Melbourne Cup madness

We enjoyed a raucous Melbourne Cup lunch with friends yesterday. Ten of us booked a fancy lunch at The Paddington, which included a glass of Verve on arrival, a three-course lunch and free-flowing beer and wine. Much to our delight, the venue put us in its eclectic private dining room. This gave us plenty of room to enjoy ourselves without elbowing one another.  It's the third time this group has gathered for the Melbourne Cup. We held our first lunch in 2022, and then again in 2024.

The day kicked off at 12:15pm. The final guest left our apartment shortly after 11:00pm. In between, we feasted on prawns, roast lamb, roast chicken, a range of tasty salads and plenty of side dishes. At one point, a roving brass band accompanied by a saxophone player made an impromptu appearance over lunch. It was a lot of fun.

Jon organised a sweepstake for the group. That’s him above, finalising the pool selection via an online sweepstake app. I’m delighted to report that I won second place. Jon gave us some very detailed T&Cs before the pool announcement. Superb attention to detail!

This event was also the inaugural public outing for my new look. After some coaxing, I’ve decided to grow a beard for retirement. However, before committing to the cause, my brother Matt helpfully asked ChatGPT to generate an AI preview of my new look when I was in New Zealand in August. The promised look was impressive. See the first image above for more details.

I decided to grow my beard while Garry and I were in Indonesia for two weeks. The final result is shown in the second image above. I posted this photo on Facebook and asked friends to vote on whether I should shave it or save it. The vote was universally in favour of keeping it. Hence, by overwhelming popular demand, and in deference to global accolades, I’m keeping it for Summer. We’ll see how it goes!

Pool access required

We’re six days into our 11-night, 12-day vacation at the Sofitel Nusa Dua on Bali's southeast coast. The weather has been phenomenal. It’s been relentlessly warm and sunny every day, with daytime temperatures hovering in the low 30s and dipping into the low 20s overnight. We couldn’t have picked a better time to be here.

Our room is perfect. Garry found a great deal online that gave us full board, canapes and cocktails every evening (in a surprisingly well-appointed executive lounge) and a spacious room with direct pool access. After our memorable week in Krabi, we simply had to book the same decadent room category again. However, the Nusa Dua version is more secluded and beautifully landscaped, as you can see above. Our semi-private section eventually joins the main pool with its ubiquitous swim-up bar.

We’ve both swum in the pool daily. Garry’s also successfully commandeers a beachside sun lounge hut every morning. You can see one of these huts above. As a result, we’ve spent the hottest part of the day swimming in the sea, then retiring in the shade where a gentle ocean breeze keeps us cool. There’s even a call button for ordering cold beers or a light lunch. Yes, we’ve done both more than once. It’s been pure bliss.

Our room rate included an hour-long massage, which we enjoyed one afternoon under a beachside open-air pavilion. This afternoon we’re off to enjoy a complimentary cooking session. The hotel chefs will teach us to cook a few popular Indonesian dishes, which we’ll then enjoy for lunch. We’ve yet to book our complementary yoga session; maybe something for next week? However, we’ve been entertained already by at least one mandatory fire dance performance. Although, I’m still awarding first prize to the group we saw in Vanuatu in June.

Of course, those who know me well know I’m not one for lying around all day. Hence, I’ve spent the last week researching vacations, finalising details for those we’ve just booked, and drafting blog posts. I've also taken to searching the pool every morning for the best-looking frangipani flowers to decorate our private in-pool seating area. I’ll eventually find time to read a few of the books I’ve downloaded. If this is what retirement feels like, I think I could get used to it. 

While on vacation, plan another

What do you do when you’re on vacation? If you’re anything like me, you'll book your next vacation. This habit began decades ago on vacation in Dubai. Within two days of arriving in the Middle East, much to Garry’s disdain, I'd booked us a weekend in Gibraltar.  At the time, I'd already booked us a mid-winter tour of Scotland just weeks before we flew out. 

My sister-in-law considers it my holiday mantra: "Don't go home until you've booked another vacation." Our current trip to Indonesia is proving no exception. I’ve booked two vacations this week. Although, in my defence, I’d been researching both in detail for more than a month.

The first vacation is a month in Africa next April. We’ll fly into Nairobi, Kenya's capital, and spend the next 10 days on safari in Kenya and Tanzania, before flying to Zanzibar for five days. A local travel agent I found using AI has organised this private guided tour for us. Our customised itinerary costs the same as, or slightly less than, small group tours I’ve been researching. It’s honestly not a cliché to describe our itinerary as value for money.

I must admit that I was incredibly dubious about using a local firm. However, Emnel Adventures has rave reviews online and has proven to be true to its word, never attempting to upsell me, and often recommending more cost-effective alternatives. For me, the highlights of our itinerary include straddling the Equator, tracking Rhinos, learning the Aduma initiation dance with Maasai Mai tribesmen, watching Elephants wander by with Kilimanjaro in the background, and witnessing Wildebeest herds calving in the Serengeti.

We then fly to Windhoek, Namibia's capital, where we’ll join a 14-day overland serviced camping tour through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, before resting and recovering in Zambia on the banks of the Zambezi River. This tour will see us staying in tents in the bush while getting up close with the wildlife wherever we go. However, unlike most overland camping tours, dedicated staff will set up camp, cook our meals, and pack up each day. Highlights for me include seeing the Skeleton Coast, two days deep in the Okavango Delta, and possibly flying a microlight over Victoria Falls during its peak flow season.

This second tour is being booked through a South African company which seems a little less service-oriented. I’m hoping our experience on the ground is more rewarding than the slightly aloof correspondence I’ve had with the company’s representative to date. However, I'm sure that once we’ve finished our time in Zambia, we’ll head home with a string of blog posts and memories to last a lifetime.

Garry has already completed this entire itinerary as part of an overland tour he did from Namibia to Kenya in 2000. Sadly, this means no new countries are added to his growing tally. For me, I’d clock up another four, including Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya.

That’s our first holiday, booked while on holiday. The second vacation is a little quirkier. A month or so back, I stumbled upon a cruise from Bali to Hong Kong that sails along Malaysia's Borneo coast, then island-hops through the Philippines, then on to Hong Kong via Taiwan. Garry and I have talked about visiting the Philippines, so this itinerary should give us a good feel for the nation and perhaps identify a few places to revisit in future.

The cruise departs Bali on 3 March 2028. We’re now debating how long we’ll stay in Bali before boarding the boat and deciding where we’ll go after we land in Hong Kong. Garry is keen on visiting Macau. I’ve also realised that we can nip over to Guilin for a few days using the new high-speed train from Hong Kong. The train takes about three hours to reach this iconic river valley. Another seven hours by rail and you can spend a week touring the Avatar-inspired mountain region of Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang and nearby Furong. Both destinations are bucket list items for me.

I wonder how many more vacations we’ll book while we’re enjoying these next two adventures?

UPDATE: 28 October

Well, we didn't have to wait long to lock down the next vacation. We've just booked ourselves a 20-day tour of Vietnam and Kampuchea for November next year. The tour includes eight days cruising on the Mekong. As a result, Garry will be spending his birthday somewhere in Kampuchea.  I think we've well and truly blown our travel budget for the next 24 months!

Komodo Island = Komondo Dragons

We’ve ticked off another bucket list item in spectacular style. Garry and I have finally seen Komodo Dragons in the wild, and what an encounter it was. I think this post’s opening image speaks for itself..!

We landed on Komodo Island shortly after 9:00am on Saturday. Earlier that morning, I’d climbed Pandar Island to watch the sun rise. The experience was pure Instagram fodder, so anything that followed would be hard to beat. However, Komodo Island didn’t disappoint.

Two local rangers greeted us as we entered the National Park, armed with little more than forked sticks. They took us on a trek into the forest for about a kilometre before we came upon a waterhole shaded by several large trees. In front of us lay an enormous Komodo Dragon resting in the shade. We’d seen our first full-grown dragon, one of only 1,380 adults left in the wild.

 

However, what came next was truly breathtaking. The ranger pointed out two, even larger creatures nearby, and a fourth, even more massive beast lurking in the bushes. We couldn’t believe our eyes. In a matter of minutes, we’d encountered four adult dragons. The ranger explained that it was near the end of the dry season. The island had also had a very mild wet season. As a result, Komodo Dragons spend more time near water sources around the island.

The dragons were magnificent. Apparently, a fully grown male can measure more than three metres in length and weigh up to 110kg. The beast we were photographed with was close to this size and scale. One of the males we encountered briefly got up for a stroll, hissed dramatically before calling it a day, and slumped under a shady tree. Garry couldn’t believe how close we got to them. Neither could I. Like most cold-blooded creatures, as long as we kept our distance, they were content to lie around soaking up the morning sun.

On our way back to the boat. we encountered two female dragons. The ranger told us they’re more active than the males. He was right. As we watched, one of them delivered a superb display of Komodo Dragons in action. She wandered across the path ahead of us, strode through the forest, and finally settled into an iconic pose, with her head held high. It was National Geographic stuff through and through.

All in all, we encountered six dragons on Komodo Island. Our guide told us this was an unusually high tally. Most days, visitors see only one or two of these creatures, occasionally none. Before returning to the boat, Garry and I briefly wandered through a shoreline market by the wharf. Eventually we bought a nifty little carved wooden dragon for our growing kitsch collection. I'd have to put this wildlife encounter up there with the Leatherback Turtle that Mum and I saw in Africa more than a decade ago.

I'm also pleased to say that we never experienced any of the dubious conduct I've read about online. That is, stories of rangers provoking dragons to move in a dramatic, aggressive manner.  Our rangers were incredibly respectful and surprisingly protective of the creatures we encountered. Thank goodness for that. According to the Smithsonian Institution, a Komodo Dragon's strong jaws can snap a man's leg in two.

Follow this link to read more about our three-day cruise around the Flores Sea.

Sailing the Flores Sea

We’ve just spent three incredible days exploring islands in the Flores Sea. As I shared in my last post, we booked a two-night, three-day cruise on a brand-new boat called Andalusia 3. The boat was launched in July, so we’re among the first to sail on her. You see images of our awesome cabin in an earlier post here.

The boat itself was an impressive vessel. It’s 32 metres long and is built entirely by hand from Ironbark and Teak timber in the style of a traditional phinisi ship. The ship has two masts, but we never saw a single sail installed while we were on board. Instead, we sailed from location to location by motor.

Andalusia 3 has a maximum capacity of 28 guests, accommodated in ten cabins equipped with private bathrooms. However, only 15 were on our cruise, so we never felt cramped. The boat’s advertising campaign seems to have targeted a specific demographic. 11 guests were Chinese, leaving just four native English speakers, including Garry and me.

Our itinerary was full but never hectic, delivering a well-established short-list of popular sights. The crew did their best to visit each location during an off-peak time, thus avoiding the swarms of day-trippers doing our itinerary in a single day. However, even then, we were never alone. We always encountered a small crowd on shore, and often dropped anchor among dozens of boats offshore.

On our first day, we sailed to Pulau Siaba Besar, an island east of Komodo Island. Here we donned our snorkel gear and spent several hours floating with the current along the rim of a stunning coral reef. As we drifted, giant manta rays silently glided across the sea floor. We saw at least six of these majestic creatures. It was truly breathtaking. Elsewhere, others spotted a couple of turtles enjoying themselves.

From here we headed to the Instagram-famous Pink Beach on Pandar Island. The sand here is flecked with grains formed by ruby red coral. Its stunning colour is rather subtle at first glance. However, as the late afternoon sun dipped towards the horizon, its colour really started to come alive. While on shore, we also scored a bonus visit from a juvenile Komodo Dragon. It ventured out of the coastal scrub and wandered through the grassy dunes behind the beach before quickly disappearing.

We finished our first day on board by sailing around Pandar Island to a sheltered bay. Here we joined dozens of boats that, like us, had positioned themselves for a trek at dawn the following day. Shortly before 5:00am we made our way ashore, ready to join hundreds of others in climbing Pandar to witness the sun rise over the Flores Sea. The trek to the final viewpoint about 230 metres above sea level involved at least 815 steps. Fortunately, they’re either wooden stairways or sturdy paved stone steps.

The view from the top was well worth the effort. Honestly, I’ll let my photos do the talking. It really was one of those Instagram-worthy destinations that genuinely delivered in real life. Sadly, Garry slept in and missed the entire experience.

Our first stop of the day was truly jaw-dropping. A last-minute decision saw the boat divert to Komodo Island for our much-anticipated Komodo Dragon encounter. Most boats go to nearby Rinca Island to see these giant reptiles, so I was delighted we were going to see Komodo Dragons on their namesake island. Our encounter was a true bucket list moment worthy of its own post, which you can read here.

With dragons ticked off the list, it was time to head to Taka Makassar, a series of reefs and sand cays off the northeast coast of Komodo Island. Here we spent the rest of the afternoon snorkelling along some of the most diverse and pristine coral reefs I’ve ever seen. As we drifted, Garry and I spotted giant gropers, stone fish, clown fish, sea anemones, starfish and more. It was truly mesmerising stuff.

We finished our day with a leisurely stop on a tiny white-sand cay. I walked out to a tidal spit at one end of the mini island where I encountered a baby shark trawling through the shallow waters. We then spent much of our time sitting in the sea watching the sun go down.

The following morning, we rose early for a short sail to Kelo Island. The island was promoted as an ideal for spotting more baby sharks. However, Garry and I only encountered one little guy. Instead, the highlight of our swim was a series of aggressive little fish that kept biting us. Garry decided they must be protecting their offspring. Some cruise guests climbed the island’s modest peak for a scenic view. Garry and I decided to give it a miss, and spent time sitting in the sun.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m., we docked back at Labuan Bajo, where the cruise company transferred us to the airport for our flight to Bali. The flight was delayed. We eventually landed more than an hour behind schedule. However, the flight itself was a handy lesson in Indonesian geography. As we flew west, I was astonished by the sheer number of volcanoes we passed. I counted at least ten prominent peaks before losing count.

We’re now comfortably settled in a spacious room at the Sofitel Nusa Dua, on Bali’s southeast coast. More about that in another post.