April 9th, 2025
We had a very smooth day at sea going from Australia to Indonesia. We went very slow and there was almost no boat movement. We woke up and watched the first half of the NCAA championship game in the room and then went upstairs to deck 10 to watch the 2nd half in the lounge. We did root for the gators since they are from Florida and were happy when they won.
At night, up in the grill area on deck, they have a pizza oven and serve really good pizzas. They also have a great dessert pizza of Nutella spread on pizza dough with powdered sugar on top. We have only done the Nutella once and pizza twice but it was excellent.
The other tasty treat they have on board is the frozen coffee which they call frozen creama, It is Italian and is coffee, sugar and cream. It is excellent and luckily they give it to you in small glasses otherwise easy to over indulge. It is only available in 1 area called Baristas and not served all day just until 5pm. I am not a coffee fan but the frozen stuff is the bomb.
The port today is a new port for us and a relatively new port for cruise lines. There were only 3 excursions offered and none were to our liking. They did offer a free shuttle into town but when we got up and out there was a long queue for the shuttle. Also the shuttle buses are not full sized buses they are short buses so took longer to get people into town.
There were several taxi drivers right outside the port and as soon as they saw you walking to the shuttle bus they approached you, showed their car keys, and asked you if you wanted a taxi. We asked several if they spoke English and they all said “no”. They were not aggressive and left you alone once you said “no”. There were 2 tourist officials at the shuttle bus stop who asked you what you wanted to do and they would negotiate with the taxi driver. There is a very nice waterfall but we were told that was an hour drive away, plus an hour to walk down and then another hour to get back. One of the other places that we had heard about on the port presentation was a place called the Crystal Cave and also Kupang has a very large market which we wanted to see. The tourism guide talked to the taxi drivers and they said 30 dollars for what we wanted to do so off we went knowing that our guide spoke no English.
The first stop was the Crystal Cave which was close to the port down a very bumpy dirt road. The cave actually resides in a neighborhood and the path to it was very rocky. There was 1 other taxi driver there with 3 people from the ship.
The sign for the Crystal Cave and Kathy climbing out of the cave.
It was a little rough and slippery so Kathy went and took a look. The picture on the left is what she saw and the picture on the right is what you see when you google the crystal cave. Turns out it is very steep and hard to get to and the light actually comes from someone with an underwater light. We now understand why the taxi drivers were surprised when we said we wanted to go the Crystal Cave.
This is what one of houses looked like in the neighborhood which bordered the Crystal Cave.
Next we went towards the city of Kupang to go to the market. Our driver stopped at a dock where a lot of boats were docked.
There were tons of these fishing boats that families live on and bring their catch in to sell. When we were deciding where we wanted the taxi driver to take us we asked about a beach and the tourism guide had told us that most of the beaches were “dirty” and not suitable to visit.
We then went downtown and walked to the lighthouse and along the waterfront. Trash is everywhere.
They had these really gothic looking lights along the waterfront. We have no idea if they worked or not but they were fun to look at.
Next stop was the market and the market was huge. All outdoor and fish and meat laying out with no refrigeration or protection from insects.
Tons of eggs in the market and peppers.
Huge folded up leaves from one of the local plants and tons of dried fish products.
Our taxi driver escorted us through the market and everyone said hello to us but no one pushed us to buy anything.
There are tons of dogs, goats and monkeys that were along the roads on the way back to port and our driver stopped so we could get some pictures.
The day started off sunny and hot but while at the Crystal Cave it started raining and it rained and drizzled for most of the trip which made it much cooler.
Even though our taxi driver spoke almost no English he was very nice and went above and beyond.
We had lunch on the boat because no way were we eating anything on shore. There was really nothing to do in port so we did not go back out after he dropped us off. We watched a boat being unloaded onto trucks and it took most of the day because they did it by hand. It was sacks of rice that they hand carried up the ramp and loaded on several different trucks. When 1 truck got filled up it drove off and another took its place. It took almost all day to unload the 1 boat.
We sailed around 4:30. This boat has been sailing early in almost every port. As soon as everyone is on board they have no problems casting the lines off and sailing.
Tomorrow is another port in Indonesia and we have a ship’s tour scheduled.