Indonesia

The independent nation of Indonesia is made up of over 17,500 separate islands. Our route from Darwin to Singapore took us to four of those islands each different from the last. Our first stop was Kupang West Timor, known for its colonial buildings and craft markets. I, however, was not fast enough to sign up for any of the ship's excursions and - keeping with my pledge to NOT wander off alone abroad - I was only able to capture this one little piece of the port of Tenau. Sorry, I'm sure it had much to offer but I do wish to live and tour another day. Speaking of, I saw a guy on board yesterday wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt that said "seas the day". When I told him how much I liked it, he then turned to his wife and said, "She get's it, why don't you?" Oops, didn't mean to cause trouble!

Our second Indonesian stop was Komodo named for its most famous inhabitants, or perhaps the inhabitants were named for the island, as the majority of those creatures still In existence reside in the only tourist attraction on Komodo. Indeed, if one did not have a ship excursion wherein one would be protected from any free range creatures, one could not disembark the ship. Once again, I had no such ticket to go to the National Park: home of the Komodo dragon. Yes, Virginia, there are still dragons, alive AND DEADLY here. I've tried to get a picture of this creature from some of my friends who endured the three mile hike in eighty plus degree heat and equally high humidity, but have not succeeded thus far. They look something like a GIANT lizard... and I do mean giant. They can even be bigger and more dangerous than Australia's crocodiles; they are totally meat eaters and in some cases, even cannibalistic. Maybe not the fire-breathing dragons of fairy tales, but dragons nonetheless. We were warned that they can smell blood from quite some distance "so stay far, far away if you have a fresh wound." Fortunately, all my shipmates made it back safely, albeit exhausted.

Next stop: Bali. WOW! Loved, loved, loved Bali. Beautiful beaches, abundant water sports, large pockets of affluence, steeped in tradition, geared toward tourism, home to more than 4,000,000 people, very congested streets, rush hours lasting from 10 am to 10 pm, almost as many motorbikes as Vietnam. Bali, or Benoa, as its harbor sign calls it, became a part of Indonesia in 1946, having gained it's independence from the Dutch some time ago. The first tradition our guide pointed out was in how families named their children: to denote a male child, "IB" is placed before their birth order number. He was third born, thus his name was IB Nata. Didn't catch the other three words for first, second or fourth nor the designation for females. If there is a fifth child, they simply start over again with first born. And the logic to this is. . .??

We creeped through miles and miles of traffic to a wealthy family owned jewelry factory/store where we had the opportunity to purchase "but please don't feel pressured to purchase." I was gently pressured but politely refused. parting only with many smiles and compliments. Seemed to be acceptable. From the jewelers, we traveled amongst hundreds of motorbikes to Bali Bird Park housing many rare and beautiful birds...

Knobbed Hornbill

After making friends with and/or photographing many species whose names I did not retain, we were treated to a traditional Indonesian meal (totally unlike anything Howie's Indonesian students ever prepared for us, but very good)...

To be continued...adventure calls!