Bound for Jakarta and Singapore

Note:  This post is being written over several sessions and days.

Anchored off Karimunjawa Archipelago, Java Sea, Indonesia, October 28, 2011, 9:00am, on board M/V Silver Shadow

A Day at Sea (October 27, 2011)  --  After the excitement of the Komodo Dragons, yesterday was a sea day.  This transit of the Flores and eastern Java seas was without much in the way of variation.  Just "water, water everywhere," and the occasional island in the hazy distance.  Lots of sunshine with temperatures at 90 DegF plus and humidity about 85% plus.  Your typical day on the equator.

Sea days are best understood as days of overindulgence in food and drink beginning with breakfast, followed by lunch.  Then there is tea, and finally dinner.  Too much food and drink!  J&E, being teetotalers, do not take the libations commonly associated with this feasting, so we avoid the "and drink" part of the day's activities and its consequences.

In between this nearly continuous indulgence, there are "enrichment" lectures, which provide a wonderful darkroom to take a catnap, or if you are so disposed, there is the pool deck where you can nap in a deck chair and bake.  As you see, sea days have a pattern -- eat, drink, nap, eat, drink, nap, eat, drink, nap, ad nauseam.

South China Sea en route Singapore, October 30, 2011, 2:30pm, on board M/V Silver Shadow


A Day at the Beach, Silver Sea Style (October 28, 2011)  --  When Silversea has a luau, it is an event.  They took over Kura Kura Beach Resort on Karimunjawa Island, which is a destination resort occuping the entire island.  It is not clear how resort guests normally arrive, because there is no airport, and only small boats can be seen.  Then again, except for Silver Shadow's crew, the resort's staff, and the ship's passengers, there were no guests to be seen anywhere.

Karimunjawa Island -- That's All There IS!

After early morning showers, the Silversea Experience got underway, with the ship's crew tendering over to the island everything that was to be eaten, drunk or in any way used by the ship's passengers, including tables, chairs, table linens (no paper for this crowd), grills, even toilet paper and waste cans!  After any sign of non-Silversea objects were cleared from the beach area, the passengers were tendered ashore.

Interior of Tender

Upon arrival, passengers were faced with food fit for a raj, sultan or some other oriental potentate.  There was grill after grill, table after table, and more than one bar to meet the demands of the most fastidious palate.  

What's on the Barbi?-- EVERYTHING!

After you have dutifully filled your over-sized dinner plate with delicacies and proceeded to your Frette linen tablecloth picnic table, you overeat until waddling is as close to movement as you can possibly achieve.  Most guests do not attempt to even waddle, but collapse into a beach chair and make you worry about their vital signs.  (Bring the defibrillator over here,  This one slipping away.)

Except for eating and drinking, there is only sunbathing, swimming, and other beach-related activities on the island.  There were a few birds and a mangrove swamp, but the birds were not cooperative (for watching), and mangrove swamps have a limited ability to hold the non-botanist's attention for long periods of time.  After a short waddle, it was onto the tender and back to the Silver Shadow.  On board, you could lay on your soft bed and contemplate the ramifications of gluttony in the air-conditioned comfort of your suite.

Visiting Relatives, Jakarta, Indonesia (October 29, 2011)  --  We tied up at the Jakarta International Container Terminal 2 at 8:00am.  Silver Shadow looked like a white bone surrounded by mammoth container ships.  The greeting committee included Javanese dancers and the normal high number of government functionaries in various uniforms.

Javanese Dancers with Functionaries in Background

After clearance by local officials (Think "Three Cups of Tea"), we were off for our tour bus drive to visit the sites of Jakarta.  Jakarta is a mega-city with a population of greater than 10 million, and normally they are all on the street at anytime day or night.  The guide said the motor bike population increases at 500 per day and the automobile at 120 per day.  Isn't prosperity wonderful?  Luckily, we were touring on Saturday which is a non-work day, so our progress through the city streets was remarkable.  Maybe 20 mph on the freeways and 10 mph on the surface streets.

Our first stop was the old Dutch city (Batavia) square (Taman Ftahillah) and City Hall.

Batavia City Hall and Square

Here, we visited the Museum Wayang (Puppet Museum) which was formerly the Dutch Reformed Church.  Although shadow puppets were interesting, the gravestones of the former Dutch colonial masters from the 17th and 18th Century seemed more photogenic.  Here is a shadow puppet and a tomb stone for your perusal.

 Shadow Puppet

18th Century Dutch Tomb Stone

After this cross-cultural experience, we drove past the former headquarters of the Dutch East India Company to view the Presidential Palace, formerly the Dutch Governor-General's Residence and the National Monument.  The national monument was built to honor those who died fighting the Japanese and the Dutch, and in the vernacular, it is known as "Sukarno's Last ...."  You can fill in the dots!

National Monument -- Sukarno's Last

Next stop was the National Museum.  It is worth the cost of a trip to Jakarata to visit this museum.  Begun in the 1860s by the Dutch and supported by the Indonesian government, the US parallel institution is the Smithsonian.  Of course, as half-day, city-tour types, we viewed only a small portion of the collections. These included the anthropological finds of Java Man and Flores Man (our early relatives), worked gold of the Hindu states, and Chinese export-ware porcelains.  Exhibits are first class with descriptive materials well worth time.  Regretfully, photography is not allowed in the Museum, but if the opportunity ever arises, we would visit Jakarta for several days just for its museums (some not seen or mentioned on the tour).

This exterior photo, of the original museum building and the bronze elephant statue presented (by King Chulalunghorn of Siam - Thailand) to the museum in 1875, gives you a sample of what is on exhibit inside.

National Museum & Elephant Statue

The museum was the high point of the trip.  One doesn't often get to visit relatives who lived so far away in time and space as the Java Man and the Flores Man.  The next stop was the Sarinah Department Store for "shopping."  The tourist and his money are soon parted!  Sarinah is a government department store built by the Sukarno regime in the 1960s.  It failed to separate J&E from any money, and J failed to even photograph the building!  We would rather have spent another hour at the National Museum, but the shopping gods must  be propitiated.  After another hour of riding the tour bus in "light" traffic and on the ring road, we arrived back at the container port and the ship.