Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

March 22, 2019

We were disappointed to miss Boracay Island, and we did hear that it is not uncommon to miss it due to unpredictable winds and seas. Even if it is not terrible when we arrive, in a tender port, it is equally important to be able to get people out of the port in the tenders safely.  So we enjoyed our sea day on Thursday.  We had dinner in Polo.  Before dinner, there was the most beautiful sky after sunset.  These shots are from our balcony.

Then, at dinner, we had a table at the very back of the restaurant where the moon was in a perfect position.  Unfortunately I had my eyes closed when our friend took this picture and he took only one.  Oh well..I didn’t see it till after dinner.

On Friday, we went to Manila.  The port is a busy shipping port, so not much to see as we came in. This was our third visit to Manila so this time we went outside the city having toured it and Corregidor in the past.

Our tour today was to Tagaytay Ridge which was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride south of Manila.  But first we had to get out of Manila in the Friday traffic.  We did have a police escort for the 3 buses, but honestly it didn’t seem to help too much, the traffic in the city was very bad.  Our guide was Melanie, and she was VERY good.  She told us that to try to cut down on traffic they use a number coding system (we remember this from China), where on Monday, no cars with license plates that end in 1 or 2 are allowed on the roads, 3 and 4 on Tuesday, 5 and 6 on Wednesday, 7 and 8 on Thursday and 9 and 0 on Friday.  That didn’t seem to help much either!

Melanie told us that there are 7641 islands in the Philippines.  Now that we have been to two, we have 7639 reasons to come back!

One common method of transportation is the jeepney.  These are small buses that originally made from US jeeps that were left over from WWII.  The word jeepney could be from combining jeep with jitney, but Melanie said that the explanation that most people believe is the combination of jeep and knee because the vehicles are so tightly cramped. They are very colorful but often not well maintained or safe.  They are also a source of traffic congestion because passengers get in and out from a rear door, and seem to do it almost anywhere, even in heavy traffic. The government is trying to do away with the old jeepneys and introduce new generation ones with air conditioning, padded seats and more room, but the owners of these older ones do not want to give up their livelihood and also do not have the money to purchase the new ones so the effort is not taking off. New ones cost 1.8 million Philippine pesos ($34,190 US).

They also have the motorbikes, tuk-tuks, pedicabs and horse drawn carriages – those are mostly near the Rizal park.

On the trip to Tagaytay, Melanie told us a lot about the history and customs of the Philippines.  We learned that there are 1800 employees at the US Embassy which we passed on our trip. This is our largest embassy.The Philippines has 105 million people and 12 million live in Manila. 

There are some beautiful homes and enormous casinos but a lot of the city is slum like.  We heard that the government tries to relocate people but they keep coming back, even the homeless population does not go down. There is also a problem of squatters who get chased out but always return.  Now they want to be called “informal settlers”!

This is a real challenge in the country where the average wage is $150 US a week.  Melanie said that many workers make 595 pesos/day which is about $11.30 US.  She works as a cook in addition to being a travel guide to make ends meet.

One of the casinos we passed was the City of Dreams with a casino and 3 hotels.  There is something called DreamPlay for children which allows the adults to drop their children off there while they gamble or do other hotel activities.

Our first stop was at La Pinas, St. Joseph Parish Church which houses the world’s only bamboo organ which was built in 1824 and has become a national cultural treasure. It took Fr. Diego Cera 8 years to finish the organ. We visited the church with its very thick stone walls and even had the pleasure to hear the organist play several songs.  Then we went to the adjoining museum where we saw and heard about the construction of the organ.  Very interesting. The stations of the cross are all around the outside of the church and are bamboo crosses.

There is a school next door and we saw these girls outside.

Another interesting thing Melanie told us is that most young people live together for even up to 5 or 10 years before getting married because there is no divorce in the Philippines.  You can get an annulment but it is very expensive and can also take many years to obtain.

We heard about past political leaders and that Imelda Marcos still is a congresswoman in a Philippine district at age 89.  Her 3300 pairs of shoes were confiscated and 800 of them are in a shoe museum.  The ones with the diamonds in them are in the central bank!

Our destination in Tagaytay was the Taal Vista Hotel which overlooks the volcano district and smallest active volcano in the world. It is 2000 feet above sea level and we thought it would be much cooler, but it still felt pretty warm. The views of the volcanoes, the mountains and lakes were beautiful but the air was very smoggy and it would have been nicer if it was clear.  Many people come here from Manila in the summer – it is actually called the summer capital of the south.

We had a wonderful buffet lunch in the hotel restaurant and had time to relax in the beautiful surroundings. We even had musicians to entertain us during lunch.

We also stopped at a wonderful fruit and flower market where we saw huge jackfruit (look at the one the man has on the motorbike), durian, bananas, mangoes, etc., as well as lots of sardines – Melanie said the lake here is the only source of fresh water sardines in the world. Melanie bought a bunch of small “monkey” bananas and gave us each two. Very sweet and delicious.

And I bought flowers to take back to the ship.

When we returned to Manila, we had a tour around the city, including the Intramuros, the city’s oldest district which is enclosed within a thick wall that the Spanish build for defense in the 1500s. We also had a photo stop at Rizal Park which is dedicated to the national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal who was shot to death here by the Spaniards and led to the Philippine revolution against Spain.  This is also his burial place and one of the largest urban parks in Asia. It serves as the point from which all distances in Manila are measured and it is said if you don’t have a picture taken here, you haven’t visited Manila!

We also passed by the Manila Hotel which was used by General Douglas MacArthur as his command post during much of World War II.  His suite of rooms can be a place to stay if you have $8000 for a night!

Here are a couple of other sights from the city. Markets, traffic and yes, you can have your gallstones removed.

It was really touching to see so many of our crew members with their families and so hard to see their goodbyes.

After a long day, we had dinner in the terrace.  Here is the sunset and sight of the city from our balcony as we leave Manila. And my flowers.

On to Taiwan after a sea day.

March 16 and 17, 2019

I have so much to post about Bali!  It is our second visit here and two years ago, we hired a local guide to take us around. We had a fabulous time and became Facebook friends, so this time, I contacted him and he was available for both days.  So, thank you again, Nyoman Terep, for the amazing repeat visit to Bali. 

When we first met Nyoman (pronounced like Norman!), he told us about how Indonesians name their children.  He is the third child.

A birth order name is chosen from a few typical names according to the position of the child in the birth order of siblings. The people of Bali use the birth order name to refer to one another.

The first born are named Wayan. Wayan is a Balinese name meaning “eldest”.

Second born children are named Made, Kadek, or Nengah. Made and Nengah mean madya or “middle”. Kadek means “little brother” or “little sister”.

The third born is given the name Nyoman or Komang. These names may be shortened to “Man” and “Mang” respectively.

Fourth born children are named Ketut. Ketut is often shortened to “Tut”.

If there is a fifth child in the family, she is often called Wayan Balik. And for additional children, the same names are then repeated in order!

The prefix “I” is for boys and “Ni” is for girls.  So he is I Nyoman.

Here was our sail in on Saturday.  The harbor is a very busy place with lots of boats, parasailing and other water sports. The Mountain “Mother” Gunung Agung is seen in the first picture.

Our Balinese welcome!

We told Nyoman that our priorities for the day were the Ulun Danu Temple in Bedugul and the Tanah Lot Temple.

We witnessed a long line of people along the road on our first day travels.  Nyoman told us that the people were returning from a cremation ceremony.

Cremation in Bali is usually one of the most expensive rituals to perform. In Bali, before the cremation, people go through a burial ritual where they bury the dead for some time. Usually, this burial ritual is being conducted near a temple called Pura Prajapati. This burial ritual acts as an interim state. Due the funds needed for cremations is quite high, they will go through this interim state until they are financially ready. Once the family members are financially ready, they will select a day to perform the cremation ceremony. And, Nyoman told us that many people from a town or specific area are often removed from the burial sites together and cremated together – so that explained the long lines of people we saw in that village. I thought it was disrespectful to take their picture.

We passed several places that were getting prepared for weddings, which did add to the traffic for sure. Since most people have their own temples within their homes, some weddings take place in homes.

There are impressive statues everywhere!  This is just along the road.

Since the ship didn’t get in until 11 and the traffic was so bad, Nyoman stopped for lunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful valley and rice fields. We had a delicious Indonesian lunch with rice pudding made from the black rice for dessert.

Our first temple visit was to the Ulun Danu Temple in Bedugul which is at an altitude of 4900 feet.  This is a major water temple which serves the entire area. It is on a lake that is so beautiful with the green mountains in the background.

Clever sign, right??

We went on to the Taman Ayun Temple which is also known as the Royal Temple.  It was built in the 17th century.  It includes a wide moat, exquisite wooden shrines and beautifully carved gates. We could only walk around the outside of this temple.  There was one woman inside leaving an offering.  Offerings are seen everywhere, not just in the temples and can be almost anything, from fruit to flowers.  Nyoman had an offering on the dashboard of the car. Outside of homes and businesses are small temple replicas where offerings can be seen.

The next picture is a statue of the goddess of rice.

These characters represent good and evil and are used in performances

The Balinese dancers are just beautiful to watch.  Nyoman says that girls start learning the dance at about 6 or 8 years old.

You may wonder about our long pants on a hot Indonesian day.  It is expected that shoulders and legs are covered when entering temples.  Most do have a kind of sarong that they lend you, but we chose to dress as expected when doing our visits. Indonesians do not wear shorts except for field workers and becak (a kind of bike taxi) drivers and they look down on people who do.

The last temple we visited was the Tanah Lot Temple.  It is also referred to as the Sunset Temple.  The black lava towers of this 16th century temple are situated on a rocky outcrop just off shore, and we were hoping for low tide so we could actually cross to the temple.  Unfortunately it was not low tide so we had to settle for the beautiful grounds and take pictures of the temple.

So we had accomplished our list of things to see today and Nyoman was going to take us to a romantic restaurant for dinner (and wait for us there!!)  These Indonesians are so polite and wonderful.  But as we got closer to the restaurant, the clouds thickened and it started to rain.  This restaurant was outdoors with a view and he said it is not as impressive if you have to be indoors, so we chose to go back to the ship and have dinner on the covered terrace. 

We agreed that he would pick us up by 7:30 on Sunday as we leave at 3 and had other places to see.  We hoped that the traffic would not be as bad.

We had a room service breakfast (for the first time) so we could leave the ship early.

Sunrise was beautiful.

Our agenda today started with the Uluwatu Temple which you might say is the most spectacular of all of them (but each is equally impressive). It is an ancient temple perched on awesome seaside cliffs.  Nyoman warned us about monkeys that will definitely steal your glasses, so we left everything except cameras in his car!

Here is what was left of one pair the monkeys got to.

We walked all around from one end of the cliffs to another.  Here we needed to wear a cloth sash around our waists to visit the temple.  There were a lot of people bringing offerings and small children learning to play the traditional instruments.  Magnificent.

We visited GWK Cultural Park.  We got there before 10 and wanted to go up into the recently completed GWK statue which opened at 10.  Unfortunately when we got in we found that it is too new to be opened to go into, so we settled for pictures of it and other beautiful structures around the entire park.

We weren’t there for the dance performance but did get some pictures with the performers.

Last stop for the day was in the Nusa Dua area which is a high end beachfront area with luxury hotels and a golf course.  There is a water spout area that is impressive when the waves are high, but that wasn’t the case today.  The rocks are immense.

You know I always like to take pictures of children, with parent permission of course.  Here are a few from Bali.

When we returned to the ship, we found lots of St. Patrick’s day decorations and goodies..  yes, they do honor all of the holidays here on board! By the time I took the picture, the top clover leaf had already been eaten!

The day finished with a cabaret by Stephanie and Nieks of the entertainment team, and a celebration dinner for Marilyn’s birthday.

Goodbye for now, Bali and Nyoman, see you next time!