Hello from Asia!!
For those of you who are not aware, I am currently in
Asia working on the Azamara Journey, a cruise ship that I will be working on as
a pianist/vocalist for the next 9 weeks.
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| Enjoying my last Tim Horton's ice capp for awhile! |
I hope all of you at home are enjoying the New Year and getting
back into the swing of things! I guess
it’s the end of January already, so maybe that’s already happened. Time tends to get a little muddled in my mind
when I’m on board a ship. That has
DEFINITELY been the case this time, especially since I am 15 hours ahead of
everyone in Calgary so my clock always seems to be a little off. That in addition to crossing the
International Date Line on my way over to Singapore made for a very interesting
sleep schedule the first few days in Asia.
I am now on the high seas, heading back to Singapore after a two week
voyage exploring various ports in Indonesia.
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so let’s start back on Jan. 11th
when I left beautiful Calgary, AB to start on this adventure!
My flight itinerary was less than ideal. I left at 8:30
PM and landed in Vancouver at 9:40 PM. I
then had a 5 hour layer and left for Hong Kong at 2:40 AM. I was able to sleep for about 6 hours on the
14 hour flight to Hong Kong and for that, I was very thankful. I was also thankful that the person beside me
switched seats so I could stretch my legs a bit more than I predicted. My layover in Hong Kong was very quick, but I
made it on time and arrived in Singapore 4 hours later. This is how I felt after I landed:
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| Quite the welcome to Singapore... |
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| My home for the next 9 weeks! |
At this point, I was a day ahead than everyone in Canada
and my body was very tired. After
travelling for that long, all I wanted to do was sleep. So I did.
I went to bed at 6:00 PM (I tried to keep myself up later but it was NOT
going to happen) and I slept until about 5:00 AM the next morning. I thought that was pretty good! I didn’t see much of Singapore this time
around because I was so tired and didn’t have any money on me that was the
correct currency. Thankfully, Singapore
is the ship’s home port so I will be going back a few more times and will
hopefully get to see much more of it at a later date. The next morning at 8, I got in the van that
took me to the ship and after all the sign on documents were signed, medical
forms approved, tour of the ship was conducted etc. I started to unpack.
Thankfully, I packed WAY less than I did on my last
ship. This is a very good thing because
my room is much smaller than it was on my previous ship. My closet is LITERALLY a locker. And everything fits into it so I was very
happy! My bed is only a twin bed (it was
a double on my last ship) but I don’t mind it all. I always say I don’t care how small the room
is, as long as it is MY room, MY space.
It’s not even that messy yet!
Within the first few days, I made some friends. Katrina (from Australia) plays saxophone in
the orchestra, and her roommate Elissa (from Miami) who also plays the
saxophone have become good friends.
Julian (from Toronto) plays the trumpet and has also been a good
friend. Mary Amanda is the harpist on
board and she was on my last ship for a few weeks so it was nice to see a
familiar face! She has kind of taken me
under her wing and shown me the ropes so that has been great! There are many more people to tell you about,
but I am sure I will have time for that in the upcoming blog posts. I had some awesome days in Indonesia that I
would love to tell you all about!
Our first stop was Semarang. I took a shuttle into town with Elissa and
Julian. The ride into town was full of
unexpected things. For one thing, the
bus LITERALLY drove through a river for a few wheels. I was convinced we would get stuck or
something, but apparently this was normal for the driver. On the sides of the road, families were
fishing in rivers filled with trash, or just hanging out with each other. There were even kids cycling through the
river (the water covered most of the tires, it was crazy!). Eventually, we made it to the town centre. We walked around for a bit and then went into
the shopping mall to buy some necessary items that I had either forgotten at
home or had planned on buying once I got to Asia. The mall was also crazy. There was really loud music blasting
throughout the entire building and everything was SO CHEAP. I couldn’t believe it! There were brand new shoes for $2.50 that
were quite nice! Of course, NOTHING fit
me. Nightmare. All of this cute, cheap clothing was completely
out of the question for anyone 5’9’ with size 8 feet. We didn’t stay long, however, as Julian was
hungry and wanted to try some traditional Indonesian food. We shared some food together, but I simply
WATCHED Julian eat the chicken feet he ordered as I wasn’t feeling that
ambitious when it came to national delicacies.
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| First day off the ship and ready to see Indonesia! |
I used the internet at Dunkin’ Donuts which was also an
experience in itself...mostly because they asked me if I wanted whipped cream
on my drink (obviously the answer was yes) but what I DIDN’T realize was that
the “whipped cream” was LITERALLY whipped BUTTER. It was so weird. But the donut was great!
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| Chillin' out in Dunkin' Donuts. |
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| Elissa and Julian enjoying their first taste of Indonesian food! |
The next stop was Komodo where I was able to see the
famous Komodo dragons! Komodo is
actually a national park with its emphasis on wildlife conservation,
specifically the conservation of the komodo dragons. I signed up for a tour of the park with some
of the rangers and we got to see 6 komodo dragons up close! It was awesome! The Komodo Dragons are very dangerous and if
they bite you, you will die because the poison they inject from one bite into
your body is fatal. They are attracted
to blood so you were not able to go on the tour if you had a cut/open wound of
any sort. In fact, women who are
menstruating are not even allowed on the island!! I was very happy to be there
and get some great shots without feeling threatened for my life.
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| View from the ship of Komodo Island |
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| Komodo National Park |
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| Lots of deer on Komodo Island |
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Komodo Dragon!! HOLLA.
Komodo Dragon!!
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Our fearless leader, Yanto
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After the tour, Samantha (environmental officer),
Katrina, Mary Amanda and I enjoyed some time on the beach. I didn’t go swimming because the locals said
it was full of sting rays and jellyfish.
Apparently I was the only one that took them seriously because everyone
else went swimming...It worked out okay though because some of the locals came
to hang out with me in the shade. They
couldn’t really speak much English but they LOVED my hair and I enjoyed talking
to them. They laughed at me a lot
whenever I would say something or ask them a question. They were probably making fun of me, but I
enjoyed it nevertheless. Mary Amanda was
able to capture a legitimate candid moment with them. Side note: I realize that my real laugh looks
way different than my fake laugh. I
should work on that.
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| The beautiful beach! |
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| The boys of Komodo |
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| New friend, Samantha |
So that was Komodo.
Our next stop was Bali where we had an overnight, so two full days in
the port. The first day, I went to the
town of Kuta which was known for the beach and good shopping. I went on an “on your own” tour which
basically means that I go on the shuttle with guests, have three hours on my
own, and then catch the shuttle back. In
my eyes, a free cab ride. The guide that
was on the bus was hilarious. Mostly
because none of us could understand anything he was saying but he kept laughing
at EVERYTHING he was saying. I just
started laughing whenever he would laugh and then eventually everyone was
laughing because we all had no idea what was going on.
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| Crazy tour guide that I loved |
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| For Mom |
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| Kuta Beach |
Kuta was not exactly what I expected. The beach was full of trash and very busy,
but I still laid out for awhile (I couldn’t go swimming because of the trash)
and enjoyed the sun. I did a little bit
of shopping but didn’t buy anything except for shampoo and conditioner from a
little grocery store (very exciting, I know).
I went into one store to look at some clothes but I can’t stand the
women looking over my shoulder every single second and telling me “good price,
lady, good price” all the time. I don’t
really do well with the whole “bartering” system. It’s too much hassle and even if I end up
buying something, they want me to buy something else. One woman (her name was Lisa) literally
started whining to me when I wouldn’t come to her store. I had already been to two of her stores
already and bought $30 worth of stuff!
So, I’m not sure if I will be doing much more shopping if the next towns
we go to all require decent bartering skills.
The next day was the best day I’ve had so far! Katrina, Sam, and I went to a small town
called Senour. There was a small, very private beach where the water
was clean and beautiful and SO WARM! We
swam for awhile, then got massages ON the beach (for $15/hr) and then did some
shopping. We finished off the day with a
“lassie” (similar to a smoothie) and went back to the port with our cab driver
(who waited three hours for us!) so all in all, it was a wonderful day!
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| Beach diva. NBD. |
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Beach day!
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| Feeling relaxed and rested after my massage! |
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View from my window in Lombok, Indonesia...not bad!
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I wasn’t able to get off in the last port because I was
on port manning (port manning is assigned to different people every once in
awhile to stay on the ship because a certain percentage of the crew has to be
on board at all times). Now we have two
sea days until we arrive in Singapore and do a 9 day cruise through Vietnam and
China. I am very excited! Things on board are great. I really love the cruise director/ band
master I am working with and am very excited about the next cruise when I will
get to do my own show with the orchestra!
More updates to come soon, so stay tuned!
Hope you all are well and not too cold in Canada! Sending love to you from the cruising diva!
Love,
A
