Life Continues on the Pacific Princess

Well, it’s hard to believe but we’ve been on the Pacific Princess over thirty days already.  Neither of us is feeling “home-sick.”  

Gym Facilities:   Important to us, the gal who’s in charge of the gym, Jessica, is absolutely terrific;  she conducts the cycling classes three times a week and, although I had anticipated going to one class a week, we find ourselves signed up for each one and enjoying it immensely.  She really works us and, although not always happy while doing it, we’re always happy afterwards when it’s over!  

Book Club:  I joined the onboard book club early on.  The ship made available small Kindles, each holding 260 books, so even when we’re not reading the book assigned for each cruise segment (LA – Sydney; Sydney – Hong Kong, etc.), the Kindle is available to us and I can take advantage of many other books. 

Our first book was “A Man Called Ove” which I absolutely loved.  This segment’s book is “The Sound of Glass” – something I would never elect to read but, after thinking about it over the past few days since I completed it, I’m sort of liking it more.  I think it was far too long and dragged out a bit, but overall, I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. 

We meet at the beginning of the segment to select a book and then we meet again before the end to discuss it.  We’ll select another book next week after we leave Hong Kong and start our third segment.  

Entertainment:  We’ve had some pretty wonderful entertainers onboard.  We’ve had Hawaiian and Maori dancers, pianists, singers, banjo players, and magicians.  Michael was actually called up by the magician, Nick Nicholas (yes, that’s his real name and he was born at St. Nicholas’s hospital in London), to do some crazy thing with a card he inscribed and turned up in a “sausage” – unfortunately, I was really feeling under the weather earlier in the week and missed that show; fortunately, however, one of our new acquaintances, grabbed Michael’s phone and took several photos of him on stage.  Needless to say, since that evening, several people have come up to Michael telling him how wonderful he was on stage.   (By the way, our waiter, Andrii, recommended a Ukraine remedy for my achy head cold – a shot of vodka and black pepper – which I imbibed that night and I’m happy to report, by morning, my achiness went away completely.) 

Time Change:  At this point, I have no idea what time it is back home.  It was easy until we crossed the International Date Line (losing a day) but then starting to gain an hour every couple of days.  My body has adjusted very easily to all this and, while I’ve had to rely on pharmaceuticals in the past because I’m a terrible sleeper, I haven’t needed anything other than my Gaba at night.  I think it’s much easier to “turn your clocks back” every other night than actually flying to Europe in the other direction and having to adjust to a 9 hour or more time change.  I really don’t think about it much.  

People:  We, of course, have dinner at a 2-person table every night.  I couldn’t even imagine sitting with the same people for 111 nights.  But we have met some really nice people and some not so really nice people. 

Brunei - February 25th

Overall, I think Brunei was a very interesting place.   Brunei is one of three countries situated on the island of Borneo, the other two being East Malaysia and Indonesia.  It has a population of 422,700 and the 29^th Sultan, His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brenui Darussalam (try saying that name fast three times), was, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the richest man in the world in 1993.  

It’s a flat country with many, many forests and faces the South China Sea.  It has 365 days of sun; no typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes or floods.  It’s relatively cheap to live here but very expensive to die.  Cremations can cost about $8,000 and a cemetery plot runs about $30,000.  ($100 US equals $134 Brunei dollars.)  Average monthly income is about $1,000 with workers in the gas and oil business earning about $7,000 a month. 

Before we left home, we had booked an excursion to take a City Drive and visit the Royal Regalia Museum.  We had learned on the ship that the Sultan adopted sharia law recently and, so, we were advised to act and dress accordingly.  Behavior acceptable in other parts of the world, would not be acceptable here.  We were also advised that drug possession is punishable by death so we were very glad to have booked an excursion, not because either of us possesses or uses drugs, but can you imagine what would happen if someone walking down the street saw a policeman and dropped drugs into my purse and they were found on me!  On our tour, we saw nothing that gave us any alarm and, as Westerners, we were treated very nicely.

Twelve-year old Muslim boys and girls must be circumcised.  There is no birth control in Brunei so the average family has six children.  

I did, however, get the feeling that the buses were wiretapped to be sure that the guides said nothing about the Sultan or his regime.  On the contrary, I honestly believed that I was part of a political announcement for Bernie Sanders because all we heard about was FREE shuttles to and from work, FREE medical care, FREE prescriptions, FREE scholarships, FREE transportation to and from England if you were lucky enough to get a FREE scholarship, and FREE transportation for you and a companion to Singapore if you need surgery not available in Brunei.  People pay in 10% of their income for their retirement and people over 60 get $250 a month from the Sultan.  You can also get very reduced housing but can wait up to 16 years to get an apartment of 3 rooms and 2 toilets for about $120 per month.  (However, unlike in Bernie’s world which would tax people 95%, the people in Brunei are not taxed at all.)  

We were told repeatedly, by Sandra our guide, (and I swear these numbers will remain in my mind for the rest of my life), the Sultan’s palace, Istana Nurul Iman, the biggest residence in the world at over 2,000,000 sq. ft., has 1,788 rooms, 257 toilets, 5 swimming pools, and two banquet halls each accommodating 4,000 people.  He has a 300-horse stable and even though he is busy being the Minister of Defense and Finance and has lots of work to do, he plays polo every day at 4 p.m. 

But, again, the Sultan has acquired his wealth from Brunei’s oil and gas.  Gas is $.53 a liter and diesel is $.31.   The only gas stations in Brunei are Shell stations. 

On a bathroom break, we had the choice of a squatting toilet or a sitting toilet.  I opted for the squatting toilet because I’d never seen one before and although I heard murmurings from the front of the line to where I was standing towards the back of the line that “it’s a hole in the ground,” it was not a hole in the ground but actual urinal-type plumbing in the floor with a flushing mechanism.  The way the women were talking you’d think that we were in the middle of the jungle in Borneo and were squatting in a mud hole.  

Aside from visiting the outside gates of the Palace (which is open to the public one day a year – 300,000 people arrive -- men may shake the hand of the Sultan and women may shake the hand of the Queen), we also visited the Royal Regalia Museum which houses all sorts of royal regalia and the Jame’Asr Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah mosque built in 1994 to celebrate the Sultan’s 25^th Jubilee. It has 39 domes and no building can be taller in Brunei than the four tallest minarets on this mosque. There was also the water village, with a population of about 20,000, and is about 1,000 years old and called the “Venice of the East.”  I think the name exaggerates the situation a bit but, hey, I’m not in charge of naming.  

Michael’s Observations:  All in all, it was an informative and eye-opening excursion.  As someone once said, “it’s good to be King….or, in this case, Sultan.” 

On the Ocean

Wednesday.  Late afternoon.  Not quite time to dress for dinner.  Enough time to read a couple of chapters of my book.  Michael’s taking a nap.  I go out on our balcony with my Kindle, sit on one of the two chairs, put my legs up and rest my feet on the railing.  I open my Kindle and then I look up.  I close my Kindle.

I love the sound of the ocean.  The water is very calm today and it feels as if we’re gliding on glass.  We’ve left Australia, traveled north through Indonesia and we’re now close to the Philippines heading around Borneo to Muara (Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei) but you’d never know it because no matter which direction I look there is nothing but water.  When we were traveling up the coast of Australia from Sydney, our port-side balcony always enabled us to see the coast of the continent.  But here, even though we’re navigating through the many islands situated in this part of the world, we’re still so far away to any of them that I see nothing but ocean. 

Yesterday, the Captain made an announcement about the fishing boats that were around through much of the day.  I didn’t see them up close but, apparently, many people were concerned that the fisherman were in distress.  The Captain assured us that these fisherman, holding buckets over their heads, were merely requesting water or food from our ship.  For security reasons, of course, and the safety of the passengers, no cruise ship is going to slow down to pass along food or water.  But today, there is no one out there. 

I’m always amazed on days like these when I see a few birds and wonder how they’ve managed to get this far without land in sight.  But I have read about birds that can soar and sleep for days and days in the air without ever touching land.  I don’t see any birds this afternoon.

Sitting on the balcony, listening to the powerful sounds of the waves, and seeing absolutely nothing except the ocean, it’s hard to be concerned about anything.  The vastness of it all makes me realize how tiny my life is – not in the eyes of God who created all of this – but realizing how very small we are in the scheme of things.  I am definitely not the center of the universe – as so many of us think we are at different times in our lives.  

Wednesday night.  Nine p.m.  We just returned to our room after a show.  There is a magnificent full moon out tonight – bella luna.  It’s truly amazing and it reminds me of the full moon over the Puget Sound.  However, here, the moon’s reflection stretches all the way to the horizon whereas the reflection at home ends in West Seattle.   The sound of the waves is hypnotic and very peaceful. 

What a glorious day to be on the ocean.