Jam In Jakarta

We landed in Jakarta in an industrial port.  It did not look too cruise friendly.  I got off the ship with my friends Neely, an Israeli born woman and her husband Darryl an attorney from LA and Helena from Hungary.  After departing the ship we passed my friend Geoff and his wife Janet returning.  They told us there were no taxis and no one spoke English.  It would be absolutely useless finding anything to do.  We told them we were going to give it a try any way.

If you look closely you can see the gate we waited for the taxi

We then bumped into Geoff, the preacher from Australia and he said he found a guy who had a Taxi.  We walked up to the guy who looked incredibly shady.  The only way out of the port area was on a very old ramshackle bus.  We boarded the bus with some workers and crew members and in 5 mins or so we were at the gate of the port next to around 500 motorcycles. 

The taxi guy had a taxi for us but it had no air conditioning, so we declined.  He said there would be another one soon.  We waited amongst a bunch of guys hanging around the port gate trying to sell us watches.  We seemed to be pretty much in the middle of a not so nice area and it was around a million degrees.  Darryl flagged down another taxi.  Although it was old and small, it had air conditioning.  I hopped in the front and somehow, the three others fit in the back.

We drove through the worst traffic with motorcycles zigging in and out and cars making their own way, any way they could.  The agree we drove through there were slums on the left that looked like shanty towns.  The dwellings were made of corrugated rusted tin.  It seemed as if the car was going nowhere, but we eventually arrived at our destination, which was a ship yard, with hundreds of old wooden ships. 

The ships were in various states of repair and looked primarily used for cargo but maybe fishing as well.  They seemed to be from another time and place.

After the walking around the ship yards we went to an old colonial square.  The square had old buildings and a museum.  It was also obviously a gathering place for young people to hang out.  In this seemingly depressing city, it was a little Oasis.

A Day Out To Wear Hats and Ride Bikes

In itself, it was bit dismal but it was filled with colorful girls bicycles.  On each bicycles that you could rent, there was also a matching hat.  There were a number of girls just riding around this small girl on the bikes wearing hats and giggling. 

Bad Boys

Also at the same square were young punky looking guys.  They made a smoking gesture to me, obviously they were trying to sell me something.

Girls Getting Henna Tatoos

This seems so surreal that all this existed as the area seemed like such a tough place and here were these innocent young girls riding around on bikes with hats.  You would expect to see this in a beautiful green park or near a beach but here it was. 

Happy Teen Girls Not Unaware Of Style

I noticed this aboard the ship too.  The young Indonesian women have this amazing spirit and sense of happiness that I have never seen before.  They do not seem to live in the most optimal situation yet their spirits remain exceedingly high.

The following are other sites, vendors and life going on at the colonial square area.

Bali

My first stop in Indonesia was Bali.   Indonesia is a mostly Muslim nation made up of 10,000 Islands.  Bali is primarily Hindu.  I want to mention that the crew on our ship was mostly from Indonesia and they were the best crew that I have had on a ship.  They were courteous, friendly and happy.  I hired a car for a half day at the pier in Bali.  It was quite a culture shock. 

New Zealand is incredibly clean, pristine and sparsely populated with 4 million people and Australia is the size of the US with only 20 million people. So not too far from that, with the exception of the big cities,  I could drive for an hour or so in New Zealand and not see another car or person.  Bali is densely populated, has lots of cars, people and temples. 

It is not the cleanest place either.  It also burst with color and life.  There seem to be temples every 50 yards.  People have their own temples, each town has its own temples, organizations have temples and I think temples have temples. 

These are Hindu temples and incense from them fills the air.  It seems like they are always burning something and not sure if this is for religious purposes or other.   As New Zealand is minimalistic, Bali is ornate.

As we drove to the first temple, I caught brightly colored boats out of the side of my glance.  We stopped at a little shipping village where fisherman where bringing in their catches.   There were a number of small restaurants that were empty and people were sleeping sleeping anywhere in the shade. 

My driver took me to my first major temple which was really stunning. 

I bought a whole coconut to drink at a stand at the shrine. 

Then I walked through a gorgeous ravine that contained parts of the temple.

Man Directing Traffic at Temple

I had to put on a skirt to go into the temple as your knees need to be covered.  The temple was absolutely beautiful in an amazing picturesque setting in a tropical ravine. 

Next stop was the Monkey Temple and Monkey Forest.  Here is a temple devoted to monkeys.  The monkeys run around, playing, fighting, swimming. 

People feed them fruit and they seem tame, I did not see them bother any one. 

 There were a few mother monkeys taking care of their babies.  I really liked watching them and taking their photos. 

Think this one is looking for fleas

They are very much like young human children.

After the monkeys, we went to another temple and drove passed several small towns that each had some amazing statues. 

When we got close to the boat, I went to massage spa in the hills.  It was in  a very tranquil spot and I had a massage outside.  It was a bit like paradise. 

They train crickets to fight like cocks.

Last Temple Visited

Balinese woman with sweets

Statue at last temple

Back On The Dam Ship

Light House Island Great Barrier Reef

Volendam Deck Leaving Brisbane

This was my second trip on the Volendam and I really enjoyed it.  The weather, the food and the people were good.   The ship is old but it is small and has a homey feel to it.  I played in the Ping Pong tournament and won it.  I must be honest and say, I played a woman in the finals.

My Tennis Mate Geoff Arriving In Singapore

Actually, afterwards we talked and she said, her husband was looking for someone to play tennis with.  Believe it or not the ship had a mini court.  I played tennis with her husband Geoff a bunch of times, and we became good ship friends.

Glass Bottom Boat

View From Glass Bottom Boat

We stopped on the Great Barrier Reef and I went on a Glass Bottom Boat and snorkeling.  I took my own tour on a boat to Green Island.

Yours Truly With New Snorkel Mask

It was a little bit disappointing.  The water was murky.  Nevertheless, it was my first time snorkeling since I was a teenager. 











 I did see a sea turtle and the boat ride back to the ship was great.

There were some nice fish though.

Next stop was Darwin Australia, which is at the Northern Tip.  There were lots of Aborigines there but my main destination was to see the crocodiles.  At the port there was a safari type guy holding a baby crocodile and a woman at a stand selling crocodile goods.  I talked to her and she asked me if I wanted to see the crocodiles, she would drive me over.  Turns out that she and her husband own the crocodile farm.  She is a zoologist from Columbia, where they also have lots of crocodiles.

She met her husband in Columbia and they moved back to Australia to open a crocodile farm.  They have 12,000 crocodiles and sell the hides primarily as well as the meat.  One of their customers is Hermes in Paris.  She said, the bags form the finest crocodile stomachs, sell for $50,000. 

At the farm,  I watched jumping crocodiles catch chicken in their mouths.  They were enormous.  It started down pouring during the feeding and I was unable to see the rest of the farm.  I went back to town and walked around and had a massage before taking off on the ship. 

 Different kinds of crocs in pen.

 Crocodile Bags worth thousands.

This Girl Grabbed My Arm and Wanted a Picture in Jakarta

Our other stops were Bali and Jakarta Indonesia, which I will touch on in the next blog.   I wanted to mention that the picture of myself and the Indonesian kids and the blonde lady.  The Blonde lady is Helena from Hungary.  I shared a car with Helena and Neely and her husband Darrel, a Jewish couple from LA, who I also befriended.  Helena did not really speak any English.  She was the mother of the girl who was in charge of the buffet area.  Her daughter was  a very attractive blonde, who looked great in a nautical uniform.

Helena, Neely and Darryl

I was having a round robyn game of tennis with Geoff, my English buddy and Geoff, the ships preacher from Australia and Helena walked by, so I asked her to join us as the fourth.  We actually made a good doubles team.  So after the game, the two Geoffs asked me who she was and I explained.  I also said that I knew I was getting old as I was closer to the Mother's age than the daughters age.  Well these guys thought this was hysterical and made every opportunity to tease me about it.  In fact, I learned a new Brit/Aussie term for teasing or ribbing.  It is "taken the mickey outta ya."  That night at the grand finale desert buffet, I was milling over which of the fabulous desserts to eat and Geoff the preacher, asked me which one I would choose.   He was talking about the mother or daughter not the desserts.  I had a laugh, and not 1 minute later, his wife, not knowing our conversation, came up and asked me the same question.  I said to him, "you told your wife? You are a   preacher, isn't that gossip?" and he said, "it is not gossip, if you tell your wife."  Well, we all had a lot of fun with this scenario.  Any way, I actually had a few meals with Helena and used a lot of sign language and enjoyed her company and her daughter Elieta was very lovely and I'm glad I got to know both of them.  I also enjoyed some laughs with the guys.