Hello! This is the first of 3 or 4 posts about the cruises we took between April 17 and June 12. If you don't care about reading this, but want to know what we have been doing recently, go to the blog post just below this one.
Rhapsody Cruise #1
After 5 very enjoyable days in Sydney in our Airbnb
apartment, we boarded the Rhapsody of the Seas for the first of 4 consecutive
cruises. We always enjoy cruising but
especially like unique ones, such as these.
These 4 cruises will take us from Sydney to Singapore, Singapore to
Dubai, Dubai to Istanbul, and then through Turkey and Greece and back to
Istanbul. Here is a picture of us in
Circular Quay, with the Rhapsody docked behind us. You can also see the world famous opera house
across the harbor:
One of the delights of cruising is being onboard with
friends. Our very good friends, David
and Diane Wilson, had done a land trip in New Zealand, and then relocated to a
hotel within a block of our apartment.
We had spent some quality time with them exploring Sydney and also
having them over to our apartment (see previous blog post about Sydney). Now we were all on the ship together, so we
joined them for dinner at Izumi, the Japanese Restaurant on the ship:
On April 19 the first port stop was Brisbane. We had been here before in 1999 when we
visited friends here and enjoyed the city but mostly saw the friends. This time friends also picked us up at the
ship. Pam and Barry Finn were with us on
a China tour in 2000, and we have kept in touch through the years. When they heard that we were stopping there,
they insisted on picking us up and showing us around. We were very happy about this because the
ship docked pretty far outside the city.
Barry and Pam had the day all planned.
First, Pam dropped the 3 of us off at the first terminal for the Ferry
Cat, which is a catamaran service running up and down the Brisbane River. Here is the route map:
And here is a picture of the City Cat Ferry:
This is a picture of us with Barry at Brett’s Wharf, where
we got on the ferry. These amazing
people even had Senior Passes for us, which they had arranged ahead of time, so
the cost was minimal.
As we cruised along the river, we saw lots of the city on
both banks:
One of the more interesting areas we saw as we cruised past
was Southbank, an area which became dedicated for public use after the 1988
World Expo changed it from a mostly derelict area to more upscale place.
One of the more interesting bridges we went under was this one,
the Kurilpa Bridge, which has won an engineering award:
Once we were through the main part of Brisbane, Pam picked
us up and we drove to Mt. Koot-tha, the highest point in Brisbane. From there, we could see all of the business district
as well as the river coursing through it, where we had just been:
And here is a picture of us with Barry and Pam up at the
viewing area:
Then they drove us to their home, which wasn’t very far
away, so we could see their neighborhood and appreciate their lifestyle
there. Following that, we all went to Southbank
for lunch. There are lots of restaurants
there and we ate at one where we tried the local ForeEx beer and some seafood:
Southbank has a wonderful arbor of flowers undulating
through part of the park:
And we were very impressed with the pool and beach like area
which had been created for the use of residents. It even has a sand beach for sun bathing:
We also visited some nearby vendor stalls, and then they
drove us back to the ship. A wonderful
day with friends we hadn’t seen for 15 years!!!
The next port was Airlie Beach, on April 21. Elaine and I had been here in 1999 and
enjoyed it. This is a port where some
people go to the Great Barrier Reef, but it is fairly far away and the shore
excursion to get there was very expensive.
David, Diane, Elaine and I walked around the town, first on the
waterfront, and then through the main street.
Here we are along the waterfront where some of the apartment dwellers
have a great view and a nearby boat dock:
Right on the beach we passed a guy who was making a very
difficult and unique sand sculpture:
Another event happening on the beach was camel rides. Since we have done this on 4 different occasions
in several countries and for long (uncomfortable) periods of time, we skipped
doing this. Notice that the adult camels
have people on them and the baby camel walks alongside the mother.
Again there was a very beautiful and scenic lagoon situation
which had been created inland for the use of the residents because there are
threats from box jellyfish and salt water crocodiles in Australian waters, so
they do not swim in the ocean:
It was pretty hot here, so we were fairly hot after our
walk. We stopped at an outdoor beer
garden for a taste of the local beer:
Back on the ship, we always enjoy the benefits which we get
from being frequent cruisers on Royal Caribbean. One of them is that there are several lounges
where there are hot and cold appetizers and free cocktails available for us
every evening from 5 to 8:30PM, and it is here where we enjoy schmoozing with
our cruise friends – and it is here where we meet new cruise friends. On this cruise we had been enjoying some
lectures about Australia by a guy named Phil Smart, a geologistt, and we were
lucky in that he and his wife, Faye, were friends with other friends of ours,
so they joined our group in the lounge in the evenings. Here is a picture of them:
Additionally, Karlene and Art Bacca, were on all of these
cruises, they achieved Pinnacle just before we did, and they joined our group as well:
And here is a picture of part of our group in the
lounge, AKA the 5 o'clock drinking club. You can see David and Diane, and
next to them are Tom & Sandy Wills, and beyond them are Mark Alberthal, and
Alice and Bruce – all of these people were with us until Istanbul – great fun!!!
Looking the other way, here are Faye and Phil Smart, Vicki
& Randy Sheppard, and Rick Martinez:
The next port of call was Cairns, Australia, another place
where Elaine and I stayed in 1999. It
was from here that we took a snorkeling boat out to the Great Barrier Reef at
that time. This time, we merely explored
the town with David and Diane. Again
they had a very fabulous lagoon for sunbathing and swimming which had been
man-made inland for the use of residents:
Back on the ship, we enjoyed the views of the channel where
the ship was parked in Cairns:
At the next port of call, Darwin, we enjoyed the views on
entry since we had never been here before.
One of the main attractions is the Oil Storage Tunnels. These tunnels were built in 1942 when Darwin
was bombed by the Japanese and they realized they needed a safe place to store
the oil reserve needed for World War II.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built them, but by the time they were
operable, the war was over. In 1992 they
were reopened as a tourist site:
We visited them with Diane and David, and Randy and Vicki
were there when we arrived:
Nearby was the Parliament Building:
Then we walked to the park, where there was a big war
memorial which commemorated the groups of Australians who fought in WWII and
where they were engaged. Mostly the Aussies fought in the Pacific:
Many of the old buildings in Darwin were built from this
distinctive stone, and are a marked contrast to the modern buildings such as the Parliament building :
It was very hot here, since Darwin is tin he most northerly part
of Australia, so we headed back to the ship.
On the way, we visited the Waterfront Park, which wasn’t far from our
ship. There was a huge area where there
were restaurants, bars, and a huge lawn area for people to picnic and
barbeque. This is a picture of the area
where there were water toys set up for people to swim and play:
There was also a big wave pool where people could play in
the waves and on the shallow part, there was a sand beach. This was a marvelous area for locals, and we
were sorry we weren’t staying here longer to enjoy it.
On April 29 our port of call was Komodo Island,
Indonesia. This is a national park on an
island in Indonesia, which is really a nation of a LOT of islands, (18,110
islands!).
There are approximately 2000 people on the island, who are
descendants of the original convicts who were exiled to the island. Nowadays, they live there and lead tourists
around, and try to sell them handicrafts.
The Komodo dragon is type of monitor lizard, which inhabits this island
and a couple of nearby islands. The
lizards are capable of living more than 50 years, and can recognize individual
humans after multiple exposures. They are a variety of sizes but some get to be as long as 7 feet. We
booked a ship’s excursion because we didn’t want to miss seeing these
creatures, and we were unable to find an alternative, which we usually find to
be more cost effective and better. We
went ashore on the tender and were met by a guide and another guy who walked
behind our group to “protect” us by carrying a long stick to fend off any
attacking dragons. Before our group left on our hike, we viewed some deer
nearby, which apparently is part of the food opportunities for the dragons.
After a long and HOT
hike through rather unremarkable foliage, we came upon an area where there were
a number of dragons, and other groups viewing them. We got some good pictures, because the
dragons don’t want to move much in the heat either:
In this picture, you can see that Elaine is pretty close to
the dragon behind her:
Of course, in leaving, our ship sailed by lots of small
islands, which are part of Indonesia.
Many of their islands are uninhabited.
We also had a beautiful sunset:
In the year 2000, we flew over to Bali and spent 17 days
exploring before we did 5 weeks in Hong Kong and mainland China. The next port of call for us was Benoa, about
45 minutes away from the main sights and tourist areas, such as Ubud. We had arranged for a private tour for 4 of
us, and Faye & Phil Smart decided to join us at the last minute, since
there was room in the car. Our driver
and guide, Gede, showed us around a lot of areas, and tailored the days events
around our requests. In driving around,
I managed to get a few pictures on the fly, so they aren’t framed as well as I
would like. Most Balinese are Hindu, although
there are also Buddhists and Muslims too.
There are shrines and sculptures of religious deities all over the
place. Here is a very ornate wall we
passed on our drive:
The first planned stop was at a jewelry making factory with
a very nice shop for selling. First we
had a picture of our group outside:
Then we enjoyed the interior water garden with koi fish in
it, which was the centerpiece of the buildings:
There were about 15 people hard at work making silver
jewelry in the workshop. They were happy
to explain the process and didn’t mind having pictures taken.
After a beautiful drive through the countryside, and some
housing areas, we stopped at the Goa Gajah Temple, which is commonly called the
Elephant Cave Temple. It is called that
because the central figure on the façade was thought to be an elephant. As always, there were stalls along the
walkway to the site, with people trying to sell us tourist goods.
This picture is of one of the many deities statues which are
various places, especially near temples:
This statue was located right before the actual entrance to
the temple complex:
This is our gang after the guards at the entrance made 5 of
us put sarongs on because they decided our shorts weren’t long enough. They provide the sarongs. Diane’s capris were longer, so she didn’t
have to wear one. We are posed in front
of the ornately carved entrance to the cave:
Here is the entrance without us blocking the view:
There were several big bathing pools in the complex which
were only uncovered in the 1950’s. This
temple complex is a UNESCO world heritage site.
On the way out, we stopped to take a picture of the elephant statue and
since the people are always opportunists, a guy selling carved elephants:
As we drove around some more, we passed places where people
were doing their daily work, such as carving figures out of stone:
This really reminded us of Mandalay, Myanmar which has huge
stone carving businesses, and most of them carve lots of Buddha’s.
There are many wood carving places, and they make beautiful
furniture, carved doors, etc. but we elected to stop at a batik factory
instead. This is a technique where they take cloth and
use a pencil to draw patterns and images on it, then cover the pencil with
wax, then dye it, and the wax areas don’t absorb the dye. So they do it multiple times and get a
variety of colors. Again the workers
were happy to have their pictures taken, and the entire process was explained
to us. Here is a girl just starting a
piece:
The following picture is an example of how pretty the images
are once they have finished:
Then we spent some time in the very large and fully stocked
shop, where there were nice items priced very reasonably, going all the way up
to very expensive. The more intricate
patterns and large pieces were the most expensive. We bought a few small coin purses to use for
gifts for our granddaughters (we like inexpensive, unbreakable, and small items
to bring back).
There was a
little extra time, so Gede suggested that we stop at Sanur Beach. It was on the way back to the ship and caters
to tourists, as well as local fishermen.
It was a wonderful suggestion.
The beach was beautiful:
The fishermen’s boats are pulled up on the beach and are
painted very colorfully:
Because lots of tourists (especially Aussies) come to Bali
for vacation in the winter, there are restaurants right on the beach, and
hotels nearby:
One reason Bali is so popular is because it is beautiful,
the traveling is easy because many people speak English, and staying and eating
are inexpensive. We walked along the
beach walkway past a lot of bars and restaurants and wished we had more time to
stay there to enjoy the hospitality!! In the future, if we want a place to kick back and relax and not pay a lot of money to do it, we will go here!!!
That was our last port of call for the first Rhapsody
cruise. On May 3 we arrived at Singapore
in the early morning. Elaine and I had
been here on a land trip in 2013 and had spent extra days exploring after the
tour, so we had already enjoyed many of the attractions of this beautiful city.
Here is the view from the ship of the
main downtown area:
Looking in the other direction, we see most of the important
attractions.
The tall building with what
looks like a ship on the top is the Marina Sands Hotel and Casino. It is billed as the world’s most expensive
stand alone casino valued at 8 Billion dollars.. It is right on Marina Bay and has more than
2500 rooms. It has theaters, an indoor ice
skating rink, restaurants, etc. and a sky park.
People enjoy going to the top for wonderful views. There is a very nice upscale shopping center on
ground level connected to it. Evenings
there is a wonderful sound and light show on the bay right in front of this
building. Near the Marina Bay Sands is a
very large Ferris wheel, called the Singapore Flyer. It is the second largest one in the world and
it takes about 30 minutes to go completely around and costs $33. There are cocktail flights, and even a one
hour dining experience with a butler (2 rotations) for $269 per couple in the
evening. Of course, they also have other
venues to try to suck more money from you, such as shops, restaurants, a
rainforest, and a multimedia presentation.
Also in the same
area is Gardens by the Bay, a fantastic botanical garden complex with beautiful
flowers (of course), some fantastic sculptured trees, lakes, a skywalk overview
walk, etc. We didn’t go there this time,
but we certainly will next year when we are there. The outside gardens are free and you pay for
each pavilion you wish to visit. Here
are a few pictures:
