Completed our tour of Australia about a week ago. Visited eight ports there: Hobart (Tasmania), Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Thursday Island and Darwin. The mood in Australia, particularly in the southern half, is palpably optimistic and confident. It is a country rich in natural resources at a time that the world is hungry for these raw materials. Prices are rising, real estate is booming, employment is high, shops are full. In Australia the elevator is going up. In the more northern ports, which are closer to the equator, the appearance of wealth diminished and the mood was not as good. And so it goes throughout the planet - pockets of wealth and optimism bordering regions of quiet subsistence, or worse.
On a cruise however, no time to reflect on all this - before we can decipher a place, we move on to the next place. Memories of Australia: riding through the countryside outside of Melbourne, very reminiscent of driving through northern California with its rolling brown hills, oak trees, agriculture, wineries. Seeing kangaroo, koala, wombats, dingoes, Tasmanian devils. Sailing into the magnificent Sydney Harbor, past their famed opera house and under the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We hiked to the top of the bridge to take in great views of this vibrant, attractive and expensive city. Saw Brisbane, impressed with how they recovered from devastating floods just four weeks earlier, then a cyclone two weeks after that. While there, we learn that Christchurch in New Zealand suffers a major earthquake, just 8 days after our visit. Earth speaks to us, sometimes harshly.
Then to Cairns where we sailed on a catamaran across mystically beautiful seas to the Great Barrier Reef. We snorkeled for hours in an area dense with fabulous coral and teeming with fish that would have made Dr. Seuss proud. Learned a bit about aboriginal cultures, believed to have lived in Australia as early as 60,000 years ago. No written language however, so much of their cultural heritage has been lost. Saw tiny Thursday Island on a Wednesday, then Darwin on a Thursday.
After Australia, we spend one day in Bali, which is one of thousands of islands in the archipelago that is Indonesia. Bali is the only island in that country that is primarily Hindu. The others are mostly Muslim. It is a tropical place with about 3.5 million residents, mostly poor. Tourism is an important element of their economy, and it has been depressed since bombings there in 2002 and 2005. So far the Balinese win the award for most aggressive and persistent peddlers. We didn't see it, but we've read that in other parts of the island, begging is rampant. It's also big business, often controlled by unseen bosses who reap most of the daily harvest. The Balinese that we encountered literally swarmed around us as soon as we left the ship. Men, women, children, five or more at a time, shoving all manner of goods in our faces, trying desperately to sell anything to us at any price. They interpreted my complete and utter disinterest as a negotiating tactic, which made them try even harder. Eventually I came to admire their focus and intensity of purpose. They did manage to extract 40,000 Rupiah from Brigit (about $5). My currency however never saw the light of day.
After Bali, we spent 4 days at sea. Were supposed to stop in Malaysia, but due to various mishaps the schedule changed, so now we are headed to the Philippines. So next two days in Manila.
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