February 23, 2017

Our final Sea Day (#8) for this cruise brought a sunny sky, temperature about 26, strong winds and low humidity.  The forecast for the next few days along Western Australia’s west coast was for high temperatures above 32 C and no rain.  The sea had developed waves with about two meters troughs causing the ship to sometimes creak. Only some of the waves had white caps.

     At breakfast in the dining room, we shared a table with a couple from London, England, a couple from Southampton, England, a woman from England and man from Australia.  The couple from London flew to Australia on Qantas Airlines, because the plane had the longest beds in the first class section.  They were disappointed in the toiletries supplied by the cruise ship – shampoo in a shower dispenser and bar soap – compared to what they had in their five star hotel in Sydney – shower cap, mini sewing kit, cotton swabs, mini bottles of body wash, shampoo, condition, hand cream and bar soap. There were other shortcomings noted during breakfast, which were a bit eccentric. This was their first Royal Caribbean cruise, which also includes the next cruise.  They are going to try a P & O cruise next, because their neighbours told them that the alcohol prices are cheaper with that cruise line.  On board this ship, the daily special drinks on board are $12 US plus 18% gratuities. The wife does not like that the specialty coffee, at $4 for a 12 oz size, is only served in cardboard cups; somewhere she even made a Starbucks barista find her a “proper cup”.  They noted that the level of service is not as high as Cunard Cruises, which is a much higher priced voyage.

     This morning we needed to pick-up the Fremantle/Perth excursion bus assignments, since Fremantle/Perth is also disembarkation day for about two thirds of the passengers.  Then we sat in on a Jive dance instruction by Sue and Robert.  The instructors started the steps with the man beginning with his right foot, but our experience is for the man to start with his left foot.  Although the intricate moves taught were doable, they could not be incorporated into our current swing dance repertoire.  We also attended a Tango lesson given by the stars of the Tango Buenos Aires show, but they also started their Argentine Tango lesson with the man beginning with his right foot.

     The captain’s noon announcement informed us that to arrive in Geraldton on time, an extra $20,000 of fuel is being used travelling from Port Hedland and Geraldton, due to the three hour later departure from Port Hedland yesterday.  The speed has been between 21 and 23.5 knots per hour compared to 14 to 17 knots per hour from Cairns to Darwin.

      We chose Steak and Kidney Pie or Vietnamese Fried Rice for our lunch in the dining room.  After lunch, later in the afternoon, there was a meeting in the Aurora Theater for the 670+ passengers who are staying on board for the Fremantle/Perth to Sydney cruise.  Instructions were issued regarded surrendering the current Seapass card (ID for on the ship) and obtaining the new cruise’s Seapass card in Fremantle as well as what to do if you had to switch to a different stateroom than on the first voyage.  Bob and Maureen have to move to a front of the ship stateroom four decks higher.  They will have a great view of the helicopter landing deck that was used when the pilots form Port Hedland flew off the ship yesterday evening.  The system is quite different from the Celebrity Cruises continuing cruisers procedures in Barcelona last fall.

    We spent part of the afternoon sorting the photos, from the Spain and Portugal trip, to be eventually printed into a photo album either electronic or paper.  Then a venture to the Casino before dinner.

     Just before 5:30 p.m., an “Alpha on Deck 6” announcement was broadcast on all ship’s speakers even into the staterooms and pre-empted all television channels.  I wondered what happened.

    Dinner this evening for appetizers we chose creamed wild mushroom in puffy pastry and royal crab cocktail.  The entrées were Thai Chicken Breast with red curry, edamame & shitake mushrooms, boy and steamed rice and Prime Rib Beef, potato croquettes, tomato and green beans. Desserts chosen were Grand Marnier Soufflé and Ivory Chocolate Mousse & chocolate ice cream.

     This evening’s main stage entertainment is a group of three women, called The Diamonds, singing soul, disco and popular tunes.  At the conclusion of the show, Cruise Director, Joff Eaton’s announcement was well received.  He informed the crowd that at Geraldton, the ship would be docked and not tendered.  There was a relieved cheer.

Steps  10,972

February 22, 2017

       The captain advised the passengers yesterday that the ship had been asked to arrive at Port Hedland earlier than scheduled. So, instead of docking at 9 a.m., the ship docked at 6:30 a.m. 

    We ate breakfast on Deck 11’s Windjammer buffet since when we were ready for breakfast there was still 10 minutes before the dining room opened.  We found Bob and Maureen as we were leaving and arranged to meet to take the shuttle into Port Hedland. The shuttles are complimentary, since this is a working port and it is not safe for passengers to walk through the port facilities.

   This morning’s sky had a few breaks in the white and gray clouds.  The warm moist air enveloped you as you stepped out onto the deck and we were grateful for the gentle breeze blowing.  Temperature is about 26 C.  It looked like it would rain, but the skies partly cleared by noon. But the clouds gathered again around 2:30 p.m. when the temperature had risen to +34 C and finally, around 4:30 p.m., a thunder storm drenched the ship, but the soaked surfaces were drying up by 5:30 p.m.  The ship was still in port, delayed from the scheduled 3 p.m. departure due to the priority of the iron ore carriers.  The ship departed during dinner and had to travel near top speed of 24 knots per hour for some time to make up for the late exit

    This area was home to the Karriyarra aborigines for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.  Their name for the harbour was Marapikurrinya, meaning hand pointing straight. The first European to see the deep natural port was a Dutch captain in 1628, whose ship ran aground on the sandbar by the entrance. Peter Hedland’s ship also hit a sandbar in 1863 when he was looking for a harbour. The river entrance on the American west coast near Astoria, Oregon, also has a sandbar and difficult river currents, where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean. 

    Port Hedland sits on an island joined to the mainland by an eight km causeway. The region surrounding Port Hedland and inland for hundreds of kilometers is known as the Pilbara.  The region had vast deposits of iron ore which were first noted by Australian explorers in the mid 19th century, but not commercially mined until the 1960s. Inland from Port Hedland are deposits of high grade iron ore that can supply 25% of the world for at least the next 50 years; plus quantities of lower grade ore can be mined when the high grade iron ore is exhausted.  The open pit mines operate using driverless ore trucks to take the ore to the railcars. The railcars form long driverless trains requiring four engines to haul them to Port Hedley where the ore is loaded into ocean freighters to go to Asia.  When the port opened in 1966, 29,500 ton capacity ships could be loaded in a day.  Now, the huge ships can be loaded at a rate of 40,000 tons per hour. Water is sprayed on the ore as it is dropped into the cargo holds, to reduce the red ore dust which used to cover everything in the town. Port Hedland is the largest iron ore loading port in the world. The ocean was shallow in the area so a channel needed to be dredged through the former Mangrove swamp to allow the huge freighters access to the deep harbour to get the loads out to the ocean.  There is a large sand bar of dredged material that keeps growing. It is a difficult harbour to enter due to the seven meter tides and the strong and tricky river currents at the entrance. Looking out from Deck 12, you can see the port operation.  We saw two ships depart the port accompanied by two or three tugboats nudging them into the middle of the channel.  Within the port facilities, there were massive piles of white salt and piles of iron ore. You can see truck trains of iron ore.  These are truck tractors that are hauling three or four trailers behind them.   Looking out to the many wharfs you could see which ships were ready to leave as they were sitting low in the water loaded with iron ore.  Other ships were waiting to be loaded. Other resources shipped include manganese, discovered in the 1930s, and salt, which is reclaimed from the sea, in ponds where the sun evaporates the sea water and levels pure salt. Salt is used by industries to make many chemicals. There also are traces of gold separated from the water that can accumulate and be worthwhile to salvage at the bottom of the salt ponds.  Today reached a high of +34 C with a breeze to assist the evaporation in the low lying tidal flats. In spring (October and November) temperature can reach into the 40s C.

    Asbestos used to be mined in the area, but is no longer.  When the dangers of the mineral were discovered many of the workers and families living nearby died from their exposure to asbestos and Australians refer to its toxicity as their Chernobyl.

    The loaded ore carriers have a clearance in the channel of as little as 25 cm and must exit at high tide.  The Radiance of the Seas clearance is about eight meters.

    We stopped at the Information Center for a map and to update the tabloid using the Wi-Fi; then explored the historic west end of Port Hedland finding the Dalgety House Museum. The museum is housed in the old Dalgety Company building where the business distributed food and supplies to the pastoral lands inland. We learned about the local history of Camel racing as well as horse racing and Gymkhanas.  There was information about the Karriyarra people and their culture, the arrival of Europeans, the mining, disastrous cyclones and the disappearance of the Adelaide Steamship Company ship SS Koombana carrying 83 passengers and 74 crew bound for Broome, in March 1912 in a cyclone. It was a blow to the coastal communities since there were local officials on board the ship. It had operated along the coast bringing supplies and a means of travel and even had the luxury of refrigeration.

    Port Hedland is located in the most cyclone prone coast in Australia.  Port Hedland’s worst cyclone was in 1937.  It damaged the railway, built in 1911, that brought fresh water to the port and other means of getting fresh water were needed. The average rainfall is 303 mm compared to Perth’s rainfall of 773 mm.

    After learning some of Port Hedland’s history we continued our walk and stopped in to the pub in The Esplanade Hotel where Larry ordered a Rogers beer brewed at Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle and Gulong.  The temperature had climbed to 32 C and the humidity seemed high.

   The shuttle stop was at the Visitor Center.  During the morning some passengers were able to hold baby kangaroos, Joeys, that were five months old and 500 cm long wrapped in blankets.  They had been bottle fed before being allowed to be held by people for photos.  The shuttle route went about two km to the shopping center for people to shop before returning to the ship.  There was a line of people waiting for the shuttles that at noon were running about every five minutes with full loads.

    We arrived back at the ship and the clouds had diminished and the sun was beating down at a temperature of 34 C and it felt humid at 69%. There was a presentation by one of the Port Hedland marine pilots, Mark Ayre, about the port.  The port is quite busy with most of the ships going to China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East.  The pilot spoke about ship’s clearance to negotiate the channel and the unpredictable currents that necessitate the use of up to four tugs to guide the ship through the 24 km long 184 meter wide channel out to the Indian Ocean. The channel is dredged annually.  One cargo that is shipped to the Middle East is camels.  Fog can move in quickly, sometimes at 20 knots per hour (over 30 km per hour).  The accuracy of the GPS on the tugs is within 30 cm, much better than on most vehicles.  The largest ship using the Port Hedland harbour is the WozMaz which is 345 meters long and 60 meters wide and can carry a load of 260,000 tons. 

   After the presentation we had coffee with Bob and Maureen then read until it was time for dinner.  We noticed that a water feature in the Centrum (main lobby) had started to work, giving the gentle sounds of water as it trickled from Deck 5 down to Deck 5.  Dinner dress was Australian casual which was not much different than most casual dress evenings.  The starters chosen were mixed green salad, antipasti and Minestrone soup.  The main course was Tiger prawns (shrimp) or chicken marsala with mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus and carrots.  We both chose Tiramisu for dessert. We danced in the Colony Club to the ship’s orchestra which played a variety of dance music including our request for a Samba.

     The entertainer this evening was Phil Cass, a comic magician. The show was not your average magic show and very entertaining.

Steps  13,383

February 21, 2017

     Another beautiful Sea Day (#7) with a calm sea and sunny sky showing just a hint of tiny clouds at the extreme edge of the horizon as we walked some circuits around Deck 5 before we went for breakfast in the Deck 4 dining room.  The temperature on my little “Midway” compass & thermometer read 26 C and there was a brisk wind.

After breakfast it was time to take our completed Australian Customs form to the Deck 5 dining room balcony where a process was in place to return passports and then go through Australia Customs. Just a short wait in line, then one of four Australian Customs and Border Services officers interviewed you.  Since we are staying on board for the next cruise, we then had to surrender our passports to the ship again.  It will assist the process of embarking on the second part of the journey in Perth, since we will be travelling to New Zealand on part of the next cruise along with over 600 other guests.  The passengers (all 2,092) on each deck were assigned a time to go to see the Australian Customs and Border Services officers over an eight hour period.

    We returned to Deck 5 to walk more circuits.  The temperature had risen to 28 C, the clouds at the horizon had multiplied and were a little larger, leaving a space between the sea and the sky before the appearance of the line of puffier clouds, but overall it was sunny.  As we finished our walk, we met Bob and Maureen as they were starting their walk.

    The captain’s noon announcement disclosed that the ship is sailing to the east of the main shipping route to China. Both the air temperature at noon and the ocean temperature is 28 C.   There were sightings of freighters, many carrying iron ore to China and Japan from Port Hedland.

     After lunch we attended the Port Hedland presentation by Philip Shubert, his final talk.  The town is a major port for the export of iron ore from the inland mines in the Pilbara region.  We joined Maureen and Bob for coffee in the Windjammer buffet restaurant while they ate their lunch.

    Then it was back to the stateroom to purchase a day’s Internet package and then connect to the Internet to upload the past few day’s posts and read before getting ready for dinner with a formal dress code this evening.

    The choices this evening were Gourmet Mushroom Meatballs, Jalapeño Potato Soup and Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Salad.  We both chose Cranberry-Apple Turkey Roulade with mashed potato, steamed carrot, Brussels sprouts and eggplant slices.  The desserts chosen were Kahlua Cake and Honey Walnut Tart with vanilla ice cream.

   The evening show was a tango dance and song show by the travelling performance show: “Tango Buenos Aires”.  It was just as good as the Tango show that we saw in Buenos Aires, five years ago.

Final step count 12,639

February 20, 2017

This morning we climbed up the 145 stairs to Deck 11 for breakfast at 6 a.m., even before the sun rose.  The ship was anchored and the lifeboats were being lowered to transport people to shore as this is a tendered port. The temperature was about 24 C, the sky was part cloudy, but a bit of distant haze, the sea was calm and there was little wind.  Mount Batur could not be seen.

   By 7, we were waiting for the staff to begin to send the first groups from the Aurora Theater to the tender boats for the ride into Benoa, Bali harbour and the port’s cruise terminal. The boat ride took about 25 minutes accommodating 92 passengers.  Some people commented on the plastic debris floated in the harbour. We walked past the colourfully costumed female dancers, in red and gold costumes dancing to traditional music provided by eight musicians, through the terminal and found our 32 person capacity air conditioned bus. The dance performance was probably a traditional Barong dance of the ancient Legong style which is characterized by intricate finger movements. Then the nearly full bus waited 20 minutes for the final two people from our group, assigned in the theater, to make their way, the 600 meters from the pier, to the bus. 

    Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sumba Islands, between Java and Lombok. It is slightly larger than Prince Edward Island having a population of 4.2 million.  This Indonesian province has three large volcanoes and five smaller ones, kilometers of sandy beaches, wildlife and tropical forests.  It is a popular vacation destination for the residents of Western Australia.  83% of Bali’s population is Hindu, in contrast to the other Indonesian islands which practice the Muslim religion. In the 11th century when the Islamic religion was introduced to the neighbouring island of Java; the Hindu residents moved to Bali.  Indonesia has a population of 250 million, living on its 17,554 islands. It is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population.  From east to west it is 190 km and from north to south it is 90 km wide. The social structure of Bali is based on a Caste System that our guide explained to us. About 80 % of the population is part of the third caste with the first and second caste as higher socially and economically. 

   Ari, our guide, wore native men’s clothes including a men’s sari. He distributed to the passengers traditional “basket hats” that can double as fans. We were warned to only drink water from sealed water bottles, which Ari provided. Ari explained that each village has three temples in the community and each family compound, within a village, has its own shrine to the three Hindu gods Brahma (underground), Shiva (main god), and Vishnu (ground), for honouring their ancestors, built in the northeast corner of the compound courtyard. Northeast is the place of the holy spirit (Shiva) in the Hindu religion.  Family compounds are assigned by the community and no one owns the community land.  Only in the capital of Denpasar can property be bought and sold.  People who were not born in Bali are not allowed to buy land.

    As the driver negotiated the rush hour traffic, we noticed that most the building has roofs of red tile, thatch or metal and constructed of concrete blocks covered in a smooth concrete white washed coat or brick. Looking down the narrower lanes reminded us of the hutong alleyways in Beijing, China.  There were many cars like Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans and even more Vespa scooters and small motor bikes that flitted in and out of the traffic. As we entered the capital, Denpasar, we noticed familiar names such as, Dunk’n Donuts, KFC, FedEx, DHL, McDonalds and Pizza Hut.

    The first stop was the Celuk Village's gold and silversmith workshops and store to view the silversmith’s creating intricate pieces and admire the jewelry and other items for sale in the store. The silver sold is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. After a chance to shop here, the bus continued to Kehen Temple in the city of Bangli. Bangli also is the name for one of the nine kingdoms of Bali. We passed the Tirta Gangga Water Palace in East Bali which was the former Royal Palace.

    Kehen Temple, or Pura Kehen, is a Hindu temple first built in the 13th century, but rebuilt every 25 years, to bury the five metals used in its construction.  It is part of the religious ceremonies. Kehen Temple is an important regional temple. Formerly, it was known as “Hyang Api” (God of Fire) temple, Brahmen who protects the temple. The stairs base has guardian statues which relate to the story of Ramayana. To enter the temple property your knees must be covered and a sarong is used to accomplish this for both men and women.  There are people selling beautiful sarongs for just $5 Australian; we were lucky that our guide provided the temporary use of sarongs.

It is 11 stories high and exhibits Chinese features due to influence from the marriage of a Balinese king to a Chinese princess in the 8th century. This marriage brought Chinese immigrants to Bali in the 8th century and with them they introduced rice to the culture. It is a staple grown in rice paddies around the region with two crops per year. From the base of the temple high up you can see an eleven storey tower with a Chinese influenced architecture. Balianese Hinduism is a mixture of ancient beliefs combined with 6th century Buddhism and 11th century Hinduism from Java.

      11 is a significant number in the Hindu religion and represents directions and gods which all have corresponding colours. East and West have special significance with East having white as its colour and yellow or golden being the colour for West.  These two colours were seen throughout the day on shrines.  The Swastika has been a Hindu symbol of peace for many centuries. It originally came from Iran through Europe and India. The first level of the temple required people to climb 45 stairs to the lower courtyard where a 700 year old Banyan tree grows. There are several intricately carved and decorated structures on this level.  Climb another 28 stairs to the second level and third level you arrive at the base of the eleven storey tower which rests on the back of a turtle.  This level has something to do with the balance of life and keeping everything stable.  The second level has a wall where cemented into it are blue and white English china dishes depicting English scenes.

      Back in the bus we travelled to the next stop, Penglipuran, a village of about 650 people living in the family compounds of traditional architectural styles. As it looked like rain later, Ari, issued a poncho to each passenger. (We did have our umbrellas with us.) Along the way we passed rice fields newly planted and flooded and fields where the crop was ready to be harvested.  It was a pleasant walk that sparked a memory of the ancient Roman streets of Pompeii that we saw last fall.  The group visited the village school which a collection of building for administration building and different grades forming a courtyard.  The public school system is free, but the children’s families have to pay for uniforms and books. The children are taught in the Malaysian language but speak Balinese at home and learn some English starting in grade three. The classrooms contained a wooden desk and chair for each child and blackboards or green boards, no computers were noticed in any of the classrooms.  The Malaysian language is spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.   Ari explained that in the Bali culture the left hand is considered unclean, so only use the right hand for giving and receiving, and for picking up food.  Children are forced to write with their right hand.  The children attend school six days per week from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

      Then we returned to the bus for a drive to Kintamani Village for an Indonesian buffet lunch at Lakeview Resort which had a good view of active volcano, Mount Batur.  It erupted once in 1918 and villagers were advised to move to higher ground, but refused and the lava flow stopped just before a village temple.  Again in 1928 another part of the volcano erupted and villagers were told by government officials that they must move to higher ground, again they refused and the lava flow stopped just before a village temple.  But in 1972 a third eruption occurred and the villagers were forced to evacuate to higher ground and the lava flow destroyed the temple.  There was a minor eruption in 2001, which you can still see the black lava path.  Batur Lake is situated in the caldera of the first massive eruption.  We enjoyed the buffet with stir fried vegetables, chicken, fish and other good food.  Desert was a selection of Lychee fruit, black rice pudding with coconut milk and pumpkin cookies and tea or coffee.  After taking photos of the view we walked back to the bus as a sprinkle of rain started that evolved into a 20 minute down pour as the bus drove to our next stop at a painting gallery.

    The bus passed some coffee plantations and more rice paddies.  There are three different kinds of rice grown - White rice which is usually used for steamed rice; Red rice which has less carbohydrate and is better for the diabetics of the population; and Black rice which is used for pudding.

    As the bus turned into the parking lot for the Art Gallery, on the other side of the road was rice laid out on the ground to dry.  There were many colourful paintings of different styles in the art gallery.  The group finished their viewing in less than 30 minutes and we were off to the final stop of the day, the batik factory at Kesiman Village.

    At the batik factory we were shown the covered workshop where the crafts women created the batik patterns and how the waxing and dying process worked before browsing in the store.  There was a selection of cotton and silk fabric as well as shirts, blouses, dresses, kimonos, ties, scarves and children’s clothes.  Larry found a nice blue patterned shirt.  We were told that the prices were fixed and there was no bargaining at the store, but he was offered a discount of 20% off a price he considered was fair and willing to pay.

  Then it was time to return to the ship after an excursion of more than eight hours.  We passed the statue of Ramayana at the start of a bridge. It is a large white monument taking up the size of a hockey rink. 

   Since we needed to return to the ship by tender, we found the line though the Port of Benoa terminal building of about 500 people and growing.  We needed to show our Seapass cards to enter the terminal, next the usual security processing of the X-ray machine of contents of bags, backpacks and purses, then people.  Another line, for waiting in the shade before proceeding to the 600 meter walk along the pier to where the tenders docked. Then a 30 minute wait, on the pier under cloudy skies, but with ice water, from the ship, being offered several times. In the tender it was a 25 minute ride to the ship, but then a 25 minute wait for the tenders ahead of us to unload.  We entered our stateroom one hour and fifty minutes after we had been dropped off by the bus.

  Too late for our 6 p.m. reservation for dinner with Bob and Maureen, we cleaned up and climbed the 145 stairs to Deck 11 and the Windjammer buffet.  There was a nice selection of food – salads, hot pork loin, steamed rice, vegetarian paella, scalloped potatoes, hot green beans, chicken and buns.  The desserts selected were hazel nut mousse, orange almond slice and lemon vanilla mousse.  The ice cold beverage choice was water or tropical mango juice.

   During dinner, the ship’s captain made an announcement that everyone was just about on board and apologized for the length of time it took to get on board with the tendering process.  By 7 p, m,, the ship was leaving the Port of Benoa and sailing into the Indian Ocean on the way to Port Hedland, Australia.

    After finishing the meal, we stopped on Deck 6 to see the vocalist Don Winsor in the Aurora Theater early show, then decided to find Bob and Maureen.  They were just exiting the dining room. They had only returned to the ship and their stateroom barely in time to get ready for dinner.  We all went to the Lattetude café for cappuccinos or café mochas to catch up on the day.

    We returned to the stateroom to find the Cruise Compass for tomorrow advising the passengers that they needed to complete another Australian Immigration form since the ship will be returning to Australia after having been in Indonesia.  Customs officers will be onboard all day tomorrow to process the ship’s crew and passengers forms.

    Claire set to work to write the blog while Larry went to see how lucky he would be at the Casino.

Steps today   10,271