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.