Friday February 24, 2023
A welcome day at sea after the Singapore ordeal. On our way to Indonesia and the exotic place of Bali. One of the lectures was by the very good speaker, the Geographer – Dr. Christine Drake who has lived in Indonesia and gave a very interesting overview of Indonesia. We must admit that we were not as familiar with the country as we should have been. It is a country consisting of various large islands – Sumatra, Java, Borneo and used to include East Timor (Now Timor L’est on Papua New Guinea Island) amongst others. Population is 277 million and growing very rapidly. Greater Jakarta City (the Capital) has about the same population as Mexico City – 30 Million. It has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, about 87%. The northern province of Ache had been making noise about going independent until the Tsunami destroyed Banda Ache, killing 300,000 a few years ago. All desires to be independent stopped. It seems like an amazing place.
We skipped the lecture by Pete Goss, the adventure traveller as we recently heard his lecture series a few months ago. A fascinating tale of great adventures all over the globe.
We did also go to hear the American Diplomat Mark Fitzpatrick talk on “Squeaky Clean Singapore”. Thanks in great part to an adopted British legislature and attitude and the strictness of Prime Minister and “father of Singapore” – Lee Kuan Yew (PM from 1959 – 1990) that everything runs on time, streets are clean, it is safe and an economic powerhouse in a neighborhood where corruption, and disorganization run rampant. He had to temper his talk and make a few jokes about how things ran the prior night, however!
The big excitement of the day, though was crossing the line ceremony. A very old maritime tradition whenever anyone crosses the Equator from the northern to the southern hemispheres or vice versa. His Imperial Majesty Neptune of the Deep, his Queen and Seaweed Court of multitudinous mermaids and able aids, has to give permission for any “Pollywog” to cross the Equator and go through a trial and ceremony before becoming a “Shellback”. This is held on the aft deck by the swimming pool as it gets very messy. The judge comes out (a member of the entertainment staff) and calls the proceedings to order. King Neptune (The Entertainment Director) is piped in to the tune of “When the Saints come Marching in” together with Wife (a chubby male entertainer in Women’s clothes) as well as the senior ship management – Captain, Hotel Manger and Engineering Head, plus a few others parade up to the swimming pool while the guests watch. Guest volunteers who have never crossed the equator and sign up to participate, are escorted onto a chair. They are accused and found guilty of such offenses as saving a seat in the theatre for a spouse, taking an extra roll of bread at breakfast, eating too much etc. They then have to kiss a large smelly fish, and this is followed by food “slop” – unused cooked spaghetti with sauce, waste sauce with whatever is excess or discarded from the kitchen etc placed over their heads, bodies and rubbed in making a big mess. At that point, the 10 at a time, guests jump into the swimming pool to wash off. What starts as a crystal clear blue swimming pool ends up as a total mess and green. After 3 or 4 sets of guests are duly slathered with guck, the staff and officers get covered and the last two get all the remaining slot all over them. A total mess, but great fun for all the onlookers.
The evening entertainment was an excellent New Zealand Opera Singer – Benjamin Makisi, who sang Maori songs, opera and other music. Excellent performer with great stage presence.
Roger & Anne Travels 