We have spent 4 days in Singapore. We had a wonderful guide, Wadi for 2 days and the remainder of our time was on our own. Singapore has been a sovereign nation since 1965. The island nation is 280 square miles in total. Our guide told us you can drive from one side to the other in about 1 hour. There are many walking and biking paths throughout the city itself. The weather here is always hot.

The original settlement was founded by Stamford Raffle, 200 years ago. There are many places and buildings named for him, especially the Raffles Hotel. The current population of Singapore is 6.1 million. The original city was set up in sections devoted to different nationalities, Chinese, Arab, Indian, English and others. Because of this there are many colorful areas to see.

Our hotel, The Fullerton, was on the original shoreline. There are many areas that have been expanded by landfill. The hotel was the original post office. The country currently has 7 million trees, with the projected next million planted by 2030. Singapore has 4 official races and 4 official languages. 80% of the people live in public housing, but it is very nice looking, well maintained and after a period of time you are able to “purchase” your apartment on a 99 year lease. The way the young people propose is to say “I hear a flat is coming up should we apply together”. There is almost no homelessness.

Singapore was called the lion city, because when it was first discovered someone thought they saw a lion, but it was probably a tiger, but none the less they named the city for the lion, Singa. On our first day we visited Waterloo Street which is in Chinatown. The streets were decorated in red with many trees of mandarin oranges. This is the beginning of the Chinese new year, starting about 3 days after we visited this area. Traditionally you give red packets which contain money and mandarin oranges. We were able to go into a Chinese temple. We heard about how they buy a bundle of sticks, shake them until 1 falls out and then take that to the fortune teller.

Our next stop was on Arab street, and these people were getting ready for Ramadan, the traditional fasting time.

The Merlion was adopted as the mascot in 1971. The Singaporeans eat 6 times a day and stay up late and rise early. Our guide said, they walk fast, eat fast and play fast. We had lunch at fabulous Chinese restaurant. The food was some of the best we have had at a group lunch.

This ended our first day in Singapore. It had been terribly hot and when we got to our beautiful hotel we cleaned up, and were too tired to go out to dinner. Actually after the big lunch and drinks, we did not need much in the way of food.

Since this has been a very long post, I will do subsequent days in another post.

So far, Singapore does not disappoint.

After 3 days at sea we arrived at our first port in Bali, Benoa. Balinese culture is deeply rooted in Hinduism. Benoa is located in southeastern Bali. Bali is part of the Indonesian republic which was established August 17, 1945. The island of Bali has a population of 4.6 million. The island has many immigrants who come here to find work in the tourism industry. Other than tourism, the main economic activity is rice farming.

Education through high school is free. So is healthcare. This has only been the case in the past 14 years. Many of the young people do not go on to college. There is a great deal of illiteracy among the older population.

We learned a great deal about the culture of the Balinese. When children are born they are called by their birth order. There are 4 names because there are 4 directions. I did not get the names but if you were the first born you would be called North 1, but if you were the 5th child you would be called North 2. Our guide had a small flower offering on the bus, so we would be safe and return to the port unharmed. They are very respectful and believe we are all human.

As we drove we saw small temple structures that are dedicated to their ancestors. Many had cloth draped over them. Every family has these temples and believe that the spirit of those who have passed before reside in them. They believe in reincarnation and make a daily flower offering to their ancestors.

We went to the Royal Temple first. It was very traditional in that it was only altar like places for worship. We could not go in that area, but there was a walled walkway that we could follow. It was not in very good repair. They still have a royal family, but they have no importance in the running of the country. It was built in 1634.

After visiting the Royal temple we drive to Tanah Lot, another temple from the 17th century. It was on the coast and the shore line was rocky and there were crashing waves.

Our second day was from the port of Celukan Bawang on the north shore of the island. Bali is one of 17,000 island that make up Indonesia. All of Indonesia has a population of 279 million and is the 14th largest country in the world by area.

Our guide told us to not expect much since Bali is a 3rd world country. We already knew that from our first day of touring. The roads were narrow, winding and crowded. Motorbikes were the most numerous means of transportation with a helmet law in place, but many rode without a helmet. Many of the drivers had small children in front of them on the motorbike. Our guide told us that there are 17,000 licensed guides in Bali and they only work sporadically. He works at a rice field when he is not guiding.

The Balinese go to some sort of market for food daily, mainly because they do not have refrigerators in their homes. We passed many small homes and our guide said that the people do not own them, but are passed down in a family by generation. Once you have a house it is the family’s forever.

Bali gets about 7 million tourists a year. The areas we saw were not pretty. There was garbage everywhere and ramshackle buildings. We were disappointed in our visit, we thought we would see pretty beaches, lush landscape, sort of like Bali Hai.

Our first stop was at the Royal Palace. It was not ornate or fancy, by our standards. However, when you compare it to the small houses we saw as we drove it was palatial.

After the Royal Palace we went to a Chinese Temple. We were able to see all of it, because they were preparing for a holiday and had all of it open.

Our final stop was at the Aneko Beach Hotel. It was a 3 star hotel but looked nice. We had lunch there and the option to walk to the beach. The beach here, like all the beaches we saw, was not very pretty, the sand was a dark grey and the water not very colorful.

We were disappointed in Bali, I guess we did not realize how poor the island is. There are obviously high end resorts and perhaps if we had seen them our impression would have been different.

We now have two more sea days before we get to Singapore and the end of the cruise part of our trip.

Our ship docked in Fremantle, but our excursion took us to Perth and Fremantle. Fremantle is located on the Swan River. As with most places in Australia, this area was inhabited by Aboriginal people for thousands of years with Dutch explorers coming in the 1600s but not settled until 1829 by the British and named for Charles Fremantle who was the one who claimed the area for the British.

It was also a convict settlement with the convicts building the Fremantle Prison. Convicts were no longer brought here after 1868, and now the building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It closed in 1986.

We followed the river from Fremantle to Perth. The river itself is very wide and used by the locals for sailing, jet skiing, wind surfing and other water sports.Our first stop was at King’s Park. It was established in 1901 and is just slightly smaller than Central Park in New York City. It has hiking trails, a huge botanical garden and lots of open spaces for the locals to use. It is mainly located at the top of Mount Eliza. The Aboriginal people believe the Great Spirit created the Swan River and there is some mythology about a Rainbow Serpent. The Rainbow Serpent is a major creator deity in Australian Aboriginal mythology, symbolizing water, fertility, and the life cycle. Represented as a giant snake, often with a rainbow-colored body, this Dreamtime figure shaped the landscape—creating rivers, mountains, and waterholes—and is revered as a protector of water, bringing both life-giving rains and, if angered, chaotic floods or drought

Perth was settled in 1829 and the area which also includes Fremantle has a population of 1.75 million. It is a big city in all ways, tall building, traffic lights and lots of restaurants and shops. Because the west coast of Australia is very dry, this is the most settled area on this coast. Perth is the most isolated city in the world, because it is not near any other major city. The Perth airport is actually located in Fremantle because the land is not as stable in Perth.

Our next stop was at Cottesloe Beach. It is right on the Indian Ocean. The waters of the Indian Ocean are very dark blue, like India ink. The area is very windy. There are lots of shipwrecks off this coast. Actually, the search for the missing Malaysia aircraft that went down about 10 years ago is being conducted in this part of the Indian Ocean.

Located on Geographe Bay, is the town of Busselton, a vibrant coastal city on the southwest region of Western Australia. It serves as the primary gateway to the world famous Margaret River wine region. It is also a top holiday destination in Australia. The area has been inhabited for 40,000 years by the Noongar Aboriginal people. The area was settled by French settlers in 1832. Many of the towns still have their Aboriginal names and those that end in “up” indicate they are near water.

The population of the area is 34,000 but during holidays it can almost triple. There were many hotels, campgrounds and air b and b’s. We anchored and had to tender in to the town. They have a jetty that extends out into the bay that is almost 1.5 kilometers long. They run a train on it to bring people to the end, where there is a natural aquarium.

The timber industry is big in this part of Australia with very little farming. There are, however, many wineries, some huge and some boutique.

Many of the housing subdivisions are named for a sailer who went overboard and was never found, Vasse. There is a winery named for him as well. This was the most city like town since Melbourne.

Margaret River was named for the cousin of Mr. Bussel, who was the person the town was named for. Margaret River, in the 1960s was a hippie community. Then it was discovered that grapes grew well in this area and the wineries followed. Many of the wineries not only do tastings, but have locals who live nearby providing B and Bs. They coordinate these wine tours. Margaret River also holds a big surfing competition annually.

We were on a tasting tour, beer, chocolate and wine. The beer was at the Cheeky Monkey brewery established in 2010. We had the option to taste 4 beers. The only one I liked was the ginger beer. Most of the people I sat with were beer fans and liked more than I did.

The second stop was at the Margaret River Chocolate Company. It was not really a tasting, just a shopping opportunity with a taste of the chocolate before you bought. Disappointing 😞. This enterprise was established in the 1990s because of the wineries.

Our last stop was at Aravina Winery. It was established in 2010. It was situated on beautiful grounds. It is supposedly a popular wedding venue. We tasted 5 wines, 1 sparkling, 2 white and 2 red. None appealed to me, but one of my table mates told me about a wine I might like and have been having it nightly at dinner since. Check out – Viognier.

First we had to learn the correct way to say this port’s name. Not All-bany, but Al (like the start of Alan) bonnie. Albany is the oldest settlement of Western Australia. In 2026, Albany is celebrating its bicentennial having been settled in December, 1826 as a military outpost. Many of the places in the area have names related to royalty. The population of the area is about 40,000 and they have no traffic lights, just roundabouts. Although settled as a military post, it was mostly settled by convicts.

To get to Albany we sailed up the King George Sound, named after King George III. The inner harbor has a wealth of fishing options to include mussels, clams and cobbler (a type of catfish). The area exports wheat, wood chips ( we were told that the toilet paper we use is probably made from wood chips that came from Australia), rare minerals and sands. They use “road trains”, tractor trailers with 2 to 4 trailers attached, to get the goods to the port.

The town has a huge wind farm which supplies about 80% of the towns electricity.

During WWI, Albany was the port that most soldiers were sent overseas from. The town has a big memorial to the ANZAC troops. In the Second World War, the Japanese and German subs mined the harbor. It took some time to discover they were all fake mines.

Our first stop was at The Gap and Natural Bridge in Torndirrup National Park. This part of Australia was once connected to Antarctica. The Gap is massive rocks separated from each other with the ocean coming in between and creating booming sounds. It was beautiful to see and hear and the park had a viewing platform that took you out over the gorge.

There is an Aboriginal story about two warriors who fought on each side of the gap and at the end when each died of wounds became the shark and the stingray.

A short walk from The Gap was the Natural Bridge. The coast line here was very dramatic with pretty beaches, cliffs and roaring waves.

Our next stop was the Cheynes Beach Whaling Station. Whaling was a huge industry in the 1840s. The whales were caught only for their blubber. The Aboriginal people often came to work in order to get the meat of the whales which was beneficial to them. The place we visited was the longest running whaling station from 1952 – 1978. In the 1960s whaling for humpback whales was banned. The area has sperm whales so the whaling industry was not affected. The station was closed because in the 1970s the need for the whale oil was lessened and the cost to run the whaling ships was exceedingly expensive.

We had a tour of the full whaling station with informative talks at each place to explain what happened as the whale was processed. A 50 ton whale would provide about 7 tons of oil. The bones were ground to use as fertilizer. The teeth were sold for ivory. Although the main purpose in catching the whale was for its blubber, the remainder of the whale was not just discarded. The ships they used, were built in Norway and could travel at a speed of 35 kpm, which is the same speed a sperm whale can travel. One of the interesting exhibits was of scrimshaw. The word scrimshaw means “to waste time” and the sailors carved their items in their spare time when there was nothing else to do.

The whaling exhibit also had an area of Australian native animals.

This was one of the more interesting days we have had.

After 2 days at sea we arrived at Esperance, Australia.Esperance is located on the southeastern coast of Western Australia. Western Australia is the largest state of Australia. It is known for its beautiful coastal landscape and its “squeaky” white sand and beautiful turquoise water.

The French were the first to arrive in this area and did very accurate mapping of the coast. The first settlement was at Albany in the 1790s. The ship that came to this area was the Esperance, and so the town was named for the ship.

The population is around 14,000 with the average age of the inhabitants 42. It is a popular place for retirees to either live full time or have vacation homes in the area. The economy of the area is based on farming, mining and even gold mining. Because of the fertile soil and climate it is now becoming a wine growing area. Many of the farms are now multi-family because the younger generations are not interested in farming, so several families combine their land to continue farming with more people working the land. The area also has many rare minerals.

Along the road we drove were tall Norfolk Island Pine trees. I think we call them Australian pines, like the trees used to be on Sanibel. These trees were planted for 2 reasons: they are fast growing and tall (so they served as a point to spot from the sea) and because of their straight trunks and height they could be used as replacement masts.

The area has a housing crisis because of an influx of immigrants. They came to this area because of the ability to get work and the schools are good.

Our excursion took us to Cape Le Grand National Park and Lucky Bay. It supposedly has the whitest sand and sunbathing kangaroos. We did see the beautiful beach but no kangaroos. The park is 31,000 hectares and was established in the 1960s. It is considered a biodiversity hot spot.

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with immense, unique plant and animal life that is under severe threat from human-induced habitat loss. To qualify, a region must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants found nowhere else (endemic) and have lost at least 70% of its original native vegetation.  Our guide told us that Cape Le Grand National Park has over 8,000 unique plants and animals, therefore making it a hotspot. In order to protect this area, no dogs are allowed in the park.

We then went to a second beach area that was more crowded. Both beaches allowed automobile traffic on them.

We also saw Frenchmen’s Peak. It is a small granite mountain with a cave at the top. It can be hiked in about 4 hours.

Our last stop was at a full size replica of Stonehenge as it would have looked 4,000 years ago. Someone with lots of money decided to make this replica using local pink granite. It uses 2.5 thousand tons of stone, all the stones are free standing. It took 9 months to erect. It is perfectly positioned so that at the summer solstice, at 4:30 AM the sun comes through the two triangular pieces and lights up the altar piece. Then on the winter solstice the light comes through the tall stones and through the triangular ones at sunset. It was interesting because we could actually walk within the structure while at the real Stonehenge you are kept far away.

It was finally a warm and sunny day.

Located on the far southwest coast of Victoria (one of Australia’s states), Portland is a historic harbor city, known as the “Birthplace of Victoria.” It was established in 1834, predating Melbourne and was the state’s first permanent European settlement. Today it is a blend of industry, home to one of Australia’s largest aluminum smelters, and a big destination for nature lovers and history lovers.

The area was settled for thousands of years by the Gunditjmara, an Aboriginal people. These people developed an aquaculture way of life on the lakes in the area. They fished mainly for eels. They lived in small weatherproof round huts. They were not nomadic and lived in villages. Some of these villages are on the dream time trails.

Now the port is mainly a fishing area, with Australian salmon and southern rock lobster the main catches. In earlier times it was a big whaling and sealing area.

The city has a population of 10,000. This part of Victoria has 4 wind farms, which supply about 7% of the state’s electricity. These wind farms collectively are the largest in the southern hemisphere.

We passed through many small towns on our way to the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles. One feature we passed was Tower Hill volcano caldera. It last erupted 35,000 years ago and is now a crater filled with water. It is a sacred area to the local aboriginal peoples. It is a very fertile area and lots of unique Australian animals can be found here, kangaroo, emu and black swans to name a few.

We had a lunch break in Warrnambool, which is on the famous Shipwreck coast. Warrnambool is the end point for the longest 1 day bike race, from Melbourne to Warrnambool, covering 267 kilometers. The area is the largest milk producing area in Victoria.

The Great Ocean Road was built in 1919 as a war memorial. It was built by returning soldiers after World War I. It was a way to reintegrate the returning soldiers into the country.

Most of our time traveling to this part of the coast was spent in cloudy skies and dense fog. We were concerned that we would not see the objective of our tour, the Twelve Apostles. Fortunately when we arrived at the lookouts the fog slowly lifted and we had great views of the sandstone stacks, cliffs and shoreline.

Although we had very long rides to get to this area it was worth it because of the great beauty of the area. The Great Ocean Road did not have great ocean views, sadly.

After a sea day we were in Melbourne. Different guide, so some different information.

Our guide came to Melbourne in 1976, being invited to come and teach in the area. The country had a great need for teachers because of the influx of people and the boom of children after these new people arrived. All children wear uniforms at schools, both public and private. High schools are called secondary colleges.

Australia has no automobile industry. All cars are imported and Melbourne has a huge area for car imports. The most popular brands are Chinese.

Melbourne has a huge coffee culture. 90% of their coffee drinks are made with milk and not water. For this reason, Starbucks did not make it in Australia and in Melbourne in particular. There are some Starbucks but they are near the university areas.

You can get your drivers license when you are 17, learners permit. The regular license is issued at 18, but you have it as a temporary license until you are 21.

My excursion was to the Werribee Zoo. It is a conservation zoo, where they are trying to breed endangered animal species. It is situated on over 80 acres. There is a “safari” ride, through natural habitats where the animals live free. There is also an area to walk through that has traditional Australian animals, koalas, kangaroos, wallabys and rare birds.

Fortunately the weather was sunny and in the 70s. We avoided another really hot day.

It was nice, but not Africa.

Sydney was the last port of the first leg of our 2 leg cruise. We are only here long enough to let some passengers off and get new passengers. We arrived around 7 AM and set sail around 6 PM. We did have time to go into Sydney and do a tour of The Rocks. We were very fortunate to have a fabulous guide, Dave.

The day we were in Sydney was the end of their Christmas break. The schools are out from just before Christmas through January 26, which is Australia Day. We were lucky to spend that day at sea since almost everything would have been closed. We did celebrate our 57th anniversary on the 26th, with our stateroom staff decorating it for us and a special cake at dinner.

Australia Day is like our 4th of July celebrating the founding of the country. However, it is a controversial day with the First Nations people, as they feel it takes away their heritage.

Sydney has the largest financial district in the southern hemisphere. Only 18% of the world’s populations live in the southern hemisphere.

Many of the animals in Australia are marsupials, with 85% of them unique to Australia. These animals have no natural predators and are very tame and friendly.

Sydney was populated mainly by convicts. After the American Revolution, Great Britain needed some place to send their convicts. Previously they had been sending them to the United States. So they decided to send them to Australia. Lord Sydney was tasked to find somewhere else and looking at Captain Cook’s description of the area decided on Australia. The first fleet was 11 ships with 800 convicts and they arrived in January of 1788 after 9 months at sea. They arrived at Port Jackson, which is now Sydney Harbor.

When the convicts arrived they were put in the least favorable land and that was an area now known as The Rocks. It was a rocky bluff and they built their homes on it with rocks and in the rocks. The convicts were used to build homes, roads and government buildings by quarrying stone. Many of the stones have markings with the convicts “sign” on it.

One of the convicts we heard about was Mary Reibey, although a convict, married well, raised 7 children and started the oldest bank in Australia after her husband died. She is honored on the $20 bill. Another convict on their money is Francis Greenway who ended up being an architect for the city, his crime was bank note forgery 😉

We learned how some colloquial phrases came to be…”happy hour” in old times all bars had to close at 6PM, so the hour after you got off work at 5 PM until the bars closed was “happy hour”. “Hangover” came from the sailors wanting a place to sleep, and for 2 cents they could “hangover” a railing, it was better than 1 cent to sit in a chair. Our guide was full of fun stories that led to these phrases.

In 1970, the city council wanted to tear down The Rocks area, but the people protested and so the early heritage of the city was preserved.

We learned that during WWII, Reginald Evans who was living on an island in the Pacific was part of the people who rescued the survivors of the PT 109 ship. He was subsequently invited to the White House by then President Kennedy and shown a coconut that sat on the President’s desk as a reminder of his rescue. The oldest pub in Sydney, Hero of Waterloo, has memorabilia of Evans.

The city is also known as the Emerald City because of the color of the waters in the harbor. The locals nickname for the Opera House is “a scrum of nuns”. The Harbor Bridge was built between 1920 – 1932. It is an iconic symbol of the city.