And we’re off!  New day and new country!  Today it’s Taipei, Taiwan where we boarded our frilly motor coach to see the city.  

Our first stop was the National Chiang Kai-she Memorial Hall which was built in 1980 to honor the republic’s former president who led the nationalists out of Mainland China during the 1949 Communist takeover.  It is surrounded by a green park with twin pagoda-like structures that house the National Theater and the National Concert Hall.

Taipei 101

Our next stop was Taipei101, the skyscraper with 101 stories and a height, including the spire, of 1,667 feet . At the time of its official opening in October 2004, it was the world’s tallest building and held that record only until the 2009 completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. Upon completion, it became the world's first skyscraper to exceed a height of half a kilometer. Taipei 101 is the tallest building in Taiwan. 

I

It also held the Guinness World Record for the fastest elevator that transports passengers from the 5th to the 89th floor in 37 seconds (attaining 37.7 mph).

The observation deck was on the 89th floor and decorated with photo opportunities at every turn (in addition to the view of the city

below).

 

Our trip began with a 141/2 flight from Houston to Tokyo, a five hour layover and a five-hour flight to Hong Kong. A Viking agent met us at the airport and escorted us to our cruise ship Viking Orion.  It was almost midnight by the time we got to our stateroom,  over 25 hours from when we left Houston.

Hong Kong, China

First thing Sunday morning, April 16, we boarded a bus for our first excursion, Postcards of Hong Kong.  From there we were driven to the waterfront where we boarded a traditional sampan for a cruise through the harbor’s floating village where hundreds of people live on fishing junks—a stark contrast to the high-rise community that have risen on the island.

From there we were driven to Stanley Market, a typical example of a traditional old open-air market in Hong Kong that has  become a major tourist attraction, well known for its bargains. Many of the stalls or shops in Stanley Market sell Hong Kong souvenirs as well as clothing and traditional Chinese toys, ornaments, arts and crafts.

Our next stop was Victoria Peak, the 1800’ summit which offered sweeping views of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon Peninsula.

From the peak we rode a funicular to the bottom of the mountain and boarded our waiting bus.

After lunch we took a walking tour of Hong Kong where we toured the Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong’s oldest and most famous temple.  The temple is a tribute to the God of Literature and God of War, both of whom were worshipped by ambitious students looking to succeed in the civil examinations in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

We walked from there to experience the Hong Kong Elevator, a moving sidewalk that is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world.  It’s a series of eleven elevators that take residents (and tourists) from the flat area by the ocean up the hillside to the highrise apartment buildings where people live.

These escalators only go one direction at a time and that direction changes depending on the time of day.  Until 10:00 am the residents ride the escalators DOWN to the market and offices.  After 10:00am tourists and residents can ride them up.  

We walked along Hollywood Road where we saw the baryon tree roots climbing down the walls along the sidewalk.

We boarded a ferry for our ride back to the cruise terminal.

Back aboard our ship we were treated to a beautiful view of  Hong Kong Harbor in the evening.

Last day in Bali…. This morning we went to the Agung Rai Museum of Art to take an art class and view some beautiful Balinese artwork. Although my drawing was no masterpiece, it was a fun experience.

Just seeing the beautiful doors on the museum was a treat.

This is a closeup of the beautiful door carvings

Beautiful carving on the wall

Thes costume is magnificently made.  The face is hand-carved from wood. The tan part around the face are made from cow’s hind with inlaid mirrors.The hair hanging from the mouth is human hair, the black hair hanging down is horse hair.  The yellow “hair” at the bottom is made from a plant called prosok, which is cut, soaked in water for ten days before beating and causing the plant to shred l

 

The drawing of the airline that missed the airport runway and cracked in two when it hit the water.Balinese artistes typically draw in a flat dimension .

This picture is of the sinking of the titanic .

This was my creation

Back at the resort

We returned to Ubud Maya around 1:00.  I put on my swimsuit and met Tom down at the pool (he didn’t go to the art museum).  We spend several house swimming and lounging by the infinity pool where we also ate our lunch.  We thought it was going to rain, so we started walking back to our room.  When we got to the next pool, we decided it wasn’t going to rain ,so we stop and spent several hours there

Our farewell dinner was tonight at 6:30.  Some of the group fly home tonight and the rest of us leave in the morning.

It’s been a wonderful trip!.

 

Our first stop today was for the Pemaksan Barong Dengjalan dance performance in the famous stone carving village Batur Brand.  The Barong dance is the story from Balinese mythology about a lion-like character fighting between good and evil.

The Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Balinese and consists primarily of percussion instruments.These include the bronze and bamboo xylophones.  Gongs, gong chimes, drums and a bamboo rattle.

A little humor is the picture above.  Look closely at the first photo and then in the second you will see it was the tip of its tail sticking up.

 

Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave

The Elephant Cave was probably built in the 11th century and contains both Hindu and Buddhist imagery.  The cave was rediscovered by Dutch archaeologists in 1923.  The fountains and bathing pool were not discovered until 1954.

When visiting the cave, proper dress is required; knees must be covered by both men and women so sarongs are available on loan at the entrance to the site.

 

Tamah Gajah Resort

 We ate lunch today at the Tamah Gajah Resort which has beautiful landscaping, temples, pools and ponds.  The food was served buffet style and was a typical Indonesian selection, but we did have small apple pies for dessert.

Back to our resort —the Maya Ubud

       

 

The resort’s beautiful infinity pool high above the jungle

Cooking Class

We started out cooking class at 10:00am this morning and made all the dishes that were served for lunch.  

The cooking school grows most of the vegatables and seasonings that is used.  

Chopping the onion and garlic

Kite and puppet painting, dancers and music

We went to a multigenerational family’s home when the father and mother taught dance lessons. Multigenerational families live together in the same compound.  Each compound also has a temple.

We watch the children perfect—both the dancers, musicians, and puppeteer.  The two little girls in the from t were 6 and 9 and it was only the second time they performed in a costumer and make up.  

After the dance performance we painted kites and shadow puppets.

 

We went left there we went to watch some woodcarvers before going to Bebek Joni for a fried duck dinner.

This morning we left the Beautiful Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay and rode to Ubud, Bali where we will be staying for the next five night.  This area of Bali is about 2 hours from Jimbaran and is near the jungle.

On the way we we encountered very narrow roads and 100s of motorbikes driven by wild drivers.  The motor scooters were weaving in and out of traffic like there were no rules.  

Rice Terraces 

 

Kopi luwak

Tidbit from Wikipedia:
“Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected.”

I don’t drink coffee so I certainly wouldn’t drink Kopi luwak, but it’s a delicacy here.
Kopi Luwak coffee price starts at $160 per pound and reaches up to $600 for the most expensive types, where the civets roam freely and select the best beans themselves(as opposed to those kept in captivity.

Granell Kopi Luwak Coffee Beans – Ethically Sourced Wild Civet Coffee, Gourmet Coffee Beans, Indonesian Luwak Arabica Whole Bean Coffee, 3.5oz
Whole Bean · 3.52 Ounce (Pack of 1) is $109.98 on Amazon

We are staying at the Maya Ubud resort for the next four night.

 

Uluwatu Temple

After disembarking our cruise ship the Ocean Odyssey for the last time, we boarded our tour buses towards the Uluwatu Temple located  with gorgeous clifftop view.

This 1,000 year old temple is one of Bali island’s most famous tourist sights because of its impressive cliffs, sunset views, and the notoriously sneaky Uluwatu monkeys that like to hang out near the temple.

We were given these purple wraps to wear to covet our knees.

 

This monkey is enjoying the offerings left in the temple.

Get ready, get set….JUMP!

Cooking the chicken on a stick

Our lunch platter to serve three people

BONG!…Lunch is served!

 

 

 

 

 

Today Tom and I chose to forego the day’s tour and just stay at the resort and relax.  What a treat!

The private entrance to our courtyard

Tom outside the door to our suite

Our private porch

Our private pool

One of the infinity pools about the beach

The dancers coming to dance for us before dinner

 

The walkway from the restaurant to our villa

Our room at night

We arrived in Bali over night and were greeted at the port in by a group of dancers as we walked to the buses for our tour.

Buleleng Museum was our first stop.  

Here we learned the process for creating the palm-leaf manuscripts that were the primary medium for writing materials dating back to the 5th century BC. The palm leaves were first boiled with spices and dried in a heavy press for 30 days.  The writer used a stylus-like device to inscribe letters.  Natural colorings were applied to the surface so the ink would stick in the grooves.  Afterwards, a clean cloth was used to wipe off the excess ink.

Holes are punched in the palm leaves to bind them together.

Storage containers for the palm manuscripts.

Ling Gwen Kiong Temple

     Chinese temple built by seafaring merchants and traders beginning in 1843.

Pura Beji Sangsit temple

A Balinese temple located in Sangsit, it is dedicated to the rice goddess Dewi Sri, and is revered especially by the farmers in the area.

We ate lunch at the beautiful Kutus Sunari Beach Resort with its black sand beach located on the Bali Sea.

Probolingo Market

We were shuttled to the docks on the ship’s Zodiacs this morning about 8:30 and from there rode a tour bus to the city market in Probolingo.  The lack of any sanitary conditions whatsoever in the market made we wonder about the food we’ve been eating.

Bromo Tender Semeru National Park

After visiting the market for 30 minutes (which was about 25 minutes too long), we got back on our bus and rode for about an hour until reaching Sukapura.  There we all b boarded Land Cruisers to ride an additional 30 minutes up to the national park.  

Once we arrived at the national park’s parking area, we walked .75 miles before walking 244 steps to view the Bromor volcano.

We are lunch at the Lava Cafe Restaurant 

The view of Bromo Volcano from the Lava Cafe Restaurant 

After lunch we boarded the Land Cruisers for our ride back to the bus, to the Zodiacs, and finally back to the ship.

 

It was a wonderful day!

An interesting tidbit:  We ask if there were cattle in this area and were told that a family might own one to three cows. If they do, the cows live INSIDE the house so no-one steals them!

We docked in Semarang this morning and were greeted by dancers and music as we got off the ship.  There were three tour buses waiting to give us a tour of the island as we rode two hours to the Borobudur Temple.  We had a police escort to the temple and back to the ship which allowed us to travel more quickly through the country.

     

Borobudur Temple

The Borobudur Temple is the world’s largest Buddhist temple dating back to the 9th century.The temple consists of nice stacked platforms, six are square and three are circular.  These are topped by a central dome.  It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and originally has 504 Buddha statues. The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a stupa, a mound like structure which contains relics).

There are 2,672 of these relief panels 

One of the 504 Buddha statues on the temple

 

Today we docked near the island of Cirik, a tiny little island in Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world to form a single country, consisting of five main islands and some 30 smaller archipelagoes, totaling about 18,110 islands of which about 6,000 are inhabited.  The island of Cirik is uninhabited.

Our ship anchored a nautical mile from the island and we rode zodiacs to land.

The ship used three Zodiacs to shuttle us from the ship to the island.  There were ten of us in each Zodiac.

Our friend Dave stepping from the ship onto the Zodiac.

We arrived on the tiny island

We spent about an hour walking in the sand around the island and then boarded the Zodiac to ride back to the ship.

Here I am getting back on the ship.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner on Deck 9 at the Hot Rock Grill where we cooked our own meat on a lava rock.

The hot lava rock is 400 degrees and is placed in the center of the plate to cook the meat.

We were told that our cruise ship was the first to come to this region of Indonesia.  When we got off of the ship, there were many residents taking pictures of us.  We were transported today in five buses with a police escort as an honor (or at least that’s what we were told).

Dayak Longhouse

We started the day with a bus tour of the city of Kumai, a port in Central Kalimantan province and the first stop was a visit to a Dayak longhouse,  Dayak longhouses are community houses and are 300 to 600 feet long. These buildings host dozens of families. The houses are built 6 to 9 feet off the ground to keep out wild animals and protect from flooding.

We were greeted with dancers and drummers performing traditional dances. 

At one part of the performance a dancer pulled me into the dance to dance with her.

This dancer pulled me (of all people) out of the crowd to dance with her.

Arut River Tour

Our next stop was a boat ride down the Arut River to get a glimpse of local life. Here we rode past homes, fish farms, a saw mill.  A police boat escorted our boat down the river.

The Police who escorted us.

A little boy rows his mother and baby sister down the river.

Typical homes and boats that were located on both sides of the river.

A sawmill along the river.

The Market

All vegetables, poultry, fish, etc are displayed unrefrigerated in the market area.

Fresh fish (but not refrigerated)

ESTANA PANGERAN MANGRUBUMI

This home was built to house a Sultan’s seven daughters. Inside these gates is a rambling wooden compound and a beautiful garden area.

Even though this may look like a mirror, it is actually a door frame with two fancy hand-carved doors on the other side.  These beautiful doorways are all through the house.

Istanakuning “Yellow Palace"

This palace is not actually yellow, but once was the Sultan’s main residence.  This is a replica of the original residence which burned in 1990.  Since we were the first cruise ship to ever stop in this city, the Sultan invited us to lunch.

There were ceremonial dances and swords fights for our entertainment.

This is the Sultan’s twin brother greeting us as we entered the palace.

The Sultan with his personal physician

Birdhouse buildings

There is a huge industry in Borneo of bird's nest ‘factories’.  There are 100s of these tall metal buildings are built to attract the white-nest swiftlet. Therir nest is composed entirely of saliva.  These nests are purchased by the Chinese and used to make a soup by soaking and steaming the nests in water. The soup is reputed to possess medicinal properties that nourish and vitalize the organ systems of the body, help increase energy and metabolism, dissolve phlegm, improve the voice, relieve gastric problems, aid kidney function, enhance the complexion, alleviate asthma, suppress cough, cure tuberculosis, strengthen the immune system and improve concentration," wrote Craig Thorburn, an environmental scientist from Australia in his research paper, "The Edible Birds' Nest Boom in Indonesia and South-east Asia." Bird's nest soup is also considered an aphrodisiac by some and an infant superfood by others that helps babies grow tall and smart.

 These nests fetch high prices and the buildings to lure the swiftlets are popping up all over Indonesia. Our ship docked near many of these buildings (pictured below in the nighttime picture) which can be quite a nuisance because of all the bird feces and the loud chirping noises played over a speaker to attract the swiftlets.

 

We ended the day with a delicious meal cooked we cooked ourselves on a lava stone up on deck 9 with our new friends Dave and Emmy.

The lava stone is 400 degrees and is in the center of this platter.

We arrived in Kumai, part of the Kalimantan province of Borneo island, which actually belongs to three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. We anchored along the Sekonyer River and boarded a traditional Kiloton wooden river boats to ride into the UNESCO-listed Tanjung Puting National Park, famous for its orangutan conversation program. We enjoyed the park first by boat and then by walking the trails into the rainforest.

We boarded our Zodiac at 6:40AM for a one mile ride down the river where we boarded our traditional Kiloton wooden river boats. We spent the next five hours cruising through Tanjung Puting National Park on the Sekonyer River.  We arrived at Pondok Tanggui Orangutan Preserve around 9:00 am in time to watch the orangutan feeding.Once we arrived we walked on a muddy trail into the rain forest for about a mile to the feeding platform.

Pondok Tanggui National Park has the largest wild orangutan population in the world with 9 species of primates, 3 species of primates endemic to Borneo, proboscis, red leaf-eating monkeys, and Bornean orangutans.

Thev primarily eat fruits, but can also eat bark strips, leaves, and termites

Orangutan are pregnant for 8 months and may wait 5-10 years between births

They live 45-50 ears in the wild

After our visit in the National Park we were served lunch on our boat while we cruised for another two hours Resort Pesalat to see  the afternoon feeding of more orangutans.  This feeding started with a huge bowl of coconut milk

Viper snake 

While we were walking in the rainforest to see the orangatan feeding, we got caught in a hard rainstorm.  

When we walked back to our boat after the feeding, I spotted a slightly fancier boat docked beside us.

We were exhausted when we arrived back at our ship around 6:30PM after a long and fascinating day!

We checked out of the Conrad Hilton Centennial Hotel and left for a half-day city tour starting with a visit to the Gardens by the Bay.  Afterwards we visited the Sands SkyPark Observation Deck and finally lunch at a local restaurant before boarding our ship for the start of our cruise down the coast of Indonesia .

Our room #412 aboard the Vantage ship Ocean Odyssey

Today we had a full day guided tour with our group from Vantage Travel.  We started the day with at the National Orchid Garden, home to over 6,000 species of orchids.

 

After the Orchid Gardens we continued our bus tour throughout the town.

Thian Hock Keng is a temple built for the worship of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu and is located in the Chinatown section of Singapore.  It was built in 1839 and is Singapore's oldest Chinese temple.

 

The government’s latest surveillance devices are robots on wheels, with seven cameras, that issue warnings to the public and detect “undesirable social behavior."

Artwork next to the practice cricket field with the Supreme Court building in the background.  The flying saucer-looking section at the top of the building is the Supreme Court.

The old Police station with window frames painted the colors of the rainbow.

The Merlion, symbol of Singapore

   

Five Boys by the Water

Sri Veeramakaliamman is a Hindu temple located in India town.

We boarded a bumboat for a cruise down the Singapore River, where we enjoyed the city’s
iconic skyline from the water

We left Lake Charles at 4:00 PM on January 20 for a flight to Houston and then on to San Francisco.  From there we had a 17 hour flight which crossed the International Date Line and totally missed January 21 before arriving in Singapore at 8:00AM on January 22

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We had to submit paperwork to Singapore three days before our arrival and received our approved for entry.  When going through these gates, we scanned our passports and our thumb prints.

We stayed at the Conrad Centennial Hotel which is located very conveniently to many of the iconic sights in Singapore.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we dropped off our bags and decided to walk to the The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, a mall near our hotel.  On the walk from the hotel we stopped at the Youth Olympic Park and took these pictures of the Singapore skyline.  The building on the left side of the picture is the Science and Arts Museum.

The Helix Bridge is the longest pedestrian bridge that links the Marina Centre with the Bayfront area.It is modeled after the double helix DNA, symbolizing “life and continuity, renewal and growth”. There are pairs of colored letters ‘c’and ‘g,’ as well as as ‘a’ and "t’ on the bridge, which represent the four bases of DNA.

This Digital Light Canvas in the center of the Marina Centre is an artwork space that consists of a 46 ft-tall light sculpture suspended from the ceiling with  countless full-colored LEDs and a circular 49 foot floor monitor consisting of individually controlled LEDs, which allow for graphics to be rendered in real time.       

                      

In the Youth Olympic Park there  are drawings done by children that are decorations on the wall. This drawing by 11 Year old artist Joyce Han “I want to scale the highest mountain in the world!”  A replica of her drawing was built in the park.

 We walked through the food court at the Marina Centre Mall which was absolutely the largest food court we’ve ever seen with 60 restaurants! Alll the food choices were Asian, but we did notice these roasted chicken, pigs, and ducks on displayed, but were dismayed that all the heads were still attached. 

Once we walked through the food court, we exited the mall and continued walking until we reached the  iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The scene pictured below shows the Marina Shopping Center and the Arts and Science Center and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel with its observation deck behind.

We paid to ride the elevator up to the Observation Deck on ihe 56 floor where  From there we where able to get a wonderful view of Singapore.

The Flower Gardens are visible in the foreground and the barrage (the salt water barrier) is located in the upper left.  Notice all the ships waiting out at sea to be loaded or unloaded.

Gardens by the Bay

When we left the Marina Sands Hotel, we walked to the Gardens by the Bay. The Gardens are comprised of the Flower Dome, Floral Fantasy, Cloud Forest, and the Supertree Grove. We paid to tour the Cloud Forest which contained an amazing Avatar display as well as the largest indoor waterfall (according to the Guinness Book of World Records).

              

The Supertree Grove 

These super trees are home to a large array of plant life. The vertical planting panels installed on the trunks are planted with various species of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and flowering climbers. When dusk falls, the super trees lights up.  In addition there is a sight and sound show each evening.

We walked back to the hotel and rested for a couple hours before walking the same path again for dinner and to see the lights of Singapore.

By the time we walked back to the hotel, we had walked over 10 miles today.  What a great day!

Today we visited Grenada and decided it was our favorite country on this trip.  Grenada is well known for its spices as it is “ the island of spice", but it also has world-class cocoa, amazing beaches and majestic waterfalls.  Christoper Columbus discovered the island in 1498 and named in Concepcion.

Civilians (even children) are not allowed to wear camouflage in the country.

Welcome to the Spice Capital

Today we  took a bus tour of the island to get to Grand Etang National Park where we picked up a walking stick and hiked 1.75 miles to the Seven Sisters Waterfalls.

Our guide pointed out some interesting trees that we’d never seen before— cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.

 

The fruit of the nutmeg tree

Eucalyptus Tree

And our hike began...

When we arrived at the starting point of the hike in Grand Etang National Park, we were given hiking sticks which proved to be a necessity for us!  Apparently there was a hard rain the night before so the trail was very muddy and slippery.  The trail was mostly either very steep going up or down and not much flat area along the way.

Two of the Seven Sister Falls.  To see the other five falls we would have had to climb the first two set of falls—which we didn’t do!

New Year’s Eve on the Ship

We celebrated New Year’s Eve on the ship with a fabulous production show and then listening to music in various lounge during the evening.