7,ooo Islands, only about a thousand occupied. The second poorest country, next to Indonesia in this part of the world. Friendliest people ever.
First stop Princesa, When I opened the curtains this morning, I was shocked to see this ship headed straight at us! Turns out they were just turning around to dock behind us. Whew.
Princesa is called the “cleanest and greenest” town in the Philippines. Well, it was cleaner, but their claim is still a stretch.
The highlight of my day was this field ripened pineapple Kim bought me at the market. These small ones are the best. Heaven. The chief cut it up for me.
This high school band played for us as we prepared to leave the dock. Nice place. Kim thought this Pilot boat was cute.
Today at noon we arrived at Boracay, I call it the Disneyland of water sports. Ever seen over a dozen parasails in the air at one time? How about over 70 sailboats sailing together?
A tender ride to the dock where we were met by these costumed dancers. Then a trike ride to the beach, these trikes are electric and take the place of cabs.
The beach was billed as “white sand that doesn’t get hot”, well, Kim said it was white, for sure, but also hot.
The weather is cooling down, it is now in the low 80’s and much less humid. I again was able to spend more time outside.
Last night a new mystery noise started. About every 30 minutes, there was a sound, like a pump running. It continued throughout the night, waking us up from time to time. By this afternoon, it had increased to every 7 minutes, and I was sure that it was a hydraulic pump. I called to ask if maintenance could look at it for us. Within 2 minutes, someone was knocking on our door, they listened and assured us they would find it. About that time, Kim came in and announced, quite proudly, that she had accidently found the source of the noise. She was walking on deck 5, just below our room, when she heard “the noise”. She brought me pictures and I immediately recognized it as the hydraulic pump that raises and lowers the lifeboats. I called and told them that we had isolated the noise, and they should send maintenance back to our room. They said they had it under control and would fix it.
Well, a couple of hours later, the engineering officer and two workers showed up at our door. Kim let them in, and they started investigating the mechanics of our room, still looking for the noise, they checked out the A/C and other stuff. Kim told them I was out on the veranda and could tell them where the noise was coming from.
They came out and I showed them the pictures of the hydraulic pump and explained to them that the problem could only be either low fluid in the hydraulic revisor, a small leak that they have not detected, or an air bubble in the line.
The Chief looked at me and said I was right, there are no other possibilities, and thanked me and left. I doubt any of you knew that I have a degree in Hydraulic Engineering ;). They fixed it before bedtime, and we were off to sleep.
Well, Kim made it home and had a great experience. She met a new friend. I was right, she did not want an ice bath, but she was tired. Early bedtime for her.
Kim found a nice beach for lunch.
Well, after two sea days, we will wake up in the Philippines in the morning. We have 3 stops including an overnight in Manila. On our second day, we plan to take a taxi to a beach resort nearby. We will enjoy the beach and probably eat lunch there. On our last day in Indonesia, three health officials from the Philippines came aboard and this morning everyone had a mandatory temperature check taken by them, it’s mandatory that everyone who enters the Philippines have this done.
Just two days after Paul said that he and Chris don’t do hot and humid anymore, I once again became overtaken with a heat related sickness. I got very dizzy and had to head into the air-conditioned area of the ship. Kim fixed me up with some electrolytes and I started feeling better. I have not pushed it again, and probably won’t.
When we left Bitung, Indonesia, the whole village turned out to see us off. There was singing, dancing, and speeches. WOW!
How about that for a sunset as we sailed into it.
And now, another episode of the Pool Chronicles, you can’t make this shit up. We had dinner in the steak house tonight, the fanciest place on the ship. Elegant dining for sure. One of the things they do differently is instead of a saltshaker, they bring you a tiny bowl of coarse ground salt with a tiny spoon. They bring the pepper around and grind it for you when you get your food.
Well, then we heard it, from the table next to us, he was talking to the waiter and asks, “what’s this salt for”. Seriously? Salt on a dinner table? What a unique idea! I wish I had thought of that😉.
Next week when we hit Taipei, several cruisers and crew will leave us and new ones will join us.
Yesterday we learned all about the “Spice Islands” and their part in the world we now live in. We never really gave it much thought, but what a fascinating story they tell. The spice Islands are really about spices.
Two days ago, we spent a day at Banda Island. Banda is the only place in the world that Nutmeg and Mace grow naturally. Ternate is the Clove island and Sri Lanka was the only place to find pepper and Cinnamon.
Battles were fought and wars were waged over the right to take these spices back to their country. Spices are responsible for creating Capitalism and corporations to mention a few. Who knew, we didn’t.
Yesterday was wonderful, the humidity and temperature dropped down to be pleasant outside. Today it’s back to too hot and humid to enjoy the outdoors. Kim is out playing Indiana Jones on a jungle hike, I worry that she is too hot and not enjoying herself. Hopefully she will come home not too tired with a great memory of her outing and some great pictures to share.
Our cabin steward, Arnol, drew her a nice ice bath to relax in when she returns. I think she will want to add some hot water and then enjoy it.
I go to the pool about noon and eat lunch, I’m usually there until about 4 before returning to our room. My reputation as a keeper of the pool just keeps getting stronger every day. Yesterday, 3 people asked me when the pool would open again. You see, they had the crossing of the equator ceremony yesterday morning and that really messes up the pool water and they must drain it, scrub it, and refill it. My answer to their questions was that last time we crossed the equator; it was closed all day. On my way back to our suite, I rode the elevator with a guy that said he was sleeping in every morning and taking naps every afternoon. He’s never done that before in his entire adult life. I told him that I too was sleeping in more than ever. When talking with Kim about that, we decided that it’s a state of mind thing. We have no worries, our kids are well and safe, there is absolutely no stressors out there for us to dwell upon.
There was a custom jewelry show yesterday and Kim was one of the models. She wore a $187,000 diamond ring and this necklace, WOW.
Sorry for the lag in my posting. We are still having a great time and seeing fantastic sights. We have gotten past the cultural shock I talked about last time and accept the life style of these people. The greatest takeaway is these people are very happy to be where they are and they are not suffering one bit.
Last night we found this in our room after dinner.
Two highlights of tonight and tomorrow. We have another 25 hour day again and we cross the equator again, moving from summer to winter. Today we had cell service for the first time in a couple weeks. Very spotty in Indonesia.
So, you might ask who does this cruise? Well, they post a nationality list for each segment, here it is.
Nationality Breakdown
AUSTRIA 1
AUSTRALIA 26
BELGIUM 3
BRAZIL 1
CANADA 31
SWITZERLAND 4
GERMANY 10
DENMARK 2
SPAIN 2
UNITED KINGDOM 33
IRELAND 3
ICELAND 3
ITALY 3
JAPAN 1
LUXEMBOURG
1 MEXICO 5
NETHERLANDS 9
NEW ZEALAND 6
SINGAPORE 2
THAILAND 2
UNITED STATES 181
Yep mostly Americans.
Yesterday we were in a very small town, and it was wonderful, People were selling their wares, including a man cutting up fresh tuna. We went for a short zodiac ride around the harbor in the afternoon. Okay, those of you that are playing the over under game on how many times I get off the ship, did the zodiac ride count as me getting off the ship? I will either count it or not based upon the response.
Yesterday we saw several long boats. These hold 36 people, including two bailers, seams to be a tremd here.
Today’s town was huge with not much personality. It was hot and for some reason it didn’t sit well with me, so I spent most the day in a/c. Thus, no pool chronicles today.
We are now past the halfway point in our trip. It ends on May 2. So, we are still on this ship for a while.
These kids were hilarious. Their canoes had so many leaks that someone was always bailing water. They tired and the canoes sank, but they were sure having fun. Oh to be a kid again.
We are seeing Dirty air, trash everywhere, floating trash, major changes overnight. About all that remains the same is the heat and humidity.
Another culture difference is several times a day, there is a call to prayer broadcast from the Mosque. People would stop what they were doing to pray. People who booked excursions were warned that most buses were not air conditioned. Making it even hotter.
There’s a couple that brought their folding bikes on board and go riding at every port. They are the couple that won the boat building competion. When they returned today, Kim talked to them and their big news was that she went to a barber and got a haircut, cost $1. Yep, a whole dollar. When I saw her at the sail away pool side, I asked her if she tipped him. Answer was, of course. The hair cut was actually 85 cents, so I gave him a dollar and told him to keep the change.
One of the drawbacks to this heat is that I don’t spend a lot of time at the pool and therefore limiting, my material for the “you can’t make this shit up series”. But today Kim got me this one.
And now another episode of Pool Chronicles.
There are two sisters that are always off the ship first at every port, today was no exception. Their sticht is “shopping”. Kim was getting off the ship just as these two sisters were getting back on board. One said to a few passengers waiting to debark, “There’s nothing here, nothing! And the taxi driver said the nearest shopping was about a 30-minute drive away.” The lady listening to her replied, “Why would they bring us here?” Well, I have to ask, “what the hell were they thinking when they picked this stop”? As I said earlier, what a culture shock it was from yesterday to today, but these shoppers totally missed all of that, totally blind to their surroundings. We do love going to the local markets and seeing what each vendor is selling, and I am in heaven when we find the local fish market. I’m looking forward to picking up some live bats in China too. 😉
We’ve met this couple, Chuck and Nancy, Kim goes to trivia with them, and we sit together for lunch. Today, Chuck asked if we had heard of Seabourn’s free cruise policy. Of course we had not. He says that it’s a little known secret and Seabourn does not advertise it. If you collect 140 sea days you get a free week and if you sail 250 days you get 2 weeks free. Well, this cruise alone id 145 days, so we qualify for a free week. I went straight to the future cruise consultant and asked if this were true and he confirmed it. So, he applied for us and now we get 7 days off of next year’s cruise. Sweet!
Well, the extra hour they gave us last night is being taken away tonight. Does time really matter?
For dinner tonight, Kim is going for Thia and me, of course Sushi. From bottom to top, squid, tuna, shrimp, yellow tail, and salmon.
Our anchor is being hauled and we are leaving Dili, Timor-Leste. It is a very young country, winning their independence from Indonesia just 22 years ago. As it is a portion of an Indonesian island, they still refer to it as part of Indonesia, even though it is really a separate country. It is also a very poor country where 52% of its people survive on less than $1.25 per day. Can you imagine how we could get by with that? Sad for sure. It really reminds us of Honduras or some parts of Mexico, by just looking around. It was quite hot again today, as we get closer to the equator. They promise that when we cross the equator, things will cool back down as we move from summer back to winter.
Last night, we moved our clocks back another 30 minutes, so our minutes match most of the worlds again. We move them back yet another hour tonight and we will be in the same time zone as Singapore, where our cruise ends. We should be done with time changes, hip hip. So, right now, it is 4 PM here and Midnight at home. We are finishing up Wednesday, and you are just beginning it. Confused?
Wild and crazy Kim got herself arrested trying to break in to the Presidential Palace. Other than that, it was a quiet day.
Tonight, we move about 200 miles to the other end of the island, which is part of Indonesia the country.
Today’s stop was populated by mostly Catholics at 97% and tomorrow will be the largest population of Muslims in the world with nearly 90% of the population of Indonesia following the religion of Islam. Interesting fun fact, don’t you think? More fun facts: Indonesia is made up of 17,000 islands, and just 8,000 of those are populated. Indonesia has the most active volcanoes on earth and Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch.
Kim saw a sea turtle from our balcony today, it was very large. Sorry no picture, but proof of more sea life.
Today we were at anchor, so it was a tender (earplug) day. Anchored next to us was the Seabourn Odyssey. About 11:00 this morning, they announced that they would start a tender run between the two sister ships so the guests and crew could visit the other ship. We visited with a very nice couple from the Odyssey and their goal was to find out which ship had better Margaritas and Hamburgers and, of course, a better pool. I’m pleased to say our ship won. It was fun to see the two groups interact. That was the first time we had ever experienced anything like this.
Kim has dubbed me as a rule breaker because on the ship, men are to wear slacks and a collared shirt after 6 PM. Well, I have no problem with the shirt part, but slacks? Not happening. So far, no one has said anything. Tonight’s dinner was in the Colonnade Restaurant with a Chinese theme. I had Dim Sum; egg drop soup and sweet and sour Shrimp. Yummy.
And what would you wear to an Abba Sail away? Nice boots!
