2024 – Queen Mary 2 Grand World– Part 3 –Sydney to Singapore..3.1 Cairns to Bitung

It’s March 1 and I am going into high gear in preparation for Hong Kong.  I won’t be going to the ship’s big ToDo in the Rosewood, because I have friends to catch up with.  I still want my people to have the best time each of them can have.  There’s a lot to do and conversations to have.  Hong Kong is the most crowded place in earth.  It’s intimidating and there’s good reason for it.  You can get lost and you don’t speak the language, not anymore.  You’re fine in the hotels and fancy shops but you can’t spend all your time there, and you shouldn’t.  I was having private conversations with just about everyone to try to ensure they had the best time ever, in the city that I love so much.

I also have shore excursions coming up in Singapore and Phuket and it’s time to start communicating with the tour operators.  I acted on Daniele’s always reliable restaurant suggestions and booked “The Deck” in Saigon, which is Asian fusion and bound to be great.  Then I put it, as well as LouLou in Singapore, into Newsletter 11, which I delivered later in the day.

I had dinner with one very nice couple and the singer in the Royal Theatre was the best of those, yet.  She performs in a sequined tux, and no nonsense shoes.  She’s not young but she’s full of energy.  Her name is Lisa Crouch and she has a great voice.  She did Tina Turner, ABBA, etc.  

The next day, March 2, we docked in Yorkey’s Knob, for Cairns Australia.  Before I could go out, I had some work to do.  Then I went walkabout in Cairns or maybe it was just Yorkey’s Knob.  The tender ride put us down at a boat club, not the public pier I was used to.  It wasn’t right downtown, like the old public Pier.  It was out in the burbs.  Like getting dropped off at the Royal St. Lawrence, when you want to visit downtown Montreal.  There was a shuttle, but it only took us to the nearest suburb, which was, at least, a waterfront one.  It’s esplanade was somewhat developed, so after I addressed my pharmaceutical needs, I was able to find a decent bistro.  It was called “Little Sisters” and the kingfisher carpaccio was yummy.  There were slices of jalapeño and roe in the sauce.

Then I walked back to a gelato place I had spotted and got a two scoop sugar cone, one chocolate sorbet and one hazelnut.  That was a tad too distracting, so I took a left where I should have taken a right and walked three long blocks before I found and fixed the error.  My left ankle will not be pleased tomorrow.  I was three minutes past my personal deadline to be on the bus, but 37 minutes before the last bus, so all was well. 

The bus got me to the boat club by 4:24pm, for a 5:00pm last tender.  Only the tender operation was so backed up that we must have waited two hours.  There had to be 300 people there when I got there and there were more buses coming.  I blessed the fact that I needed to use the bathroom, when I found out there was a party of sorts going on at the club.  The poor members were drowning in a sea of well, us.  The smart ones of us.  There were still a few seats at tables on the deck, when I got out of the loo, so I ordered a beer and settled in. 

After about a half-hour the live music started.  It was hotter than hell, but sitting down with a cold beer, on a covered deck, listening to music sure beat standing in line in the sun. 

After a day like that, I enjoy sailaway and a little pizza at the Chef’s table.  I skipped the magic show, as I would have had to wait until 10:15pm for it and book and bed were calling.

Ofice hour was busy at sea on March 3.  The new people came to see me and are coming on the tour in Singapore.  They also want to come to LouLou with Amanda and me.  We’ll be talking more as they also want to go to the Marina Bay Sands at some point to be on top of that big boat in the sky.  The way to do it is KU-DA-TA or one of The Marina Bay Sands’ restaurants and we found an Italian one online that looked great to them.

The husband knows Hong Kong from business trips and was dying to show it to his wife.  So, I suggested they just book a room in Pacific Place on the HK side, which is far more interesting anyway, they can walk to the Peak Tram and my husband’s tailor, best in HK.  They liked the idea of the mall and of using the hotel concierge to find them a car and guide. 

It was another dinner in The Verandah Steakhouse with my new friends.  It was perfectly lovely.

March 4, we were at sea again and there was more work to do.  Some people’s plans for Hong Kong make me very nervous, like the one who plans to go out on his own looking for a department store in Kowloon where he had bought or had shirts made long ago.  I asked him when but he didn’t remember.  Kowloon is not my area of expertise, but I was pretty sure there wasn’t a department store in the area he was describing.  This really made me go to work on Hong Kong Addresses for taxi drivers in Chinese characters.  Anyone who goes out alone, including me, needs to be carrying such a thing.  I started working on it.  As I worked, I noticed that I was feeling worse and worse.  I filled myself up with cold meds and started taking Cipro.  I had been invited to a Captain’s Cocktail but decided I had better not take my germs there.  I took a nap, ordered room service, watched Golda, with Helen Mirren, and the port talks for Darwin and Bitung. 

Still at sea on March 5, 2024, it was a quiet day at the desk, which was good, because I wasn’t feeling all that great.  Cunard gifted us with a World Cruise Diary, two months in.  I had to buy my own in NYC and now have to buy another because I am almost through it. 

I went to the Chef’s Table, where I could eat at a table for one.  I had my bottle of wine brought from the Britannia dining room, because I’ll do this for at least two days.  I went to bed early but had trouble sleeping for the coughing. 

On March 6, 2024, we docked in Darwin, Australia.  I should have turned in my Territory Park Tour in a couple of days ago.  There was no way I was going to make it.  I was too sick to even call the Medical Department to deal with it.  I’m self-medicating with Cipro and it will probably work, but it’s costing me the price of the tour.  I finally got to sleep around one this morning, and the phone rang at three, even though it was in airplane mode.  It was on WiFi, though so maybe that’s why, and maybe I could have picked up, but I was too sick for that.  I texted the caller and went back to sleep.  When I got up I dealt with it. 

I was glad it was a port day and I didn’t need to go to the desk.  I had tea in my stateroom and spaghetti at Chef’s Table and watched a cute movie about a cyclist whose dad was a stonecutter.  I never saw the name of it but AI gave it to me when I asked.  It was “Breaking Away”.  I’m overcoming my fear of AI, which may be more dangerous. 

Back at sea on March 7, my mobile phone has lost its mind.  Sometime in the night, it left Darwin and went back to Sydney time.  That caused it to wake me up at 7:00am ship’s time, which was all I needed when I wasn’t feeling well. I reset it for 9:00am.  I woke up then, feeling much better and took more meds to keep it that way.  No one came to the desk which was perfect for me, and probably them.  I did some personal business and took the Bitung shorex I had booked in for a refund. 

I dined at a table for one in Britannia, finishing off that bottle of wine.  I think it was it’s fifth night.  I am getting four to five nights out of a bottle, nowadays.  Sad, but economical, at least.  

Still at sea on the morning of March 8, it was my turn to get the time wrong and I ended up hustling through my shower and exercises with Miranda Esmonde-White on my computer.  I discovered that I have more mobility when my hair is still wet, meaning my body is still warm from the shower.  Must do it this way more often.  It’s easier and probably more beneficial.

In a strange coincidence, two couples stopped by to talk for a bit, neither of whom were my people, but one couple was from Santa Rosa, the other from Montreal, and the Santa Rosa couple had HK accents.

Liz, my caregiver passenger,  came by to tell me that now her charge has thrush from all the antibiotics.  This care-giving aboard thing is like Whack-a-Mole.  Sad for both of them.  At least they have a nice new ADA room and they are loving it.  I sent in a log and posted its companion blog.  Then I went to the dining room and ate alone again.  I was getting steadily better and full of Cipro, but with all the sickness on the ship, no one wants to be near anybody who is coughing, and I still was. 

On March 9, we docked in Bitung, Indonesia. I got up early, worked on the Chinese addresses some more, called everyone to remind them of dinner tomorrow night in Britannia, and went out to meet Liz in the Terminal at eleven.  The plan was a pharmacy run, a walk and lunch.  The pharmacy run turned out to BE the walkabout, as we got lost.  There hadn’t been a ship to visit this port in more than eight years.  It’s not much of a port and it needs the business.  It felt like the whole town had turned out to meet us.  It probably helped that it was a Saturday.  We were the attraction for the family outing.  At first we were leery of everyone wanting to have their pictures taken with us, but once it became clear that they weren’t asking for money, we relaxed a bit.  When it kept happening, it became less and less annoying, and more and more fun, and our smiles became more and more genuine. 

The first pharmacy we found after much asking, sans language, actually had what I wanted, more guaifenesin, phenylpropanolamine etc. cold stuff.  You know, that which they say doesn’t work, only it seems to for me.  Thrush medication was more elusive and somewhat embarrassing to ask for in sign language.  We ended up retracing our steps to where we thought we might have made a wrong turn and, from the other side of the street, it was obvious that all we had had to do was keep going. 

Through all this, Liz got treated to Helen, in her starring role as the world’s most nervous pedestrian.  You don’t want to be near me when there’s a busy street and no crosswalk.  You can’t try to take my arm because I might bolt in the middle, taking you with me and get us both killed.  I told her this, and she didn’t, and a couple of nice policemen helped us across the street and then wanted pictures with us.  I do like this one.

After Liz had completed her business in the pharmacy, they were still outside, so I asked them where we should go for some good nasi-goreng.  That caused a lot of discussion between them and they finally decided we would be happiest at the restaurant on the way back to the ship, which had put up an entertainment tent extending the restaurant over the sidewalk and into the street. 

Were they ever right.  Not only did we love Bitung, like the sign said, we also loved:

And the nasi goreng was delicious, and the entertainment was fun. Some of the local police gals joined one of our passengers and

We could have stayed all afternoon, but Liz had to get back to Jeanne, so we made our way back to the ship, having our pictures taken and signing autographs, all the way.

Liz got creative when she was presented with a whole blank copybook page and wrote “My name is Elizabeth, like the Queen of England”.  That would be a hard act to follow for most people, but yours truly wrote “My name is Helen, like Helen of Troy, the face that launched 1000 ships.”  I always groan when people say “Helen of Troy” on meeting me, but I was glad of it, just then.  We hope the kid got an “A” on his assignment for that trophy. 

Back on the ship, I had a little nap and took a shower and a phone call from one of my people, to say she would be coming to dinner tomorrow.  Sailaway was fabulous.  It looked like the whole town had turned out at the pier to bid us farewell.  It got dark before we left and the shore was alit with cell phone flashlights.