Hong Kong and the End of the Cruise

The route from Manila, Philippines to Hong Kong, China was almost straight north until we passed the north end of Luzon Island then east to China across the South China Sea.  We confirmed again that the South China Sea really is green. The journey took only a day and a half but it was rainy and rough.  It seems that I bragged too soon about not feeling seasick on this trip.  I spent most of Saturday, February 23 seated by the potted orchids in the reception area, the exact center of the ship where there was the least motion.  I was not ill but I was uncomfortable.  The ship was crossing twenty-five foot swells diagonally so there was a lot of up and down plus some rolling side to side.  The stabilizers work well to minimize roll but these conditions were challenging for them. I was accustomed to the up and down but the side to side got to me.  Sitting by the orchids, I was able to read and to observe the comings and goings of passengers and crew.  After a day and a half of discomfort, I was more than ready to head home when we reached Hong Kong.

One of the great sights of this trip was sailing into Victoria Harbour.  Three years ago we sailed in early in the morning on an overcast and misty day.  I saw only the bottom few stories of the famed high-rise buildings.  Everything above sixty feet or so was shrouded by fog.  On that trip we were in the city only long enough to transfer to the airport so I really saw almost nothing of Hong Kong.

This time the Silver Whisper arrived around noon.  The sky was hazy but we could see the sky line clearly.  Tall buildings appeared through a light haze, which diminished as the day wore on.  Many kinds of boats and ships plied the harbor waters or were anchored in the bay.  We came slowly to our dock at the passenger terminal in Kowloon and had a great view of the not quite completed fourth tallest building in Asia.  China has such terrible air pollution that it is usually hazy. This day the haze was not severe and I could clearly see the antennae on top of Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island.

Michael and I had the afternoon to explore the city.  We were scheduled to leave for the airport early the following morning but we would have the afternoon ashore and one last night aboard ship.

Michael has visited Hong Kong six or seven times and had an idea of the sights he wanted to show me.  We were off the ship almost as soon as it had cleared customs and made our way to the adjacent ferry terminal.  Riding the Star Ferry is both cheap and efficient.  We brought Hong Kong dollars so were able to purchase ferry tickets from a machine for about 60 cents U.S. each.  The pedestrian route into Hong Kong Island from the Central Star Ferry Pier took us on walkways over a number of streets and through buildings. The walkway ended near the HSBC bank.  It was startling to see double-decker trams running the "wrong" way down the major streets. (Hong Kong was once British: they drive on the left.)  We made our way past steel and glass office buildings climbing uphill to the entrance to the Peak Tram.  Victoria Peak is a must-see attraction and the Peak Tram is the way most tourists and locals too, get there.  We joined a long line of mostly Chinese-speaking people waiting for the tram;  as it was Sunday, it took us half an hour to board.  Locals as well as tourists (we met a young couple from central China) were crowding into the tram station to ride up the mountain to the viewing area on the top.

The tram station at the top of Victoria Peak is located in an unusual T-shaped building that has three floors of shopping mall and a viewing deck on top.  We did not pay extra to visit the viewing deck, as there are walking paths all around the area that provide many good spots for viewing the city and harbor below.  One thing we realized:  the Chinese do not mark the exits or in any way nor indicate which way to go.  They appear to want to maximize potential customers' exposure to purchasing opportunities while they are seeking a way out.  We found this to be true also at the cruise terminal on our return to the ship.  We had to go through a giant shopping mall there – it seemed larger than the one in Manila – to find the entrance to the pier.  No signs there either.

Some of the most interesting things we saw on our way back to the ferry were large numbers of young Filipinas gathered in small groups on the elevated walkways and in downtown parks, chatting and visiting with one another.  Michael told me that they are maids and nannies to well off Chinese employers. They have a tradition of visiting with each other on their Sunday afternoons off.  Speaking the clipped sounding Tagalog, they sounded like a flock of sparrows.  We also viewed a wedding party in Hong Kong Park.  The bride was dressed in auspicious bright red and held a bouquet of red roses. Except for the color of the bride's dress, they looked like any Western wedding party.

We walked around for a while on Hong Kong Island and then returned by Star Ferry to Kowloon where we walked some more along the waterfront and through the famous Nathan Road shopping district until dusk. In Kowloon we came upon a park decked out for Chinese New Year.  It was the final night of the weeklong celebration.  Back aboard ship we saw the best sight of all. We watched the harbor side buildings light up as the light faded. Many Hong Kong office buildings light up bizarrely each evening.  At 8 PM when it was fully dark, everyone near the harbor was treated to Hong Kong's nightly laser light show where brilliant laser beams flash between buildings and across the harbor. Before, during and after the laser show many large buildings provide moving lighted displays.  Some buildings change colors, some have moving graphics, or strings of LEDs that progressively light up giving the impression of moving lines or bands of light.  The display continued to eleven PM.  The Silver Whisper had docked portside to the pier so we were able to watch the show from our starboard veranda. For Michael and me, having a Port wine and watching the show was a great way to end our 50-day cruise.

The taxi ride to the airport the following morning was uneventful, even somewhat anti-climactic.  I had been in the terminal before; everything seemed familiar. I forgot to take my nail scissors out of my carry on and the Chinese security guards, after a lengthy conference, confiscated them.  I must look like a terrorist.  I don't know what damage I could do with two inch blunt tipped blades but I must appear dangerous to the Chinese.  It does seem that airport security worldwide chooses me for extra scrutiny far more often than Michael.  The word must be out that little old ladies like me are prime suspects for being up to no good.

Our flight back to the U.S. on United's international First Class was something of a disappointment.  The video system did not work properly, the food was bland compared to that we had on Silversea, and the service was borderline rude.  The time Michael and I flew back from Shanghai in business class was better.  I probably should not complain, after all I will be unlikely to fly international first class again.  We flew first class this time because it was available for not too many miles more than business class.  I believe that most of the other first class passengers were not full fare paying customers either.  No one paying thousands of dollars extra for a first class seat would put up with the poor service.

Grumbles aside, this was a most amazing trip.  I saw parts of the world I had never seen before.  We met interesting people and had unusual adventures.  The ship took care of us wonderfully.  I'm glad to be home again but I am starting to look forward to our next cruise this coming summer.  This will be on the newly refurbished less than 300 passenger Silver Cloud traveling from Southampton, England to Copenhagen and from Copenhagen along the coast of Norway to Arctic Russia and back.  It will be a very different experience and very photogenic.  I do hope you have enjoyed this account of my travels.

A Rainy Day in Manila, Philippines

As soon as the Silver Whisper left the harbor at Sandakan, Borneo we were in Philippine territory.  The Philippine Islands spread over a vast area of the western Pacific.  I had not realized before going there that islands belonging to the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia are all near each other and the political divisions among them are largely a result of centuries of local politics and arbitrary divisions caused by various European occupiers.  In fact, there was a local conflict going on in the Sabah province of Borneo only forty or so miles from where we went on our tour from Sandikan.  Islamic rebels from the southern Philippines, loyalists of the now nonexistent Sultan of Sulu, had invaded eastern Sabah and were demanding the right to settle there claiming that the area belonged to the ancient sultanate.  They were defeated and arrested by the time we reached Hong Kong.  We tourists were perfectly safe but the islands in the southern Philippines have been in various kinds of revolt for centuries.

The Silver Whisper crossed the Sulu Sea (no reference to Star Trek, the Sulu are a local ethnic group not all of them claiming allegiance to the long ago sultan) heading more or less due north to Manila.  The Sulu Sea is dotted with islands, some only rocks poking up from the water, others reasonably substantial having trees and buildings on them.  The sea was calm but misty.  Every so often, a rocky shape would appear and slide by as we proceeded north.  As we neared Manila, we saw large tankers and container ships headed north as we were, and passed others headed south. We were in a major seaway.  The weather was hot and damp. Intermittent drizzle and a stiff breeze made it difficult and unpleasant to walk laps on the jogging track.

As is true on cruise ships everywhere, a majority of the non-officer crew of the Silver Whisper is Filipino.  Some of the crewmembers were finishing their contracts and going home, others were planning to visit their families during the one-day stop.  There was an air of expectation and excitement throughout the ship.  As the Whisper came into Manila Bay, crewmembers we never usually saw outside came on deck to use their cell phones talking to family and friends.  It was quite a sight.

As we tied up to the pier, we could see families waiting in the terminal building.  Every so often a few children would try to get near the ship as it was docking and security guards would shoo them back inside.  Michael and I watched from the deck as, after the ship was cleared for landing crewmembers carrying their luggage scrambled down the gangway into the embrace of their loved ones.  Soon after, family members of crew staying on board started up the gangway.  Visitors filled the ship all day.  Some of our fellow guests spent the day watching the reunions and talking to the proud and beaming crewmembers and their families.  One couple we had become friendly with staked out seats on a chest next to the gangway and sipped champagne for hours as they watched the comings and goings.

I had signed up for a tour of "The Charms of Old Manila" so I boarded a tour bus that set off in a downpour for the "Intramuros," the old walled city established by the Spaniards in the 1560's.  Manila was heavily bombed during World War II so only bits and pieces of the original city survive.  Some reconstructed buildings and some old city wall give enough flavor of "old Manila "to make an historical tour worthwhile. The original city had a moat surrounding its wall on both sides.  The U.S. Army filled in the moat during the early twentieth century to stop the spread of disease and the moat is now a city golf course.  How American!

We stopped to tour the Casa Manila, a re-created nineteenth century rich trader's mansion, now a museum.  No photographs were allowed inside so I cannot show the beautifully restored interior.  Wealthy Filipinos emulated their Spanish conquerors and built grand houses in the Spanish style. This one was a most interesting example from the nineteenth century even though it has been re-created using materials and furnishings from several sources.  Walls and floors are paneled in rich Philippine mahogany and other local woods.  Heavy Spanish style, locally carved furniture is mixed with lighter imported pieces from Europe and the Americas. 

Spain ruled the Philippines for more than three hundred years and many wealthy locals adopted Spanish culture during that period.  Ordinary Filipinos were mostly servants and small farmers living outside the Intermuros in traditional villages.  They shared the Catholic religion, probably the greatest legacy of Spanish colonization.  There is also a legacy of colonialism, at least a reaction to it, even though the country has been independent for more than sixty years.

Our next stop was the St. Augustine Church and Monastery across the street from Casa Manila.  The church dates from the sixteenth century and is the country's oldest structure.   It is the only building in the Intramuros that survived WW II. The church, damaged during WW II , has been restored.  Our tour guide made a point of how sound the foundations are.  The stones have withstood Manila's frequent earthquakes and are sound enough to still support the structure

Many religious statues mounted on elaborate wheeled platforms were scattered through halls of the monastery and the alcoves in the church proper.  Our guide told us that the statures were being readied for a large holy week procession.  They will be pulled through the streets by faithful Catholics in a procession held annually just before Easter.  All but one or two of the statues are privately owned. The owners, wealthy individuals and citizen associations, store them in the church for safekeeping.  Many are more than a hundred years old and very valuable.  The figures have faces and hands of ivory and are clad in rich gold cloth and gems.  There has been a lot of theft so the ivory hands and faces are gradually being replaced with plastic and the glass substituted for the gems.

The church itself appears to have an elaborately carved and decorated ceiling but it is really cleverly painted wood in tromp l'oeil style.  In spite of the gold and silver objects present in the church, it is simple in style. The church is still in use today while the monastery is largely now a museum of religious artifacts.

The tour of the two sites complete, our busload of twenty plus tourists stood in the rain for nearly twenty minutes waiting for our tour bus.  No vehicles were allowed to park on the street so the bus had to be summoned from somewhere far away.  We got wet. Crowds of Japanese tourists kept arriving, filling the sidewalk.  Our group was wet and crowded but at least the temperature was warm.

The next stop was supposed to have been a walking tour of Fort Santiago, an important cultural "relic".   The fort, built by the Spaniards to defend Manila from foreign invaders, is now a park with monuments of cultural significance.  The bus pulled up to the wrought iron gates.  No one wanted to get out and walk in the heavy rain.  The tour guide told us about the fort from the dry comfort of the bus.  Some of the passengers asked to see more of Manila from the bus rather than walk in Rizal Park, our next destination, in the rain.  Our guide agreed but did insist on the obligatory stop at a local handicraft store mentioned in the tour description.

Our tour group spent about thirty minutes in the store, many using this "shopping opportunity" to purchase souvenirs made in the Philippines.  I saw nothing compelling.  The prices seemed reasonable but who needs a shell keepsake box of other knick-knack to remember a one-day visit? Our bus reappeared when the buying frenzy slowed to a stop.

Our tour guide and driver gave us an unanticipated "extra."  We spent the next thirty minutes driving through downtown Manila enjoying a narrated description of the buildings we passed.  Many of them were pretentious cultural monuments of the Marcos era.  Our guide said that the Marcos's spent public money on huge edifices rather than on the Philippine people. Even now Imelda Marcos lives on and has been elected to the local assembly.  "We have short memories," The guide said.  This substitution of a bus ride for more walking in the rain gave me more of a feeling of what Manila is like than I would have had otherwise.  The tour finished with a stop at the Manila Hotel for a glass of pineapple juice and peanuts. 

Later in the afternoon, Michael and I took a shuttle bus from the ship to what billed itself as   "The Third Largest Shopping Center in Asia."  Michael had been there in the morning but went inside only far enough to use the free Wi-Fi.  This time we walked around part of the mall.  It was large, but I do not think it was larger than malls in China.   A unique feature was an indoor skating rink.  Mania's outside temperature is usually between 80 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit so this is a most unusual entertainment attraction. It was in use, too.  Otherwise, the stores were mostly world brands, familiar in many places: Clinique, Hugo Boss, Mark and Spenser, etc.

The day in Manila was over all too soon.  Despite the rain, I had learned a lot and enjoyed the experience.  I cannot say I understand the city nor the Philippines but I at least got a glimpse of the intriguing contradictions of Filipino society.  The most wonderful part was seeing the crew meet their families.  The joy of their reunions was contagious.

 

 

Pictures from Borneo

In the Happy Anniversary photo the balloons are out of sight on the bed.  Michael's pictures of Borneo wildlife are better than mine. See http://cbu-spacific1301.blogspot.com for his. (Warning, he is several entries ahead of me so you may have to look back to older posts.)

Romantic Bali to Exotic Borneo

Three entire days at sea were required to travel from Fremantle, Western Australia to Bali, Indonesia.  We could see the western coast of Australia as a shadow on the starboard (right) side of the ship far in the distance. After the first day, there was only ocean in all directions. 

The Silver Whisper arrived off the coast of Bali shortly after dawn on February 17. The sail in was incredible.  Fishermen stood lining the way into the harbor in seawater up to their waists.  It was low tide and they looked like a line of buoys quite a distance out from the shoreline.  The colors of land and water were beautiful. The spectacular dawn was marred somewhat by the odor of burning garbage as we docked at the Benoa pier.  A troupe of Balinese dancers and musicians greeted us as the Whisper tied up to the pier.  They performed for us until the ship was cleared and passengers started down the gangway.

Michael and I decided several days earlier to celebrate our second anniversary on the 17^th in Bali with a day at the beach, as it was still the 16^th in the U.S, our actual anniversary.  We had been to Bali in 2010 and seen most of the traditional tourist sights.  This time we planned for a quiet day of relaxation.  Michael and I took a taxi to a public beach right next to the Bali Hyatt in the resort town of Sanur about five miles from the port.

Bali seemed a bit run down compared to three years ago.  There was road construction near the port. The highway to the airport is apparently being enlarged with a new bridge under construction. Despite this, there were few tourists on the sreets although our taxi driver complained about the Sunday traffic.  The buildings we passed appeared dirty and not well maintained.  I noticed, especially in Sandakan, that a tropical climate requires that people perform constant maintenance or mold and mildew will appear everywhere.  Not much fresh paint was in evidence on Bali buildings.  The ancient stonework appeared black. Bali may well be suffering a decrease in tourism due to the global recession, and the mainstay Australian tourism has fallen off since a terrorist attack at a resort hotel a few years ago.

Our pre trip research indicated that a day pass to the Hyatt Hotel would cost us about $90.00 each plus we would be required to purchase of an expensive lunch.  Instead we paid the local taxi driver $50.00 for transportation anywhere we wanted to go and four hours of his time.  He suggested the public beach next to the Bali Hyatt.  We rented beach chairs with pads and towels for both of us and an umbrella for a total of $10 for the day.  Our beach chairs on the public beach were less than 50 feet from the much more expensive but very similar Hyatt chairs.  We waded in the same water and walked on the same sand.  The day was warm though it threatened rain.  We had a wonderful time.  Total cost - $60.00

Sailing out at sunset, we got a glimpse of Bali's almost 11,000-foot volcano, Mt Agung, rising out of the mist.  I tried my best to get an atmospheric photo.  My efforts are included here.  Seeing the mountain in the mist was a favorable start to a romantic evening.

Michael and I returned to our suite after our special order veal marsala dinner to find it decorated with balloons and towels twisted into hearts and swans, topped with a sign saying, "Happy Anniversary."  The folks in the customer relations department and our butler and housekeeper had gone all out on the presentation.  I don't remember much more of the evening but I think chocolate and cognac were involved.

Following another two days day at sea we reached Sandakan, Malaysia in the province of Sabah on the north end of the island of Borneo.

The Silver Whisper's stop at Sandakan was perhaps the most exotic of the trip.  Not many western tourists visit remote northeast Borneo. Those that do, visit for the wildlife.  The Malaysian province of Sabah occupies the northern part of the island of Borneo.  Northern Borneo is divided into two Malaysian provinces. Indonesia owns the south, and the small oil-rich Sultanate of Brunei is independent on the west coast.

Sabah, Malaysia has a population of about 3 million people spread over 28,000 square miles.   Most live in towns and villages on the coast or on the riverbanks.   The land around Sandakan is lowland floodplain covered in mangrove forest.  Sabah was a British protectorate from the late eighteenth century until WW II, which it spent largely under Japanese occupation.  The Allied offensive to recapture the territory essentially demolished the city of Sandakan.  Most of the buildings date from the nineteen sixties and seventies.  Sabah joined the Malay Federation in 1963 and it has remained part of Malaysia since.  The city, unremarkable in itself, is the jumping off point for wildlife viewing visits. The Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center offer tours and are accessible by tour bus. Riverboat rides to the Kinabatangan River to see primates, lizards, river snakes, crocodiles and other tropical jungle life are another option.

Michael chose to take the tour titled "In Search of Wildlife."   This five-hour tour involved riding in a powerful riverboat at high speed up the Kinabatangan River making periodic stops to observe the various wild creatures the guides pointed out.  We were in the third of four riverboats working their way upriver.  Our guide, "Ben", mostly followed the other boats and had our captain pull in wherever the other boats gathered near the shore. Everyone in the other boats was generally pointing to whatever creature had been observed.  It was a great experience.  We really did see wild things in their natural habitat.  Plus the fast ride with spray flying and a large wake to our rear was great fun. Michael and I both have pictures of long tailed macaque monkeys, a river snake in a tree, exotic birds, and salt water crocodiles. Michael photographed a shape in the trees that he later enlarged to reveal a real orangutan and another monkey shape when enlarged was a proboscis monkey and baby.  He took better photographs than I did.

Michael's hat blew off his head and landed in the water at one point.  The boat captain circled around and Ben retrieved the hat before it sank.  We both went hatless after that.  When I got back to the ship, my hair was all tangled from whipping around in the high-speed wind.

Several hours into the tour, all the boats stopped for refreshments (mango juice and banana fritters) at an up-scale lodge on the riverbank. The lodge and the riverboats are owned by the same company. The lodge specializes in eco-tourism.  Guests sleep in cabins in the jungle, get tours of the river, the jungle, and the animal sanctuaries and also attend a feast at a nearby village.  The company generates additional income by providing tours for the very occasional visiting cruise ship (us). 

The riverboats returned downriver even faster than they had gone upriver.  We only slowed down so as not to raise too large a wake passing villages and other boats.  We returned tired and happy to the Silver Whisper only a few minutes before the scheduled departure time.

Femantle and Perth: About as far away from Home as one can get

After being home over a week I'm finally mostly over the jet lag and have taken care of most of start taking much needed daily walks.  The trip back from Hong Kong made for a thirty-six hour Monday.  We flew about fourteen hours and crossed eight time zones.  Our flight to the U.S. the essentials needed to get back to functioning in Boulder.  Michael and I even managed to arrived in San Francisco four hours before we left Hong Kong. (We crossed the international dateline and recovered the day we had lost just before reaching New Zealand.)

This report resumes my account after leaving Albany, Western Australia.  The Silver Whisper's stop there ended at 2:00 PM, February 11.  We spent the next 24 hours at sea until reaching Fremantle at 2:00 PM the following day.  We left the Southern Sea and entered the Indian Ocean.

Fremantle is Perth's port.  It was reputedly a very run down and dangerous place until it was rehabilitated to make it a presentable venue for the 1987 America's Cup sailboat races.  Those races were a very big deal to Australians, especially since they won the 1983 race that the Americans lost for the first time in the 132-year race's history. This time the Australians lost but I had to look it up as Fremantle glorifies the 1983 victory only. There is a replicas silver trophy in the Western Australia Maritime Museum in Fremantle.  But I'm getting ahead of my story.

Michael and I had planned to walk around Fremantle, observe the historic sites and inquire into the price of train tickets to Perth for the next day as Silver Whisper would be staying overnight.  However, it was very hot.  I later heard that the temperatures were well above 100 degrees F. all afternoon.  Since the Silver Whisper had docked near the Fremantle railway station, we revised our plans and were looking forward to riding the air-conditioned commuter train to Perth.  A woman in perhaps her early fifties stopped us as we crossed the parking lot at the pier on our way to the station.  She was watching the ship and the disembarking passengers.  She introduced herself and asked us if we could answer a few questions about the ship and cruising in general.  Always eager to meet the locals, Michael took the lead and said, "Of course."

Ann Marie, our new acquaintance with the same name as the Silver Whisper's most excellent chef , was planning to take a cruise with a girlfriend on Silver Whisper this coming October.  She would be traveling from New York to Montreal, totally exotic places to her.  It would be her first cruise ever.  Michael answered the "three questions" everyone new to cruising always asks: "Don't you get bored?" (No, there are lots of activities.) "Don't you get seasick?" (Sometimes but not often; it depends on how rough the seas get.  Most itineraries are deliberately designed for smooth sailings.)  And, with an audible gasp, "Do you have to DRESS UP?" (Somewhat, you are expected to look nice for dinner.  If you are terrified of formal nights, there are always alternative dining options that are more casual.  It is fun, for us, to dress up occasionally. We look really good.)

Ann Marie offered to take us wherever we were headed.  When we told her it was the train station a block away, she offered to take us there in her car by way of a tour of Fremantle.  Since it was very hot, it seemed a good way to see something of the city as well as meet a local.

She took us to a nearby beach and the river where, incidentally, I actually saw the black swans for which the Swan River is named. We learned something of her story.  Ann Marie was a recently retired teacher/librarian.  The man with whom she had been living for many years, a college professor, had died recently and she was somewhat at loose ends.  She had moved back to the neighborhood in Fremantle where she grew up and was living across the street from her childhood home, which she showed us.  It was in a pleasant middle-class neighborhood a few blocks from the Swan River.  Aside from a family trip to Europe when she was in her teens and a trip to "the eastern states" of Australia with her mother thirty years ago, she had lived her whole life in Fremantle and apparently had not traveled very far.  She had been to Albany, a seven-hour drive away, and had taken an airplane to Kalgoorlie, an interior mining town in Western Australia on business; but otherwise she had been no further from Fremantle than Perth for most of her life.

Ann Marie was very excited to show her hometown to two strangers from far off, exotic America.  She even offered to drive us the twelve miles to Perth.  We were a little nervous at her obvious and growing excitement and insisted after an hour or so that she drop us off at the railway station.  Later we realized that her excitement was harmless.  She was genuinely thrilled to meet us and show us the best that she could of her town.  She will probably be telling her friends stories for years about the day she was able to be tour guide to two Americans.

Experiences like this and being sheltered from the rain ata house in Rangaroa a few weeks earlier are what make travel so special for Michael and me.

At the railway station, Michael attempted to puzzle out the operating instructions for the ticket machine.  He was having a difficult time getting the machine to take our credit cards until a schoolgirl waiting for the same train with her classmates took pity and assisted him.  Following her demonstration and learning that our cards wouldn't work on Transperth's services, we had no further problems buying train tickets several times afterwards. 

The commuter train filled with students and office workers on their way home.  The weekday commute starts around 3:30 PM and more students got on at each stop. The coach was crowded but wonderfully cool.  We arrived at the Perth station in about half an hour.  Finding our way out of the station was complicated.  We found ourselves on the second floor of a new mall.  We eventually emerged at the Murray Street Mall, a several square block pedestrian zone in the business center of Perth.  I stood in line at the visitor's information booth to get a map while Michael used the free municipal sponsored Wi-Fi to check some mysterious phone messages.  One great characteristic of Australia and New Zealand is the prevalence of free Wi-Fi.  One can always find it by looking for people with smart phones and laptops sitting or crouching in the area where the signal is strongest.  I saw one woman using two phones and a laptop at once.

The visitor's information booth had a sign saying that all walking tours had been cancelled due to the high heat.  The attendant recommended that we take a free air-conditioned bus to see the local sights.  Perth has three free bus routes covering the central city in addition to their paid routes.  One free bus goes north south in a loop, another loops east west and the third loop does a little of both going from East Perth to West Perth.  They were meant for tourists but used mostly by local people. We opted for the east-west route, which went by the largest number of historical and other important sights.  In forty minutes of travel, I saw a good cross section of the city of Perth.  I discovered that my camera does not take good pictures from a moving vehicle.

Perth is the westernmost capital city in Australia.  It is closer to Jakarta, Indonesia than to Melbourne.  Perth is a city far at the end of nowhere on the southwest corner of very sparsely populated Australia.  Most residents, similar to our new acquaintance Ann Marie, have never seen the rest of their country.  Nevertheless, Perth is a real city.  It bustles with energy.  It is benefiting from the mining boom in the interior of Western Australia and there is a lot of construction in progress.  Getting to and from the railway station is an example of the difficulties caused by that construction.  The city is burying the railway tracks so getting around the construction is like going through a maze.  Perth's architecture is a mix of old (late 1800's) and new.  There is no particular style.  A Victorian gem of a building may be next to a modern steel and glass tower. Undistinguished nineteen sixties style cement and glass storefronts mix with the historic and sleekly modern.  Despite the very hot weather we experienced on this visit, Perth's climate is normally similar to that of San Diego, California. There are palm trees, Frangipani and other exotic plants lining the streets.

Michael wanted to show me the Northbridge district, north of the soon to be buried railroad tracks.  He had spent a memorable week in Perth twenty-five years ago.  Then Northbridge was the place many in Perth went for dinner each night.  It had been filled with restaurants and cafes serving many types of food and he had fond memories of eating at restaurants there.  We hiked over the bridge in late afternoon and strolled the streets looking for dinner possibilities.  An observation we made, one that also applied in Adelaide, the last place we had sought to buy a meal, was that nowadays there are only two types of eating-places.   We found a large number of fast food outlets, Asian, German, Irish, Outback themed, even Mexican and a few, very few, expensive restaurants, Italian and Chinese.  Michael and I settled for a local beer at an Asian food court as we found no medium priced restaurants.  Northbridge had changed but it was still there. Michael said he had feared it might be all boarded up and crime ridden after so many years.  We were happy to find that it is still an interesting place.  We took the train back to Fremantle and the Silver Whisper for cocktails and a late dinner.  I don't know whether Australia, like the US has become a fast food nation or if my sample is skewed.  I do know that Michael and I thoroughly enjoyed drinks on our veranda as the sun set and the Southern Cross rose.

The following day, Wednesday, was predicted to be another over 100-degree day. Michael and I walked to the train station early to go back to Perth before the temperature turned really hot.  This time we found ourselves at the morning rush hour full of young people headed for school. We saw a few adults in business attire but mostly teenagers in school uniforms.  Most of them got off the train long before we reached Perth.  By nine AM Perth was already getting very warm.  We had not yet decided which sights we wanted most to see. Between the bus ride the day before and the walk around Northbridge, we had seen most of the central business district. 

We walked west on Murray Street past the pedestrian zone and Michael suddenly recognized the hotel we were passing as the place he had stayed twenty-five years ago.  The brewpub next to it was still there too.  He could not resist going in.  He told the front desk clerk that she looked exactly like the clerk from so many years back.  The young woman at the desk couldn't have been more than twenty one or two so it couldn't really have been her. The lobby had not visibly changed either.  The manager came out of her office and said that she had worked the front desk twenty-five years ago, maybe he was remembering her.  It was fun hearing them discuss ways Perth had or had not changed in a quarter century.

The north south free bus circled through Northbridge, which we had thoroughly walked Tuesday, then went down the main street from the station to the river then around King's Park, a thousand plus acre reserve along the Swan River, and looped back to the train station.  Instead of riding, we walked to the river, as it was not yet blistering hot.  At the riverside, we discovered another construction project.  Freeway entrances and exits were being moved underground to create more land for building more skyscrapers.  Construction barriers and heavy machinery temporarily masked the scenic beauty of the area.  We hiked over to the ferry building and the Swan Bells.  The Swan Bells are church bells in a relatively new structure that houses bells donated by London's Church of St. Martin of the Fields.  The bells ring every day at one PM and are a tourist attraction.  The ancient bells looked a bit strange in a modern glass tower.  Australia is like that.

Nearby at the Barrack Street Jetty two ferry operators offer various tours of the Swan River.  We made a last minute decision to take a ferry to Fremantle for a cool and a scenic ride.  One ferry operator had no trips to Fremantle scheduled that day. See Michael's blog photo of the clerk with a winged pig over her head. That told us the likely hood of traveling with her company that day.  The other operator, the ubiquitous Cook's Tours, had a ferry to Fremantle leaving in minutes.  We hurried aboard.  Michael and I enjoyed an hour's cruise down the Swan River with narration as we stood in a cool breeze. Wonderful.

We alighted at the ferry dock just steps from the Silver Whisper in time for us to have another late lunch aboard our ship.

Following lunch, we walked back to the train station to board the free bus touring downtown Fremantle.  We drove through the historic district, through residential and shore areas and by the sailboat basin.  We saw different areas than we had seen the day before with Ann Marie.  Michael and I got off the bus at the Western Australia Maritime Museum.  This had been highly recommended by a fellow guest, an avid sailor.  He visited in the morning and was most impressed.  The museum is very well done.  They prominently feature the Australia II, the racing boat that won the Americas cup. It was hanging from the ceiling in an exhibit on the development of twelve meter sailing boats. I enjoyed the air conditioning and learned something of Western Australia's nautical past.  It really is the back of beyond.

On the way back to the Whisper, we passed a training sailing vessel and stared at nervous sailors-in-training high up on the yardarm learning to reef the mainsails.  It was a fitting end to our adventures ashore. Our day and a half in Fremantle/Perth was the longest port visit the Silver Whisper made during our 50-day voyage.  I think Michael and I made the most of it.  We even enjoyed watching two tour buses pull up in front of the ship half an hour after our scheduled departure.  Later, hearing the tale of the tour, traffic delays on a long drive back from a ferry ride, I concluded that Michael and I had the better time exploring on our own.