Indonesia Post

Onboard the Amsterdam we enjoyed a special Show by the Indonesian staff that makes up a very large percentage of the ship's crew.  This enabled many of them to show off their talents in singing, dancing and show production.  We have made many friends among the crew and so were happy to see them shine.

Sailing into the harbor for Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, Steve was photographed on the bow of the ship with new friends, Jack and Sandy, also from Florida and they are going to stay on for the World Cruise like us.  And as we disembarked from the ship, a welcoming group of locals greeted Steve and Tom.

Driving into Jakarta, we quickly noted that traffic in this extremely crowded city was going to present lots of challenges for our tour operator but we nevertheless enjoyed seeing many of its intriguing sites, including a gigantic mosque, and we still made it back to the ship before the All Aboard time for departure.  

Bali was our next port of call and we met our favorite tour operator, Nyoman Sulastra, who has met us nearly each time we visit this wonderful island in Indonesia.   

On this visit, Nyoman took us to a site where they produce a coffee, named Luwak Coffee made from plants that grow in Bali's rich, fertile volcanic soil.  The area is also home to small animals the locals call Luwaks and one of their favorite foods is the bean that grows inside the red, ripe cherries that come from these plants.  Once inside the little guy's stomach, the beans undergo chemical treatment and fermentation and they journey through the animal's digestive system.  After the still-intact beans are expelled, they are collected from the forest floor and cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee.  It's claimed the resulting coffee has a rich, heavy flavor with hints of caramel or chocolate and while Tom says he'll stick with his Starbucks, we all tried it and it certainly was an unusual tasting coffee. 

We also visited temples and beautiful gardens that surrounded a quiet lake in the mountains that surround the island.

We're happy that we'll see Nyoman again this February when we visit Bali on the World Cruise. 

Our last stop in Indonesia was the mysterious island of Komodo with its ancient monitor lizards, known as Komodo Dragons.  

Yes, we are glad to have seen these exotic creatures and we do recommend Komodo as one of the exciting stops on this tremendous cruise.

Thanks for following us and we'll post again soon after our visit to Australia and the South Pacific islands.