The famous Komodo Dragon, an endangered species of which there are only 3-5 thousand left in the wild, exists only within Komodo National Park, which covers nearly 1,000 square miles of Komodo Island and the two smaller islands of Rinca and Padar in Indonesia. The park was established in 1980 in order to protect its…
Continue reading →We stood before King Neptune once again to seek permission to cross the equator as we sailed northward this time. At 1100 hours on June 10, 2015, having missed the first Crossing Ceremony, Dean, still a Polliwog, performed his dutiful initiation, kissed the fish, and was anointed with the green slime….thus elevating his status from…
Continue reading →I always imagined landing on the shores of Bali, that I would step off the ship to be greeted by a brown-skinned, flower-adorned native handing me a Mai Tai with a tiny umbrella, as I sink my toes into the warm, fine, white sandy beach. Not. While as we cruised into port I did see…
Continue reading →If you’ve been checking our itinerary you know that I am woefully behind on my blog, since in real time we are now in French Polynesia and my recent posts show us still in Southeast Asia. I am about to recount a momentous event, however, that occurred over a month ago, and will actually happen…
Continue reading →Locally known as the “Cat City”, the name of the city of Kuching is arguably thought to derive from the Malay word kucing, meaning cat. It is the capital and largest city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak and the largest city on the island of Borneo, with a population of about 600,000. With…
Continue reading →Many thanks to Broadmore Kennels (and Marsha) for taking such good care of him.
Continue reading →We docked at the deep port of Maura, a city in the tiny sovereign state of Brunei Darussalam on the north coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Sarawak state of Malaysia and, with a total population of about 421,000, Brunei…
Continue reading →As I’ve mentioned before, this journey has been a great lesson in geography and culture, not the least of which includes the island of Borneo, which seemed like an almost imaginary place until now. It does indeed exist and on the island is the city of Kota Kinabalu, the Malaysian state capital of Sabah province,…
Continue reading →The impact of war has widely influenced Asia and I am struck by the remains of it, both physically and emotionally, at the places we have visited. As much as the South Koreans dislike the Chinese, our Filipino tour guide expressed an equally unmasked disdain for the Japanese. An hour’s ferry ride across from Manila,…
Continue reading →Real time, May 15, 11:00 a.m. We are are on the northern edge of the Tasman Sea, arriving in Sydney, Australia tomorrow morning. Rough mounting seas, 14 to 16 foot waves with heavy gales to 47 knots. The view from our veranda on deck 6, overlooking the bow.
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