World Cruise 2025 – ARRIVING IN INDONESIA

We are over the halfway mark now on our 2025 World Cruise and sailing into Bali, a province of Indonesia. We had an early breakfast as we have a tour booked to see the most we possibly can of this island. As we leave the ship we are greeted by Balinese performers on the quayside all in traditional dress.

We find our coach and we have a lovely tour guide who helped us get settled.
We made our way through some towns and villages and the sights were amazing along the way. Shrines and temples everywhere. The main mode of transport is the motorbike or scooter, and there seems to be little concern for safety.

Arriving at the entrance to the temple sarongs and sashes were handed out to people to ensure they were appropriately covered. We explored all the areas of the temple, mainly in a state of ruins but still used for worshipping.

We went just along the road and to another temple. Taman Wisata Kertha Gosa. The central part of the building was surrounded by water and huge Lilly pads. This was in better condition and you could see how the community took care of it.

Next to a community hub that the locals used for providing food and local crafts, dancing and music to enlighten the visiting tourists.
We had lovely traditional snacks and drinks as we were entertained. It was so hot and humid, everyone was looking for shade. They made floral gifts to be left at the shrine as they prayed. As we got back on the bus that little bit of air conditioning was so good!

We headed to an area full of rice fields and once again we saw the locals busy in their work. We were treated to a wonderful lunch of local cuisine. It was scrumptious. It had been a great tour but it was now time to return to the ship.

Our next port is Jakarta. This is Indonesia’s massive capital and it sits on the northwest coast of the island of Java. The drive to our first destination was very busy and once again motorcycles were the main mode of transport for locals. On our tour today our first stop was The Jakarta Cathedral but as we arrived we were told we couldn’t enter as a service was going on. So across the road we went to the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia holding up to 200,000 worshippers. Once again we needed to have our knees and shoulders covered and also remove our shoes. It was huge and looking from a balcony area down to the area for prayers it was very calming. We saw the Bedug, an instrument very much like a gong that is used to signal prayer times.

Next stop is Chinatown and walking through the market stalls where the strangest things are being sold. Fish parts, baby frogs and turtles, chicken feet and much more. It’s narrow to walk but then shoppers come to the stalls on their motorcycles. We follow the line and end up in the temple. There are cages of small birds outside. It’s a small temple built in 1650 and still used for worship but also for visitors photos now.

The temple is full of huge red candles at various alters. As we leave our guide has a cage of small birds and we are to make a wish as we release them. This is a Chinese ritual to free bad luck and negativity.

From here we go to the Pancoran China Point building and go into a restaurant serving tea. There were tables were laid out for us to taste the tea and also some snacks. Some were savoury and some sweet but until you bit into them you didn’t know! All very lovely though.
They had a little ritual tea serving demonstration that I took part in and chrysanthemum tea was very delicately and traditionally served. It was lovely.

Heading back to the Arcadia and thinking that our tour was over we were suddenly surprised that we could go and watch some older ships being loaded. The workers had no safety gear on at all and the loading into large rope cargo nets had no organisation about it at all. It was so hot, dusty and smelly but Andy was revelling in it all. Climbing up and getting as many photos as possible. Back to the ship and air conditioning after a full day.