Steve and Cathy's Blog

We have crossed the Timor Sea and head into Darwin, Australia’s northernmost city of 146,000 residents, capital city of the Northern Territory, the population of which is only 244,000 people.  At 520,902 square miles, it is almost twice the size of Texas, which will give you an idea of how desolate the interior of Australia is. As we travel to the eight anticipated port calls in the immense country, we are sure to learn much more

We have now left Asia. We began this leg of the journey on March 1stin the Maldives, an island chain off of India, and we left Komodo Island, Indonesia on April 28th.  That is nearly two months where we made stops in twenty-four ports in twelve countries. What did we learn in that time?  Our answer: Where do we start?  Each of the countries and each of the cities in those countries had their own story

There is only one reason to visit here, but it is a great reason: to see Komodo dragons, the largest lizards on earth.  They live in Komodo National Park, a 1,000-square mile park spanning three of the five islands that are the only places on earth where they live. Our ship anchors out in the harbor around 10:00am.  We are all told to meet in Insignia Lounge at 10:00am, where we will each be assigned a

If you looked at the pictures of the busy tourist section of Bali that we posted yesterday, these pictures will look out of place even though they are of the same harbor.  We are going to be exploring a very different Bali today.  A beautiful day is upon us. Today our excursion is Balinese Arts & Crafts, a five-hour tour of several villages, each of which houses artists in a particular craft. Bali has a reputation

Another beautiful sunrise greets us as we travel through the Java Sea. It is a warm and pristine day, and we pass the morning quietly while anticipation of our arrival in Bali grow, as our ship glides by the beautiful Indonesian scenery. We have lunch in the Waves Grill and say good bye to one of our very favorite dining staff members, Evica (pronounced Eee-veet’-sa) from Croatia.  His contract is completed tomorrow morning.  He will get

We are rounding the island of Borneo, passing through the Karlmata Strait and into the Java Sea.  Sumatra is on our starboard side and then so shall be the island of Java.  It is shallow as seas go, with a mean depth of only 151 feet.  During the last ice age, this was exposed dry land over which Asiatic fauna migrated into western Indonesia. Today Steve finally finishes his posts on Hong Kong.  For him, this

We will start this post with a picture of the sunrise at 6:05am today.  These scenes never get old. For the fifth time on this journey, we are crossing the equator, this time at around 10:00am today.  We are entering the Southern Hemisphere again and it is autumn.  Not that you would know it where we are now, but we will feel the effects of our southerly course in the next couple of weeks. It’s been

We get up at the usual 5:45am and are greeted by yet another beautiful sunrise.  I keep putting these photos in our posts because 1) they are very beautiful and 2) it is one of the wonderful benefits we get by being at sea and it is part of our voyage.  The scene is a constantly changing one that is a great way to start the day.  These four photos below are taken between 6:30 and

As seems to be the case often, we are treated to a beautiful sunrise, a picture of which heads up this post..  It’s around 6:00am, and we have a fairly quiet day ahead of us.   Steve is determined to file a (long overdue) post on our first day in Hong Kong, and Peter Croyle will acquaint us with Kuching. In fact, since it is a quiet day without much to discuss, we will introduce Kuching, Malaysia,

The day begins with a spectacular sunrise as we approach our next port of call.  This bodes well for our day in the Sultanate of Brunei. Brunei is, in and of itself, an artificial construct, much as you would describe Law Vegas NV.  Without the power provided by Hoover Dam, how would a city, in the middle of a desert, blazing with lights, exist?  In the same way, Brunei exists as a modern, prosperous kingdom because