KOMODO DRAGONS WOW!!

Today we arrived at Komodo Indonesia.  The island is inhabited by 2800 dragons, timor deer, water buffalo, long tail macaques, palm civets, rinca rats, cockatoos, and 4,000 people, mostly fisherman.  It is also home to the Komodo National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Man and Biosphere Reserve.  The dragon is thought to be the remnant of a once widespread order of monitor lizards.  They can grow to 11 feet and over 300 pounds with sharp, sawlike teeth. They are carnivorous and cannibalistic, even eating their own young and or eggs.  When born, hatchlings run up the trees to escape predators and live there for two-three years.  There the only predator is the sea eagle.

We had a ranger, a guide and lookout with us at all times.  We were treated to one dragon sighting almost immediately upon setting out for our 2 1/2 mile hike through the rainforest.  The guide pointed orchids, lemon grass, flying lizards, snails, sea eagle nest, cockatoos, a variety of apple all before finding the next dragons.   HOT and HUMID can not adequately describe the climate at 8:00 in the morning.  Our walk went through forest and open areas in what has been the prettiest island so far.  The prize was at the dry “watering hole” where we saw 4-5 more dragons sunning themselves.  They ranged in size and age and we were particularly interested in the butterflies that landed and sunned as well.  The dragons are vicious looking with their huge hooked claws and forked tongue which they use the same way as a snake.  They can smell their food from 5 miles away, they can swim, and they are fast.  The old saying, a bark worse than their bite does not apply, their bite in full of bacteria which kills the prey in a matter of days if the bite does not accomplish the kill on its own.  A few of the dragons got up to move and we all took a step back.  The guide gently told them to go down and they did.  Who knew.

The Flores Sea is one of the most abundant sea life sanctuaries in the world.  Over a thousand species of fish, manta rays, sea turtles, dolphins and whales can be found in the waters surrounds the islands.  

Even here on remote Komodo the islanders set up shops for us to walk through on our way to the pier.  Hawkers had t-shirts, hats, postcards, carved dragons and assorted other stuff.  We got two little t-shirts and sought refuge on the tender.

Back to the ship to enjoy an afternoon of leisure, after washing some clothes.  We had a nice lunch in the buffet restaurant.  I don’t think we mentioned we have some Norovirus on board.  The Captain gives us daily updates on the number of cases, so far they are low but the purell supply must be running out!  Off to Bali.

Nestled on the northwest port of the Gulf of Boni, the port at Palopo provides a gate way to the ancient Toraja and Bugi cultures. Suluwesi is a largely Muslim country but the highland Toraja people are Christian.  We spent the day visiting traditional villages with Tongkonan houses and ancient burial sites and traditions.  The houses are decorated with geometric carvings some dating back 500 years.  But let’s start at the beginning…

We anchored in harbor and went ashore by tenders.  After leaping up a 3 foot step to the pier we were greeted by traditional music and dancers.  We were quickly surrounded towns people welcoming the first cruise ship of the year.  Not many cruise ships come here so the locals were looking to have their pictures taken with the visitors.  The bus ride took us over a long and winding road to a 900 meter pass over the mountains.  The road is narrow at best so passing oncoming traffic is always an adventure.  Fortunately we were in smaller buses, unfortunately that made the long ride a bit less comfortable.  Switchback after switchback passed and after 1 1/2 hours we stopped at a small village to use the primitive facilities.  Some braved it, we did not, instead choosing to walk in the village to take pictures.  

Back onboard for more switchbacks and over the pass to the Toraja territory where we began to see tiered rice fields and the traditional homes.  These are shaped like boats to remind the generations of the ancestors who came to these shores from Vietnam and Cambodia, thousands of years ago.  With no homes, they turned their boats into the roofs of their original homes and rice storage buildings.  Our first stop took us on a walk through a typical village.  All the traditional homes and storage buildings face north to their ancestral home.  They are on stilts and entered by an outside staircase or bamboo ladder.  The designs often include roosters, buffalo and pigs in addition to the geometrics.  Colors were reds, yellows, orange, black and blue.  Early roofs were made of bamboo layered over the years to avoid leading while modern homes are likely to have metal roofs.  Even villages with some modern homes will have at least one traditional house and traditional storage building.

We also encountered our first water buffalo.  Here the water buffalo is a royal member of the family and not a beast of burden.  They actually watch the people work in the fields while munching on grass and cooling down in mud.  All the planting and harvesting is done by hand without animal labor for help.  Buffalo have their own wooden shelters in the village and on one occasion we saw one being pampered and washed to cool down and soften the hide.  Throughout all the villages we also ran across lots and lots of pigs.  We finally figured out where the saying happy as pig in s*** came from, as evidenced by the enclosed picture.

As we walked to rear of the village we began the portion of the tour that Sue refers to as “the Day of the Dead.”  Ceremonies around death are a huge part of life in these mountain cultures.  In one village, a man died 5 months ago and the funeral was just taking place.  A huge portion of town is devoted to temporary housing for family members and townspeople to come to grieve and show their respects.  The funeral themselves can take from 4 days to 1 month depending on discussions and decisions made by the family and village elders.  Water buffalo, perhaps 50, are sacrificed throughout the ceremony.  Meet is eaten during this time but also cured and dried on the rooftops to be distributed to participants to take home.  

The burial sites are either in or at the base of limestone cliffs. They may be in caves, or hang on the side of the cliff or be a mausoleum at the base. The common feature of all the sites were the carved funeral effigies, (tau tau), which are dressed and placed at the door of the chambers or on the hanging coffins.  The faces are carved to resemble the deceased.  Some are frighteningly realistic.  Eyes are of buffalo bone.  They have 5 and 10 year ceremonies during which the clothes of all the effigies are replaced.  They affectionately refer to the deceased as oma and opa.  People here live to be 85-100 quite regularly—great mountain air, clean water and healthy vegetables and fruits as part of their diet.  Again, a rather poor country where there are no homeless and no goes hungry.  Unlike some of the other parts of Indonesia, the island remains a heavily vegetated and protected rainforest, punctuated by “Christmas trees” brought in by the Dutch.  The vegetation is quite gorgeous with unique ferns, palms, and orchids.

Our trip from here took us to several other villages where we observed other burial sites, all unique and many very colorful.  We also got to watch some traditional handicrafts being made and had lunch at a very nice hotel/restaurant.  Our trip back to port took us up the hill to go back down the hill.  Now the winding, twisty road was in the dark with occasional rain so at some point we wondered if we would soon have our own tau taus.  Really we never worried on this part of the trip but a wrong turn in town left us at the end of a narrow where the bus driver decided to turn around rather than back out.  Straight ahead and to the right was water, to the left a house and as we turned we had to cope with the pole in the way.  We figure we went back and fourth at least 25 times inching our way out.  Every time the driver put on the brakes going forward the bus slipped a little  and those on the left of the bus were quite panicked.  We turned around to much applause and got a police escort back to the port.  We were the last tender to return to the ship after a long, fun, tiring day.

At sea today, Komodo dragons tomorrow and then two days on Bali.  Cheers.

Sandkan, Borneo, Malaysia

Spelling correction: Corregidor is the island we took over hoping to protect the way to Manila.  The Japanese did not come from that direction but from behind the big guns and the Philippines fell.

Maylaysia is primarily an Islamic country through two northern states of Borneo are primarily Christian.  One is Sabah where we travelled.  We were impressed by the variety of wildlife that exists on Borneo and the effort in Sabah to protect that wildlife and conserve the forests.  For our excursion, not surprisingly, we choose to see animals.  People come to Borneo primarily with an interest in orangutans.  We went to the Spilok Rehabilitation Center which is a sanctuary know world wide for its work with orphan, ill or illegally captured orangutans for reintroduction into the wild.  The center has 10,600 acres of rain forest. These animal numbers are dwindling as development brings deforestation.  The females only give birth to 2-3 offspring in a lifetime, caring for them for 6-8 years.  The males stand 5 feet tall with an arm span of 8 feet and can live for 35-40 years.

Our visit took place at feeding time.  Orangutans are free to roam as they please but food is available twice a day if they care to partake.  These mammals share 97% of the DNA with humans and contract many of the same diseases, including malaria, cancer and TB.  The feeding area is a platform surrounded by runways of rope leading from the forest to the area.  Before 10:00 a few showed up to entertain us by swinging through the area and interacting with each other before settling in a tree to wait.  The center workers brought food to the platform and one hangs out up there while they eat.  As he came in one orangutan was stealing food from the basket—clever boy.  Six showed up, two males, two females, one young and one sick who had TB but was out and about and apparently getting stronger again.  One of the things that amazed us was how long it takes them to raise and introduce the young to climb and live in the forest.  They stay in the center for years and go through several different areas of the center before being released to the middle of a larger Borneo rainforest by helicopter to be releases.  There they are tracked for several years and the success rate is well documented.  While waiting for the feeding Sue was enthralled by a six inch, tail included little creature running up and down the tree.  Closer observation showed it to look exactly like a baby gray squirrel, though smaller.  Turns out it was a pygmy squirrel.  Fun.  

Factoid:  Borneo has more flying species then any other country in the world, including flying snakes, frogs, squirrels and lizards.

Next stop was to see the Proboscis monkey at the Labuk Bay sanctuary.  This is an extremely odd looking character with a pot belly and long bulbous nose.  Nancy could not help but be reminded of the muppets.  They are also endangered with only about 5,000 remaining.  Again we arrived for feeding time, during which about 30+ individuals of all ages gathered to eat, socialize, fight a little, have a little romp, swim and head out.  These monkeys have a complex digestive process which is why they have the large bellies.  When born, their noses are quite small and continue to grow and grow even after reaching adulthood.  We were both fascinated by them and Sue fell in love with them.  Sue also appreciated the basketball murals painted to depict March madness which is sorely missing.

On the way back we drove through town including the water villages, one Chinese and one Islamic with houses built on stilts over the water.  As we drove by the Navy yard our guide said the large vessels typically docked there were out looking for the flight 370…Unfortunately one of the reasons people know of Sandakan is that this is where the Japanese forced the relocation of 2,700 British and Australian POW’s.  Their march became know as the Sandakan to Ranau death marches of 1945 in which only 6 escaped and survived.  There is a memorial park here to honor the POW’s.

We are embarking on two sea days doing exciting things like laundry, eating, eating, sitting on the verandah, eating and going to one of Patrick’s lectures.  It is the mid eighties and we are near to crossing the equator, currently at 1.34 N and 119.3 E.  We have a new sea—Celebes on our way to the Makassar Strait.  We left the South China yesterday passing through the Sulu Sea, and later will pick up the Java Sea.  Our Captain just announced we are a bit northwest of nowhere and we cross the equator at 2:00 pm our time, 1:00 am in MN.  Next stop Palopo, (Sulawesi), Indonesia. 

Manila

Thursday.  As quiet as this afternoon is, yesterday afternoon and evening were full of activities.  We arrived in Manila to local musicians and dancers who met us on the pier with signs to invite to “Have fun in Manila”.  We spent the afternoon touring the city.  One thing Manila has in common with every other major city is TRAFFIC.  But they also have Jeepneys.  Let’s see if we can explain this.  WWII brought a new form of transportation—the Jeep.  The war ended and many Jeeps remained behind.  Only problem was their small capacity of 2-3 people.  So the ingenious locals stretched the chassis, decorated the heck out of them, put long bench seats on each side and created the bus.  Sue is hoping we can buy one for our next vehicle—preferably to use to go down to get the mail, but they are long for that and for our garage.

Our first stop was the American War Memorial Cemetery.  The largest outside of the US.  It is quite moving with its white marble crosses stretched across the hillsides surrounding a chapel and memorial showing the names of those who gave their lives and showing the history of various battles.  Each state has it’s seal in the floor of the circular granite memorial and the marbled walls are covered with the thousands of names, including those of the locals who also died in fighting the Japanese.  The Japanese came to the Philippines to apologize for the ravages of the war.  Now the people of the Philippines look to both the US and the Japanese as partners in commerce and support and credit them with helping to advance the growth of the country.

Factoid:  The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7100 islands.

Stop two, the Convento de San Augustin.  It is the oldest church in the Philippines, founded in it’s Spanish colonial days (1587-1606), this UNESCO site remains unchanged and survived the bombings during the war.  It houses an incredible collection of religious artifacts, many carved in ivory, and we wove our way though the halls to the upper balcony to be awed by the sanctuary below.  We have seen a lot of churches all around the world, but for some reason this one seems to stand out for us.  

Back to the center of town to drive down Ayala street.  It is a bastion of American fast food restaurants and other shops.  However places like McDonalds and Burger King are customized to reflect local tastes and are you ready:  serve fried chicken with rice AND spaghetti!!  Who would have guessed.

Fort Santiago was constructed by the Spanish to watch over the entrance to the Pasig river. We roamed around, saw the golf course which used to be the moat surrounding this ancient fort.  Eighteen holes played in a circle takes 4-6 hours to play and has lights for night play.  You better hit your shots straight since the fairways are VERY narrow.  This is the only public course in town.

Back to the ship for dinner and off again to Fort Santiago for a night time Barrio Fiesta.  Local entertainers shared the music and dances of the Spanish influenced north and the expressive tribal dances of the Muslim south.  The music was on bamboo styled instruments and the dancers were colorful.  The evening was capped off by FIREWORKS just for us.  They were quite well done and since fireworks are one Sue’s favorite things we were delighted.  Even better was the souvenir model jeepney we received on leaving.  Not big enough to drive, but a fun memory.  Given that Manila has two seasons, hot, hot, hot and hot and rainy you will not be surprised that we wilted and dropped into bed when we got back.  At least it was not raining.

Today we went onshore for 10 minutes to shop in the dockside shops that spring up for visitors.  We did not find any souvenirs so returned to the ship.  We watched the US Navy sailors do their morning exercises and sprints on the deck of the USS Blue Ridge destroyer docked in the berth next to us.  We could tell it was visiting day as we could young children on deck with their parents.  We also had visiting day as family members of the staff came onboard yesterday to tour the ship and visit with family.  And then we had a sendoff.  Two marching bands where on shore with their color guards, baton and twirlers.  They alternated playing for about 45 minutes and then in the final sendoff as we pulled away from the dock played Auld Lang Syne together, marched alongside us and waved.  Even the shop keepers waved.  We were all choked up.

Another fact of sorts:  Philippino is the official language, but most people speak tagalog as well as English and the rapid of both known as taglish.

Now we are at sea going through those islands and the seascape is dotted with outriggers some of which are very colorful.  We will be a sea this afternoon and tomorrow before arriving at Sandakan on Saturday.  The day will be a normal ship board day with lots of food, casino, swimming pools, naps, shows and more food.  What that means is you won’t hear from us till we leave Sandakan.

Days 1-3 Hong Kong to Manila

And so it begins.  We arrived in Hong Kong Sunday night after a bit of a delay out of San Francisco.  We were met by the AHI rep, Phillip—a very chatty English, Irishman.  The group was taken to the Novotel where we spent the night, had breakfast in the morning and walked around the attached mall, shopping only in the grocery store.  By the way, malls are the same world round, only thing that changes is the prices.  At noon we hopped on our bus for a tour prior to boarding the ship.  We went to a Daoist temple.  There are many religions in Hong Kong and all seem to coexist quite happily.  Even in one family there may be multiple religions practiced.  As often as we have been in Hong Kong, the Temple visit and the following visit to the flower market and bird park/market were new and unique experiences.  It was a nice glimpse into every day life for the locals.  Flowers of every type in two city blocks with orchids in abundance.  The birds are sold as pets for the small apartment dwellers, you name it, they had it, big macaws to tiny tiny song birds.  Lots of noise and song.  Next stop—Jade market.  There is always shopping to be had on these trips.  Sue found a cricket box she liked but no jade.  Drove through downtown area and headed to our ship which was parked right in the harbor next to the Star Ferry dock.  Settled in, obligatory safely drill, dinner and then a light show in the Harbor—it happens every night and is set to music.  We departed shortly thereafter on the way to a sea day and then Manila.

Our sea day was quite relaxing, still adjusting to the time change so we were up early.  Breakfast on the back deck of the buffet restaurant.  This is our favorite place to eat, it reminds us of our Bangkok to Dubai trip where we met Richard and Linda and ate there many nights. The ship we are on is a the same model as the Dubai trip so it seems even more odd to us that they are not here.  We are on an Alumni trip organized by AHI.  Traveling with us is a professor from U Cal Berkeley who is a historian and expert in the area since he was born and raised in the Philippines.  He gave his first of 8 lectures today and it was fascinating about General Douglas MacArthur.  He is a good story teller and we appreciated his perspective.  The General, as it turns out, was quite an egotist, brilliant, but self centered.  For instance he designed all his uniforms, including his funky cap and corn cob pipe.  He was creating a image.  PS, he did not smoke.

Lunch, nap, walked laps, explored the ship, checked out the shops, and it was time for dinner and then a reception with the AHI group.  Interesting people from Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Cal, Duke, University of Virginia, Penn State and perhaps others we are not remembering.  We have one guest who was in the Clandestine Unit of the CIA, she is retired.

We took in the early show of the ship singers and dancers, they did a collection of songs from movies—we enjoyed the dancing most of all.  Still adjusting to the time change so 9:30 is late and we were off to bed.  

Much to our surprise this morning, by 8:10 we had walked a mile, eaten and exchanged money.  We are taking it easy before our excursion in Manila this afternoon.  We just passed Bataan peninsula on the island of Luzon where the the POWs were gathered and were part of work camps and death marches.  We also passed Koregador island (spelling??) where the US set up a base to shoot Japanese boats, but they never came past the island so no shots were fired.  It is 11, we arrive in Manila around noon and then have an excursion this afternoon and a party ashore this evening.  More to follow…

Hong Kong to Singapore Cruise March 2014

Well after two weeks at home we will set out soon for a cruise on Azamara Lines booked through the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.  Turns out we are the only UMN folks in the group.  We didn't name this blog On the Road Again for nothing....

The adventure is drawing to a close.  In line for the last of the locks and they tell us that we are going to squeeze in front of a huge container ship parked at the entry—that didn’t work, we backed and slipped behind.  The lock is about 1000 ft in length, he was 750, we were 152 so we shared the lock.  He was a panamax ship which means he was 108 feet wide for the 110 foot wide lock.  Not a lot of room to spare.  The locomotives on the side keep him centered in the lock.  He had four canal pilots on board to keep of the ship progress while we had one and 5-6 lines men.  The lines men toss and connect the lines for the locomotives.  They do a lot of sitting enroute, but pulling the lines in is hard work and takes all five of them pulling in unison.  It took 1 1/2 hours to transit the last three locks.  The first level took us down 27 or the total 85 feet we needed to go down. Given that we went up 85 feet on the pacific and then down 85 feet on the caribbean side, one might wonder why the canal does not just go straight through.  Good Question—Sue and I disagree on the answer so she is checking on the web….

We docked overnight, had our farewell dinner and saw a guest photo show with some great pictures our fellow travelers had taken, we put some in as well, it is a fun ending to a photo specific trip.  We also got the trip DVD filmed by the ship videographer.  It is always disconcerting when he follows us around filming but the end result is a fun wrap-up of the trip.  

Saturday morning we headed off the ship with ten others on the one day post trip extension.  We headed to the building site for the canal expansion—one lane to accommodate the supermax ships that are currently in use and continuing to be built. The scale of the project is quite impressive.  We saw a movie of the history and current build which included info about the new gates, sliding rather than swinging, built in Italy and brought over 4 at a time by ship, each as high as a ten story building.  We went out to see the 4 that are on site—holy smokes they were huge.  The method for moving them reminded us both of transporting the NASA space shuttles.  The trailers have about 50 wheels in total to move them.  There will be 16 in total, eight on each side of the canal so 8 will have to transit the canal to get to the Pacific.  

Next we went to a museum/observation site at the Pacific side of locks for lunch and a chance to watch two sightseeing boats, three sail boats and a container ship traverse.  They tie the sailboats together and then a linesman walks with the boats to guide progress rather than tying up to the locomotives. When the water level goes down they are close to disappearing from sight.  Fun to watch.  Then off for a tour of the city. Lots of new skyscrapers, many unfinished.  While they boost of a booming economy we are a bit skeptical that they have occupants for all the building going on.  Probably the highlight of the afternoon was a brief walk around the old town, which the Spaniard built after the first city was plundered by pirates in the 1600’s.  This part of town reminded up equally of Cuba and New Orleans.  It is being renovated slowly.  It seems to be the place for artists and great little shops and restaurants as well as residences.  Dinner with local dancing and music to reflect the Panama culture.  It was fun and a good close to the trip.  5:00 am came early and we headed to the airport.  Sitting now in the Delta Sky Lounge in Atlanta waiting to fly home to 3 degrees.  Ouch.

See you next time.  We are off in a couple of weeks for a cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore through many ports in Indonesia.  Thanks for sharing our trips with us.  Cheers.