they run late. In addition this port was the end of a leg of the cruise, so new passengers were joining the ship after a long and probably arduous journey to reach it. Despite this, they decided to close the café, which has open seating so that people can turn up and eat at any time between 6:30 and 9pm, and instead have a barbecue out on the hot and humid deck instead. When Carol and I went into dinner for our usual first sitting at 6:15 the place was almost empty – they were almost as many waiters to be seen as passengers. After a while passengers started to arrive in dribs and drabs, some from long/late tours, some just having flown in, and to start with they were allowed to come into the dinning room although they were late. However there came a point where people were then told you can’t eat here, you have to go to the barbecue. The people were hot and tired, the last thing they wanted was to be forced out onto a hot and humid deck to be able to get any food, and also be subjected to the loud music there. The common sense solution would have been to declare it open sitting in the main restaurant, so that people could have eaten in the cool and quiet there whatever time they reached the ship, and also keep barbecue events to sea days when people are not already hot and tired. It’s not as if this was the first time the ship had been in Port Klang…

On a more positive note, a big thank you to Alexandra, the Guest Relations Manager, for so promptly sorting out a minor problem I had.

W1801 – Electric Views

In my last post,  W1801 – In the pink!, I described our visit to the iconic Komodo Island, where we made a visit to the lovely pink beach, and I was able to see and photograph fabulous colourful coral and tropical fish. After sadly leaving Komodo Island, we had three days at sea sailing towards our next port of call, Singapore.

The Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign city-state and island country at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, with Indonesia’s Riau Islands to the south and Peninsular Malaysia to the north. It lies one degree – 137 kilometres – north of the equator. Since it’s independence from Malaysia in 1965 it has increased its total size by 23% due to extensive land reclamation.

On last year’s around the world cruise we had three days in Singapore, which gave us plenty of time to explore this iconic and vibrant city state. My adventures then are documented in my posts W1702 – Bullock water-cart, W1702 – Supertrees and Domes and W1702 – Going ape for breakfast. For some bizarre reason known only to those in the Fred. Olsen itinerary planning department, this year not only were we only in port for one day, it was a short day too as we were due to set sail again in the late afternoon, so we would leave without even getting the evening there.

With just the one short day in port, Carol and I had thought long and hard about how to best spend our time in one of our favourite destinations. In the end we decided to do one of the ship’s tours, as that would transport us from place to place quicker than we could manage using public transport. The tour we chose, ‘Scenic Singapore’ had three elements – a ride on a ‘bumboat’ along the river, a ride on a trishaw through the colourful streets of Little India, and a ride on the ‘Singapore Flyer’ – the local equivalent of the London Eye. These were all things we had identified as ones we would like to do on a future visit, and so it was quite convenient that they were packaged together into one tour.

A couple of days before we arrived in Singapore we had a letter from the Tours Department to say that we would not be able to ride on the Singapore Flyer as it was going to be closed for maintenance. Instead that section of the tour was going to be replaced by a visit to the viewing area on the roof of the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel – the luxury hotel with three towers and what looks like a boat spanning the three as a roof. Carol has been up there before and knew the views to be fabulous, so as far as we were concerned this was even better than doing the Flyer. We were surprised when we talked to William in the Tours Department later that some people who were due to do the same tour had cancelled off it on receiving the letter, we can only assume that they did not know what views there were to be had from the replacement venue.

Carol and I were up on deck bright and early to watch us make the final approaches into Singapore, just as it was getting light. The huge container port was lit up brightly as work continues there around the clock, and just like last year the bay was littered with ships of all sizes waiting their turn to dock. As we passed a very large ocean-going private vessel, I joked with Carol that I had arranged it to be moored up nearby in case we needed it later! We sailed in under the cable-car system that Carol and I rode last year, and docked on the other side of the same quay as last time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Singapore has quite strict immigration procedures, and on leaving the ship for our tour we had to join quite a long queue to been seen by an immigration official, who carried out various checks including taking our thumb prints before stamping our passports and letting us through. As we boarded our coach it started to rain, but fortunately this did not last long, and by the time we had reached the river at Clarke Quay it had pretty much stopped. Here we boarded our ‘bumboat’ for our half-hour cruise down the river and back.

Our local guide had explained that since Singapore is a tiny island with a large and growing population, water supply is a significant issue, especially as neighbouring countries had significantly increased the charges for supplying fresh water to the island. In order to capture and store more fresh water, Singapore has dammed the river just before it used to reach the sea, creating a large reservoir in the resulting bay. This, together with a large area of reclaimed land adjacent to it form the Marina Bay complex, which include the Gardens in the Bay attraction we visited last year, as well as the Marina Bay Sands hotel.

Our cruise took us downstream to the bay, passing the old and the new buildings that Carol and I had explored on foot last year, and out into the bay.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here we could see the ‘Merlion’, the statue of the half-lion, half-mermaid creature which spouts water and is an iconic emblem of Singapore, as well as many other attractions such as the Flyer and the Marina Bay Sands hotel itself. The boat we were travelling on was electric powered, and therefore very quiet as we drifted along which was great – all we could hear was some gentle music and some occasional commentary about where we were. It was also cool too, as the windows were completely open allowing the breeze as we moved to enter the covered cabin. The crewman was very good, taking us up in turn onto the foredeck to take photographs with our own cameras of us in front of the sights.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All too soon our river cruise was over when our boat returned us to the same quay. Here we were met by our local guide, who led us to show us how the old warehouses have been converted into restaurants, bars and other entertainment places, and a roof and ventilation system installed to make the environment of the whole area much more appealing and comfortable for visiting people.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

He then led us back to our waiting coach, for a short ride to the Albert Mall Trishaw Park. Here we had a few minutes to explore before our trishaws were ready for us to board.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I had been concerned for the guys peddling the trishaws in all that heat and humidity, and so I was relieved to see that in fact they were electric-assisted bicycles. Our driver took a couple of photographs of Carol and I on our trishaw before we all set off in convoy to view the Little India district of Singapore. Once again it was very peaceful riding along in the part-peddle, part-electric trishaw, and again the breeze from the movement helped keep us cooler. We also had good views forward as we cycled along, and could appreciate all the colours and vibrancy of the area. Once again our ride took around half an hour, and returned to the same place as we started.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then re-joined our coach for the drive to our final destination, the Marina Bay Sands hotel. As we left our coach we were given entry tickets to the viewing area on the top of the hotel, which is known as the Sands Skypark. As we walked close to one of the hotel towers, I was able to catch a couple of unusual views of the hotel looking upwards towards it’s roof. We were surprised to find that to go up to the Skypark on the 56^th floor, we first had to descend underground using an escalator, where we were able to take an express lift all the way there. My ears popped on the way up, but it was well worth it as the views from the top were out of this world.

It was so interesting to look down on the Gardens in the Bay attraction that we had so enjoyed visiting last year, the permanent part of the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit, and the bay that we had so recently been sailing around in the ‘bumboat’. Looking across I could also see the part of the roof terrace that is reserved for residents of the hotel only, this has an infinity swimming pool which Carol has seen and has told me is absolutely amazing. Seeing this from a distance only doubled my resolve that one day Carol and I will stay at the hotel, even if it’s just for one night, so that we can experience the pool and other hotel attractions for ourselves. Due to the heat and humidity Carol and I decided to splash out on an ice-cream each –  it was delicious and was so cool and refreshing that I would have liked to savoured it more slowly but there were two problems – it was so hot the ice-cream was melting before our eyes, and we only had half an hour before we had to be back in the hotel foyer to meet our guide.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our guide led us through the foyer from the third to the first tower, where we descended once again into the underground car and coach park to re-board our coach for the journey across the city to our cruise terminal. It had been a wonderful cruise that we both thought deserved top marks – both the electric river boat and electric trishaw had been such lovely slow quiet ways to explore different parts of the city, and the views from the Skypark were certainly electric too!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When we reached the cruise terminal we still had a couple of hours before we had to re-board our ship, so we decided to spend a while wandering around the two shopping malls that are adjacent to the cruise terminal – HarbourFront and VivoCity. It was interesting to compare and contrast the two, the latter is much more upmarket, as shown by the cars to be seen inside each mall:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Fortunately there was virtually no queue when we returned though the immigration desk on our way back to the ship. As we had missed lunch we went to the café for afternoon tea, before heading up on deck to watch the sailaway. We were sailing overnight to our next port of call, Port Klang, which is the nearest port to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and in charge was Captain Åge Danielson, who had taken us from Southampton to Lima – Captain Henrik Mattsson having left the ship for his well earned vacation.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our adventures in Kuala Lumpur will be the subject of my next post.

 

Postscript 1

On the second of our three sea days between Komodo Island and Singapore, they held this year’s Crew Marathon. Between 1pm and 4pm in the heat of the afternoon, various officers and crew ran around and around the main deck, raising money by way of donations and sponsorship from the passengers. Eighty different officers and crew took part, including Captain Henrik Mattsson (I’m not sure what he was trying to do to one of his crew-members in one of these photos!), and they ran a total of 1430 laps corresponding to a distance of 285.8 miles – a fabulous effort in that heat and humidity!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A special mention must go to the magician Aiden Murphy, who without a single spell of rest ran for the full three hours and clocked up the most laps, and to the Black Watch Show Company’s dance captain, Chloe Philips, who clocked up the second highest number, and even did cart-wheels at times down the deck – she said afterwards that it was to give her legs a moments rest!

 

Postscript 2

On the third sea day they held the Crossing the Line ceremony to mark our sailing back across the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere – a fact that both Carol and I found quite disappointing as it shows how our wonderful cruise is drawing steadily towards its conclusion. The Crossing the Line ceremonies are now getting quite familiar to us,  for example the one earlier in this cruise is documented here W1801 – Mermaids, Seals, a Bear … and a lap dancer!. There were the usual array of pirates, mermaids (some more beautiful than others!), a scrubber, and of course King Neptune and his stunning wife. This time the forfeit when crew members were brought before the King and inevitably found guilty was to have a pillow fight on the wooden beam across the swimming pool. Entertainers, junior and senior officers were all brought forward in turn, and of course everyone ended up in the water. The final two contests were between the ship’s Captain and the dance captain, and between Michelle the Cruise Director and Duncan her deputy, bring to an end the series of challenges that have been held between them. However photographic evidence shows Michelle’s victory in the pillow fight was far from fair, first removing her competitor’s wig, and then tipping him into the water without her pillow even being in her hands! I suspect she thought she could get away with such low tactics as she will be leaving the ship in Kuala Lumpur anyway!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

W1801 – In the pink!

In my last post, W1801 – Darwin’s Natural Selection, I described our visit to a very hot and humid Darwin, in the Northern Territories of Australia, and our tour from there to a really good wildlife park. We then had two days at sea sailing towards our next port of call, the unique Komodo Island in Indonesia.

Komodo is one of the 17,508 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia, and has a surface area of 390 square kilometres. Only around two thousand people live there, many of which are descendants of convicts who were exiled to the island. Komodo is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands, and forms part of the Komodo National Park.

Komodo is most famous as being one of only five islands where the Komodo dragon, the largest living species of lizard can be found. It is thought that similar large lizards once roamed all of Indonesia and Australia, and in Australia fossils dating to more than 3.8 million years ago have been found. Komodo dragons can grow up to 3 metres in length and can weigh up to around 70 kilograms. Their large size makes them the top predator on the islands, and they hunt and ambush prey such as deer, often waiting near a waterhole.

Carol and I had been lucky enough to visit Komodo Island on our around the world cruise last year, and we took the tour ashore to see the Komodo dragons in the national park then – see W1702 – Here really be dragons!. We therefore decided to do a different tour this time around. There were two tours that we would have liked to have done – one to a beach with pink sand called Pantai Merah, reputed to be one of only seven with pink sand in the world, the other to visit the only village on the island and it’s school. As always you can’t do everything and a difficult choice had to be made. We decided to go to the pink beach, as we both had loved the tropical beach that we went to in the Maldives last year (see W1702 – Magical Maldives), and it would give me a chance to do some more snorkelling, which for various reasons I keep missing out on – and seriously, not go to one of the seven pink beaches in the world??!!

It was a very early sail into the island, which is a tender port, and I knew from last year how attractive the sail in was as we drift past loads of different islands and islets. I therefore set my alarm for very early o’clock so that I could be up on deck before dawn which was at 6:05 and catch the special early morning light, but in the event both Carol and I were awake by 5:30 anyway – it was probably the excitement of the day ahead.

I left Carol in bed with a cup of tea, and climbed up to the topmost deck to take in and photograph the breath-taking scenery. Fortunately this time I did get my timing right, as was able to watch the sun rise over the islands as we sailed in. As I have come to expect I was one of very few up on deck to enjoy the glorious sights, but I did get a friendly wave from the Captain when he came out into the bridge wing to admire the view, and he remarked what a lovely morning it was.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As we sailed in we passed the village, and I managed to zoom in for some shots of it in the low dawn sunlight:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I stayed up on the top deck until we had arrived off the piers and had dropped anchor, then I returned to the cabin to see if Carol was ready to come up on deck and enjoy the peaceful scene around the ship before the day got too hot. We soon both went back up on deck, and I took my binoculars as well as my camera this time – using these we were able to spot and look at two deer which were down on the beach.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a good breakfast to give us energy for our swimming later, we waited until it was time to check-in for our tour. The sea was flat calm giving us a very easy and smooth transfer in one of the ship’s tenders to the shore. Here we were met by a local guide and four rangers who were there to help protect us from any Komodo dragons that we might encounter – two were from the national park and two were local islanders. As last year, our guards were small wirey guys armed only with a tall thin pole that had a fork at one end which apparently they put around the neck of a dragon to restrain it – not overly reassuring! After an introduction they led us to the longer of the two piers where the boat was moored which was to take us across the bay to the pink beach. As we walked along the pier I caught sight of a sea eagle soaring over the water, but as I only had my waterproof camera with me I couldn’t zoom in to catch it properly.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The boat we took to the pink beach had two decks – as the tide was low we actually boarded the boat onto the upper deck and Carol and I remained up there for the voyage. This was not the most comfortable ride, the ceiling was low, and there were just bean-bags to sit on – and there were none of those left for me so I ended up just sitting on the wooden deck floor. The ride across the bay took around 20 minutes, and we passed our ship on the way. Our guide explained that once we reached the beach, we would be transferred to shore in a small tender, four at a time. To reach the tender, which was very small and unsteady, we first had to climb down one wooden ladder to the lower deck, then another down the outside of the boat into the tender. It was then just a short ride to the shore, and it was a good job we came prepared in our water shoes as we had to paddle the last couple of feet onto the beach. I know Carol was very relieved to be safely ashore after all that.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then had a couple of hours to enjoy the beach, and for those wishing to do snorkelling, masks, snorkels and flippers were provided if needed. Carol was a little disappointed that the sea was not as warm as it had been in the Maldives (it was like bath-water there) and did not stay in for long, but I was in my element as there was excellent coral and fish to see when snorkelling just a few yards from the shore. It took me a few minutes to regain my confidence, but then I had a fabulous time slowly trolling along enjoying all the colourful coral and fish, and photographing them with my underwater camera. It still feels a bit unnatural and unnerving to walk into the sea with a camera in hand, but it is designed for the job and I was quite pleased with the results when I got to view my photographs later in the day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I spent nearly all the time on the beach in the sea, only coming out when it was getting close to our departure time. I knew I would soon dry off in the hot sun, and used the chance to take some more general photographs of the beach.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This brings me to the subject of the colour of the beach.  It gets its colour from tiny fragments of red coral, which are mixed in with the white sand, and apparently the beach can look different colours in different lights. Our experience was that it looked most pink when wet, so where the gentle waves were breaking at the shoreline, and underwater when I was snorkelling it did look a pale pink; but the dry remainder of the beach looked a more normal creamy white. I’m including a snap of the picture they used in the Tours book to describe this tour, I will leave it to you to decide how creative or otherwise someone might have been with the picture in the book:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Whether the beach is pink, white or somewhere in between, it was still an absolutely fabulous beach and the snorkelling over the coral was just wonderful – I would go back there and do it all again in an instant. Sadly all too soon it was time to re-board the tiny tender and return to the larger boat for the journey back. Carol was very smart, she realised that if we were some of the first to re-board we could sit on the lower deck going back, on more comfortable benches. On the way we were offered fresh fruit and chilled water, both of which were very refreshing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The boat we were on was called ‘I love you’, as we reached the pier once more I spotted what must be her sister ship, called ‘I miss you’! To get ashore we first had to climb the wooden ladder up to the top deck, and then step carefully across onto the pier itself. As we walked back along the pier I was able to take some nice shots of the beaches on either side, and of the smaller pier that the ship’s tenders were using.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Before we reached the other pier, we had to face up to something that last time we found more scary than the Komodo dragons – the market where the locals were over-selling their souvenirs. As soon as you went anywhere near one of the stalls, a crowd of stall-holders were all over you pushing their wares, which was extremely off-putting. We, and everyone we talked to, all said that they were their own worst enemies – if they had backed off and let us browse, we would definitely have bought more. Last year Carol and I had wanted to buy one of the wooden carved Komodo dragons that we saw on most stalls, but were so put off by being mobbed by the sellers that we hurriedly walked on by without buying one. This year we were more brave, and after some serious haggling, we became the proud owners of two dragons, which we have named ‘Ko’ and ‘Modo’:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Laden with our purchase we made our way to the smaller pier, where we caught one of the ship’s tenders to take us back to the cool of our ship. I just had time for a quick and much needed shower before we headed up to the cafe for a late lunch just before it closed.

Something I had seen last year, but not managed to photograph, were the boys, some quite young, who came out to the ship in small canoes and boats to beg for food and other gifts. Last year we had seen both passengers and crew throw fruit into the sea near their craft, and one of them would dive in the sea to retrieve it. This year, as well as the inevitable adults hawking souvenirs from small boats, there were boys in small craft once more, so after lunch I went up on deck to take photographs of them. The boys in one small canoe looked particularly small and young, but maybe because of that they seemed to have acquired quite a haul in the bottom of their canoe.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There was only time for about an hour’s rest in the cabin before it was time to go up on deck to watch us sail away from the amazing island. The light and the appearance of the land was so different from early that morning, and this time there were loads of people outside to enjoy the views. Both Carol and I think the land has a prehistoric look to it, perhaps that is appropriate as it is home to the prehistoric-looking dragons.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After leaving Komodo Island, we have three days at sea as we sail towards our next port of call, Singapore, which is likely to be the subject of my next post.

 

Postscript

I am aware that in some of my recent posts I have had a bit of a moan about things that have not gone as we would have liked, so in this post I would like to redress the balance by giving a mention and my thanks to some people who have made our experience on this cruise even more special.

Carol and I would like to express publicly our appreciation for our two waiters at dinner, Paul and Lorenso. They have been so caring in helping the disabled gentleman on our table, and they still find time for some banter with us despite having so many tables to look after and seeming to work all hours of the day and evening. Just a small example of their caring is that the other day Carol asked Paul at lunchtime if he knew what time breakfast would be the following day – he didn’t know then, but said he would find out – that evening we were dining in a different restaurant – the posh one to celebrate our anniversary – but Paul came and found us there to tell us the breakfast times.

The next candidate for our public thanks is Bethany who is the Future Cruise Manager on board. We went to see her after our anniversary meal with a long list of cruises in 2018, 2019 and 2020 that we would like quotes on (don’t worry it looks like this blog has a long future!). She was chatting with us as she tapped away on her computer getting the quotes, and Carol happened to mention we were a bit unsure about our tour on Komodo in the morning, as the check in time quoted in the Daily Times paper was much later than the time printed on our ticket. Despite being so busy, Bethany promptly picked up her phone and called her friend Scout from the Tours department – despite the fact that as it was evening Scout was off duty – and confirmed for Carol that the check-in time was correct.

We would also like to express our admiration for the amazing talents and hard work of the Black Watch Show Company on this cruise. Over the 11 years I have been cruising with Fred. Olsen I have seen many different Show Companies, some have had particularly good singers, while others have had some have had some good dancers. However this team is definitely the most consistently good team I have seen – every member of the company are so talented it seems harsh to single any of them out – but I do think the singers Hannah and Luke are particularly outstanding. Yesterday afternoon the Show Company were busy entertaining us taking part in silly games in and around the swimming pool, despite the fact that during the evening they put on two very strenuous shows for the first and second sittings. We saw the first of the shows, and with just an hour to rest before the second one, instead of immediately putting their feet up to rest like any sane person would, at the end of the show they were on the door chatting to the passengers and having their photographs taken.

Lastly, but by no means least, we must thank our wonderful Captain, Henrik Mattsson. He has safely seen us through the difficult tender operation at Easter Island and the fire on board, and avoided the Cyclone in the South Pacific – and in a few days time he is leaving the ship for a well-earned break. Have a great vacation Sir, and thank you for your interest and kind comments about my blog.

 

W1801 – Darwin’s Natural Selection

In my last post, W1801 – Hamilton Is A Winner?, I described our visit to Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland, Australia. We then had for days at sea, sailing up the coast of Queensland, then through the Torres Straight, which separates Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea, and on to our next port of call, Darwin in the Northern Territories of Australia.

We visited Darwin on our around the world cruise last year, (see W1702 – Darwin delight), and I remembered that it was not a particularly interesting sail-in, so I stayed longer in bed and only went up on deck just as we were about to dock. I remembered that last time it was very hot and humid in Darwin, being well inside the tropics, but this time I was rather shocked that I was only able to take a couple of photographs before my camera lenses completely steamed up – inside the camera as well as outside – because of the extremely high humidity despite it being so early in the day. It was also already very hot, which didn’t bode well for our comfort during the rest of the day. The local nickname for Darwin is ‘Top End’, and I did consider naming this post “Hot and Sweaty at the Top End”, but decided that potential readers might get the wrong idea and be put off!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Carol and I had booked a ship’s tour to the Territory Wildlife Park, which was about an hours drive from the port. I have rather mixed views about zoos and wildlife parks, as regular readers will know from my previous posts, such as when I visited zoos in Singapore and Tenerife, and the wildlife park near Sydney. My instinct is not to like wild creatures being held in captivity, especially in very restricted spaces; but I do see that sadly zoos and parks have part to play in conservation as so much of the world’s wild places are being damaged or lost due to man’s exploitation and greed. In particular I have a problem where wild creatures are made to do unnatural things for the entertainment of the public – for example highly intelligent creatures like orcas and dolphins performing tricks in a small pool, or koalas being handed to people to hold or hug as if they were teddy bears – and of course there are significant health risks each way with the latter too. However this wildlife park, which covers a huge area, was created and is run by the Northern Territory Government for the education and recreation of the local residents and visitors, rather than as a profit generating machine for a private company, so I felt much more comfortable making this visit.

While we waited on board our coach for everyone to come aboard it seemed nice and cool, but soon after we set off everyone started to really feel the heat, and we feared that the coach’s air conditioning had failed. The driver told us that he would need to stop the coach to try and fix it, and he pulled into the roadside close to a low building decorated with Aboriginal artwork, and to our huge relief, was soon able to get it working again.

The drive to the wildlife park was interesting, we got to see some of the suburbs of city, and we drove along part of the Stuart Highway which runs 2834 kilometres from the north through the desert centre to the south of Australia. An indication of the huge distances involved is when we saw a distance sign listing Alice Springs as being 1443 kilometres ahead!! The huge ‘road-trains’ use this road – lorries pulling multiple trailers – and because they can take so long to stop, there are warning signs well ahead of any traffic lights, which flash if the lights ahead are about to go red or are already red. We also noticed signs indicating the bush fire danger rating, fortunately as it was the end of the wet season, were at the lowest ‘green’ setting. Running parallel to the highway was a large pipe, our local guide told us that it runs for over 100 kilometres bringing water to the city of Darwin. In a couple of places there were also rough airstrips, which our guide told us date back to the second world war, when spitfires would have flown from them. After we had turned off the Stuart Highway towards the wildlife park, we saw some huge termite mounds close to the road.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The wildlife park is huge, comprising nearly 1000 acres of natural bush-land, including wetlands, monsoon forest and crystal-clear springs. We had three hours there, which initially sounded plenty of time. The wildlife were in different distinct areas around the park, for example there was an aquarium, an area with several large aviaries, a nocturnal house etc, but these were some distance apart, and the heat and humidity made it impractical to walk between them. They did have a land-train which made a circuit around the exhibits, but unfortunately this only ran every half an hour. As a result we only had time to visit two of the exhibit areas, which was so frustrating. The tour was timed to return us to the ship around 2:15 in the afternoon – after lunch anyway – so it would have been so much better to make the tour at least a couple of hours longer so we could have seen more of the park.

We were met at the entrance to the park by a ranger, who gave us a map and an introductory talk about the park before we set off. He explained that as the park was set in a large area of natural bush-land, as we walked around we might also encounter wild creatures. He said that although it was unlikely, if we were lucky we might encounter a wild snake as we walked around the park – I’m pretty sure that from the expression on her face, that is not exactly how Carol would describe such an encounter! Carol also noticed the extra protection he was wearing around the bottom of his legs and asked about that, and he brushed it off as protecting his socks from seeds etc in the long grass, but Carol remained a little apprehensive about what we might just encounter en route.

The ranger told us that there was one creature we would not be able to see on our visit, which was a huge saltwater crocodile – a ‘saltie’ – called Graham! They were putting a new roof on his enclosure, and the ranger told us that for some reason the builders were reluctant to do the work with him still in residence there. The ranger did say that if the builders fell behind in their work, they might threaten to put Graham back to encourage them to finish the job!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Before we all set out on the land-train, the ranger brought over a frill-necked lizard for us to see up close. As we travelled on the land-train we passed some water buffalo, and we could see the decorated stations at each exhibit area:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The first area we did go to was the Flight Centre – here we sat on benches to watch a display of various native birds. While we waited for the display to start, I managed to photograph a dragonfly resting on the wire fence. The display was done really well – a park ranger started talking about a bird, and that bird would suddenly appear – either flying or walking in, having been released back-stage as it were. Some of the birds swooped so low over our heads you could feel the draught from their wings. They had an emu who walked on, and they had a replica emu egg on the ground so we could see how big it was. The next bird to come on was a large buzzard, and it went up to the egg and dropped stones hard onto it until the egg broke open and it could retrieve some food concealed inside. The ranger said that it had not been taught to do this, it just did it by instinct. When an osprey started flying around, two completely wild kites spotted it and started to harass it – a completely unscripted part of the show! We were both extremely impressed by the whole presentation, and were very aware that the birds were completely free-flying and returned to the park because they wanted to.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The other area we got to explore was the one with the bird aviaries. It started with an area where there was a pool of water, and when you pressed a button a thunderstorm started – rain pouring down into the pool, complete with loud sound effects for the thunder. We then followed a path through the trees, which every so often reached another aviary, each with wire mesh around three sides and over the roof, and with wood and glass windows for us to look though on the fourth side. The final on was the most impressive and best, we went through an ‘air-lock’ of two doors to enter one vast wire mesh aviary, where the path wound it’s way down from tree-top level to ground level, and the birds really had plenty of room to free fly around. We saw lots of lovely colourful birds, including a kingfisher and a blue-winged kookaburra. We would have loved to have stayed longer there, but we were very conscious of the time, and needed to get back to the land-train stop in time to catch the one needed to get us back to our coach on time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Back at the main station, we had around 20 minutes to wait before our departure time – frustratingly not enough to see anything else out in the park – so we grabbed a bite to eat in the cafe, and looked around the obligatory souvenir shop where an amusing  sign about the size of Australia caught my eye. The rangers had brought out a baby ‘saltie’ to show us, but although it was only very tiny it’s jaws were all taped up, which made me feel uncomfortable. I was much happier just to look at the skull of an adult ‘saltie’ on the bench nearby, and realise just how big and powerful they must be. Before we left our original ranger also brought out a large python, which people could touch, and a couple of people also had photos taken with it partially around their necks.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While we were so frustrated at not being able to see more of the wildlife park, it was nice to get back onto our air conditioned coach and sit down for the hour or so back to Darwin. Here we had the option of being dropped in the city centre, or being taken back to the ship. Carol was tired and feeling the heat and humidity, so wisely decided to return to the ship. I decided I still had the energy to walk around the city, and to take the chance to see and photograph some places we didn’t get to see last year. There are hardly any old buildings to see in Darwin though, as a result of Japanese bombing during the second world war, and because of Cyclone Tracy which flattened most of the city on Christmas Eve in 1974.

My first couple of stops were at familiar places from last year – the brightly painted model kangaroos (the fact that they were inside a very well chilled air-conditioned building was mere coincidence!), and the statue of John McDouall Stuart, the Scottish explorer who led the first successful expedition to traverse the Australian mainland from south to north through the centre of the continent. I then came across the tombstone of the Fujita family, whose family salvage business recovered eight of the ships sunk in Darwin harbour by the Japanese during the Second World War, so helping to restore friendship and goodwill between the peoples of Australia and Japan.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The place I was most wanting to see and photograph was St Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral, the main place of Catholic worship in the city. This had many lovely stained glass windows, some depicting various Australian armed forces – during the war it was was the seat of the garrison of the military chaplaincy for Australian troops in the city. After the war they decided they needed a larger building, construction of the current building begin in 1958 and was completed in 1972.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I then retraced my steps back to where I had left the coach, and continued on past the remnants of the Old Town Hall, which was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy, and which have been left as a memorial to that devastating event. My next stop was Christ Church Cathedral, the centre of Anglican worship in the city. We had walked past this cathedral last year, this time I was able to look inside too, but it seemed very simple and plain after the Catholic cathedral.  The original cathedral had been almost completely flattened by Cyclone Tracy, only the western end-wall and the relatively new porch remained standing – when the cathedral was rebuilt to a modern design the original porch was incorporated into the design.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I then went to view two official buildings I had seen from the coach – Government House and Parliament House. Government House is the office and official residence of the Administrator of the Northern Territory. It was built between 1870 and 1871, and set in 13,000 square metres of hillside gardens. Parliament House is Australia’s newest Parliament Building, it has been the seat of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 1994. Our guide had told us that the locals call Parliament house the wedding cake, as it is square and white and full of fruit and nuts with a little bit of grog!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As always when I go walk-about with my camera I keep my eye out for the unusual or the humorous, here are a few things that caught my eye this time:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On my way back to the ship I had to stop for some much needed ice-cream to cool me down – but it was a race to eat it before it all became liquid in the heat. My route took me via a ‘sky bridge’ with good views across the port area. I diverted slightly to view the outside of the tunnels constructed during the second world war to store fuel – we had passed these in the coach much earlier in the day. I was so relieved when I finally made it back to the ship and could peel off my sodden clothes and step into a nice cold refreshing shower!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After dinner, instead of going to see the show, Carol and I went up to the outside bar which is high on the ship and had refreshing cold drinks while we watched the sun go down on what had been a very hot and sticky, but very enjoyable day in Darwin.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We now have two days at sea sailing towards our next port of call, Komodo Island, which is likely to be the subject of my next post.

 

Postscript

Six months ago today was the happiest and proudest day of my life – the day I married the woman of my dreams and so much more besides, the amazing and wonderful Carol. She has changed my life so very much, and made it so happy and so complete, and always full of laughter. Happy 1/2 Year Anniversary my darling, and thank you for everything from the bottom of my heart.

 

W1801 – Hamilton Is A Winner?

In my last post, W1801 – Brisbane Buddies, I described the two days that Carol and I spent in Brisbane, Australia, meeting friends and relations and exploring some of the city. Leaving the Port of Brisbane late that afternoon, we set sail north – yes sadly we are generally sailing north not south now – towards our next port of call, Hamilton Island, which we would reach after a day at sea.

Leaving my lovely wife Carol asleep in bed, I crept up on deck very early to watch our approach to the island, but as soon as I got there I realised I should have set my alarm for even earlier as I had missed the dawn, and I could tell the special light that you get around dawn was already disappearing. I had been up on deck for the approach to Hamilton Island last year despite my health issues (see W1702 – Great Barrier Grief), but it took a while to recognise and remember where the ship would sail. Once again there were only a handful of people up on deck to watch our approach, I never cease to be amazed how few bother for places with natural beauty, but how many are there to view man-made ports and cities.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Carol came up on deck to join me as we got closer to Hamilton Island, and once we reached the point when they were about to drop anchor we decided to go below for our breakfast, and then get ready to go ashore. We had originally booked a ship’s tour which took you on a large catamaran to the outer Great Barrier Reef, where you can snorkel and/or use a semi-submersible vessel to view the reef and it’s wildlife – this was the same tour that I had to cancel off last year because of my health issues. However this is a long tour – 8 hours – and it’s a two and a half hour voyage in the catamaran each way to the reef, and we felt we had been tossed around enough on this voyage already with the big storms in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We had also heard from people who did the tour last year that there wasn’t a huge amount to see once you got there, so all in all we decided to save ourselves a tidy sum by cancelling off the tour, and just visit Hamilton Island on an independent basis instead.

We had received a letter to say that as there were now so many of the highest ‘Diamond Elite’ Oceans Club members on board (the loyalty scheme based on nights taken on Fred. Olsen cruises), the first ship’s tender ashore in anchor ports would be reserved for them. As we qualify for this we made sure we were ready in time for that first tender, and it was a lovely easy transfer ashore. The turquoise sea looked stunning under the deep blue sky, and I was really looking forward to spending time on one of the Whitsunday Islands which have such an idyllic reputation.

However as we approached the island we could see loads and loads of houses and apartments filling the hillside, and overlooking the Marina was a tower block with around 16 stories – so I wondered whether this was going to be paradise after all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hamilton Island is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia, located approximately 880 kilometres north of Brisbane and 510 kilometres south of Cairns. The island is a popular tourist destination all year round, and is the only island in the Great Barrier Reef with its own commercial airport, with short direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns. Like most of the islands in the Whitsunday group, Hamilton Island was formed as sea levels rose and drowned mountains off the coast of Queensland. The island was purchased in 1975, and development of a Marina and Beach Resort began three years later. There are over 10 ceremony locations and 15 reception venues available on Hamilton Island for weddings, and each year the island hosts approximately 500 wedding ceremonies, ranging from wedding groups of 2 to 200 guests.

Leaving the tender, it was just a short walk up the pontoon and along the quayside to where a free island tour bus was waiting. There are no cars on the island, just two free bus routes, and loads and loads of golf buggies – the latter can be hired by the hour. The bus driver doubled up as the guide, and took us slowly past the shops and restaurants on the waterfront, before heading up a steep hill to the first stop, at One Tree Hill. Here we decided to get off and spend some time looking at the breath-taking views, as more tour busses would be calling there later on a regular basis. There were fabulous views out over the end of the island to other islands, and of our ship floating in a stunning turquoise sea in between. We did think that someone needs to practice their counting though, there were a lot more than just on tree at that viewpoint!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After a while we strolled slightly further up the hill to where you could see across to the lower, centre of the island, and the best beach on the island, Catseye Beach. For me, this too was spoiled by having two large hotel blocks, as well as three lower apartment blocks just behind the beach – although I do accept that plenty of people like resort hotels, they are just not for me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then walked back down to One Tree Hill, and had a cool refreshing drink sitting on the veranda of the café there, whilst also drinking in that amazing view. We then went to wait by some benches for the next tour bus to arrive. When a bus arrived, we took it down to Catseye Beach – the bus stopped outside the larger hotel, and we had to walk through it and past a couple of swimming pools to reach the beach. It was blisteringly hot on the beach, so we didn’t linger there, and instead caught yet another bus for the ride back to the Marina.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once back at the Marina we walked along past the same shops and restaurants we had passed earlier in the bus, keeping in the shade as much as possible, until we reached an artwork shop which had very much caught my eye earlier. In its grounds were lots of amazing sculptures, and inside were the most beautiful and lovely smaller pieces – everything was lovely about them except the prices!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As we walked past a tavern we noticed some cockatoos on it’s railings, and I commented to Carol that they were too far away for me to photograph, as I was using my waterproof camera that day in case I had gone swimming at the beach, and that only has a very small zoom. Just then she pointed, for on our side of the road were several more cockatoos, within easy reach of my camera:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

By now it was close to lunchtime, and my wonderful wife had a brilliant idea – rather than returning to the ship for lunch, why not have it at the waterfront Italian restaurant we had just passed? Although the food on board ship is very good, one thing we do miss is a really good pizza, so this was a great chance to have some – especially as we could sit on a balcony literally over the sea with great views of the boats in the Marina. The pizzas only came in one size, so we innocently ordered one each, only to find how large they really are when they came. I have a really good appetite, which my ‘portion controller’ Carol is trying hard to curtail, but even I only just managed to squeeze down the last of Carol’s leftover pizza after demolishing my own – and yes, they were absolutely delicious!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Carol then walked, and I waddled, back along the waterfront to the pontoon to wait for the next ship’s tender to take us back to our ship. On the way back to the ship we spotted a seaplane flying past as well as the other tender passing in the other direction.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was a relief to get back to the cool of the air conditioned ship, and especially to use the chilled hand towel that they hand out to you as you re-enter the ship. Back in our cabin, I asked Carol what she had thought of the island, and to score it out of ten. Usually Carol and I are so much in tune on things that it is uncanny, but for once we disagreed on our thoughts and rating score. Carol absolutely loved the views and the island, and gave it a 10! While I loved the views from One Tree Hill, and the lunch (the food and the venue overlooking the Marina), the rest of the island I found overdeveloped and too busy – for me paradise has to be much more natural and tranquil – so I only scored it around 6.5. Everyone is different – thank goodness – decide for yourselves from the photographs in this post.

Late that afternoon Carol and I went up on deck to watch us sail away, and also hoped to see the sunset. Alas we could see a rain shower coming towards us across the bay, and the clouds hid the sun apart from a tiny slither across the top of an island:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were setting sail for Darwin, in the Northern Territories of Australia, which we will only reach after four days at sea – this gives an indication of the vast size of Australia. Our adventures in Darwin are likely to be the subject of my next post.

 

Postscript 1

It’s that time of year when the new Fred. Olsen brochure comes out, and frequent cruisers like ourselves – and probably most of the people with us on the world cruise – it’s a time to avidly scan the brochure and select the cruises we would most like to do. Looking at the new brochure, one thing immediately leaped out – there is no around the world cruise at all. Actually there are no long voyages at all on Black Watch. Instead Boudicca has a long string of eleven fly-cruises which in theory can be stitched together back-to-back to make a huge five and a half month voyage, but this circumnavigates Australia and returns to the UK the same way.

Naturally the new brochure and lack of a world cruise has been quite a talking point on board this ship. There are a lot of people on board who want to do a long voyage each year, they don’t want to fly, and in particular they don’t want to be away over Christmas / New Year, but they do want to be away through the worst of the winter weather back home in the January / February / March / early April timeframe. The fact that there are so many ‘diamond elites’ on board at the moment shows how the long world voyages attract Fred’s most loyal customers.

The story I have heard is that the reason for moving away from world cruises and into more fly cruises is that they want to attract younger customers who don’t have the time for such a long voyage. As someone who loves Fred. Olsen and wants them to remain successful so that I can continue to sail with them, I only hope that the company know what they are doing – my fear is that they are alienating their most loyal customers in the hope of attracting a new breed of customers that may or may not exist, and that may or may not want to travel on Fred’s small and elderly ships.

We were also fascinated to read Fred. Olsen Junior’s comments at the brochure launch about him talking to shipyards with a view to having several new ships built, and that these and the existing fleet will be fitted with RIBs for exploration type tours. This all sounds very positive, and we await developments with interest.

 

Postscript 2

After lunch today Carol and I went out on deck to watch us sail past some of the many islands we are passing as we sail up the coast of Queensland, and also to look out for any wildlife. We both saw two dolphins, and Carol also saw a sea snake. In the distance on one of the islands we could see a lot of white – on his noon report the Captain had told us that the white was not snow – it couldn’t be in this 30 degree heat – it was actually very white sand. We also watched apprehensively as some very dark clouds approached, and we beat a hasty retreat once the rain started. The heavy rain that set in was only to be expected as they planned to hold a barbecue and live music out on the rear decks this evening!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

W1801 – Brisbane Buddies

In my last post, W1801 – Blue Sky in Sydney, I documented the two busy days we spent in the iconic city of Sydney, Australia – on the first day we took a long and really good ship’s tour out into the Blue Mountains, and on the second day Carol and I went up the Sky Tower and explored the city before catching our flight up to Brisbane. Carol and I both had people we wanted to meet up with in Brisbane, so we had decided to fly there so that we had an extra day in the city while the ship sailed up from Sydney.

On the flight I had a typical Australian ‘Sheila’ sat next to me. She used colourful language, and was clearly fiercely independent – she couldn’t understand why we would want to be ‘cooped up’ on a cruise ship for months, she wanted to travel where, when and how she thought on a whim. As we started to descend her ears were troubling her, and she kept asking why the *bleep* Captain didn’t just put the *beep* plane down on the *bleep* ground!

When we did finally make it back to terra firma, we soon found our way to the train station – we had pre-booked our ride into the centre of the city. The trains were every half hour, and a count-down clock showed how long it would be until the next departure – and when we arrived it said 29 – we had clearly just missed one. As the flight had landed around 20 minutes early we could hardly complain. We had chosen and pre-booked a hotel just 5 minutes or so walk from the train station in the same Street which made things very easy. Just across from our hotel was the City Hall, which was all lit up with floodlights.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were tired after a busy couple of days and the travelling, so elected to just have our evening meal in the hotel bistro. After the meal we decided to take just a short walk along the street to let it digest before we settled in for the night. As we walked along hand-in-hand, this very tall lanky man appeared and said how nice it was to see us holding hands and so happy together. He then said that he thought I was just like his dad, which was rather unlikely as he was a black man! He then wanted to give me a hug – I was very wary thinking he might be a pick-pocket, but Carol watched his hands like a hawk and all was well – after just a hug he went on his way. Carol was a bit suspicious though, and wanted to know more about my ‘son’!!

After a good night’s sleep we set out to find a café for breakfast – we had booked room-only at the hotel. Before long we chanced on one called “Jimmy’s on the Mall”, where we had a delicious breakfast, and instantly decided that we would return there the following day for our breakfast at the same place.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then had a couple of hours to look around the city – and of course take photographs – before meeting the first of our friends. We were amused by the “London Spuds” van, and the list of famous British people they had chosen to name their Spuds after – David Beckham, Harry Potter, Elizabeth Taylor, Prince Harry, Dr Who, Adele and Andrew Llyod [sic] Webber.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our first meeting was with a former work colleague of mine called Victoria. She is Australian, and I had last seen her around ten years ago when she worked in the same team as me, while she and her husband were living in the UK for a while. We had hoped to meet her on last year’s around the world cruise, but both Carol and I were very unwell then and I thought it best not to meet her then as she had young children that we didn’t want to risk infecting (see W1702 – ‘bane of my life). This year we had arranged to meet Victoria and her youngest daughter in Roma Street Parkland, and with good timing we arrived on foot just at the same time Victoria and her daughter arrived in their car. It was a hot sunny day, and both Carol and I were thankful to get into Victoria’s air conditioned car and have a cool rest on our way out to Mt. Coot-tha, a viewpoint with great views of Brisbane and the surrounding countryside, where we were all going to have lunch together in the café there. While we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, we were entertained watching two personalities from a local TV station being filmed. It was interesting to see them reshoot the same couple of cheesy lines about the plate of food in front of them from different angles, while an assistant held a white reflector over their heads to shade them. It was great to spend time with Victoria and her cute daughter and catch up, hopefully it won’t be another ten years before we can meet up again.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Victoria kindly dropped Carol and me close to our hotel, and we retreated to our air-conditioned room to rest for a while and to let the day cool a little. Later we decided to walk down to the river, which we crossed using Victoria Bridge, and walked for a while along the South Bank Parklands. Here there was a Nepalese Peace Pagoda and gardens, which made for a cool and tranquil oasis so close to the hot and busy city. Also here there was the block sign for Brisbane which was very popular with groups of people taking photos of each other – I had to wait quite a while to snatch a photo of it with no one in front if it! There is also the Art Centre and the Wheel of Brisbane, and the two of these very much reminded us of the South Bank in London. One thing that did impress us was a bicycle repair station with it’s tools and pump chained to the stand ready for anyone to use.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We originally thought about walking all the way through the Parklands and returning across the river on the Goodwill pedestrian and cycle bridge, and then through the City Botanical Gardens, but we were both hot and tired, and instead chose to take the shorter way back to our hotel retracing our steps.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

That evening we went up to the bar in the hotel that is on the 16^th floor, and which gave us good views of the city below:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The next morning we returned to the same café for breakfast, then after checking out of our hotel we walked directly down to the Botanical Gardens that we had missed out on seeing the previous day. On the first day the skies were clear and Carol had found the heat from the sun particularly tiring, but on the second day it was more cloudy, and I found the increased humidity drained me. As well as all the plants, flowers and trees, there was plenty of wildlife to see, and also an interesting marker of the flood levels the city has suffered in recent years.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We walked back to the foyer of our hotel where we had arranged to meet two more couples for lunch that day. One couple was Carol’s cousin Mary and her husband, who we had met last year when we were in Brisbane; the other couple were friends of theirs that Carol knew well, and that I had met once last year when they came to London. After chatting for a whole we adjourned to the nearby “Pig and Whistle” pub for lunch, as they did English-style food which our Australian guests enjoy. Once again it was great to catch up, and we all enjoyed good food and a good laugh together. There was just time to walk to a nearby shop for an ice-cream for our desserts before it was reluctantly time to part – they had a train to catch and we needed to catch the shuttle bus back to our ship, which was docked 25 kilometres away at the mouth of the river.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our route to the coach stop took us through the moving ANZAC Square, the state memorial to the men and women of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, with it’s statues and the Shrine of Remembrance that contains the Eternal Flame. The coach ride back to the ship was very uninteresting, except perhaps passing The Gabba, the famous sports stadium in Brisbane.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On returning to our ship, moored in one of those stunning commercial ports, we were glad to be back ‘home’ after four great, but very busy and tiring days travelling in Sydney and Brisbane. We felt we had definitely made the right decision to leave the ship and fly up to Brisbane, as this gave us much more time with our ‘Brisbane Buddies’ and time to see something of Brisbane itself, which we would not of had if we had remained on the ship, especially with the longer shuttle time to and from the out of town port. Everything had worked out very well, and we remarked how much easier it is to organise such things these days with the power of the Internet. It did remind us though why we love cruising so much – it was so much more tiring having to take a train to an airport, waiting around for the flight time, flying to the next place, taking another train, finding the hotel and unpacking – rather than just remaining on our lovely floating luxury hotel that does all the hard work of travelling from place to place for us!

 

 

W1801 – Blue Sky in Sydney

In my last post, W1801 – Beautiful Bay, I described a wonderful day spent in the idyllic Bay of Islands on the northernmost coast of New Zealand. We then had three days at sea as we sailed across the Tasman Sea towards our next port of call, Sydney in Australia. Once again the sea was quite rough, we seem fated not to get the same balmy weather that we were so lucky to have almost the whole way around last year.

Our ship was due to spend two days in Sydney, then there was a day at sea before the next port of call, Brisbane, where we would spend a single day. Both Carol and I had people we wanted to spend time with in Brisbane and we thought it would be difficult to fit all we wanted to do into a single day. Before we set sail on this cruise I had a brainwave – we could leave the ship before she sailed out from  Sydney, fly up to Brisbane that evening, and get two full days in Brisbane before re-joining the ship before she sailed from there. Some investigations on the Internet showed that we could get very cheap flights on the budget airline Tigerair – I wondered if our seats would be out on the wings! – and we got a reasonable price in a hotel well situated in the centre of Brisbane – so my cunning plan was put into action.

Once on board the ship we had let Guest Services know of our plans, they wanted to know our flight and hotel details which we provided to them. Sailing towards Australia we realised we needed to know where in Brisbane the ship would be docked, and how to get there. We talked to William, the Tours Manager, who while not immediately having all the answers, was very helpful in finding out for us what we needed to know. Last year we were docked close to the centre of Brisbane, within range of the water busses, but it turns out that this year we were due to be docked at the Port Of Brisbane facility – the commercial port at the mouth of the river some 25 kilometres from the city centre. At first William thought that they would only provide a shuttle bus from the ship to the nearest railway station, and leave passengers to make their own way from there. Carol pointed out how difficult this might be for some of the older and/or more infirm passengers on board to cope with. Lo and behold next time she talked to William things had changed, and there was now going to be a shuttle bus all the way from the ship to the city centre – whether or not that had anything to do with Carol’s comments we don’t know, but a big thank you to whoever made the right decision, and to William for all his help in getting us the information we needed, including emailing us the shuttle bus timetable and pick up point details after we had left the ship.

 

If you were to ask a number of people which is the most iconic harbour to sail into, I am sure that a huge majority would say Sydney, featuring the largest natural harbour in the world, and the stunning Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. I am sure that most of the passengers on board will have been really looking forward to watching us sail into the harbour. However there was huge disappointment all around when the Captain announced that we would be docked by 6:30 in the morning, bearing in mind sunrise wasn’t until 6:45. Regular readers will be aware that from time to time I get totally exasperated by the Fred. Olsen itinerary planning department, and this was yet another occasion. An expression along the lines of organising an alcoholic party in a brewery comes to mind….

When you travel towards or arrive in Australia, Immigration Officers want to do a face to face interview with each passenger. Last year two Immigration Officers got on the ship in New Zealand, and did the interviews as we sailed across to Australia, which worked very well. There is an expression “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Well this year they did ‘fix’ it – we were told that the interviews would be done on arrival in Sydney, and that they would start soon after 7 in the morning! This explained the ridiculously early arrival into Sydney. All the passengers had to get off the ship in turn to be interviewed, and no one wold be allowed back onto the ship until everyone was processed.

Carol and I were fortunate in that we did do the sail in during daylight last year, which is documented with photographs in my post W1702 – Sailing into Sydney.

Carol and I were booked on a long nine hour tour, so we were in the first group of passengers to be called off the ship for interview. Once the interview had been done we had been told to hand in our passports to the people from Guest Services waiting nearby. As we approached the gentleman from Guest Services, we were most impressed that he recognised us, and remembered that we were leaving the ship the next day and therefore needed to retain our passports. We therefore just walked through the terminal building and boarded our coach for the tour. Our tour took us to the Blue Mountains which are west of Sydney – they get their name because they appear to be blue from a distance due to the eucalyptus oil in the air given off by all the trees covering most of the mountains.

It was interesting to drive out through the suburbs of Sydney – we think you get more of a feel for a place if you see more than just the centre and the tourist sites. We passed over several bridges which our guide told us were various inlets of the harbour – we got to realise just how big both the harbour and the city itself are. Fortunately it was a lovely bright clear day, which bode well for setting the views up in the mountains later.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We stopped first at Featherdale Wildlife Park, where we saw lots of Australian creatures such as koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles and various birds and snakes. While it was nice to see the creatures, we thought that they had tried to pack too much into a small area, meaning that many of the animals and birds had quite small cages or areas to live in.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then drove on high into the mountains before stopping at a viewpoint called Echo Point. From there we had great views of the Blue Mountains across a wooded valley, and of three columns of rock known as The Three Sisters. Our local guide told us two different variations of the legend of how the three sisters came to be turned to stone, which revolved around the three sister’s wanting to marry three brothers from a rival tribe, and their father turning them to stone instead.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From there it was just a short drive to our main destination, Scenic World, where to start with we had a basic packed lunch – a ham & salad sandwich, a large chocolate biscuit and an apple. We were then given a ride down the mountainside on the Scenic Railway, which at 52 degrees is the world’s steepest incline railway. I was OK on this as my knees reached a padded bar in front of our seats which I could jamb my knees against to stop me sliding forward as we tipped forward down the steep slope, but poor Carol didn’t reach the bar and felt very unsafe as she thought she might slip forwards at any moment. Fortunately it was only a short ride and everyone disembarked from the train in one piece.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then had a nice walk along a boardwalk through the trees, past an old coal mine. There were lots of information boards telling us about the mine and about the trees – it was very well done. We then boarded the Scenic Cableway, which is the steepest and largest aerial cable-car in the Southern Hemisphere. This lifted us back up the mountain to where we started – Carol covered her eyes during this one and held onto me. The ship’s photographer was standing next to us filming the ride, she told Carol at least she would be able to see again what she missed in the safety of her own home!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our guide then gave us some free time in the shop before spinning one last surprise on us – another cable-car ride, this time in the Scenic Skyway cable-car over a 270 metre deep valley, and part of the cable-car had a glass floor so you could look through to see the ground way below. I was fine, but this one really terrified poor Carol.  She has vowed never to set foot on a cable car again!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our coach collected us from the other side and took us on the two hour drive back to Sydney. On the way I was surprised to see in a couple of places what appeared to be a bus interchange stop in the middle of the central reservation of the motorway. Another surprise and bonus was that the coach took a different route through Sydney and drove over the Harbour Bridge which was a great finish to the tour.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

That evening the show was billed to be another group of local performers, and having had such good experiences of this in Cuba, Tahiti and Auckland we were keen to see the show. The ‘Daily Times’ didn’t give much information about what to expect, and it turned out to be the same ‘bush band’ as we had last year in Sydney, albeit with one person different in their lineup. I appreciate different shows appeal to different people, for me what was effectively a pub band didn’t bring the same level of enjoyment as I had received from the local shows in the other ports. The audience was also quite sparse, but the chance to spend the evening ashore in Sydney I guess that is to be expected.

The following morning we packed just a few spare clothes and essentials in our small backpacks so that we could travel light without the need to check in luggage on our flights later in the day. Our flight was not until 6pm, so we had quite a bit of time to look around Sydney first, on another lovely sunny day. We used the free shuttle ferry to get us across to the Central Business District, and from there we walked to the Sydney Sky Tower. Regular readers might remember that Carol and I went up a similar tower in Auckland last year – see W1702 – Unexpected Auckland. The Sydney Sky Tower is Sydney’s tallest structure, and at 309 metres high is the second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere, after the one in Auckland. We were first shown a short but very good film featuring the tower in 4D, before we took the fast lift up to the observation deck, some 250 metres above ground level. From there we had fabulous views of the city in all directions – we both love looking down and spotting things such as a tennis court on the rooftop of a building – and Carol was fine being so high as she felt safe behind the thick windows.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then walked to Circular Quay, which is close to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, and we enjoyed that area for a while before moving on to explore historic area of the city called The Rocks which is close by. The Rocks became established soon after the formation of the Colony of Australia in 1788. For much of it’s history The Rocks has had a rough reputation, but in recent years the area has been transformed into a commercial and tourist district. We had a nice lunch in a small old café there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Around mid afternoon we walked back to the train station on Circular Quay and took a train out to the airport. We had a very good flight, and it arrived around half an hour early. The time in Brisbane is an hour earlier than Sydney as they don’t have summer time there, so during the flight we had to put our watches back an hour. As the flight was only just over an hour long, we very nearly arrived before we had left!! Our adventures in Brisbane will be the subject of my next post.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Over our two days in Sydney we had gone high in the Blue Mountains and high up the Sky Tower – all under a lovely blue sky – so it really was Blue Sky in Sydney!

 

Postscript 1

In recent posts I have been describing a series of challenges between Michelle, the Cruise Director, and Duncan, her deputy – these including cooking, pottery, and most recently Michelle doing a bungy jump from Auckland Bridge. As we sailed towards Sydney they had another “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook“ cookery challenge. This time they first had to cook snail porridge, and then a chicken chow mein. Neither contestant was happy at handling and cutting up the snails, and at the end of the contest hardly anyone wanted to taste the porridge – even the one made by the chef! For the second dish, Michelle and Duncan were given a whole range of potential ingredients, and had to select themselves which ones to use and the quantities. Their banter and facial expressions once again provided great entertainment – they really do have great chemistry together. After tasting the dishes produced by Michelle and Duncan, the audience voted Duncan to be the winner on that occasion, but Michelle remains the overall leader – we await what the next challenge will be.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Postscript 2

Also during the approach to Australia they held a photographic competition for the passengers on board, similar to the ones held last year. This time there were five categories in total, three (wildlife, landscape and action) were to be voted on by our fellow passengers, another (portrait) by the ship’s photographers, and the last (ship) by the Captain.

I am delighted to report that Carol won the category for wildlife with her photograph of three wild dogs snuggled together which was taken in Havana, Cuba; while I secured a second place for my photograph of Black Watch with a larger ‘block of flats’ cruise ship behind it which was taken in Cozumel, Mexico:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.