Sunday, February 26, 2012
Yesterday, the QM2 made her maiden visit to Padang Harbour, Bali. We anchored off-shore and had a short (6 or 7 minute) tender ride. As soon as we left the ship to board the tender, I started sweating and did not stop until long after I was out of the heat. It was hot, hot, hot.
After passing through a passenger terminal, we had to run a gauntlet of taxi drivers, postcard and souvenir sellers, including children selling the oldest post cards I have ever seen. It was difficult and embarrassing just trying to get to the shuttle busses.
And the fun did not stop there - another army of taxi drivers, postcard and souvenir sellers and waiters trying to get us to eat were waiting for us in the small town. My mission from God is always to find a post office. I found 2 and chose the one in the combination grocery-clothing-drug store with a post agent at a small desk. With luck the letters will eventually arrive.
Leaving the shuttle bus, I ran into Anatolie, one of the pianists aboard. We decided to explore the town together. After a couple of minutes I realized that he must have been a Boy Scout (Guide for those of you with a queen). He helped me across the street, helped me climb stairs, checked for holes in the sidewalk/pavement (and there were a lot of those), reminded me to look both ways before crossing the street. It was mostly unnecessary and totally sweet. Later, I went to the pub (there are several aboard) to hear him and he played melodies from CARMEN as well as standards.
Bali is poor and we, the passengers, must seem impossibly rich to them. A dollar is a lot of money. Scenes during the ride from the dock to the town: banana groves, some commercial and others private, with 6 or 7 trees in the garden. Small rice paddies, perhaps 10 x 10 yards, in the garden beside or behind a house. How different from the carrots and radishes the kids and I planted years ago! Women washing clothes, dishes, children and food in the small, shallow river which ran beside the road. The road was a narrow 2-lane affair loaded with what appeared to be 50cc motorcycles. My favorite scene: a small motorcycle with father, mother, child in front of the father, child between the mother and father and child behind the mother, and it passed our bus.
I did not want any souvenirs - no wooden, carved and painted Harley Davidsons, no sarong, no carved plastic replica of a temple. I bought fans - one for me and 3 for the Melbourne triplets.
After about 2 hours, I was hot, tired and very, very sweaty. Anatolie remarked that it seemed to be only the tourists who were sweating, as he wiped sweat out of his eyes. Last night my right shoulder hurt and I saw the reason - a sunburn, not serious, just annoying. But, it's the first one in about 15 years and no Noxema in sight. So, I put some local anesthetic gel (from the dentist in Buxtehude) on it this evening in order to wear a formal gown with straps and be able to dance.
And speaking of dance - I have met three women, Maree, Lilly and Tita, from Melbourne, who are cheerful, charming, lovely characters and excellent and enthusiastic dancers. They do ballroom with husbands and line dancing (perhaps with husbands, too but not in the class).
What I first noticed is that they are such good friends that they finish each others' sentences. Then I watched two of them dance rock and roll and saw that they dance so well together they could probably do it blind-folded. They are wonderfully generous and have taught me, and the rest of the class, fun and fancy dances. My favorite is, of course, the BUMP AND GRIND - just as the name implies. In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had made friends for the day, for the trip and for life. I hope they are in the last category and should I get to Melbourne next year or should we meet on the ship, we will pick up just where we leave off this year. Also, I was instructed to say that Maree is the "cute one" - in truth, they are all cute.
Last night was another highlight of this trip. I was tired from the excursion on Bali but had been told that there was going to be a jazz jam. In Pittsburgh, I used to go to C.J's with Chuck on Thursday nights when some of the best jazz musicians in Pittsburgh, and farther afield, came and jammed.
The musicians who play regularly in the ballroom were transformed last night into some of the finest jazz musicians I have ever heard. And, they seemed to have as much fun playing as I did listening. Among other things, the trumpet solo in SECRET LOVE was brilliant and the complicated drum cadence in a subsequent song accompanied me to bed hours later. TAKE THE A TRAIN was a joy. Thanks, Guys, and please do it again soon.
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