World cruise 27

February 28

At sea once more, and the sea is positively glassy. Only unusual activity today was the charity silent auction. I looked, but didn't see anything I wanted to bid on. Oh, I did show off the fancy, beaded, red necklace that I finished crocheting last night. Here's a photo.

March 1

Semarang, Java, Indonesia. I had really wanted to see Borobudur which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, however, the Shore Excursion folks dissuaded me by describing the amount of walking involved ... much less all the steps. So, I relied on Margaret and Mike for reports. Meanwhile I went on a tour that was more my speed. Unfortunately, all 3 tours left before the sun had been up for more than an hour. Getting up at 5:00 a.m. is not my idea of vacation.

Our bus had a very musical horn with at least 2 or 3 tones, and we got to hear it a lot as the driver honked at anything and everything that might even be considering getting in our way. Our bus also had a full staff consisting of guide, driver, and assistant driver. It appeared that the main job of the latter consisted of hopping down and shouting and waving to get motorcycles, pedestrians, cars, and small horse-drawn buggies to move so that the bus could turn, back up, or whatever. As we were in convoy with another bus, at one point there were at least four of our guys against about a half dozen horse carts. We won.

Several little towns had markets set up because it was Sunday when most people are off work. Traffic here was horrid with motorcycles buzzing as thick as the flies at Ayer's Rock in Australia. Often a whole family would be on one machine with the older child in front, the father driving, the younger child behind the father and the mother on behind. I saw several such but could only get a photo of this one which had 2 kids and the one to the left which had a baby in arms.

I eventually figured out that the other bus ahead of us aqhad the Indonesian equivalent of an EZPass to get both buses through the frequent toll gates on the new highway. Then I began noticing the gates we used had the sign that read "Gerbang Toll." Love it! Evidently that's another remnant of their Dutch heritage.

The first stop on my tour was a Chinese temple built to honor Chinese emissary Sam Po Thay Jin who arrived in Semarang in 1401. It was a lovely and restful site as are most Chinese and Japanese temples that I've seen. I chose to skip the detailed tour in favor of sitting in the shady courtyard watching people and their children come and go.

Next we went up into the (volcanic) mountains to visit an antique train museum then take a ride on one of the old steam trains through endless rice paddies. We waved at people working in the paddies. (Men prepare the plots and care for the crop, but all the planting is done by women.) Most of them waved back. Fuad, our guide, said they were excited to see us because they usually only see people with white skin on tv.

Back onto the buses for the last leg to the Tlogo Coffee Plantation (cum hotel, cum campground, cum meeting or event venue, cum ...) 1,300 ft up in the mountains. As we got down from the buses, the skies opened, and we were quickly soaked. No matter, and after all, it is still the rainy season. We were given refreshments consisting of fried banana, a miniature chocolate cupcake, lightly barbecue flavored casaba chips (yum!), and the best cup of tea I've ever tasted in my life.

Several of us who couldn't or didn't want to walk very far opted out of the explanatory lecture on coffee growing and had a good time swapping travel stories. Then back to the ship in time to get clean and dry clothes for the mid-afternoon Sail Away Party.

It turns out that Margaret also had a fantastic cup of tea today, so much of the evening qwas spent describing it to various Indonesian crew members to try to find out what it might have been. So far, the majority vote is for "teh poci" with "teh bendera" as first runner-up. We'll have to see if we can find them.

March 2

Jakarta, Java, Indonesia ... or rather Tanjung Priok which is the port for Jakarta. We squeezed in between a gun boat from the Iranian navy and a Monrovian freighter which is off-loading a mysterious, white, almost powdery substance. There is no more than about 5 feet clearance at either end of our ship. Captain Jonathan acknowledged this was the hardest docking he'd ever done. He had to bring her in, turn her around 180 degrees, and slide her sideways into the space with bow thrusters and azipods.

Many of the Indonesian crew have families coming to visit them and the ship here as in Bali and Semarang. Heri, our assistant waiter hoped to see his wife who is 7 months pregnant and will have to travel 2 hours by bus to get here. Charles, our assistant cabin steward from Sumatra, planned to see his brother and sister who now live in Jakarta. Yohat, our waiter, and Ronald, our cabin steward, saw their wives in Semarang, and Eka, one of our other favorites from the dining room, saw his family and girlfriend on Bali. Too bad we are not stopping in the Philippines this year so that the lounge stewards and bar tenders can see their families also.

Margaret went off toting a box lunch to tour a Safari Park and a Botanical Garden. She can tell you the details herself, but I will say that she got to pet a 10 month old tiger. Her report on this tour and Borobudur will appear out of sequence when she gets around to them, but meanwhile I don't want to hold everything else up.

My tour today was called "Highlights of Jakarta." We visited the Indonesian National Monument which is a 450 marble obelisk with a flame on top covered in 77 pounds of gold.

Next was the National Museum. The Museum is normally closed on Mondays, but the Ministry of Tourism (or local equivalent) decided that a whole shipload of tourists was worth a special opening for. The Museum has had many names since its beginning in 1778. It is often called "Gefung Gajah" or "Elephant Building" because of the bronze statue of an elephant donated by King Chulalongkorn of Thailand in 1871.

There were lots of statues in the collections such as this one of Ganesh.

My very favorite was this one (technically outside, but showcased from inside). If I understood our guide correctly, it represents the wind.

There were stops at a Jakarta style shopping center and a puppet museum. I didn't go into the latter because it was raining cats and dogs and was a good distance from the bus.