Dubai, United Arab Emirates
On March 27 we arrived for an overnight stay in Dubai. This was a sleepy fishing village as recently as the 1970’s, with no paved roads & camels in the streets. But then came oil (discovered in 1966) & an ambitious, over-the-top construction program started around 2000. Today this is a glitzy city of impossibly tall buildings selling luxury at premium prices. As someone mentioned, Dubai is pronounced like “Do buy,” & that’s just what they want you to do.
Dubai is the largest of the United Arab Emirates, which was formed in 1971, although it is not the capital (which is Abu Dhabi). And it seems to be trying to garner the world record for everything, from largest shopping mall to tallest building. We were told that the construction program is still only about 30 % complete. Most of the people here are from elsewhere, but the 20 % or so that are native Dubaians want for nothing. The ruling Sheikh provides them with housing, health care, education & even money. Foreigners recently obtained the right to buy land here, but we were told that once a foreigner reaches age 65 he or she has to leave. No one not born a Dubaian can achieve citizenship. Pretty harsh.
When we arrived the air was quite hazy because, we were told, of a sand storm somewhere in the desert. There is no way to walk out of the security minded port (whose gate is more than a mile from the dock), so we took the shuttle provided by HAL to the Dubai Mall . . . yes, the largest shopping mall on the planet. It has more than 1200 stores within its 12 million square feet of space & 120 cafes & restaurants. Much of it is quite opulent.
This mall not only has stores, it has an ice skating rink, a waterfall & a huge aquarium with 33,000 fish. You can walk through a glass tunnel under the aquarium or ride a glass bottom boat across the top.
One atrium contained a huge dinosaur skeleton bathed in blue light. It is a Diplodocus Longus, discovered in Wyoming in 2008, undoubtedly one of the largest in the world (are you getting the theme here?).
Although western dress dominated we saw quite a few people in more traditional Arab attire, an interesting contrast to all the modern opulence. In the back of the mall was a bridge leading to a smaller mall called Souk Al Bahar. It had a more traditional ambience. We bought a couple of ordinary toothbrushes there for the nighttime shown out below which cost $10. There was a whimsical portrait of a camel in an art dealer’s shop in the Souk.
The bridge between these malls goes over a small man-made lake. This is the site of the Dubai Fountain, the world’s biggest (yes) dancing fountain. At night it has shows, with sound & light, during which the water jets “dance” to the music. We are told that it works periodically in the daytime, without the sound & light, but we didn’t see that.
On the other side of the fountain is the Burj Khalifa, the (you guessed it) tallest building in the world. Well over 800 yards tall (more than 300 yards taller than the next highest building in the world), Burj Khalifa has 160 floors. Opened in 2010, this was supposed to be called the Burj Dubai, but during the economic downturn the UAE gave them a $15 billion bailout to enable its completion so they changed the name to honor the president of the UAE. This makes the naming rights for American sports stadiums seem very cheap! This building certainly is very tall, but we didn’t think it was very attractive.
We were signed up for an overnight excursion into the desert so we decided to take the shuttle bus back to the ship & get ready for that. But there was no shuttle bus there & none came over the next half hour. Finally we managed to get seats on a smaller shuttle being run for crew members, which was packed not only with crew but with other passengers waiting for a ride back to the port. When we got back one of the regular shuttle buses was just sitting there with no one on board, the driver relaxing with nothing to do; we don’t know where the other shuttle buses might have been. Pretty irritating!
At about 4:00 we left on our small (12 people) excursion to the desert. We rode in three Toyota Land Cruisers for about an hour, passing the new Universal Studios being built here (only the gate was finished) & the camel racing stadium. This is a big sport in these parts. We were told that a good racing camel can cost more than $1 million & that the ruling Sheikh had lost $10,000,000 on the races the day before. We stopped at a camel farm for a close & personal introduction to camels. Most of the camels here are for milking, not racing, and there were a number of babies who were still nursing. We were told that there are no undomesticated camels left in the Middle East at all. You see a lot of unattended camels wandering around, but all of them are owned & most are branded.
Our driver/guide Mervyn drove us to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. Mervyn (like almost everyone you meet here) is not a native of Dubai, but first came here as a child in the 1970’s from his native Sri Lanka. His father was in the British military (from where we presume the “Mervyn” came) & came here to help direct a new school. He vividly recalls that era when there were no cars or large buildings in Dubai, just sand and people living a Bedouin lifestyle. The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve was created in the early 2000’s & encompasses 225 kilometers, about 5% of all the land in Dubai. While there we saw some of their projects to enhance the desert environment for wildlife. Only a limited number of people can visit the reserve each day & only approved guides can lead parties in the reserve.
The reserve is a very beautiful ocean of sand, right out of Lawrence of Arabia. There are sand dunes aplenty, with ripples created by repeated gusts of windblown sand.
After we got a little way into the Reserve the real fun began. The drivers went up & over & down the dunes at speed, exciting if you have a strong stomach (one woman in another of our cars came close to losing it). It appears that there is a track for the cars to do this, since they all took the same route, including a lot more that came after us. But the route is marked only by the faint tire tracks in the sand, so the drivers must be required to know the route. We were told that the vehicle of choice is a Toyota because most cars are not built to withstand the desert environment.
All three of our cars stopped for pictures on top of a dune.
Interestingly, the sand is not all one color. Most is the usual buff color, but some is red (from iron ore) & some is black (from volcanic rock).
A little while later we approached a ridge on which were some men with about a half dozen camels lying in the sand. We were to ride these camels a short distance into our campsite. The camels wore knitted face masks to ensure they wouldn’t bite. They had double saddles on their backs, each with a sturdy metal bar for riders to hold onto & well cushioned to protect the camel.
So with the assistance of the handlers, who held the camels down on the ground for us, we climbed on board our camel. It was like climbing onto a bicycle except that the camel’s hump was higher & getting your foot over the top was much harder. Once we were aboard they told us to hold on tight to the metal bars & the camel stood up, back end first. It felt like sitting on a catapult & being launched forward suddenly with a lot of force. But we held on & set out on our caravan to the camp site. Rick was sitting in back, & the camel behind us kept trying to put his or her head into his lap!
At the camp the handlers got the camels to lie down, one at a time, and then helped us dismount. But one camel decided to lie down on its own out of turn. There was no handler there yet, but the rider apparently decided it was time for her to dismount anyway. She fell backward while pulling her leg over the camel’s hump & fell on her tailbone. She was in enough pain (she could hardly walk) that they took her to a hospital right away & Tom, our Cruise Specialists host, went with her. We didn’t see or hear from them again for the remainder of the excursion, so now our group was down to 10. In the group picture earlier, she is the second from the right. (We have since seen this woman back on the ship, so she is OK, although still in a lot of pain.)
Our campsite had 8 tents on wooden platforms with lanterns & chairs outside & a double bed inside. There was a large dining tent where you would sit on a pillow on the ground to eat & a sitting area with couches also made of pillows on the ground. Huge hookahs were at the sitting area along with a fire pit. We ate a wonderful dinner prepared on site, including marinated lamb chops, fish, skewered chicken, marinated prawns, pita bread, hummus, and sweet cakes for dessert. There was to be some additional time in the sitting area after dinner including smoking the water pipes, but we were bushed & had no interest in smoking so we went to bed. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night Mary woke up with chills & a fever, apparently having contracted some exotic desert disease. Over the next few days it repeatedly got better & then worse, and this continued for several weeks.
In the morning we were awakened by an amazing racket put out by the birds (& maybe animals) in our little grove of trees just before the sun rose. Rick got up & took some pictures of the sunrise & of some of the noisy culprits. In the distance just at sunrise we could see a mountain range, which disappeared again once the sun was fully up. Mervyn told us that these mountains were in Oman.
As the guides made us breakfast Rick took some more pictures of the camp site, less romantic but much easier to see in the daylight.
After breakfast we reboarded the Toyotas & headed out into a different part of the desert, golden in the morning light.
We were able to see several of the wildlife species in the reserve, the Arabic Gazelle & the Arabic Oryx. These are native animals that are being carefully cultivated by the Reserve, which provides them with water & irrigates plants for their food & has even set up a salt lick. The Oryx is an interesting story. Native to this area, they had died out before the Reserve was established. So Dubai purchased 70 of them from institutions in the United States to repopulate the reserve & today there are some 300 of them living here.
Mervyn explained quite a lot about the desert ecology before we left the Reserve to return to Dubai. For example, he said that the bushes you see clumped here & there can take up to 100 years to grow to full size. For flower lovers, the only thing we have from this arid port is an Acacia tree, which was sporting yellow flowers as well as seed pods.
We got back to the ship about 10:00 AM. Our plan had been to spend the rest of this day at Dubai Creek, not too far from the dock, which is the old part of Dubai that dates back to its Bedouin period. But Mary was sick & we were both tired so we stayed on the ship instead to recuperate. Maybe next time. But the trip to the desert alone made this a most memorable stop.
Colombo, Sri Lanka
March 21 found us in Colombo, the capital & largest city in Sri Lanka with a population of some 3 million people. This was an over night stop, so we would be here almost two full days. Called Ceylon for many years when it was subject to Dutch & then British control, Sri Lanka recently ended a lengthy civil war with the rebel Tamils during which Colombo was subject to repeated attacks, most notably a car bomb in 1996 that killed almost 100 people & injured more some 1500. As a result, the central administrative area adjacent to the harbor, called “Fort” after an old Portuguese fort that is long gone, was subject to strict security measures that made it very difficult to visit. Some of that is still there, but a lot less than before apparently since we were able to walk around most of the area without hindrance.
Since we were docked right in town we decided to tour the city ourselves on foot. We had some maps & written guidance, but repeatedly lost our way in this large, complex & crowded city. But really, much of the wandering around made the visit more interesting because we got a taste of the local streets off the beaten tourist path. On our way out of the harbor area we were repeatedly accosted by “Tuk-tuk” drivers (very small taxis) seeking a fare. They do not easily take “no” for an answer, following us in their vehicles & urging us to engage them for a tour of the city. Twice we were stopped by men carrying what they claimed to be tourist bureau identification, who wanted to steer us to a good taxi. We found that people falsely claiming special status was not uncommon here, & a false id is quite easy to make. We hoped that this would only happen around the port, as in most other towns with this problem, but it continued all day long, to the point where we stopped being polite about it.
Anyway, we shook them all off & headed for our first landmark, the clock tower near the President’s House. Originally built in 1857, a decade later a lighthouse beacon was added to the top & it served as the local lighthouse until the surrounding buildings grew tall enough to cut off the sea view of its light. The grounds of the President’s House were blocked off by walls & guards, so we headed for the business district to the northeast. We noted that there seem to be a number of small mosques in this area, & we passed the Young Men’s Buddhist Association, inside which is a statue of Buddha with a neon halo (the picture is blurry because it is in a dark room & we were outside on the street). On one block of interesting old colonial era department stores we passed Cargill’s department store, apparently a venerable landmark in this city.
We walked on toward Pettah, an area with a huge & busy souk. It is arranged in the traditional manner, with particular specialties gathered together on each street, so that most of the gold shops are together, most of the fabric shops are together, etc. On the way there we passed another clock tower, smaller but apparently modeled on the one near the President’s House. We also passed the Old Town Hall, built in 1873. There are so many shops open to the street, some with interesting items we are sure but many with cheap goods or household items uninteresting to a visitor, that picking out something good would be difficult, particularly because the shop keeper would begin pushing his or her goods at you as soon as you showed any interest. Some folks love to haggle in these places, but we have never seen the charm in trying to save a dollar or two that might mean quite a lot to many of these less wealthy folks.
We came to the Jami ul-Aftar Mosque, a glorious candy-striped building completed in 1909. Many people think it is just gaudy, but we thought it had an interesting style. It is quite big & could be seen from the ship.
We walked on through Pettah’s interesting but dirty & nerve wracking streets. It was nerve wracking because you had to dodge vehicles & handcarts that weren’t interested in stopping or giving way & because sidewalks were unavailable, either because too crowded or piled with stuff. We continued to be approached by tuk-tuk drivers and individuals on the street. It was awkward because some of these people on the street may have been just trying to be friendly, but others were looking to make a few bucks, and it was impossible to distinguish between them since all seemed nice at first. For example, we were approached by one fellow who claimed to be the pilot of our ship (not likely), and another who claimed he worked in Amsterdam’s engine room, yet asked us where we had arrived from and where we were going next. So the only thing we could do was greet everyone politely then disengage as soon as possible.
We managed to find the Dutch Reformed Wolvendaal Church just when we were about to give up looking for it. Built in 1749, when the Dutch still ruled Ceylon, it has a rather simple interior & its exterior is in need of repair. A number of old gravestones line one side of the building, dating back to the 17th century, before the current building was erected.
As we walked back down the hill toward downtown we noticed that women dressed in saris were common, though not dominant, in Pettah, whose population is largely Tamil. That was not true elsewhere in town.
Our plan had been to explore Fort & Pettah on the first day, then the near southern districts on the second day. But we got back to Fort around mid day, so we decided to continue on south. We walked past an old pillared building with military guards that we found out later is the old Parliament Building and now the President’s Secretariat. Just beyond it is a canal (the Dutch built a number of them here) that leads to an interior lake. We didn’t walk up the canal, but we did see some nice birds bathing & swimming there, including egrets & what looked a little like crows, along with what we think were endangered spot-billed pelicans that live here.
We walked down the long Galle Face Green, a large park along the water’s edge created in the 1850’s. This area is more lively at night when lots of folks come out for picnics & promenading, but it was pretty nice to watch the surf in the insufferably hot & humid weather. There is a pier that attracted a lot of visitors, including several women in saris with classes of children dressed in white, and a few food vendors along the road.
We stopped for lunch at the Galle Face Hotel that forms the southern end of the park. Dating from the mid-18th century, the hotel has hosted many notables, from Mark Twain to Harrison Ford, whose pictures are on display in the bar area where we ate. We ran into some friends who were on a HAL tour that lunched in a courtyard here on an extensive buffet of curry & other local cuisine, but we just had a sandwich & a beer . . . in a delightfully air conditioned room.
After lunch we decided to walk to Barefoot, a store that had been highly recommended. We knew it was a ways further south, but we didn’t know how really far it was. We passed the US Embassy & the Prime Minister’s residence, surrounded by a wall with soldiers in watchtowers above it. But most of this very long walk was through uninteresting commercial & financial areas. Fortunately, Barefoot turned out to be a really interesting store, so we didn’t feel this long walk had been wasted. This is Sri Lanka, so there were plenty of nice flowers around the city.
On the way back we stopped at a McDonald’s for water (it advertised curry specialties), but mostly we just wanted to get back to the ship & off our feet. As we passed Galle Face Green there were a lot more people there than before & there were families enjoying the beach at the end of the park, which also had more pelicans.
We walked back to the dock. Shortly before entering the harbor, the last tuk-tuk of the day pulled up and offered to take us to the ship for $1 (this is the price they always quote, but others have told us that it went up after they were in the vehicle). It was only about 500 feet, so it wasn’t even worth that much. We walked past a lighthouse that doesn’t seem to work any more, which we think must be the one built by the water after taller buildings blocked the clock tower light. And we entered the port by walking under a huge stupa sitting on legs about 10 stories high, where the port controller’s office is located.
It turned out we had walked 13 miles on our first day in Colombo, easily a new record for us. We woke up the next day, March 22, still tired & sore all over, so we decided to stay on the ship. After all, we had seen most of what we had planned for two days on the first day. There was a row of tourist oriented shops on the pier across from the ship & we spent some time looking there, but found nothing we wanted beyond a tee shirt. Interestingly, although these shops had been open & available for the entire two days, when the all aboard time arrived (everybody knew when it would be), security officers had to go out to these shops to corral passengers who couldn’t tear themselves away. The antics of the passengers on these cruises are always entertaining, if baffling.
After Colombo we will be sailing north toward the Middle East and into pirate infested waters, including the Straits of Hormuz & the Persian Gulf, then around the Arabian Peninsula into the Red Sea & up to the Suez canal. In Colombo preparations for this began as crew members strung razor wire along the edge of the open walking deck, deck 3, which is where anyone would try to board this ship & also where our cabin is located. Just outside our window they also installed one of several water cannons, fire hoses attached to nozzles over the edge of the ship that can be turned on anyone trying to climb aboard. On deck 6 they also have sound cannons capable of breaking the eardrums of anyone in the water near our ship. The captain explained that we would be under constant surveillance during this passage, from the ship’s radar & security guards posted on the outside deck (with deck lights off at night), and from AWACS planes flying above & satellite coverage. In reality, there probably isn’t much real danger to us because Amsterdam can do 25 knots, easily enough to outrun any pirate boats, and a cruise ship with 1500 people on board is not a likely target for pirates, who want cargo to ransom. But its good to know that all these precautions are being taken.
So in late afternoon we sailed away from Colombo, headed up the western coast of India toward the Arabian Peninsula.
Hambantota, Sri Lanka
On March 20 we arrived at Hambantota’s spanking new cruise port. This was Amsterdam’s maiden visit & only the 2d by any HAL ship, Rotterdam having visited here a couple of weeks earlier. We were told that the local tourist board had a special meeting the day before our arrival to prepare. We were met on the dock by dancers & musicians, as we had in a number of ports. As our bus left the port we passed a large crowd of taxi drivers waiting to recruit passengers leaving on their own. We were glad we were already engaged.
Hambantota is a small town (about 12,000) that is likely to get a lot bigger soon. Originally settled by Malay fishermen, Hambantota has the largest percentage of Muslims of any town in Sri Lanka. Its name is a corruption of “Sampan-thota,” which means port for sampan boats. It was all but destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, which killed a large portion of the townspeople in just a few minutes. It has been rebuilt near the original spot and the Sri Lanka government (headed by a Hambantotan) now plans to make it the second largest city in Sri Lanka. They have already mostly finished a new port that is one of the deepest in the world, which is where we docked, and are building an international airport as well.
We really didn’t get to see much of Hambantota (which we understand has little to see) because we were on an excursion to Mulkirigala, a fascinating series of ancient temples built into caves in a mountain. On the long bus ride to the site, we were able to see some pretty countryside & some village scenes as well.
Most people seemed to be dressed in western garb but there were many men wearing sarongs & women in sari’s.
Mulkirigala is a huge rock outcrop more than 600 feet high. There are seven Buddhist temples built into caves on four levels. There are 533 very steep steps to reach the top (getting steeper & more difficult the higher you go). The temples date back to 300 BC & were completely restored in the 18th century. (Note that the caves were pretty dark & no flash was allowed, so a lot of these pictures are blurrier than we would have liked)
On the first terrace were two temples, each of which had a 45 foot long reclining Buddha (unfortunately difficult to photograph because behind glass). There were also many colorful paintings on the walls & ceilings showing Buddhist & Hindu gods & stories. As usual, you were required to remove your shoes before entering each of the temples. Also on this level we encountered a number of monkeys, with what looked like Beatles haircuts & dark ears that looked like they had been pasted onto their fur.
We walked up the stairs to the second terrace, where there is a stupa as well as a temple. Inside was a reclining Buddha, thankfully not behind glass this time, with some attendants. Reclining Buddhas, as we understand it, represent Buddha on his deathbed. If his feet are together he is still alive, if apart he is dead. More interesting paintings were on the walls.
The third level has four temples, although it is not clear at this point which of our pictures applies to which temple. Anyway, two of them have reclining Buddhas (one of them is the only dead Buddha on the site). One of them has a separate vestibule, paved with Dutch floor tiles and its walls covered with dramatic sculptures.
The climb to the fourth level was really unreasonable, with steps cut out of almost a cliff wall. But we made it up there (and down, which may have been harder, since you had to do it ladder-style). No temples up here on the very top of the mountain, but there was a stupa & a small building called a dagoba, where another monk was selling blessings. Behind the top you could scramble down (no steps) a hillside to stand on the top of the rock & look out over the countryside for quite a ways, so Rick did that.
So then we climbed down, which sounds pretty simple but actually wasn’t. You might wonder what we could have been thinking going up those last flights of steps, but everyone got down OK.
Perhaps this is a good place to show a sample of the flowers on display at this site.
At the bottom are a number of shrines, one of which was attended by a couple of elderly men in sarongs. We got back in our bus, but had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for the last passenger to show up. We were beginning to wonder whether, if someone fell off the top, anyone would notice them.
Our final passenger finally showed up (we never heard what delayed her) & we drove back to the ship. We passed more town & country scenes. Sri Lanka has, since ancient times, been building earth & stone pools for water retention that they call “tanks,” which have served very extensive irrigation systems. Usually they build a small dam around a depression in the earth. We saw a few of these on our trip back. There was also a pond where egrets, ducks & other birds had gathered.
As in Cambodia, we thought the written language of Sri Lanka was quite beautiful. Here are a few examples with English translations. Note that there are two official languages in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese & Tamil.
So our visit to Hambantota came to an end, but we would see more of Sri Lanka the next day.
Phuket, Thailand
On St Patrick’s Day, March 17, we arrived in Phuket, an island at the very bottom of Thailand. I know this will be a disappointment for some, but the “Ph” in this name is not pronounced like an “F,” and the name does not rhyme with bucket. The “h” is silent & it is pronounced “Poo’-ket,” which I guess is bad enough. Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that was not colonized by Europeans, retaining its ruling monarchy, famous to westerners from The King And I (which is disliked here for its portrayal of their king as a strutting buffoon in need of tutelage from a young European woman).
Phuket is primarily a resort area today, known for its fine beaches. A dozen years ago it was a victim of the devastating tsunami that killed thousands here. Our day here turned out to be sunny & hot.
We are not beach people & there really isn’t much to do on your own here, so we signed up for an excursion to an elephant refuge. In 1989 commercial logging was outlawed, which left a great many elephants (who moved the timber) & their handlers without a job. Siam Safari was opened that year to help them out as a sanctuary & hospital for elephants. In 1994 became the first company to offer elephant trekking in Phuket & it has received recognition for its care of the animals. Today there are between 6000 & 7000 elephants in Thailand, down from 100,000 in 1900.
We set out in the morning for the bus ride to the elephant camp. Near the end of the ride we spotted the 125 foot Big Buddha they have almost completed, sitting on top of a large hill. It is, indeed, very big & very white. We transferred to a smaller vehicle which took us up a mountain to the camp.
We had understood that this was just an elephant camp, but it turned out to have much more than that for visitors. First we met a water buffalo, had a ride in a buffalo card (slow & not too exciting) & were shown a demonstration of how water buffalo are used to help plant rice.
We were shown how rice is husked & prepared for market. They showed us how to prepare pineapple curry, which was really delicious (Rick had two bowls). Then they showed us how rubber is produced, from tapping a rubber tree to rolling it out into sheets in what looked like the top of an old fashioned manual washing machine. They come out in the middle of the night to tap the trees, wearing head lanterns with flames in them. Each day one diagonal line is cut in the tree & a spout & cup are mounted to catch the sap. Rubber trees originated in the Amazon region of Brazil & they prohibited the export of the trees, which gave Brazil a very lucrative monopoly on rubber. But saplings were smuggled out to Britain, who replanted them in Asian colonies from which they spread to Thailand. The guy who smuggled them was a wanted criminal in Brazil, but was knighted in Britain.
Next we were taken to meet a young elephant, who was mostly interested in being fed. She kept moving, walking around her pen then coming back to the people who were there. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants, have much smaller tusks & have two large bumps on top of their heads. All of the elephants at the camp when we visited were females, with no visible tusks.
We rode elephants through the jungle for half an hour. Our elephant was named Boso. You mount the elephant from a platform & sit on a bench mounted on the elephant’s back . . . easier than stepping into a tender boat from the ship! A skilled handler sits on the elephant’s neck & controls the animal. It seems that the handlers work with the same elephant all the time. The had short sticks with a curved metal point to direct the animal, but this was used gently on top of the elephant’s head to indicate directions. We never saw anyone hit any of the elephants. We were told that we were a very light load for an elephant, who can carry really large weights.
We walked through the woods, swaying gently from side to side. A couple of times our handler asked us to move a little to balance the load. It was easy to slide back & forth on the bench as the elephant walked, but there was (happily) a metal bar across our laps to keep us from falling out. The handler kept his feet behind the elephant’s ears, which probably assists in directing it. Occasionally an elephant would stop to get a bite to eat, or to scratch an itch on a rock, or other rather natural things.
We stopped at a scenic overlook of the seashore. As we approached it we noted the head of the Big Buddha peeping over the trees on top of a nearby mountain. The elephants rested & milled around for awhile at the overlook, while passengers snapped pictures of each other, before heading back.
So then we returned to the camp & dismounted onto the platform. This was a really fun outing.
At the elephant camp we saw quite a bit of pretty flora, and some unusual fauna. In particular was a very large yellow spider, scary but fortunately too far away to do any damage. And there was a very tiny frog. I didn’t see it when taking a picture of a water lily. It was only later when I cropped and enlarged the water lily picture that I noticed what looked like a worm on one leaf. Enlarging it further, it turned out to be a tiny frog, probably only about an inch or so long.
We came down from the mountain & went to lunch at one of the best local restaurants located right by the water. It was delicious Thai food (& lots of it), but not as delicious as that pineapple curry we had at the camp in the morning!
After lunch we visited Wat Chalong, the largest Buddhist temple in Phuket, which was built in 1837. It is very colorful & elaborately decorated.
While we were walking to the temple there was suddenly loud explosions, sounding at first like gunfire. It turns out that there is a tradition here of setting off firecrackers in a small building near the temple as thanks for a wish fulfilled. It was startling (& very loud) at first, but it happened a number of times while we were there, so it must be pretty routine.
Down a short path from the temple is a much more recent building called the Chedi. It is 3 stories, much larger than the temple, & houses in the top story what is reputedly a bone fragment from the Buddha himself. It is in a reliquary & in a room behind glass, so you can’t really see it. But the Chedi is quite beautiful, with the first floor filled with gold colored statues of Buddha & others.
We returned to the ship & sailed away from Thailand as the sun set, ending our sojourn in Southeast Asia & heading for Sri Lanka, with two sea days before us.
Singapore (Day 3)
March 15 was Mary’s birthday, but that was no respite for us from exploring all we could of endlessly interesting Singapore. We took the subway to Little India this morning and walked down Serangoon Road among the kiosks, notably the flower shops selling garlands of fresh jasmine, roses and other flowers for prayer offerings.
The Indian community here dates to the import of convict laborers from India beginning in 1825, who were used to build many of the colonial buildings in Singapore. As we saw on day one, the population today is large & immigrants continue to arrive from India & Bangladesh.
We came to our second Hindu temple in Singapore, Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple (don’t ask us how to pronounce it). Built in the mid 19th century, it is dedicated to the goddess Kali.
We took off our shoes & went inside. The temple is filled with sculptures of Hindu divinities and, because it was a Hindu holy day, there were quite a few worshipers as well. A lot of bustle & a very colorful space.
We spent some time walking around & perusing the shops, particularly in the Little India Arcade. There was much of interest. Characteristic of all the older parts of Singapore is the shophouse, a 2 or 3 story building with an open store on the first floor and living quarters upstairs. Actually, we have seen this kind of building all over Southeast Asia, but in Singapore the architecture of the upper floors is much more interesting & diverse.
We walked over to Kampong Glam, the Arab neighborhood. Arab street is famous for its textile shops, with many silks & batiks at widely varying prices. Vendors are fairly aggressive, but no one was rude. Nearby is the Sultan Mosque, originally built in 1827 with financing by the East India Company as a result of the treaty between Raffles & Sultan Hussein Muhammed Shah. The current structure, with its fabulous golden dome, was built a century later. Sadly, we arrived just 10 minutes after it closed for two hours at mid-day, so we could not go inside.
Next to the mosque is the Istana Kampong Glam, which was the Shah’s official residence, built in 1840. The back of both structures are on Muscat Street, named for the capital of Oman (which we will be visiting later) because the Omanis helped finance the development of this area.
We walked to Chinatown, passing some interesting skyscrapers on the way.
In Chinatown we had lunch at the very Chinese sounding Wall Street Café (which did have Chinese proprietors) on Pagoda Street. In the 19th century this was lined with shophouses & itinerant vendors, along with opium dens and slave traders dealing in Chinese laborers. At one end is a set of sculptures evoking that period.
In Chinatown we visited two temples. First was the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, completed in 1843. It is dedicated to Mariamman, a divinity with healing powers. The gopurum is populated by more than 70 Hindu deities & the wall around the temple grounds is topped with sculptures of sacred cows. During an annual festival devotees walk on hot coals here. Near it is the green Jamae Mosque, built in the early 1830’s. The minarets in its façade are not real, but look like part of a model of a mosque sitting over the entrance.
Finally, we visited the Thian Hock Keng Temple, completed in 1842, the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore. Seafarers came here to give thanks to Ma Zhu Po, protector of sojourners, for safe passage to Singapore. It is supported on bricks and wooden posts, with no nails used in the main structure.
We returned to the ship feeling rather tired, having walked almost 10 miles in very hot weather for the second day in a row. In the cruise terminal (a huge building with three floors of shops & restaurants) we searched & searched for a place to have a beer to celebrate Mary’s birthday, and finally ended up in a sports bar that seemed to be the only place serving alcohol. At dinner that night all the waiters sang an Indonesian birthday song to Mary & we were served a birthday cake (Mary’s birthday was in their records, Rick did not tell them!). We felt that we had seen & done quite a lot in our 2+ days in Singapore, but that there is a whole lot more left to see and do on a return trip in this unusual & diverse city.
BADER JOURNAL 