Bali

31 May 2010
Hobo 1 is not feeling very well today. He suspects he is getting the flu and doesn’t have number 2 daughter in calling distance to offer him comfort or worse still - no chemist shop nearby to purchase the necessary condiments to meet his special needs. Never the less I feel sure he will survive.

Welcome to all new followers. We discovered the comments section on the blog today and it was great to see you are all keeping track of our journeying.

Bali was surprising, interesting and worth exploring.

The day started with a half hour tender ride to Benoa and an hour and a half ride to the Safari Park. There are 4 million people in Bali and I can believe it. From Benoa to Ubud we were supposed to be driving from village to village but there was absolutely no break in the housing. The only thing to change was the wares being sold on the streets because each village is distinguished by its crafts – sculpture, woodwork, carving, silverware, batik etc.

The roads were amazingly narrow. Thank goodness most of the transport is by scooter but we invariably met the odd bus, car or truck along with chickens, dogs and pedestrians which made for some exhilarating moments.

The elephant park was even better than we imagined. We fed elephants, patted three of the cutest little babies, sat on the knee of the bull elephant and took a 35 minute ride around the park and out through the village before returning to a beautiful smorgasbord luncheon. The surrounds were delightful and while everyone else complained of the heat in Bali we had an idyllic day up in the hills.

By afternoon a little chop had come up and our tender ride back to the boat was rather rough and wet and slowed down the movement of passengers back to the boat. It even meant the ship had to swing on its anchor to pull the tenders back on board as it was too rough on the exposed side of the boat. So our sunset sail-away had to be delayed until 7:45pm. We are now in the middle of the Java Sea on our way to Singapore.

The highlight of today will be our second formal night... or maybe it was the tropical fruit lunch...fruit of every shape, size and type imaginable piled high for all to select as much as they desire ...served poolside on Riviera Deck 12.

Signing off...have to prepare for dinner...we are in a dilemma... we have to choose between lobster and monk fish ...you can see life continues to present challenges.