Saturday, October 6, 2012

Lankawi interesting for it's lake


Lankawi  and it's fresh water lake protected from the sea by the mountains that surround it. It is a dead volcano crater filled with fresh water topped up by rain.



 The robbers of the island, the monkeys, will snatch anything from you. If you're heading for the lake leave food and anything in a plastic bag on the boat. 

board walks everywhere enabling easy access for all to swim 


The water wasn't cold
The rest of the day on the beach. No monkeys here. Free to leave belongings!!

Friday, October 5, 2012

In the various ports

Adelaide: a quiet town 'till we got there...

Freemantle. Definitely worth a longer visit. University town with Perth up the freeway. The area famous for Murray River wines.

Yes, Tony bought the duck and kookaburra whistles which were used to find each other in shopping centres! He was the kookaburra!!
 no high rise here and mostly the original architecture. We liked it.



Welcome to Indonesia.  What else do you do on a rainy day?
Enjoy the parlour. 
Toilets were funny here.  Intelligence was needed to find the button/chain/foot pedal.....????


















Then Singapore, where we talked Sylvia, travelling on here own, into the fact that she wasn't scared of heights. To her credit she took the plunge!! 
Well done. 




views from above in the cable car
Amazing art of noodle making.

Sailing to South Africa 2012

We decided to do a "leg" of the Arcadia's world cruise. 30 days to South Africa. Great fun.  The only let down was the food. The positive of this was that we didn't put on weight!!!

You have to admire the power put out of that engine room!

Challenges and games. The boats had to be made from stuff that was available on the ship. Beg, Borrow or dare I say it steal!  Tony and mascot, Scruff, who was rescued from ship's shop.
the ship and had to carry 6 full cans without sinking.The pirates came 2nd.

Oh yes! another photo!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Special Bonsai Garden on Oahu

Another reason why traveling is great.  This is a very special Bonsai garden.  The cove next to Sharks Cove on the north side of Oahu. The keeper of the garden is a homeless old Japanese lady who has taken this cove over and made it her own.  She lives in her make shift tent. The public ablution block is her bathroom and if she runs short of cash she sometimes borrows from the local firemen and always insists on paying back on time and with interest!!! (This info direct from those firemen who supply the loan).  The local authority leaves her alone while all other squatters get moved on. She earns her keep by maintaining such a beautiful water front. We watched her saying a little prayer over her little trees.  Her tools: a pair of nail scissors.
A lesson in non verbal and "just accepted" co operation.  ............This is her garden!  Note the detail.

She declined to be photographed in courteous Japanese style.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Interesting Hawaiian flag....Did you know........

I knew that Capt. James Cook had discovered these islands and named them the Sandwich Islands and I also knew that he met with a sticky end here, but I didn't know that Hawaii had a past history with the British much beyond the discovery. They acknowledge their past in their flag. The Hawaiian flag with the union jack in the top left hand corner flies alongside the stars and stripes all over Honolulu.  
For more info on the history of Hawaii centred around the British connection I chose the link below:
O   Other links are more American orientated and there seems to be a bias in all directions as to what happened here depending on the author..... hey, history was written by the victors.  The influence the British had is recorded in the state flag, just another very good reason why flags should be an acknowledgement of a country's past,  it gives interest and meaning to that piece of cloth, don't you think?

2.        





The 3rd flag in this picture belongs to the Dole pineapple plantation where we had the typical American fare!







pineapple ice cream and fresh pineapple for $4.95
We shared this......


another concoction. This person wasn't sharing!!

The plantation is on the way to the northern beaches of Oahu. A slick operation.