March 10- to finish out the day, the grounds area around the Gardens by the Bay and the Cloud Forest. After seeing the Marina Bay Sands…. it was beautiful but impossible to go to the top, we caught a taxi back to the hotel The pictures following leaving there, were very amazing buildings too. BTW…. Taxis in Singapore are very, very reasonable.

The following day…. March 11, we took the hop on hop off bus

Then March 12….. on the way to airport… that was an expensive taxi ride!!!

Singapore is very nice, clean, architecturally interesting. beautiful sites, seemed safe… I felt comfortable here.

Another beautiful place we saw on the first day in Singapore…the Cloud Forest. It has one of the tallest inside waterfalls in the world. Again, this is inside a glass dome building with no support beams. The flowers/plants in this dome, are predominantly orchids but with some other tropical plants.

Still playing catchup….

Coming into Singapore

These are all from the “Garden by the Bay”. Amazing…..It is totally without support beams!

At 10:45 we leave port in taxi van with Hari..

Population of Jakarta is 20-22 million  during day but only 12 million at night. Traffic is a nightmare.

He tells us they “have had as much as 1.5 to 4 metres rain in one day…. 26 hours that caused major flooding… a dam collapsed. Seems like every 5 years it happens. Government doesn’t seem to work on a solution.”

Trash goes to an area of 200 hectares and 5 metres deep out in country. No recycling is apparent by government. Some do recycle plastic and motorcycle oil but it is done by the private sector. There are drainage ditches that go to lake that is later pumped out into ocean.  Nice!!!

But….we drove through tree lined roads …. Golf course with nice housing. 12 billion rupiah for houses in new Chinatown (1 million CAD)…. So expensive 

What a waste of time visiting this city…. Nothing of interest and we are here for 2 days…

These are some pictures taken of the brunch the chefs put on for us.

And some more ships on the high seas.

These 9 are from the day before…..leaving the port and on route to and at the rice fields where we went ATVing.

Our guide today is Hartana. On the way …..the sights …..

Bali is 506 Sq Kms with a population of 4.2 million. It is 11 degrees south of equator. The rainy season Nov-March. Many people died in mud slides. It averages 125 inches of rain per year. 

The Hindu religion that is celebrated in Bali is different than in India. There are about 700 local languages in Indonesia but only one national language. 29 of March is day of silence when everything stops for 24 hours. It is a time for meditation, reflection, etc. The following day is celebrated as New Year’s Day.

Tourism is number one, outdoing agriculture as main income.  Arabica coffee beans as well as rustica coffee is grown and cocoa for chocolate. Did you know there are 4 types of rice…..ordinary white rice, sticky white, black and red. They do grow grapes for locally made wines 

The area was colonized by Dutch for 350 years…..and then by Japanese until the bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At that point the country became became a republic. Elections are held every 5 years. 

We are going to Lovina Beach Hotel for a day of sun and relaxation. Below are pictures of the “beach hotel”. The drounds were lovely but the beach……that left a whole lot to be desired.

Leaving the port……the waters were so full of garbage….

I am still playing catchup with my posts

I booked us something to do today, March 4th, my birthday. We went quadding (ATVing) solo, near Ubud. We first travelled on rough roads through rice fields….just to get used to handling our machines. Then it was tearing up hills, through tunnels and a couple of waterfalls, crashing into the ones infront of us on steep declines (cuz even with using both front and rear brakes it was too steep and slippery). Of course the skies had opened up ….torrential tropical downpour. And then through a water course. It was so much fun. Our driver thought we were pretty crazy to be doing this at our age….lol!!!

Later we had dinner at one of the specialty restaurants on board the ship…..Jacques, a French cuisine. I had besides wine and appies, lobster as my main. They sang happy birthday along with a cake. What a feast! And we all got dressed up. A perfect day.

OMG it is soooo hot. We arrived here around noon and will be overnighting it. 

Our tour today is Royal Temple and Tanah Lot. 

Our guide is Rata. He tells us that Wayan is the name of 1st born boy, Gediyan is 2nd born (or is it the other way around…lol) and are not named for 105 days. They have no family name. 

No buildings are allowed over the height of coconut tree or 15 metres-5 floors. There are 57 districts on Bali with a total population 4,400,000. There are three religions but mostly here in Bali, 85-90% are Hindu. 

First stop was to a batik factory ……in the style of Bali. Part of “world heritage” since 2009. 

The swastika is “protection” for house like a cross is in front of Catholic home. A flower is needed everyday as offering. 

The Royal Temple

Tanah Lot built in 16th century …. Is in the sea. 

I took the day off….no excursions.  I only took pictures of ships in the harbour.  

Not much so decided to post other boats/ship we have seen along the way.

Some you have to wonder how they stay afloat.

Next post should be a little more interesting.

Today we are off to see Borobudur, a UNESCO World heritage site. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple built around 800AD. This is a very long bus ride there and back (9hours). It is a 3 hour drive just to get there. The high today is going to be 31C…without the humidity factored in.

BTW….our buses were escorted by a police because were “VIP’s” and had only so much time to get there and back. It was kind of crazy all these big buses actually driving into oncoming traffic…making the motorbikes and other vehicles move over. BTW, it’s another country where they drive on the left. Amazing toll highways. 

Samarang is 6th largest city in Indonesia …. Is international port for import/export.  Name means Tamarang tree/ jungle. It is only 1.5-2 metres above sea level. There are 17,400 islands in Indonesia. 60% of the 287 million people in the country live on Java. Dutch colonized this area as well. 

It is the first day of Ramadan so no eating during daylight hours. 86.5% are Muslim. Most people in country are involved in agriculture. Those in city are mostly working for government or tourisms(hotels). There are more than 25 universities in the city. 

129 volcanos on the island and 27 of which are active. Every volcano has a temple, partly because material made to build is volcanic rock….readily available. Merapi volcano “is most active volcano in world” (I thought it was Etna)… average eruption every 4 years but hasn’t erupted since 2010.  Ungaran volcano is closed to trekkers cuz it to dangerous. 

Trees ….. teak, mahogany, jack fruit …. and Dorion . Biggest producers of rice, coffee, tea but biggest exports are oil, palm oil, textiles, 

The 2nd President after independence Suharto, decreed everyone should have semi-permanent housing made of brick and cement. Before they were made of bamboo and of course didn’t stand up to the flooding, typhoons and cyclones. Still some are made of bamboo but only the very poor. “Indo” and “nesia” comes from India and nation hence Indonesia…. where the Hinduism and Buddhism came from. 

Ambarawa … is the former Dutch settlement (very Protestant).  The Dutch were here 300 years…. It was a 5 year war to independence. Steam trains. Rice take 100 days to grow. Alternately vegetables and tobacco. Rubber tree…  is exported. 

Magelang meaning middle and ring. Is in middle or ring of 8 volcanos…. Has a military college. 

At the Temple of Borobudur you have to wear sandles..Only 1200people/ day allowed to enter into the UNESCO site since COVID. There are 150 of us…5 buses.. we will be the only ones allowed during our time there. Now it is “quality” tourism  where before it was “quantity” when 50,000/ weekend were allowed in.  It covers 85 hectares and is 1300 years old.

I went from karma or “Hell” at the bottom(first level) to nirvana, the 4th level at the top and back into hell. Thought I was going to be sick. But if you know me at all, you know that I am very determined. I thought “ I am here so I am going to make it to the top”….and I did.

After leaving the site ……midway around Magelang city is a rain forest and doesn’t it start raining. Makes for good rice fields though. Every city has mosque, Buddhist temple and Hindu temple. Guess what we see in middle of Java……Mc Ds and Starbucks. 

There is free health care insurance  for poor people….. under 5 year old children. Education …primary is free for 9 years and is mandatory. After that … you pay. 

Our guide is Ipzul (Saiful). He needs 5-6 million rupiah to survive…or 300 USD OR 438CAD/ month….for family of 4 and sometimes his parents …. OMG!!!

At one point the bus driver slams on the brakes, pulling over …. Cuz the luggage door had opened while we were driving. The brakes stank for a good 10-15 min. The way these guys are driving in order to get us to the port in time was amazing. We not only had a police car at the lead but now one at the rear as well… amazing. 

Huge highway construction