Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

May 12, 2023

We have moved from Indonesia to Malaysia in one day! For Sabang Indonesia they required that all passengers and crew have our temperatures taken the day before arrival. Malaysia had no such requirement. Oceania set up the face recognition/temperature device at the entrances to all of the dining venues so they just scanned everyone as we went for a meal. Sometimes they did it at another meal too (just to be sure, I guess). People have asked about the health of those on the ship. As far as we know, there are no pasxengers with Covid and therefore no restrictions. Some people have lingering colds and they are usually pretty good about taking care not to cough on anyone. Some wear masks. Overall, the cruise is pretty normal.

We were scheduled to dock, but that was changed to anchor with tender service to the pier. Arrival was scheduled for 10 AM but we anchored early. By the time the officials “cleared” the ship for people to get off, we were ready to go for our tour at 10:45.

The sail in pictures were quite beautiful. The islands are very green and lush.

Langkawi is a duty free island and an archipelago of 99 islands but only 3 are inhabited. There are also five small islands visible only at low tide in the strait of Malacca. Langkawi is the second largest island and has a population of 220,000. The people are Malay, Chinese and Indian and the Muslim religion is the most prominant. The chief sources of income are rice, rubber and fishing.

Our guide today was Jerry. He mentioned that the dry season is usually January – March but this year it is lasting through May which does impact the rice farms.

Our first stop was a rice farm and museum, the Laman Padi Langkawi Museum. It was really interesting to see the museum (and thankfully it was air conditioned – another steamy hot day here). There were exhibits that showed the entire process of growing rice and preparing it for use.

After visiting the indoor museum we were guided around the actual rice fields and had explanations from various staff members.

The original method of growing rice takes 4 1/2 months and the newer method in which the seeding and harvesting are mechanized takes 3/1/2 months. The mechanization is more frequent because the younger generation doesn’t want to do the manual work. Two crops are grown each year.

We also saw how they open coconuts, the difference between the male and female coconuts (male is more elongated) and got to taste some shaved coconuts.

After our trip to the rice farm, we headed to the cable car. The cable car goes to a mountain that is 708 meters (about 2300 feet) high. Each car holds 6 people.

There was a dancing fountain and many other attractions at the sky cab park. These kids loved the fountain.

There are two stops for the cable car – we were told to go to the top stop where there are two 360 degree viewpoint observation towers. The mountains are called Machinchang and are made of sandstone layers that are the oldest in Southeast Asia, 550-500 million years old. The prolonged erosion processs produced the sharp peaks and valleys.

More beautiful views.

I wanted to walk to the sky bridge – it is many steps through a nature walk in the Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park. Norm chose to skip that part due to the many steps. I had a hot walk and did walk across the sky bridge and back. You can also take a “glide” but we didn’t know what that was exactly until we saw it, it was a kind of hut on a track that let you avoid the steps that led to the bridge.

Back at the bottom, I wanted to have an ice cream but we had no Malaysian Ringgit. I asked the server if they would take a credit card and she said yes, but when she handed me the cone she said they didn’t take credit cards – she must not have heard or perhaps not understood what I asked. After a discussion about what to do, the manager just said the cone was free!

It was a hot but very interesting day. We heard from Jerry that Langkawi is an up and coming tourist resort area due to the proximity to Thailand where things are much more expensive. We saw many resorts and “homestay” accommodations as we traveled around the island.

These time changes we have as we travel can be confusing. We finally moved clocks ahead the extra 30 minutes when we left India. Then we moved an hour ahead last night, we will go back an hour tonight (before Thailand) and when we leave Phuket, Thailand on Sunday, we will move forward again when we re-enter Malaysia.

May 11, 2023

Dodging the cyclone.. we left Port Blair early to avoid the storm. The captain did a great job of sailing north then turning to the east before heading back south. It was a bit of a bumpy ride (didn’t affect us at all) but we felt very little effect of the storm which remains a threat to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

This is our first port in Indonesia on this trip and a first for us to this location. Sabang is a city in Aceh province, Indonesia which consists of Weh Island and several smaller islands off the northern tip of Sumatra. It was added to our itinerary when Myanmar was removed. It has the smallest population of any city in Indonesia.

We saw that most of the ship sponsored tours were walking tours so we knew that we could also walk from the port. But it was close to 90 degrees and very humid, so when we got off the ship we spoke to a woman who would take us around for a reasonable price. I admit, I was partial to doing business with a woman. Her name was Rose, and her husband Yoko was our driver. She is a government worker who apparently took the day off to be a guide. Her English was pretty good.

Our ship was originally scheduled to stay here until 7 PM but that got changed to 4 PM. So one of the things we thought we could see was the Zero Km monument which is the starting point for Indonesia. Kind of like the Key West of Indonesia. Here is a photo of it. We didn’t go because it would have taken too long.

This is a beautiful, clean island with very friendly people. Everywhere we went, people smiled and waved. We stopped to see many beautiful landscapes and beaches.

We stopped at a resort that Rose said is very popular with tourists. We saw several people from our cruise there! The deluxe beach front accomodation is 475,000 Indonesian Rupiah which is about $32/day US.

The main religion here is Islam and Rose and Yoko are Muslims. There are also Buddhists and Christians here and the people live in harmony and have respect for all religions. We saw a lot of mosques but did not visit any.

Sabang is also famous by the nickname of the island of a thousand fortresses with many assets and historical relics in the Japanese and Colonial times that are still left. The Japanese occupied the island in 1942 and installed many bunkers, fortifications and gun emplacements. On April 19, 1944, the Japanese facilities were attacked by a combined Allied naval force. Sabang became a free port under Indonesia in 1963 and gained city status in 1965. It was declared a free trade zone in 2000 and saw a rapid growth in shipping and trade.

We stopped for Indonesian coffee and Yoko bought us a kind of rice cake called pulut which was delicious dipped in the strong coffee.

The view from here was also stunning.

The large lake is beautiful but Rose said that no one swims there because it is very deep! The town’s water all comes from this lake.

We saw many cows, goats and a few monkeys during our drive around the island. They are often right in the road.

We mentioned to Rose that we wanted to buy bananas. She stopped at one market and we got out, but she didn’t like the bananas there so we went to another market. There, this vendor wanted to sell me all of the bunches of bananas for $5. We settled on just one bunch. Norm said they are different from our bananas at home but very good.

We were intrigued by the living fences here. Rose didn’t quite understand that I was asking for the name of the tree. These living fences were seen throughout our drive. I am not sure if they are planted as young trees of if they are somehow harvested and replanted to form the fences. Either way it is interesting and not something I have seen before.

I got Rose’s contact information in case we come back here or if any of our friends do. We had a great day with Rose and Yoko exploring Sabang.

May 4, 2023

Before I write about Cochin, I remembered a story we heard from our guide in Mumbai. Hindus believe in reincarnation and also in the prophesies that they are given when they have their “fortunes” told. It can be good news or bad news and in her example, if a woman is told that she will have two marriages, no one wants to marry her because they know it will end in separation or death for them because there will be a second husband. So, what they do is they perform a marriage to a dog or to a monkey, and then she is free to take a “second” husband!

We have been to Cochin 3 times before (again, search it on the blog site if you want to read previous posts). Some of what we did today was a repeat but always something new to learn.

Here are some shots of our sail in.

Our guide was Gopah and we were on a tour arranged by Erin and Mui. Today it was just the 4 of us in a very comfortable and thankfully air conditioned van. As I mentioned it is getting close to monsoon season here and it is very hot and humid. Gopah said there is only one more cruise ship that will come here before the 6 month monsoon season when no ships come.

We drove to Fort Kochi (Kochi was the official name until 1996) and many still refer to it that way. It is in the state of Karala. There is not a fort here anymore but the entire area is still known as Fort Kochi. Literacy here is almost 100% and most people speak English but there are many local languages as well. Children learn English in school. Gopah told us that there is a labor shortage here and that people come from other parts of India to work and that wages are higher here. People from here don’t want to do the hard labor jobs and move to where they can do other work.

36 million people live in the state of Kerala. Although India is 80% Hindu, here there are 50% Hindu, 30% Muslim and 20% Christian. There is religious harmony.

Kochi was called the “Queen of the Arabian Sea” and was an important spice trading center on the west coast of India from the 14th century onward and it maintained a trade network with Arab merchants. Spices are still a very important product. Later the Portuguese, Dutch and British had a large influence here and the architecture shows those styles.

As we drove over the bridge, we saw a huge amount of traffic heading the other way. This was the best picture of the bedlam that I could get.

When we arrived in Fort Kochi, we started a walking tour and headed to St. Francis Church, where we had visited before. The previous tomb of Vasco da Gama is here. His body was moved to Lisbon but they preserve the former site here, where he died. The church was the first European church in India.

As we walked through the area, we saw some beautiful flowering trees, including the interesting cannonball tree that we saw in Soans Farm.

We visited the area of the Chinese fishing nets. Tourists are often invited to pull the nets, but we have done that in the past and declined this time. It is quite an operation and goes on all day. These stones are used as counterweights to lift the nets.

Many people sell the fish and other seafood here.

Here are some of the other sights we saw in our walk through this area.

We thought we would not be able to visit the Basilica but it was going to open at 10:30 so we waited the 10 minutes and went in for a visit.

All kinds of homeopathic and regular medicines are easily available here.

We walked to the Dhobi Khana, the local laundry which the Dutch brought to the area to wash the army’s uniforms. Each family has its own area. This woman is 87 and has been ironing here for 70 years.

They work very hard in the laundry.

Our next stop was at the Mattancherry Dutch Palace. Despite the name, it was built by the Portuguese Empire as a gift to the Kingdom of Kochi. There are beautiful handpainted murals but we were not allowed to take pictures. The ceilings are made of teak wood and we could take photos of those.

We visited the Paradesi Synagogue. The area where the synagogue is located is called “Jew Town” but only two Jewish people live there now. We visited this area before and in 2019 we were told there were 6 Jewish people. One that we saw who was 97 at the time, was Sarah Cohen, who owned and operated an embroidery store. She has sinse passed away. Thanks to our friend Tom for this photo from our tour in 2019.

We were tired and hot and Gopah gave us a choice of a restaurant outside by the river or one with air conditioning. Guess which we chose? It was still by the river but inside.

There was a special exhibit of elephants in the lobby. Each was so interesting!

On the way back to the port we stopped to see the brightly painted and themed trucks. You can tell the owner’s religion of interests from the decorations.

An interesting day and it let us see how much things had changed – or not- from our previous visits. Tomorrow we head to Sri Lanka for two days.