Voyager Auckland to Singapore, January 26 - February 20, 2017

Agree Gilly, One of the most interesting parts of the world. Of course, if like Wes you drink the ship dry, what will you see but dragons!!!

Gil, Bill; yes following Gil's example drank the ship dry of Aperol and will now as Flossie suggests do my best to drink all the Compari--yes we are having fun--props to the Voyager crew and fellow guests.

Good morning from Komodo Island (almost) Indonesia. We arrive Palau Komodo (island) just 22 mi long in about six hours. Komodo is known to be the home of the fearsome dragons that are about 13 ft and near 220 pounds. Check Wikipedia for a good primer/pic of the World's largest lizard. Will try to take pictures when we tour the island early this afternoon.

Yesterday was a fun day on board Regent's Seven Seas Voyager that included an ice carving display, another informative lecture on Komodo and Bali by Michael Scott who also shared with us how the Smithsonian cam about. Valentine's Day ended with a beautiful sunset, then a delicious Indian dinner in the Voyager's main restaurant with my Valentine sweetheart Ida and good friends Kia Orana (Frank & Susan). David (Restaurant Mgr) was there to present a beautiful long stemmed rose to the ladies as they entered Compass Rose.

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<Gil, Bill; yes following Gil's example drank the ship dry of Aperol and will now as Flossie suggests do my best to drink all the Compari--yes we are having fun--props to the Voyager crew and fellow guests.>

I find Campari just a bit too "grown up" for me - I'm still in training with the Aperol <gg> My Hero has graduated to Negronis though, having been set a fine example by our son! (Wes, if Gusti is on board, he makes a mean Negroni) Clearly, you are indeed having fun there and tomorrow, there will surely be dragons! Cheers x

Wes - Hope you enjoy Komodo today and thought you might like to hear what it was like back in 1988, the year of our first visit.

When we went the only way was to fly into Labuanbajo on the island of Flores and stay at one of the losmen - a sort of one star hotel, just up from a backpacker’s hostel. Then you arranged your own boat to Komodo itself - our guide rented the local police launch and we set off across the writhing sea to the island.

Once on Komodo you had to purchase a goat. Yes, a living, breathing, bleating goat. This was the entry fee, imposed by the local villagers, and it was to provide the Komodo dragons with their breakfast. There was us two and a Japanese couple, armed to the teeth with Nikons. We were the only tourists on the island. With our goat we walked into the dry bush until we got to a large hollow in the ground. This was the feeding zone. There were about a dozen dragons lounging around there. Most looked fast asleep. The stench of them was stomach churning and there were millions of flies.

Our guide knocked our goat to the ground and slit its throat. Within minutes he had butchered it, strung up a hind quarter on a hook and swung it over pit. The dragons lurched into life and ate the whole thing within a minute or two. For the next hour or so the whole goat was fed to these beasts and when the show was over we wandered down to a spectacular beach and went snorkeling.

A fellow guest at the losmen in Labuanbajo was the writer Douglas Adams who was there with naturalist Mark Carwardine and BBC producer Gaynor Shutte. These three were making a radio series on endangered species and were great company at the losmen. In fact, Adams and his team had actually stayed on Komodo, in the snake and rat-infested rangers’ lodge, and when they first landed on the island they were greeted by a dragon which rushed on to the jetty and grabbed their supply of live chickens.

Make no mistake, even thirty years after David Attenborough’s legendary visit in the 1950s, Komodo was a seriously wild place. A pity it’s become such a tacky circus these days. I always look back on my visit as one of life’s great adventures and I still have the deepest regret about that wretched goat!

Here's out little party with the goat -

Komodo, Indonesia by UltraPanavision, on Flickr

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Wow Fletcher, thanks so much that was the most vividly descriptive backstory we've read on cc. Please enjoy a few pics of our sail in to Komodo, tho what was most heartwarming was when two of our servers in La Veranda told us welcome to our Island! And Captain Green also welcomed us to beautiful Komodo Island but offered this advice, "go with someone slower than you." :)

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Incredibly interesting visit to Komodo Island home of 1337 Komodo Dragons, the oldest reptile in the world. The Voyager's Captain gave us advice before going ashore, "go with someone slower than you." So, I had Ida come with me :)

Our two hour tour was led by Komodo Rangers of the Komodo National Park. We saw our first dragon within 30 seconds of starting our walking tour shading himself next to the ranger's home. We then encountered five more dragons during our tour.

Having yet another very difficult time posting pix--have spent 45 min trying to post Komodo tour pix--no joy.

Two Dragon pix downloaded

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Glad you got to do the Komodo tour - they are fascinating creatures

Don't you just love the "protective devices" the Rangers use - really comforting to know that a forked stick is going to save you from a hungry dragon?

Do the dragons still gather in a group in that area about half way around the walking track? - very impressive with them all lounging around

Hi Terry, absolutely fascinating creatures..yes the sticks were not needed on our tour. However, one guest did have a massive heart attack half way through another group's tour--they got him stabilized and back to the ship. Alas, have not heard how he is doing.

Yes, dragons generally (males) were in a group of four.

Trying to share some additional shots

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Fletcher, Sorry you feel it is tacky. Admittedly the shopping is for souvenirs, but the islanders do have to support themselves. The walk through the jungle looks the same as when you first visited although the KDs are not in a pit. I consider myself reasonably sophisticated and compared with other wildlife excursions I found this among the most interesting.

Wes, No surprise about the heart attack given the heat and humidity. Wendy got dizzy during our visit fortunately not near a dragon. It looks from your pictures that some of the big boys were not visiting the clearing although those are excellent specimens.

Thank you ronrick1943, glad you're enjoying the voyage pics.

 

Mr. Silver, let's try to link up March 4th in Keelung, Taiwan--your ship the Silver Whisper will be docked the same time our Voyager will be there.

 

 

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Hi Wes,

Just had an itinerary update from SS, we will now be docked from 1pm until 11:59pm, hope that still fits with your visit.

Bill, yesterday it was near 85 with over 80% humidity. We felt fortunate to have seen at least five--our Ranger said the most observed in a Komodo Dragon tour was about 13 and some tours (not today) had bad luck and saw zero.

Mr. Silver, we will be in your Taiwan ports both the 3rd and 4th of March--will FB msg a good time depending on both of our embark/disembark times.

We are about seven hours from reaching magical Bali, Ida and I look forward to our second visit to this beautifully lush island. Tonight for entertainment we have The Sounds Costumes & Colors of Bali with a local folkloric show including the dancing of Balinese dancers.

Ida and had another terrific meal in Compass Rose--we enjoyed a "cut with your fork" Chateaubriand. Looked forward to our fav Syrah, "Schafer Relentess" but Alan (head sommelier) said they no longer carried this (even tho still on wine list) so we enjoyed another bottle of the exceptionally full-bodied Two Hands Shiraz (Lily's garden)

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Good afternoon from the gorgeous Tanah Lot temple in Bali, unique for its coastal setting. Please enjoy some pics

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Thank you, it has brought back many memories of my day with the Komodo dragons when I was on Mariner from Singapore to Sydney.

You're very welcome DreamflightPat--we very much enjoyed our day with the Dragons on Komodo Island.

Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful immersion into the culture and beauty of magical Bali. We began by being serenaded with beautiful Bali dancers, headed off to a Batik market and visiting the Royal temple. Our day ended with the Regent Seven Seas Voyager entertainment featuring a very talented Bali folkloric dance presentation

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Wes, Susan and I are enjoying your journey. Great pics and commentary.

We are novice travelers, just the last 10 years.

Favor Regent, but now itenery is above all.

Happy cruising and fair sky's

Your very welcome Mjflowers--our pleasure to share--concur, now we favor Regent but would sail Silversea for itinerary--we may just do Norway on the newest Expedition SS ship vs the Navigator.

Know our friend RachelG (and George) are now traveling but want to give a shout out for her travel moxie--alas she broke her arm yesterday but today George and Rachel are flying to join us Monday in Singapore. Heal soonest Rachel! And will share this happy face (for Rachel) our La Veranda Indonesian server gave us in our morning capuchino to welcome us to her county.

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Thanks Wes. We are on our way!

Ida and I are looking very forward to cruising with George and you again (and Rich and Ginny for the first time).

Ida and I enjoyed a very relaxing day for our day 2 in Bali preferring not to go out on another temple (incl visit to rice terraces--we had been before during last visit to Bali). Finishing a delightful Mark Grainey (he writes often now for Tom Clancy) Grey Man novel and finishing up Corregidor (we have a full day excursion to Corregidor next segment) in the observation lounge with a Bloody Mary.

Last nite was another outstanding dinner in Compass Rose including a Belle Glos Pinot Noir that was a perfect pairing for our roast turkey. Ida continued her pursuits of points with her fellow guest points aficionados playing skittles and earning another four points.

Today (u can feel/tell this segment is coming to an end) we have the Country Fair this morning, seafood extravaganza for lunch and Krew Kapers for dinner

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Good Morning again from the Java sea enroute to Singapore, will arrive early Monday morning.

Last nite we enjoyed the crew providing the guests entertainment. The Regent Seven Seas Voyager crew comes from 40 nations

Later we enjoyed dancing to Latin tunes and country.

Today we have the "Crossing the Equator" ceremony

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We are on Voyager, Beijing to Bangkok in March. I have loved reading this thread! Thank you. We have been fortunate to have had many cruises on Regent, most recently Explorer in 2016. Service, attention to detail, food--looking forward to March 23!

Thanks so much briar14, we turned down the offer to trade Singapore to Auckland for Beijing to Bangkok in early January.

Good Morning from Singapore. We begin the next segment of our cruise adventure today called, "Empires of Asia." We will visit, Saigon, Brunei, Malaysia, Borocay Island & Manila Philippines, Taiwan and end in Hong Kong

We welcome fellow guests boarding today (about 600) and especially look forward to cruising again with Rachel and George and special friends Rich and Ginny. There are about 100 of us doing the 40 Day Grand Voyage.

Yesterday's "Crossing the Equator" ceremony was fun, CD Margaret and Neptune (Terry Bishop) did a marvelous job. First time in about four of these ceremonies we have attended did the ceremony allow all guests (Pollywags--those who have not crossed before become Shellbacks (veteran Equator crossers.

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Thanks again for a terrific blog, Wes--sea you and Ida in a matter of hours!

Rich