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| No sooner than we stepped off the shuttle bus, we spotted this local zoo staff person promoting the venue to the ship’s passengers while holding this baby crocodile. ts mouth is wrapped in a rubber band as shown. |
There’s some form of mindlessness that transpires for both of us when we’re cruising. Somehow we get into a mode of a series of pleasing routines interspersed with idle chatter with an endless stream of people that takes us to an almost abstract state of mind.
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| As we walked on the pier in Darwin toward the shuttle bus. |
Don’t get me wrong. We love this state of being, in part since we know it will never last for the long haul. It only lasts as long as the cruise itself. Perhaps in part it’s the total lack of responsibility; no bed to make, no dishes to wash, no food to cook, no laundry to hang outside in the breeze.
But then, we’re not inactive. Since wearing my newly purchased FitBit a few days ago, although I haven’t yet made the 10,000 hoped-for steps a day, I’m working my way up to higher and higher each day as I take stairs instead of elevators and walk the “long way” around the ship when possible.
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| The port of Darwin. |
Even Tom seems to be moving about along with me in my mission to stay as active as possible on the ship. It’s so easy to eat and sit too much when many activities seem to involve both.
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| Turning back to glance at our ship, Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas. |
I must admit I feel a bit overstuffed with the good meals the chef has managed to make for my way of eating, often putting way too much food on each plate, twice as much as I’d normally consume.
Once we settle in Bali in five days, we’ll both resume our lower consumption healthy diets. In part, I’m a little concerned it may be tough to stay active with a household staff of four who’ll make the bed, wash the dishes, cook the food, leaving us only with the option of doing our own laundry.
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| Tom busied himself chatting with the friendly driver on the shuttle to town. |
Most likely we’ll want to do the laundry mainly to ensure we’re doing “something” to get us up and off of our butts. It doesn’t appear we’ll be doing a ton of sightseeing in Bali based on our distant location and lack of a rental car.
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| We assumed this was the entrance to a mall but found this entrance had yet to open in this new building. Walking around the next corner we easily found the huge outdoor mall. |
Parts of Bali are unsafe for road trips which we’ll definitely keep in mind with safety always a top priority. However, we’ll find plenty of fodder for our Bali experiences both in our immediate environment and when we get out to explore every few days with the driver that’s available at the villa.
Do we feel like a holiday/vacation is ending? In a funny way, the answer is yes. No, we don’t go “home” to unpack, go through a pile of mail, catch up on bill paying and daily tasks. None of that applies to us.
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| Surprisingly, there was a fair amount of traffic in Darwin, not unlike what we’d experienced in New Plymouth, NZ. |
We pay our credit card balances, deposits for rentals, cruises, and flights online wherever we may be. No such task is ever awaiting us at the end of any one experience. We pay as needed in any given time period regardless of where we may be.
But, the end of a cruise, always remains the end of yet another type of pleasurable event unlike any other in our day-to-day lives. Many times, passengers we’ve met have asked us if we’d like to cruise indefinitely. The answer is “no.”
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| A part of the mall was covered providing shelter from the heat of the sun. Darwin has a tropical climate. |
The novelty of cruising would be lost if it was a daily or long-term commitment. Soon, the days and nights would blend into one another and the uniqueness would be lost to the mundane.
For us, nomads that we’ve become, the joy of our lifestyle seems to center around the constant change in location, lifestyle, and surroundings keeping us entertained, educated, and entranced.
With only four more nights aboard the ship, we’re winding down and beginning to focus a little attention on the future. With an upcoming whirlwind of travels over the next several months, visiting five countries in the next four months to include: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, we’re enthused and looking forward to an endless variety of stories to tell and photos to share.
Hang on, dear readers. We’ll be back with lots more!
Photo from one year ago today, April 26, 2015:
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| A year ago on this date, we posted photos of our guide in Africa on a photo safari. Tom and Anderson really hit it off. This was within moments of arriving at the dirt runway airport in the Maasai Mara. For more of these photos we reposted a year ago, please click here. |