World Cruise 2013: Day 56 - Benoa, Indonesia

World Cruise 2013

March 2, 2013

Today the ship arrived in Benoa, Indonesia. The ship was to arrive at 8 AM but we did not get to the port until 9 AM because another ship had to clear the ships channel before our ship could enter.

Benoa is located in the southernmost tip on the Island of Bali. Indonesians are predominately Muslim but on Bali the 90 percent are Hinduism with 1 percent Christian. Indonesia has the forth-largest number of people behind India, China and the USA. It consists of thousands of Islands some of which are not populated. Indonesia is a special place for many of the crew since all most all of the wait staff and the cabin attendants come from Indonesia. Many of the crew who come from Bali had their family come aboard for the day. Thus it was a special day for the crew who had their family visit the ship. Many of these crewmembers have a contract to stay on the ship for a year and have not seen their family for two to eight months.

I took I tour called “East Bali Heritage”. Our first stop was a visit to Klungkung Kertagosa a building designed and built in 1710 by some of the finest artisans in the county. Our next stop started with a drive up the mountain passing through small villages and rural countryside with great view of the local area to Rendang where we had lunch at a hotel overlooking stunning rice terraces. After lunch we drove to Besakih, the Mother Temple of Bali, which sits 1,000 feet up the volcanic slopes of Gunung Agung. This is the island’s largest mountain and Besakih is its largest temple. To get to the temple required a long walk which and many steps to get to the top of the temple. When we arrived, it started to rain. We put on our rain ware provided by the bus and started to walk to the temple. The walk was not only long but is was also uphill and it was raining hard. I got to the site after stopping several times to rest but it was still raining and there was no where to take pictures without getting the camera wet so I didn’t think it was worth the walk up the mountain for a closer view of the Temple. I did manage to get a few pictures and I walked back to the bus. After everyone got back to the bus the bus left for a palace built in the 19^th century by the first king of the Karangasem Kingdom. After the visit we had a 100-minute drive back to the ship. The total time of the tour was over 8 hours.

Below are some pictures taken from the ship and on my tour.