We are in Brunei today. Brunei is an independent sultanate located on the northern tip of the island of Borneo. Borneo is the fourth largest island in the world and is shared by three countries: Indonesia for about the southern two-thirds; Malaysia for about the northern third; and, Brunei for about the size of a Super Walmart or Costco parking lot completely engulfed by Malaysia on the northern coast. With a population of only about 400,000 people and a recently enacted (May 2013) strict sharia law, Brunei will most likely not be on many lists of must-see places to go.

I would like to tell you about the sights and facts we learned about on the trip in from the pier to the city, but nothing stuck with me and I failed to bring my notebook – sorry about that. We did see the main mosque, the stilt village, the treasury building, the Ministry of Education and Religion Building, and some of the business district. The most striking thing about the visit was the change in vibe from Bali and Java. Those places had a vibrancy and a rhythm to them. Brunei, at least what we saw of it – and that was the most populated part – had none. What struck us most was the almost total absence of motorbikes, scooters and bicycles. Everyone has a car – or two or three… Also noticeably absent were stray animals, any animals, until we arrived at the Polo Club and we saw three dogs on the lawn. They belonged to one of the mucky-mucks at the club.

We had a special treat as World Cruise passengers with Silversea. We were taken to the Royal Brunei Polo and Riding Club for dinner and entertainment. We were originally to have had a demonstration game of polo, but at the last minute the Sultan commandeered the stadium for a party – really! Apparently, the Sultan’s parties can last up to a week or more and he can commandeer just about anything he wants to when he wants to. It is good to be the Sultan. When you think of Brunei, if you think of it at all, think of money…um…that should be Money. The money spent on regalia, buildings, and objet d’art is staggering.

Bonnie and me outside the Royal Brunei Polo and Yacht Club where we had dinner.

Out trip to the Polo Club began with a short bus tour around the city of Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), the capitol of Brunei. It is a city of mostly government and consular buildings. While most of the architecture is quite striking – even avant garde for this part of the world – the city itself is rather sterile. After the hustle, bustle, and hum of Bali and Java, Brunei seems like an older, more sedate cousin. Even the driver from the pier to the city, which took about 45 minutes, was bland. The people are very friendly and open, but there is a stillness about everything that seemed strange to me.

The main downtown street in the Brunei capitol. Note the contrast to Bali and Java...

The stilt village opposite the opulent downtown section of the city.

The main mosque. That is a 22-karat gold leaf dome. It was built at a cost of about $10,000,000 Brunei dollars (on a par with the Singapore dollar), so that wouod have been about $7,500.000 USD.

The royal "barge."

Once at the Polo Club, we found more opulence. Below are a few pictures.

On the left are the dancers and on the right is one of the dancers in training.

On the left is the dining room we ate in, one of several available at the Polo Club. In the center is the place setting we had at the tables. The silver is almost solid silver with gold accents and the china is Minton bone china made expressly for the Sultan of Brunei.. On the right, is the wait staff parade bringing in our appetizers on covered dishes.

Dinner consisted of a multi-course meal of local delicacies, accompanied by a choice of fruit punches, water, and Coke. We began with a timbale of salmon and avocado in lemon tapenade with caviar. This was followed by a spicy oxtail and vegetable soup (probably the best dish on the menu). In the middle of the table was a large silver-domed platter with warming candles under it. After the soup, a waiter came by with fragrant rice and pulled the top off the serving platter. On it were seven dishes featuring chicken, lamb, beef, fish and vegetables. All food was served family-style by the wait staff.

Here is the menu:

               Steamed Rice

               Saffron baked lamb rice

               Oven baked chicken roulette with rosemary sauce glaze

               Smoked king prawns with honey pepper

               Grilled snapper with local sour dressing

               Beef korma with potato and green peas

               Lamb with local herbs (probably the best of the protein dishes)

               Wok fried vegetables with sea cucumber and abalone

During the dinner, there was a local entertainment show of musicians, singers, and dancers. After all of that food, we rolled back into the buses for the trip back to the ship – and a stop at the bar by most folks for an adult beverage…or two.

The family-style server on the left; the individual dishes - after we worked our way through them - in the center and the dessert on the right. The dessert looked better than it actually tasted. 

We decided that, while we were very impressed with the wretched excess of Brunei, it could get checked off the bucket list. We could not have experienced what we did if we had been on our own, but frankly, we don’t think we would rush back to Brunei again.

We have been to Nirvana and back! We spent the day playing chicken with busses, police cars, motor bikes, and pedestrians and we visited the largest Buddhist temple in Asia – Borobudur. However, I am getting ahead of myself. First thing, I am sure, is that many people are asking “Where is or what is Borobudur?” Followed by: “Playing chicken with busses…???”

The welcoming dance troupe on the dock in Semarang

Borobudur is a 9^th century Mahayana Buddhist temple located in central Java, Indonesia. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Asia and is still a place of pilgrimage for many of the world’s Buddhists. 

Hmmm… Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world with over 250 million population, of whom over 95% are Muslim. So what’s a Buddhist temple doing in Indonesia? This temple was built in the 9^th century, well before Islam became the predominate religion in this part of the world. It is only recently, in historic terms, that Buddhism ceased to be a prominent religion in this part of Southeast Asia.

Our first look at Borobudur. Magnificent!

Everyone who enters the sacred grounds is required to wear a sarong as a gesture of respect and modesty - even if you are wearing pants. Fortunately, we were given color-coordinated sarongs that did not clash with our outfits...

Some facts about Borobudur. It consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms. It is decorated with almost 2700 relief panels and over 500 Buddha figures cut from the native lava rock. A main dome in the center of the top platform is surrounded with another 72 Buddha figures. I believe Borobudur typifies the word “monumental.” The journey begins at the base for pilgrims and follows a path around and up as they ascend through the various stages of enlightenment until they reach the top, or Nirvana, a state of pure enlightenment. For us, however, it was a state of pure exhaustion.

Why did we travel halfway around the world to visit this religious monument, especially since there is little in our individual or collective backgrounds to suggest that we might share their beliefs? We were so wrong. We found, through our guide/interpreter that Buddhism teaches that everyone can become a Buddha simply by acting humanely and with graciousness toward their fellow man, regardless of station, wealth, or core beliefs. In that way we are truly all one. Buddha is not a “god” or a “God,” but represents the embodiment of those basic eleemosynary principles.

The temple is composed of bricks, relief carvings, statues, gargoyle-like drain spouts, and pediments all of lava rock. The structure was ingeniously designed – in the 9^th century!!! – such that no mortar or cement is used to hold anything together. In addition, since the temple is meant to resemble a mountain, the interior is packed earth and the temple itself serves as a “skin.” The site sits in the shadow of the Meruapi volcano (meru = mountain and api = fire). Meruapi tends to erupt about every 500 - 1000 years or so. The last eruption several hundred years ago deposited a thick layer of ash over the site and it was not until a UNESCO World Heritage project, together with the Indonesian government, from 1975 to 1982 made a restoration possible. It had originally been re-discovered by Sir Thomas Raffles in 1814, but no serious excavation or restoration was made until UNESCO.

Looking up to the summit from the first level - over 300 meters (about 1000 feet) to climb.

A view of Meruapi - still an active volcano. You can see the smoke plume rising from the mountain top.

Our interpreter/guide, Trudy, explaining the legends depicted on the relief carvings on the wall of the temple. Notice that the block work is not mortared or cemented. They apparently didn't have cement in the 9th century, but they knew how to interlock the bricks so they would stand for a long time.

Another great view of smoky Meruapi.

The napping, not sleeping, giant - Meruapi.

The real adventure of this tour, in addition to visiting the temple, was the journey to and from the port when we docked. We had a police escort all the way in both directions. They were not there for protection, far from it. Indonesia is not, at least thus far, a place to be constantly on guard, but is really rather serene. They were there to assure that we would make the roughly three-hour trip from the pier to the temple and return within our strict time limits. Without the police escort, the almost 75 mile journey might have taken over five hours one way. The police escort was to – literally – sweep slow and opposing traffic out of our way so the bus caravan (three buses with about 20 people each) could make it over the mountains and back in under three hours.

Bonnie and I were fortunate to have secured the front seats in the front bus directly behind the lead police car. It soon became apparent why many of the other passengers who had taken the trip on prior voyages had kiddingly told us to be sure to wear brown or tan trousers…

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what that trip was like. Keep in mind thast we are weaving through traffic at about 60 kph (about 35 MPH) and they are coming at us at about 60 kph!

In addition to the temple visit, we were treated to an Indonesia buffet lunch. We do not normally “do” buffets, but this was too good to miss. While we ate we were treated to a Javanese dance troupe. Java and Bali, while both part of the same country are quite dissimilar in native language, dress, culture – including dance and song – and many other minor ways. This performance leaned more heavily on masks and costume to tell many of the legend dances and the Javanese Gamelan music, while still atonal to the western ear, was not nearly as grating as we found the Balinese Gamelan to be.

The Javanese use more masks and less elaborate costuming than the Balinese.

After we piled back into the buses for the return trip, we made the obligatory “souvenir” stop and were treated to a Javanese puppet show (frankly, while we can admire the skill of the artists, we found that we had very short attention spans for yet another telling of Javanese legend – in Javanese…). We did wind up with a couple of Borobudur Tee-shirts.

Then it was another edition of “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” back to the ship and off we go in search of Brunei two days from now. Stay tuned…

Bali. What can I say about Bali?

Here is a location reference for you:

We docked at Benoa on the south side of the island. Benoa is the only major working port on Bali since the last of nature’s upheavals over the past decade. Benoa is typical of most of Bali’s cities. It is exotic, dense, loud, chaotic, traffic-jammed, perfumed by its own unique essence, and utterly fascinating. I realize that some who are reading this have been here before, but we are Bali virgins. This is our first time in this part of the world and Bali is one of those exotic places that we have talked about, but never thought we would experience first-hand.

Bali is a Hindu island in the midst of the largest Muslim country in the world. Indonesia has a population of over 220 million (the fourth largest in the world) and is predominately Muslim (about 90%). Bali is about 95% Hindu. It works – somehow. And we are very thankful about the Balinese heritage because our first impression was that they are, generally, one of the most beautiful people in the world. Here is one of the dancers that greeted us at the pier.

Balinese women are, in general, quite striking - even without the makeup.

More dancers at landing:

Bali assaults all of your senses, especially your hearing. If you have never heard of or experienced Gamelan “music”, then you are in for a special treat – for about the first fifteen minutes. Gamelan consists of a mixture of bells, gongs, and drums – while pleasing to the Indonesian and Malaysian ear – it is quite atonal to the western ear. I also realized that I made my first mistake of the day when our driver/guide asked us if we minded him playing some music on the car’s radio. We said, “Sure, go ahead.” Well, fifteen minutes or so into it, we realized that it was not going to get better and he was so nice that I didn't have the heart to ask him to turn it off or to try for some “western-style” music.

But, I am ahead of myself. We were met at the pier by our driver/guide for the day, Wayan Tawan and his wife. Wayan was recommended to us by a friend and we opted to go the private route rather than be bussed around by the ship’s tour people. It was a very wise decision. Waysan brought along his wife, who spoke little English, nut who has a 100-watt smile, both for company, for her comfort (it was immediately evident that she was with child), and to help open and close Bonnie’s car door.

Wayan and I Bu

We began our day by wending our way out of Benoa and heading north toward Ubud (oo-bood), the second largest city on Bali. On the way our first stop was at the silver workshop of Angel to Angel Silversmiths (AAS). We were shown into the workshop where we saw several jewelers handcrafting individual pieces – all silver. In Bali it seems that the artisans specialize in one medium: silver; gold; wood; stone; batik.

AAS was huge! As you can see from the picture of the building, it was quite striking architecturally on the outside and was even more striking on the inside. I managed to get one picture before I was told “No pictures inside!” Each piece, and there were thousands of pieces, was individually displayed on a glass podium or base designed to show off the entire piece. We looked, drooled, and decided that we were not in Bali to buy stuff – especially jewelry. We thanked them and off we went continuing our journey to Ubud.

Angel to Angel - note the orangish facade. It consists of individual tiles about 3" x 3" in random outline, hand-placed.

Bonnie looking for a Prince Charming - and she already has me!

The next stop was at Ngurah Gallery. Mr. Ngurah is a woodcarver. Not just any woodcarver, but one who has people come to him from all over the world for woodcarving lessons. His gallery is not the largest in Bali, but he is one of the most renowned on the island, and possibly in the world. He, as were all the Balinese we met, was a very gracious host. He showed us one of his apprentices carving as grand piece depicting one of the Balinese Hindu legends. The man had been working on it for about nine months and he still had several months to go. Mr. Ngurah took us through his gallery and we saw pieces ranging from small animals about the size of a fist to larger pieces over six feet tall depicting other stories from Hindu legend.

An apprentice working on a legend piece. This is about nine months work. He is individually carving the veins in the leaves of the tree that is depicted.

This is the full piece shown being worked on above. It stands about four feet tall and has another four or five months work left to do.

Of course, since this was not a shopping trip, we only bought a small remembrance: a mask measuring about 2’ by about 1.5’ for a wall-hanging. We have been collecting masks during our travels and this was a fine addition. Mr. Ngurah signed and dated the piece and explained that the mask would bless the house and protect our family. We will mount it prominently once we get home.

Mr. Ngurah adding up our bill. Note the mask over his left shoulder on the wall. That is about the size of our mask which is on the desk in front of him.

Bonnie and Mr. Ngurah. He is showing her a pair of horses that he carved recently.

Mr. Ngurah and me. I am standing next to a dragon that took over a year to fully finish.

After we left Mr. Ngumah, we went through Ubud to Tegalalang (teg-ALA-lang). Tegalalang showcases the Balinese rice paddies and local villages just about perfectly. We stopped at the Dewi Café to use their lookout and sample the local beer – and to take a few pictures. Breathtaking!

We were ready for lunch by that time and Wayan took us to a local place known for its crispy duck and pork. I was thinking suckling pig, but it turned out to be ribs. Bonnie had the duck, one of her favorites, and I had the ribs, one of mine. I would like to tell you that they were heart-thumping good, but that would not be true…sadly, they were OK, but not what we really were expecting. The restaurant was more for tourists, Asian, European, and American, and therefore, had “dumbed down” some of the spicier and flavorful aspects of their Balinese cooking. Bonnie’s duck was deep-fried and not the Chinese-style crispy duck we are familiar with. My ribs were lean and had a nice sauce, but nothing out of the ordinary. Actually, the best thing about the meal was one of the side dishes, the pickled snake-skin fruit. The next time we are in Bali (I can dream, can’t I), we will go to some little out of the way Mom and Pop dive and get real.

After lunch we stopped at the Lotus Palace in Ubud. We had wanted to see the Batuan Temple in Batuan, but it was overrun with tourists in the morning and on the way back to the pier in the afternoon, we were subject to one of Bali’s famous “rain showers.” The heavens opened up and in a matter of minutes there was almost 6” of water in the streets. The Lotus Palace was interesting, but the Batuan Temple would have been spectacular based on the little we could see from the car windows. Oh well, another one for next time…

Here is a look at typical Bali traffic that was taken near the Lotus Palace. It makes Naples look positively deserted at this time of year:

We made one last stop at a batik factory/shop and did some window shopping. We found a few absolutely gorgeous shirts – men’s and women’s – but since these were basically handmade artisan’s cloth material, they were much more expensive than we felt warranted at that point. So we went to a tourist shop and bought a bunch of shirts and a couple of tee shirts that will serve to last the rest of the trip and possibly when we get home – depending on how the laundry treats them.

Exhausted, we made it back to the ship by about 5:00 and called it a day. One other bonus from the day and our visit to Mr. Ngumah was that we learned to say “Thank you” in Bahasa (“Terima kasi”) and Balinese (“Suksema”). Bahasa is the “official language of Indonesia, while Bali, as most of the Indonesian islands and villages, has its own language.

Tomorrow another sea day and then a loooong day from Semarang (sem-ARE-ang) on the island of Java to Borobodur, the largest Buddhist monument (and a UNESCO World Heritage site) in Indonesia. We are told that Borobodur rivals Angkor Wat. We shall see since we are going to visit both.

Bali is also the last stop on the third leg of this World Cruise and the embarkation point for the next leg. We are told we will be losing about 40 guests and gaining about 40 guests. Here is a look at what’s to come in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned…

 

This is the leg of the cruise we are currently on.

We are at the end of our Australian visit. Fremantle and Perth are the last two places we will see on this trip. Fremantle is the port city and Perth, about 12 miles inland, is the capital of Western Australia (WA). As you can see from the map below, Perth is about 2500 air miles from Sydney. It has been called the most isolated major city in the world. It is closer to Indonesia, China, and the Far East than it is to most of the rest of settled Australia.

2500 miles from Sydney to Fremantle/Perth.

We arrived at about 4:00 PM on a Saturday and immediately boarded a bus for our first excursion – a degustation featuring Plantagenet wines paired with a chef’s choice of amuse-bouche sized portions of food. It turned out to be a six-course tasting and we would up with four bottles of wine!

Our degustation in the cellar!

We had a very brief tour of downtown Fremantle – called Freo by the locals and anyone who has been there for at least ten minutes…then directly on to Plantagenet wine cellars. Plantagenet bought the Samson Brothers winery a number of years ago and folded it into its portfolio. Plantagenet is one of Australia’s largest wine conglomerates.

We got off the bus and were led into a literal cellar set for the 14 of us on the tour. Lea, our lovely hostess, told us some of the history of Plantagenet and introduced us to the menu and the wines. We later found out, after speaking with her privately during the degustation, that she has a PhD in oenology from the University of Michigan – yes, Michigan! We also found out that the U of M has one of the USA’s top wine programs! Who knew??

Our sommelier, Lea, and the Chef; she's the one with the PhD...

The menu began with a parsnip puree over a free-range egg yolk accompanied by a sparkler made in the method champenoise. This was followed by a seared scallop with black pudding (blood sausage) over a celeriac puree accompanied by a Riesling. The next course was a sous vide duck breast over a foie gras puree with roasted chestnut pieces. The wine was a Chardonnay – the only inappropriate note of the evening. The fourth course was a line-caught snapper over a pumpkin puree with kale and tomato essence that was also accompanied by the Chardonnay. The fifth course was a lamb loin over heirloom beet puree with a cauliflower sheet (a rather interesting presentation using agar to emulsify the cauliflower puree) sand raspberries. This was accompanied by both a Shiraz and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Finally…finally, the dessert was a blue cheese with meringue, pears and a balsamic emulsion. The wine was a cane cut Riesling. Cane cut is a rather unusual dessert wine preparation that develops a fruity rather than sweet dessert wine. Wow!

During the dinner – I mean degustation since this was not meant to be a dinner, rather a “tasting” – our hostess, Lea, played a “Jeopardy” game and asked a few questions. The first one with the correct answer got a bottle of wine. Yours truly and wife got two bottles! Lea also offered to sell us 375 ml bottles of the cane cut Riesling. Of course we had to buy one. As awe were leaving and as I was thanking Lea and the Chef for the wonderful experience, Lea pulled me aside and gave me a bottle of Plantagenet Shiraz! What a coup! This is not available in the US and we can cellar it for a few years… On the way back to the ship, Bonnie and I figured that we got over $125 of wine for about $30. Not as bad evening’s work.

After rolling back to the ship, we turned in early to ready ourselves for an early tour the next morning, Sunday.

Across the harbor from us was a rather unusual ship: a cattle condo. Yes, a special bulk carrier for cattle, sheep, and other livestock to be shipped anywhere in the world – LIVE! Mostly the shipments go to Japan and the Far East, but occasionally they make their way to Europe as well. Notice the catwalks for the humans and the open cages for the cargo…

The cattle condo. Note the walkways for the humans and to get a feel for the size of that ship, it towered over us as we sailed in.

A close-up of the condos. Imagine having a stateroom with constant-flow weather...

Unfortunately, except for two brief stops for photo ops, we did not have much time of good location within the bus to take many pictures. The sun was so bright outside that all the windows reflected and photos were sparse.

Bonnie and me overlooking Perth. Absolutely gorgeous!

A panoramic view of Fremantle

A panoramic view of Perth

We are now entering the Indian /ocean and will arrive in Bali in three days. We are excited about going to Bali and I hope to have much to relate in my next post.