Cruisin'- Part II: Bali and Beyond

My First View of Bali

BALI
It was with great anticipation that we arrived at Bali on April 29. So many friends and family advised us to not miss one of their favorite places. Before taking this trip, I did not realize how close Bali is to Australia and how frequently they visit. To Aussies, Bali is like Mexico to Yanks: tropical, Third World, cheap, exotic. The finer cultural points may not be of as much interest. We knew we had very limited time to get a glimpse of this special place, and we were advised to avoid the beach/urban/resort Bali and elected to take a day-long tour of the interior. My first view of the island was everything I would have imagined.
The ship anchored off-shore of a brand-new cruise-ship terminal in the southeast at Tanah Ampo.

It just opened last month, and there are a few bugs to be worked out. The pier was made too short for the standard cruise liner, so we had to take small boats ("tenders"). The dock could only handle one tender at a time, and the gangplank had to be secured by six people holding on to it, until a welding crew from the Sun Princess was dispatched.

Tenganan Village

It was a short ride to the ancient walled town of Tenganan. The people are called Bali Aga, descended from the original inhabitants and predating the arrival of Hinduism. They try to maintain their traditional culture, dance, music, and crafts (like palm leaf weaving and bamboo etchings). There were a lot of proud roosters in cages, some brightly dyed.

A Cock in a cage

Our guide assured us that while cock fights were once quite common, now they were only allowed for brief periods during religious celebrations (I have my doubts).
People had tried to prepare us for what we would see in Bali, but until we were there, we couldn't comprehend how many thousands of temples or shrines there are, in villages, homes, all over. You can't go 500 meters without passing ornate platforms with small offerings placed upon them. Due to the dense population, you can hardly go 500 meters without seeing people either. We traveled deep into the interior, to the slopes of the tallest and most sacred mountain, Gunung Agung, a volcano which last erupted in 1963.

The large complex of temples here includes the "Mother Temple" of Pura Besakih, which dates to the introduction of Hinduism from Java in the 11th century.
At the top of the steps is an inner sanctum.

 Covering our legs and ankles with a borrowed sarong, from a respectful distance we could watch some Balinese chant and pray.
To help prepare me for the visit, on Day One of the cruise I went to the library and picked up the copy of The Lonely Planet Guide to Indonesia. When I returned to my cabin, I discovered it was En Espanol. Regarding the view from el templo, they remark,"Si no hay neblina,la vista, hasta la costa, es seplendida", to which I say "Es verdad!".

There was scant time to walk through the vendors on the way back to the bus. Serious bargaining is the order of the day in Bali. We weren't in a shopping mood, partially because of Australia's strict and somewhat capricious rules about customs and wood products. I did buy a dollar's worth of postcards from a lovely local schoolgirl, but once we realized how phenomenally cheap the opening prices were, we regretted we didn't have more time to pick up a few regalitos (souvenirs).

We stopped for lunch at the peaceful Mahagiri Restaurant, perched on a hillside with terraced rice paddies below and the volcano in the distance.
After another lengthy drive, we stopped at a 19th century royal palace Puri Agung Karangasem in Amlapura on the far eastern side of Bali.
 
After a long, hot, sweaty, tiring, and special day, it was back to the dock. Due to the "kinks" mentioned above, it took 90+ minutes to catch a tender back to the ship.

The Queue

Back on board it was non-stop Royal Wedding coverage, complete with wedding cake. (I'm sure you all got up in the middle of the night to share the experience.)
Geraldton
The next two days at sea were our first windy and choppy ones. Because we left Bali late and the seas were rough, we arrived late to Geraldton, our last port of call before Perth. Situated 280 miles north of Perth, Geraldton is noted for wind, rock lobsters, and off-shore reefs called the Shipwreck Coast. The most famous wrecked ship was the Batavia, a Dutch trader that in 1629 ran ashore. This led to a bloody mutiny and probably the first two Europeans left behind to live in Australia. The wreck was finally located in 1963 and a great deal has been salvaged and displayed handsomely in the Geraldton and Fremantle Museums.

This beautiful portico was used as ballast for the voyage and was meant for a new building in Jakarta.
A more recent tragedy occurred in 1941 when the HMAS Sydney was sunk by the German raider Kormoran. All 645 men aboard died. The ship remains were located in 2008 in very deep water (8,097 feet) off-shore. A moving memorial has been constructed on a commanding hill in town. There 645 birds on the dome, one for each life lost.
 

The Sun Princess at Anchor In The Distance

After 17 days, we disembarked at Fremantle outside of Perth. It was time to get off and bid adieu to our temporary shipboard community, like the three Aussie couples we ate with every night, and our trivia partner Noel ("Leon spelled backwards", as he explained). As some of you might know if you have cruised, there are multiple trivia contests a day, and Fayne and I collected our fair share (maybe more) of the "cheap ship prizes" (say that carefully!) with the help of teammates. We needed Aussie assistance for the answer "golden wattle" (Q: What is Australia's Floral Emblem?).

Noel

FYI, the demographic profile of the passengers was interesting. Most were Aussies, so it was a bit odd to be in the definite minority as a Yank. Also, Fayne and I were at the lower end of the age group. My mother actually would have fit in well. There were a lot of people with mobility problems, and befuddlement with new tasks. It was whispered several times "You know there is a morgue onboard", and a lot of speculation as to how many passengers did not complete the voyage upright. But as one frequent cruiser said, "People are much younger here than on my last cruise. I thought they had emptied out a rest home and sent them on a cruise because it was cheaper. There was a long queue of ambulances at every port".
Right up my alley; in fact, God Bless them.

A Final Reminder of Our Itinerary