Indonesia
15 March 2026
I suppose we are approaching the home nations of most of the people who tend our bars, prepare and serve our food, and clean our cabins. It’s nice to see them on port “shore leave” days, headed ashore for the day, out of ship’s uniform and in street clothes, laughing and speaking in their native language with their friends from the ship. Off the ship, they wear more expensive clothes than I do. Most people do.
They live in a whole other world from we “guests.” We live in a world of carpeted floors, wood trim, designer-selected paint and wallpaper, polished brass, tinted glass and chandeliers. Occasionally, as I walk down a hallway, there will be a door left open and I get a peek into the behind the scenes world of the ship staff. Concrete floors, metal stairways, white painted walls and bare light bulbs.
I googled about how they live on board and found that cruise ship staff live in specialized, compact, and often shared cabins on lower decks, usually without windows (inside cabins). They live rent-free with complimentary meals in designated mess halls. Life involves working long hours with limited personal space, sharing rooms with roommates, and having access to private crew-only bars, gyms, and laundry areas.
Their cabins are generally tiny, featuring bunk beds, small desks, TVs, and small private bathrooms. Most entry-level staff share a cabin with one or more roommates, while senior officers may have single occupancy cabins.
16 March 2026
We’re currently sailing right through the “spice islands.” These islands were originally the only place in the world where you could find spices such as nutmeg and clove. When they were discovered by Europeans, they became very valuable and, somehow, the Dutch managed to get control of them and, for many years, Holland had a monopoly on the spices the islands held.
Here’s one island we passed yesterday, Gunungapi. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. Volcanic and uninhabited. Its last eruptions were in 1512 and 1699, so I guess you might say it’s overdue!
Speaking of spices, I’ve now enjoyed 3 different spicy noodle soups offered some days in the lunch buffet. They are probably my favorite of all the things I’ve had on the ship. All are delicious, and all start with a bowl they’ve pre-set with noodles, mushrooms, and lemongrass, and perhaps some other stuff I can’t identify, to which they add some boiled chicken and half a boiled egg before covering it all in a tasty broth.
The Soto Ayam broth I had first is an Indonesian chicken soup with turmeric and ginger.
The Tom Yum broth was hot and sour, from Thailand. It starts with chicken stock and chili paste.
The Laksa broth of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia also had some coconut milk, ginger, and seafood stock.
On lunches they don’t have those, I usually have some rice and beef, pork, or chicken stir fry. It’s reliably “okay,” like the Chinese food I had in China on my visit there in the 1990s, when I traveled all over China with the Univ. of Arkansas Alumni Assn. Okay meaning it’s like Chinese food I’ve had at home, but not nearly as flavorful as the Chinese food I get at the average Chinese restaurant in the USA. I’ve had the same experience with Mexican food. The food I’ve had in Mexico was similar to what I’ve had at US Mexican restaurants, but the food in the US is much tastier. I guess they know how to prepare it to please Americans!
My final food comment this post will be about what’s posted in the buffet as “Southern Fried Chicken.” They’ve served it a couple of times, and they get it right! It’s as good as any fried chicken I’ve had at home. It doesn’t have the thick batter like KFC’s Extra Crispy, and I’m OK with that. Those batters have gotten out of hand! But the fried chicken on the ship is just perfect: crispy skin and served steaming hot. I wish they’d make it more often!
This morning I gave myself the first haircut of my life, because I’ve read that men’s haircuts on the ship START at $65! I did OK, I think, with what I can see, but I can’t see the back of my neck or head, so I have no idea how it came out back there. I cut that by sense of feel and blind faith. I’ll just have to adopt an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude.
Tomorrow we arrive in Indonesia. We’ll decide tomorrow if we’ll do more than step off the ship and back on, as the preliminary research on the town where we dock is not encouraging!
17 March 2026
We docked at the Bitung cruise terminal at 7 a.m. and by 7:15 I could hear drums beating near the terminal. By 7:45 I began to hear screaming. I went out on my balcony, and there were native dancers by the terminal, screaming, dancing, drumming, putting on a huge show for the tourists. It’s exactly what I’d expect to hear from a village of Cherokees or Apaches. Unfortunately, they aren’t aware that the QM2 guests don’t really start leaving the ship until about 9:30, so at 7:15 they were dancing with no audience. We left the boat at 10:30 and they were still performing!
Alas, Indonesia is yet another country where they drive on the wrong side of the road. It’s the first place we’ve been where there’s litter floating in the harbor; soda cans, plastic bags, etc. So they live a different life here. The landscape looks beautiful, like Tahiti, but for some reason it just hasn’t developed and prospered like islands east of here. I blame their former Dutch masters. So there’s a LOT of potential here, as they aspire to become what French Polynesia has already accomplished.
Walking the streets of Bitung was like traveling an obstacle course. Most sidewalks were broken, irregular concrete, with the occasional mud puddle, or sometimes more like a pond. Luckily, they seem to have a good sewer system. No smells other than good ones of food cooking somewhere hidden in the backs of the shops.
We passed all kinds of shops. Jewelry stores where everything in sight was shiny gold. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t real gold, but Donald Trump would have no doubt approved of the look. Hardware stores that seemed to have everything Ace Hardware has, but in a space smaller than a train boxcar. Nothing, other than the jewelry stores, seemed touristy. All the shops were for the locals. No souvenirs or tee shirts for sale. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any local money, and none of them take credit cards.
I don’t think they have many tourists in Bitung. My cruise ship finder phone app displays a list of all cruise ships scheduled to visit the various ports in the next few months. Most places, like our stops in Australia and New Zealand, show new cruise ships scheduled to arrive every few days for the next few months. Bitung shows only one ship on the schedule for the next 8 months: Queen Mary 2. So we kind of overwhelmed the town.
We wandered down “main street” for about 40 minutes when we came to a Starbucks. I suspected it wasn’t a real Starbucks, but it was, and inside it was exactly like a Starbucks in the US. And they took credit cards! The place was packed with people from QM2. Didn’t see any locals in there. It was clean and air conditioned. Standing room only. We waited in line about a half hour to order, while Linda successfully found and guarded three seats for us.
After we ordered, it was another 20 minutes before our drinks were ready, but we didn’t care. We were seated, cool, and happy. I paid 63,000 Indonesian Rupiah for my grande (medium) caffe mocha, $3.71!! Should have ordered a venti (large). Apparently the people of Bitung haven’t figured out about raising prices when 3000 tourists arrive in town!
After our mochas, it was almost noon and we headed back to the ship, because I’d already checked things out and we knew there was nothing more to see there, and it was hot and humid. All the way back, we heard PA systems broadcasting the call to prayer from the mosques. We were in the world’s largest Moslem country. It was, overall, a nice and educational experience. As I said, there’s a LOT of potential for positive growth and development here, though it won’t be a Tahiti in my lifetime, or yours!
Through my childhood, I remember that Indonesia was ruled by President Sukarno, their leader from 1945 to 1967, who led the Indonesia struggle that gave them independence from the Dutch. Sukarno was the “George Washington” of Indonesia, but he was replaced in 1967 by a military dictator named Suharto. That’s about all I knew about Indonesia until this week!
I said goodbye to my cabin steward, “Alex,” though of course that’s not his real name, which I’d probably find unpronounceable. Alex is Indonesian, so he’s leaving the boat and spending the next few weeks at home. I met my new steward, a young woman who looks to be African. They told me her name, but I’ve already forgotten it. I have about 7 weeks to learn it before our voyage comes to an end.
I’m attaching a video I made down on Deck 1, which is mostly off limits to guests. It’s a very busy place of staff moving all over the place like an ant nest. You might say it’s like what’s going on back stage during a Broadway play. There’s also a video inside the wonderful Starbucks!
Deck 1 Video Bitung Arrival Video
Bitung Video Bitung Starbucks Video
We now have 3 days at sea, headed for Hong Kong. We received a pirates notice from the captain. OH BOY!!!! Finally some excitement. “During our sea passage March 17-19 we will be transiting the Sulu and Celebs Seas. This is an area well documented regarding the threat of piracy. During this period we will be operating at a higher level of security alertness. To reduce the ship’s external profile, external lighting will be significantly dimmed at night. Should a security-related event occur, remain attentive to announcements from the Bridge via the public address system.”
So now I’m remembering the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise known for its 1985 hijacking by Palestinian militants and the murder of Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer. QM2 is nearly 8 times larger than Achille Lauro, and faster, so maybe we can outrun the pirates. Stay tuned…
18 March 2026
We’ve never had a send off like we had last night as we left Bitung. About 100 locals saw us off, standing in the dark on the pier, waving their phone flashlights to the beat of loud music, including the old Les Paul/Mary Ford song Vaya con Dios! Several boats, including some large ones, sailed along side of us for a while, waving goodbye as we departed.
I remember one Autumn, when I was about age 10, we saw signs of a mouse in the house. I baited and set out a half-dozen mouse traps, and couldn’t wait to check my traps the next morning.
Likewise, like a 10-year-old, I hopped out of bed this morning and hurried to open the balcony curtain and see if I’d caught a pirate, for what pirate, tossing his grappling hook up to my balcony rail and climbing aboard in the dark, would suspect that he had picked the balcony of a fellow outlaw who would have an illegal hammock strung up to ensnare him.
Sadly, nothing this time, but we have 2 more days in pirate seas, so there’s still hope.
I did some laundry this morning without the confrontations Linda experienced the other day, but the laundry room CAN lead to tension. Each deck has 1 small laundry room, smaller than a 2-person stateroom. The one on my deck has 4 washing machines with 4 dryers stacked on them. Into this tiny room they also squeeze in 2 ironing boards and a large trash bin. There are usually 4 or 5 people in there too, doing laundry or waiting for a machine to come available. There are often also a couple of British women in there ironing. As I mentioned earlier, the Americans never iron.
Earlier I overheard an Australian woman telling the scene she witnessed last year on a different Cunard ship, doing an Alaska cruise. She said two Chinese women got into an argument because one of them was washing 2 loads at once, using one machine for white clothes and another machine for colors. The other Chinese woman was saying she should have put them all into one machine, and the shouting escalated to the level of hair pulling. One of the women, I didn’t catch which one, was put off the ship at the next port.
It’s always the women having laundry confrontations. I guess the men are considered helpless and hopeless, so the women ignore us, but they DO have plenty of suggestions for the other women.
We’ve received sad news regarding our approaching visit to Hong Kong. The Chinese government doesn’t like Elon Musk’s Starlink, the system of satellites that allow anybody on earth, including Queen Mary 2, to have Internet access. China views Starlink as a major national security threat, strictly banning its use within its territory and waters due to data sovereignty concerns and its potential use in military operations. By national security threat, they mean they don’t want/allow their citizens to access information on the Internet that’s not controlled by the Chinese central government.
As a result, our Internet connection will be lost beginning 24 hours before we arrive in Hong Kong, I presume because we’ll be in Chinese territorial waters, and it won’t be restored until we leave Chinese waters 3 days later. I assume this will also cut off our TV channels like CNN and BBC. I may still be able to get online using my phone’s data plan. We’ll see.
No pirates again last night, and no rough seas. I don’t feel like I’m getting my money’s worth on this voyage. Night before last, David went for his evening walk on the promenade deck and when he got to the back of the ship there were several men standing there in white uniforms with shoulder boards displaying their high rank. One of them politely asked him to move on, as they were busy patrolling the waters. I overheard someone mention that they have water cannons available to repel pirates. I’d like to see that! The ship captain and all his officers wear white uniforms and have lots of gold bars on their shoulders. They run the ship and almost all of them are Caucasians who speak with British accents.
We’re now in the South China Sea, where China continues to stir up trouble by claiming islands that have traditionally belonged to Vietnam, and by building new islands by dredging up sand to create territory they can claim as their own, increasing the reach of their territorial waters.
David and I have discussed how our situation must be like living in a retirement home. At home, we eat our meals any time we want to, but on the ship we sit around and watch the clock: we can go to breakfast at 7:00, we can go to lunch at 11:30, and supper doesn’t start until 6 p.m.
I mentioned earlier that my favorite things on the ship are their “southern fried chicken” and the cheese dip they occasionally put out with tortilla chips. Today at lunch they had both! Jackpot! That’s all I had. Four hot, juicy fried chicken thighs and a double helping of chips and dip, and I ate it all with my hands, no doubt shocking the formal Brits seated near me. I had no need for distractions like the mashed potatoes and green beans they had out, though I did enjoy a great buttered biscuit, below.
