Around the World. Week 15 Wrap Up

Some weeks are all about spas and snorkeling and some weeks are Jumping Crocodiles and Komodo Dragons!

Schedule

• Day 99 / April 15: Cairns, Australia

• Day 100 / April 16: At Sea

• Day 101 / April 17: At Sea

• Day 102 / April 18: Darwin, Australia

• Day 103 / April 19: At Sea

• Day 104 / April 20: Kupang West Timor, Indonesia

• Day 105 / April 21: Komodo, Indonesia

Day 99 - Cairns, Australia

Have I mentioned how it’s been raining ALL THE TIME! Or at least that’s how it seems lately. Australia is just wrapping up the Wet season and boy, can we tell. I guess it’s better than torrential downpours like Honolulu and no flooding, but it sure would be nice to be sunny and dry for a few days. Fingers crossed that we’ll start getting more of that tropical sunshine once we get to Indonesia.

Anyway, the excursion today was taking a Skyrail (or Gondola) up a mountain, seeing a cool waterfall along the way, and then having some time to shop at the small village at the top.

As I mentioned, it was raining, which means clouds and going up a mountain in clouds means very limited visibility. While we were ascending, the audio guide, who we decided to name Milton, described all these cool landmarks that we could have been able to see if we weren’t surrounded by bright, white fog.

Milton shared a joke, that some of you may have heard already - What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? … A stick!

When the clouds did temporarily part, we could see some of the majestic trees as we were flying over a rainforest, but the absolute highlight of the journey was the waterfall. Because of all the rain, the water was flowing rapidly and in abundance. The Skyrail has a stop where you can get out of the gondola and get a better view of the waterfall, so we took full advantage of the viewpoints. Although, it was a bit difficult to juggle holding an umbrella to keep my camera dry while also capturing the experience digitally.

Once we arrived at the top, there was a bit of confusion as we were under the impression that our guide would be there to tell us what’s next as she had mentioned getting back on the bus to take us into the village. But, she was no where to be found. Eventually, we found our bus driver to ask if we could just walk to the village that seemed to be just up the hill. He confirmed our meeting time and location, so off we went.

First stop, coffee! We were told they make their own coffee in the village, so that was a no brainer to start with caffeine. I tried a cold brew - Vietnam Style, which using sweetened condensed milk instead of cream. It was very tasty! Much like the Havana style coffee in Buenos Aires, which is made with dulce de leche. I'm now realizing that is basically cooked sweetened condensed milk, so that's likely why they tasted similar.

Next, I parted ways as the others wanted to shop and I wanted to try “Four X” Australian beer. It ended up tasting like Miller Light, but I checked that off the list of things to do. Likely not to do again.

With some time to kill, I wandered over to an enclosed market area (it was still raining…) and I found a Claw Game! Once again, I happened to have the exact currency needed to play and on the first try, I became the new owner of a Sonic the Hedgehog stuffed animal! After that, I bought some Crocodile and Kangaroo jerky, which I haven’t tried yet, so I can’t comment on if it tastes like Chicken.

Surprisingly, and some may say miraculously, everyone from our bus made it back to the meeting point on time. I say that because it really was a bit of a cluster in terms of communication from the guide. But we made it and headed back to the port.

Our time at this port was very short with an all aboard time of 2:30pm. Getting back to the port at 2pm, you’d think we would have gone straight to the ship, but no. There was a brewery that shared the port building, so we stopped for a beer. Interestingly, while it was called Hemingway's Brewery, it had no association with the author. Instead the owners just wanted to imply a sense of adventure in the name.

I can confirm that we made it back to the ship on time, with minutes to spare!

Day 100 - At Sea

I thought Day 100 would feel like a major milestone on this trip, but honestly, I forgot all about it until Day 101. For those of you who follow along on Instagram or Facebook, you may have noticed that the 100 day summary came out a few days after Day 100 and now you know why.

What happened on Day 100 instead was a pretty low key Sea Day, which included another cooking demonstration. However, this time was without Chef Fredric and Chef Adil since they had disembarked recently, resulting in the demonstration to be more of a typical cooking show and less of the Three Stooges.

Most of the rest of the day included reading on my balcony. On this ship, most all passengers have a Balcony or at the least a French veranda, which are nice to have when it’s always raining. You can still enjoy being outside and mostly protected from the weather. Otherwise, there are very few other outdoor areas where you can relax while it’s raining. Although, as long as it’s not lightening, quite a few passengers are still in the pool during these rain showers.

I finished up Book 8 of a new series I had been reading called The Nosey Parker Cozy Mystery series by Fiona Leitch. I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but it’s about an ex-Cop who moved back to her hometown to open a Catering company. However, when a friend was arrested for murder, she started investigating on her own to prove his innocence. From there, she continued to butt into police investigations and the book series covered all the different murders she helped solve (surprisingly a lot for a small town!).

Day 101 - At Sea

While I know that our trip is 180 days, meaning the halfway point was Day 91, today actually seems to make it real that we are on our way home with only 80 days remaining. Yes, I realize that up until this trip, the longest cruise I took was 15 days and thinking “only 80” is ridiculous, but here we are.

The day started off with a beautiful sunrise! I’m still basically waking up when the sun comes up, even when we have ridiculous time changes, like 30 minutes back in time. Yeah, so now we’re 13.5 hours ahead of Eastern Time Zone and I was already having lots of trouble keeping up with what time it is back in Michigan.

Each segment the Ship Officers participate in what’s called the Officers Big O Challenge, where they challenge the passengers to typical yard games, like Baggo (aka Cornhole), Giant Connect Four, and Ring toss. When the passengers win a game, they receive three (3) Big O points and if they lose, they just receive one (1). In the end, the Cruise Director tallies up how many games the Officers won vs the Passengers. The overall winner gets the greatest of prizes… BRAGGING RIGHTS!! Today, the officers won.

I decided to go to the Enrichment Speaker Series in person today to learn more about the Metaverse and how AI could shape our future. The talk was interesting, bringing to light how many industries, including some governments, are already building virtual environments with projections that it will become a multi-billion dollar industry. Some examples of this are when you create an avatar of yourself and send them shopping to “try on clothes”. Personally, I shop on Amazon, often ordering multiple sizes and just returning what I don’t like, but I could see how in the future, being able to see yourself in the clothes may save some time and shipping costs. Other examples are virtual environments to test drive cars, including from the viewpoint of sitting in the car or manipulating the controls yourself.

If you have talked to me about the entertainment on ship, you’ll already know that I tend to avoid Magicians and Comedians. For the most part, I skip the magicians because for whatever reason, I’m not overly impressed with the tricks. However, for comedians, my main dilemma on this ship is that I am not in the target audience demographic. Most of the comedians so far focus their content on the stereotypical differences between men & women and how that impacts marriages. They all comment on lack of communication skills in men and superior skills of women. The stories they tell are slightly different, but at some point, they mention not being able to find something or women having to repeat themselves. So when I read the schedule and the title of this comedian said “Guide to future relationships or an explanation of what went wrong with your last one,” I thought, ‘Great! I might actually fit the target group,’ so I went to the show. Guess what?! He covered the old material of men vs women, but I, unfortunately, did not sit in a place that I could sneak away easily. On a positive note, I did appreciate his use of media to supplement his show.

The rest of the night got back to my typical with dinner at Red Ginger followed by hanging out in Martini’s with David at the piano.

Day 102 - Darwin, Australia

Crikey! More crocodiles! But this time, THEY JUMP!!

We took a bus from the port further inland to a place on the Adelaide River, which is filled with Saltwater Crocodiles. These specific crocodiles have the natural ability to propel themselves, using their tails, outside of the water to grab prey. Typically, this would be food sources that are in trees, but because tourism exist, you can take a cruise along the river where the guides hold meat from a stick to entice the crocs to jump in front of the boat. You may be wondering how this impacts their natural hunting habits, but the guides explained how they control the amount and methods of feeding to minimize any long term impacts to the species.

The tour company fabricated boats specifically for the purpose of taking people out and showing them the jumping crocodiles, meaning the seating was designed so everyone would have a good viewpoint. With that, I still sat right in front of the feeding platform, partially in hopes that they would ask for a volunteer to help. (They did not…)

With meat hanging from the long pole, the guide enticed the animals to go after it with the theory being that they need to burn off as many calories in the chase as they would with natural prey. It took about 10-15 minutes to encourage each of the crocodiles to start jumping out of the water for the food, so we were able to see two different animals (a male and a female) leaping while snapping their giant jaws shut. One time, the big male missed the food and the resounding noise was like a bowling ball dropped on the alley by a toddler (thump!).

Once back in town, we had the option to get off the bus and wander before heading back to the ship. For this port, the all aboard time wasn’t until 10:30pm, so a few of us decided to take the offer since it was only nearing 5pm. Plus, we were told that Australia has some great wines, so we wanted to stock up on a few bottles before heading to Indonesia. What we found is in this particular town, there is really not much open on weekends (it was Saturday). So after walking a few streets, we headed to a Wine Bar & Kitchen. It was this really cool place with a plethora of seating options. We chose to sit in this cool couch laden room with bottles of wine surrounding us on the bookshelves. It also had an old school record player in it, but at the moment, the music was being blared from a nearby speaker system.

After a very lovely charcuterie board, that none of us took a photo of because we demolished it upon arrival, and a few shared bottles, we headed to the bottle shop to pick up some wine and then headed to dinner. For dinner, we ended up at an Irish Pub. Yep, on the northern tip of Australia, known for the cuisine influences of British and Southeast Asia, I ended up ordering Chicken Fingers and Fries at an Irish Pub. What is important to know here is I ordered those because they should have been the fasted to produce to the table, but after TWO HOURS of waiting, I was still chasing down the waitress to get my food. The rest of the table had eaten; two of them already left for the ship. Other tables had come and gone. I was still waiting. Eventually, the meal was delivered (thankfully it was hot), and I consumed it about as fast as we finished off the charcuterie board. Then we headed back to the ship since at that point, we were nearing 10pm.

One major disappointment on this day is for some reason, the Blue Horizon party was scheduled at 9pm, which still doesn’t make sense to me. Most port days, we are on board by 6pm, so it would have been an issue, but as mentioned, today was 10:30pm, so I missed it. This is actually my favorite of the parties each segment and since I missed it last segment when I was sick, I was looking forward to the one for this segment. With that said, we do have a few more segments to go, so hopefully I’ll be able to go to the next one!

Fun fact: While Darwin, Australia is actually named after Charles Darwin, he never set foot there. The area was named in 1839 by Captain John Clements Wickham of the HMS Beagle, who named the port after their former shipmate Charles Darwin.

Day 103 / April 19: At Sea

We gained another 1.5 hours of sleep today and woke up to a great surprise… BRUNCH!!

I’ll admit that on my way back to my room the night prior, I saw a cluster of chefs in the center of the Grand Dining Room, so I had already guessed it was coming, only to be confirmed in the nightly delivery of the next day’s Currents, so not quite a surprise. However, Brunch is one of the best meals served on Vista. Typically, I’ll have three courses, including breakfast, charcuterie, and dessert. Not only does the food taste amazing, but the displays they create are phenomenal!

After a quick food coma nap, I caught up on some recap videos, played some cards, went to Jacques for dinner, and intended to go to the evening entertainment, but decided to do some research on the Psychology of timing for recap videos. I’ll be teaching a class on it in a few days time instead of my typical one about how to create an iMovie. We’ll see how it goes!

Day 104 / April 20: Kupang West Timor, Indonesia

First time in Indonesia and I did not quite know what to expect. As I stood in Baristas, evaluating the area via Google Maps, more than one person suggested that I lower my expectations for this specific stop. With that, I packed my bag and headed to catch the shuttle into the city.

Prior to arrival, I did notice there were not many excursion options and only a few recommended things to do on TripAdvisor, so my expectations were already a bit lower than normal. As we pulled into the “Terminal”, I better understood the even lower expectations.

First impression was the Terminal was actually just a covered porch with some vendors set up on it. The bus stopped in the drive next to the porch, so not exactly a typical bus terminal with slots and time tables. Once off the bus, I headed over to see the beach and the lighthouse. Crossing the road with traffic was a bit iffy, but I recall being told just to walk confidently and at a steady pace and I should be fine. That worked! Or they just didn’t want to hit a tourist. Either way, I made it safely. There was some cool street art and these unique, gothic-like street lights in the area.

From there, I walked a little ways along the shops, but didn’t quite feel so courageous on my own in that part of the town, so I headed back to the terminal to ask where the old church was. Apparently, it was only a block or two away, so I decided to check it out. Once there, I saw some other passengers who had wandered a bit further already, confirming that there wasn’t much else to see. After that, it became a pool kind of day since any of the other places that TripAdvisor suggested were about an hour away from the port.

As we sailed away, I attended a cocktail party in one of the staterooms on the back of the ship. The view was amazing, especially when we saw a rainbow! (Yep, it rained again…)

Then I went to the Oceania Club cocktail party.

Then I went to a Culinary Class.

I agree that these activities should have been in reverse order, but there we were, making cakes and crepes at 8pm. Luckily, no chopping or sharp knives were required.

Day 105 / April 21: Komodo, Indonesia

As I awoke on this beautiful, sunny morning (yay, no rain!), I saw some movement in the water outside my window, so I leapt from bed to see what it was. A dolphin! Seemed like a good luck charm to see both the sun and wildlife to start the day.

We anchored near Komodo Island, meaning it is another tendering day, but this time, the sea swells seemed minimal and we were able to get to shore without issue or delay.

Because it’s a National Park, you are only allowed to tour with a ranger and not on your own. Not only did we have a guide, but we had a ranger at the front of the group and the rear of the group, who carried big, forked sticks to push away any dragons who may attack. There were plenty of warnings around the park to ensure the visitors understood the risks of approaching the dragons. We even had warnings before getting there about not having any open wounds or menstruating women because they are attracted to blood. So many things to imply these are very dangerous animals and our lives would be constantly at risk for the duration of the visit.

Our first wildlife sighting was a buck. Then some birds. And just before we reached a small pond area, the guide stopped us to explain that we would need to be quiet and save all questions until after we left that area. As we continued down the path, we realized there were quite a few dragons in the area because many other groups were already there pointing and talking. In absolutely no terms was the area quiet with guides continuing to tell people where to stand and move and tourists chatting away, while pointing and taking photos.

In this area, there were three active males and one laying down that we didn’t end up talking about. One of the big males was trying to dig under a pile of rocks while the other larger male was wandering around the water. The smaller, younger male was also circling the area, but definitely keeping its distance from the other two. While the dragons aren’t exactly territorial, the bigger ones will eat the little ones if they are hungry enough, which explains the little guy’s distance. At one point, the wandering big guy got a little to close for the digging big guy’s comfort and he started to hiss, very loudly! You could see him take a giant deep breath in as his neck expanded and then blow out like squeezing a bag pipe, except it sounded like the hiss of a mad cat instead of the screech of a Canadian Goose. (The video is on my Instagram page if you want to hear it.)

At no time did I feel my life was in danger as they seemed more focused on each other than on all of the humans surrounding their area. I’m not suggesting that you should go try to pet or hug these animals, but ultimately, they were more docile than I expected.

After a while, we continued on down the path. One more far sighting of a smaller dragon and a few more birds. When we completed the loop, the path forced us into the souvenir area, where every table (and there were lots!) had about the exact same thing being offered. Each vendor tried their best to get our attention to approach their table. I selected a woman; mostly to give her business over the men. Turns out, this is a bartering country. For two magnets, she first said they would cost $250, which is like 2 US cents. I went to pull out my cash, a $2000 bill, and she corrected that when she said $250, she meant $250,000 Indonesian Rupiah, which is about $15 USD. I did not have $250,000 in cash on me, so I started to walk away. She quickly asked me how much I did have. This is where my past bartering experience came in, but also because I couldn’t remember how much cash I had on me. I started by offering one of the $50000 bills, which is about $3 USD. She wasn’t quite really to let me have both magnets for that low, so I “found” another $50000. Saying that was all I had, plus the original $2000, I ended up with both magnets for about $6 USD. (I bought an extra magnet because it was a carving of a Komodo Dragon, which I had suggested to the General Manager that I was going to smuggle a Dragan back on board. Technically, I never said a live one…)

From the souvenir area, we were herded past all of these fridges and snack zones. Again, all having about the same offerings, but every 10 feet, you’re being shouted at to come buy something. I did not.

As I reached the end of the snack zone, up walks another dragon! No guides near by with the sticks and it literally meandered about in a very non-threatening way. Continuing to reinforce that maybe these beasts are only really beasts when they are threatened or hungry, which could also describe me at times. And a forked stick may be required in those times as well…

Back on the ship, lunch, pool, nap. In that order.

Then, I learned Pickleball! This is one of those sports that I’ve been told I should try because I would like it, but for whatever reason, I just never put any effort into playing. Yeah, I should have tried it much earlier, especially on this ship. It was a lot of fun! Or at least as much fun as a new hobby can be while you’re constantly making mistakes and figuring out as you go while the others have been playing for much longer and are much better at it. However, they were all very patient and encouraging, so I’ll definitely play again!

There was a solo traveler game night this evening, where we played Left Right Center (a dice and chip game) and Uno. I did not win, but it was still an enjoyable post-dinner evening.

Tomorrow we’re in Bali for an overnight stay! So here’s to the start of Week 16!

#2026aroundtheworldcruise