Southeast Asia – Part 1 – Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore

We continued our Circle Pacific cruise with the beginning of the portion of this journey that was the reason we came on this cruise – seeing Asia without flying.  We were scheduled to visit some of these places in 2024 before our World Cruise itinerary changed.  All are new countries for us.

Indonesia

Our one stop in Indonesia was in Bali, but we were actually in Indonesia for days.  It is one of the largest and most populous countries in the world: the 4^th most populous (after China, India and the US) and ranging over thousands of square miles with thousands of islands.  One of the interesting things about Indonesia was being out at sea in the middle of a large country and being out of sight of land.

I did a tour in Bali; Kevin did not join me.  I learned a lot about Indonesia in general and Bali specifically from my excellent tour guide.

Indonesia gained its independence in 1945 from Japan, when they surrendered during World War II.  It had previously been a Dutch colony.  Due to all of the different islands and languages, when they became independent, they chose Malay as their official unifying language.  Most people speak Malay (what they learn in school) and their local language, which is Balinese in Bali.  In addition, my tour guide speaks English and some French.

The school system in Bali is similar to in the US, and public schools (free) go through college.  However, if you fail tests, you no longer can stay in school for free and must pay to continue your education.  There are also private schools in addition to the public school system.  My tour guide has three daughters attending college on the island of Java.

While 80% of Bali’s economy is based on tourism, there is a lot of manufacturing in Indonesia:  if something you buy in the store is labeled “made in Indonesia” it is probably made on the island of Java.

My tour started with breakfast at a resort restaurant in the town of Sanur.  It was excellent and one of the highlights of the day.  It was a buffet with a mix of Balinese and western items; the local items were the best.

Next, we went to the Uluwatu temple, built in the 11^th century.  Unfortunately, the temple was surrounded by monkeys (Macaques specifically) who like to steal things.  Some consider them the guardians of the temple.  While they were interesting to see initially, I was concerned because one of the things they like to steal is glasses, and I am literally blind without mine – while I have some old glasses with me for spares, losing them would make the remainder of my trip very difficult.  They were aggressive enough that I chose to turn back instead of seeing the temple – a little disappointing, but not worth the risk for me.  I waited in the shade for the rest of my group to return.

After the temple, we went to lunch at a seafood barbeque restaurant.  It was disappointing.  It was beachfront but you couldn’t see the beach.  The soup was good, but the seafood was overcooked and/or difficult to eat and/or odd and/or spicier than I would prefer (as were the vegetables).  Oh well ….

Next, we went to a mall, which is like typical malls worldwide.  I did not find anything to buy in the mall, but it was good to walk through in the air conditioning (it was very hot).

Our final stop was more shopping, at a tourist shopping center.  I bought 2 dresses for approximately 5 dollars each, so that was more successful.

In general, I am glad I did the tour.  It was interesting to see the southern/tourist portion of the island and learn about Bali and Indonesia.

Malaysia

We visited two ports in Malaysia.  Malaysia was part of the British Empire from the 18^th century until it became independent in 1957, with additional portions being added from Britain in 1963.

The first port we visited was Port Klang, the nearest port to Kuala Lumpur, the capital and largest city.  Because we are not fans of big cities, and because it was two hours away, we did not choose to visit the capital.  Because there was not much available to do in the immediate vicinity of the port, we chose to take a bus provided (for a fee) from the cruise ship to a mall in Klang, approximately 30 minutes away.

We once again confirmed that malls worldwide are very similar.  We took the opportunity to take a short walk outside near the mall to see what it was like; it was very hot and humid (being near the equator) so we returned to the mall.  We walked the entire mall before having lunch at Sushi Zanmai.  It might have been nice to try some local food instead of sushi, but because Kevin has an adverse reaction to spicy food (one of the things we refer to as “the joys of aging”) we chose to avoid it.  We finished our visit to the mall with the purchase of some coconut water at the supermarket before returning to the ship.

Our second port in Malaysia was the city of George Town on the island of Penang. It was founded as the first British settlement in Southeast Asia in 1786.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its “unique cultural and architectural landscape” from centuries of mixing various cultures and religions.   The varied types of buildings and neighborhoods near the port made for a very interesting walk.

It was again very hot and humid, so we took a break during our walk for a refreshing snack.  Kevin had an icy juice drink, while I tried cendol, a local shaved ice dessert with green rice flour noodles (cold), beans, palm sugar, maybe cinnamon, topped with frozen coconut milk.  It was like an icy sweet soup, very delicious and refreshing.

After more walking around, we found a French restaurant for lunch, Choux Choux.  It was maybe a bit expensive for the area but also one of the better meals we have had on shore for a while.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day.

Singapore

Our next country was Singapore, an island country on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.  The country became independent of Malaysia in 1965.  Today it is a very modern city state, with a population of approximately 6 million people.

We spent most of the day walking around Gardens by the Bay, a large nature park.  I particularly enjoyed the many flowers.  Being Singapore, there are also some modern elements such as the “supertrees” that are sculptures made of thousands of plants.  We ate lunch in the park at Satay by the Bay, which is what is known in Southeast Asia as a place with “hawker stands” – basically a food court with many restaurants cooking meals to order.  We chose a Chinese place called Dumpling House.  The shrimp dumplings and vegetables were good; the mushroom dumplings weren’t particularly good, but we ate them anyway.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at the Singapore Maritime Museum within a ferry terminal near the cruise terminal; we had noticed it on our way to the park.  We learned about Singapore’s long history as a major trading port.  Today it is one of the busiest commercial ports in the world, as evidenced by the large volume of shipping traffic we have seen on this portion of the cruise.

Overall we enjoyed our introduction to these countries, and look forward to our next ports in Southeast Asia.