Our stops in Jakarta and Bali are very special for our ship. Most of the crew on the ship are either from Indonesia or Philippines. Jakarta and Bali are the main ports where crew members live and HAL is great about the crew spending time with their families. They invite the families to come aboard and tour the ship, have lunch let the kids play and spend the full day with their loved ones. It is very emotional and the morning is so full of happiness. Most of the crew have contracts that are 6 months to 10 months. That’s 6 to 10 months of not seeing their families. Many have new babies they never saw or saw just when they were born and haven’t seen for months. So you can just imagine how very special the day is. We make sure that the crew doesn’t have any work that day, and all the Balinese crew members do double duty that day and visa versa on the day we are in Bali.
There was also a shuttle to a mall near the ship. We were warned that the trip can take over an hour even though the mall was only about 3 miles away. Traffic and roads are awful but we were lucky and it only took 20 minutes. On the way we saw some kids who were naked jumping into a canal that was seriously filthy but they were having a ball. Of course, we got there hours before they opened so we just wandered around. Had no desire to do anything special that day, so I took tons of pics at the pier with all the families waiting for their loved ones.
The Lido (Buffet) for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner (if you want it!)
Everyone waiting at the pier.
Reza’s Bro and sis-in-law and baby! (Reza is a crew member we have connected with on the ship. So happy I got a pic of them!)
On the shuttle on the way to the Mall.
The difference between the old and the new
The kids who jumped off into the filthy canal.. Don’t want to show the full pics of them naked
Waving at our bus
Women practicing a dance in front of the Mall, the music was blaring!
Inside the mall
A Home Depot pick-up site? Or are they just hanging out?
A typical Taxi
A niece of one of the crew members.. Kimberly.. so very cute! Same age as Z.
Having a blast in the Lido
Standing in line for Ice Cream!
Up in the Crow’s Nest look out at the view!
Balinese Dancers
End of the Day
wheresnina 