SYDNEY TO SINGAPORE
HENRY NOWICKI
2 APRIL 2001
HENRY NOWICKI
2 APRIL 2001
www.maxpages.com/cruise22
A voyage from Sydney to Singapore during March seemed like a good choice especially since I had enjoyed the Regal Princess on a previous voyage last year to Tahiti and back. This repositioning from the South Pacific to Asia itinerary essentially skirts the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, then continues through the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea and finally transits the Java Sea to Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.
The Regal Princess has received good reviews which have been reported elsewhere (Ref 1) and the ship has only begun to show a bit of wear and tear.
The scheduled 14-1/2-hour flight (7,400 miles) from San Francisco to Sydney was actually accomplished in closer to 11 hours and in United business class the time went by very fast indeed. I arrived two days early to rent a car and visit the Blue Mountains and some of Sydney's outlying areas.
The Regal Princess moored in Darling Harbour at what is sometimes called the King Street Wharf. After an early embarkation just past noon, a shuttle service to The Rocks, a waterside shopping area set in an historically early part of the port city, provided enough incentive to brave the occasional showers of the afternoon. Back on board, the buzz was all about the intended deletion of the Bali visit inasmuch as there was a reference to the US State Department's travel warning to avoid current travel in Indonesia. Most passengers considered Bali the high point of the cruise and many thought they might have canceled if they had known about the changed itinerary before arriving in Sydney. Princess did nothing to explain the situation nor even make the slightest apology. When the cruise director was asked if the unrest was actually in Bali or some other part of the far-flung country, he could not comment. It seems that the situation is analogous to prohibiting a visit to Hawaii since there are reports of rioting in Detroit, Dallas and Los Angeles. The UK passenger contingent, of which there were some 300, obliquely referred to the Americans as the problem as the UK apparently had not issued a similar warning. British Travel Advice of 7 Mar 2001, and still current as of 30 Mar 2001, states that "Despite a number of unstable areas (listed below) most visits to Indonesia are trouble-free and most of the main tourist destinations are unaffeacted." and further "Bali is calm." Since the Princess line is registered in Britain, it would seem that they could legally have used the British travel advisories and still have visited Bali. Visitors who have recently been in Bali have not reported any problems and it looks as if Princess Cruises was not only overly cautious but it also appears that they knew about the change in itinerary quite a while before the cruise was initiated since the US travel warning was issued on 27 Feb 2001. I had been talking to Princess as late as 6 Mar in trying to find out who the shipping agents were in Sydney and Singapore and no mention was made of any itinerary change. In my case, there were calls to be made to Bali as friends were intending to meet the ship and this changed everything.
Mar 11 Departure from Sydney was significantly delayed from 1830 to approximately midnight as a planeload of passengers were delayed enroute. The night lights of Sydney harbor, however, provided a most pleasant sailaway.
Two days at sea permitted a full investigation of the ship and its activities of which there were many.
Mar 14.
Whitsunday Island (Cid Harbor) 0700-1500. The ship anchored in Cid Harbor which is located to the west of uninhabited Whitsunday Island. A water shuttle service was provided to Hamilton Island, a small but attractive resort, some seven miles to the southeast. I contented myself with some ocean swimming and snorkeling. Some large parrot fish and a stingray were observed in the fringing coral reef area. Good views of the surrounding islands and bays were had from One Tree Hill and from the top of the Reef Towers Hotel. Many passengers chose this day to ferry out some ninety minutes to the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone agreed it was a fantastic experience.
Mar 15.
Cairns 0800-1700. Cairns (pronouned can's) is a medium sized tropical resort center with tours to the Great Barrier Reef. some 90 minutes distant, and inland to the wildlife parks and scenic tropical rainforest railway/cable car rides. Here one can pet the kangaroo and wallaby and get a photograph of the koala in your arms. You might like to handle a baby python while you are at it. As everyone reported, it's all good fun.
The ship's departure from Cairns was delayed a few hours as the tidal level was not high enough according to the announcements from the bridge. To add to the confusion, the ship upon its nightime departure unexpectedly hit a sandbar in the channel and had to remain in the area a good part of the morning until three inspections by the port authority permitted resumption of the cruise. The Reef Pilot, who was aboard from Sydney to Darwin, said afterwards that it was not him but a local Cairns pilot with the con. It seems that our large ship is at the threshold of the maximum size that can be accommodated in present-day Cairns.
For the most part, the ship traveled north inside the Great Barrier Reef through the Coral Sea. The transit through the Torres Strait was interesting as the depth and width of the channel were restrictive but not overly so. I did notice a large shark basking near the surface as we departed Thursday Island in the strait. A few dolphin were visible during the day but the noticeable absence of sealife on this cruise left a lot of passengers unfulfilled.
Three days at sea were very enjoyable. The passengers seemed to be getting the most of their tropical voyage and the top deck was extremely popular.
Mar 19.
Darwin 0700-1800. The tropical north coast of Australia is nothing like the heavily populated southeastern part of the continent nor does it resemble the very dry outback of its neighboring area to the south and southwest. Darwin is at the edge of the tropical wet belt and might be considered the northern gateway to the thinly inhabited central north-south highway of commerce that includes Alice Springs and Coober Pedy.
The relatively small territorial capital of Darwin has some interesting wildlife parks. I rented a car and visited the Territory Wildlife Park some thirty-five miles southwest of Darwin and was delighted with the complex. The huge resident saltwater crocodile called Jack the Ripper demonstrated just how high these biggest and most dangerous of crocodiles can leap out of the water (perhaps ten feet).
Four days at sea seem to go by very quickly athough it might have been a bit much for many of the passengers especially with the void created by the cancellation of the Bali visit. It is of interest that the plan of the day missed the navigational landmarks by quite a few hours and no mention was made of the passing of Bali which was very visible for some three hours. It was as if the less said the better. Most passengers were confused as to what island they might be looking at during any given day.
To celebrate the crossing of the equator, a ceremony attended by King Neptune and his court was held near one of the swimming pools and you know the rest.
One night in the Java Sea, a roll call was made of everyone on the ship as two passengers had thought they might have seen a person fall overboard. After a period of reduced steaming, it was fortunately determined that all were accounted for and continuation of the cruise was resumed.
Mar 24.
Klang (Port Kelang) 0700-1800. Port Klang is the chief port of Malaysia and is located about 25 miles southwest of Kuala Lumpur, the country's capital and prime city. A few of us engaged a taxi and spent eight hours visiting the highlights from the Batu Cave on the north to the Blue Mosque at Shah Alam in the south. The view from the ACM Tower is not to be missed as Kuala Lumpur is a green and pretty city with a nice mixture of old and very modern. Its low hills and curvilinear parkways are attractive and there never seems enough time to give it the attention it deserves. A friend who lives in KL, as it is locally called, had already left for Singapore where we would be reunited on the following day.
Mar 25.
Singapore early morning debarkation. Entrance to the harbor was made before sunrise and the lights of the busy port were enthralling. One should not miss arrivals and departures to the various ports as so many do. A short taxi ride to the Phoenix Hotel on Orchard Road and meeting the friend from Singapore and another from Brunei made a few days stay in the Lion City very enjoyable. Incidentally, one day we engaged a Karaoke singing taximan named Jeffrey Tan (65-9784-6848/Jefflimo@hotmail.com) who is a one-man show on the road. Eventual departure from the city's award-winning Changi Airport to Hong Kong and the 12-hour (7,300 miles) flight on to Los Angeles were uneventful but satisfying.
The cruise was pleasant as usual. The weather was a bit rainy but not unexpected at this time of the end of the rainy season. It certainly did not alter any plans and the ship rode nicely the whole journey.
There was one sour note as the most disagreeable man in charge of the shore excursions would not correct an overcharge of two instead of one excursion ($132 each) to the Great Barrier Reef. After hearing the Captain repeatedly say how the entire ship only wanted to make the passengers entirely happy, this bandit would not listen to any argument. Of course this all happens at the last minute before departing the ship when the bill is received during the night and the shore excursion desk is now not officially open on the morning of debarkation. And so it goes.
Distance Between Ports (in nautical miles):
Sydney/Cid Harbor 991
Cid Harbor/Cairns 285
Cairns/Darwin 1,239
Darwin/Klang 2,105
Klang/Singapore 205
Total 4,825
Cruise/Travel Accounts by the Author.
General Cruise Information.
World Port Directory for more world ports.
Aloha Cruises Front Page.
COPYRIGHT 2001, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Tropics Shoreline
| Main Page | World News | Travel Corner | Travel Links | GeoNews |
GeoCities, Your Home On The Web
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
