Darwin and Alice Springs , Australia

It took a day at sea and more to reach Darwin from Komodo.  In Darwin, we and about 14 other people got off the ship in a special group that were on a trip to Alice Springs in the interior- or "outback" for a couple days.   We boarded a bus in Darwin to go to Litchfield National Park outside of Darwin.  Northern Australia can get a lot of rain, but most of the day was dry but it was overcast much of the time.   At the park we saw lots of interesting flora but not many animals except a few interesting birds.  We visited an area with termite mounds. They called them "magnetic" termites because the mounds were tall and thin in the east- west direction but wide in the north- south they were "oriented" to point north- south.  The guide said it is likely that the termites build them this way so the mounds get the most area exposed to the sun - especially in the colder months.
We saw some nice waterfalls and stream with people swimming in what is summer for them. Being near year end it is a holiday period too.
From the park we rode back to Darwin. It was raining in Darwin, but we stopped at the water to look a bit and drove through a very nice park  to see a few Wallabies around.  While driving, the guide pointed out a number of small airstrips and defensive positions that were buily in WWII to defend against Japanese air attacks and a possible invasion.  It sounded like Austaralia was bombed more  than we thought.  We knew Darwin had been bombed a bit. It was the major port on northern Australia.  
We also learned that Darwin is in the Northern Territory, which is not a state and later learned that about half the people in NT live around Darwin and they number on about 125,000. NT is a large area.
We stayed the night in a hotel in Darwin that was nothing special ,but acceptable. Early in the morning we left for the airport an took our approx. 2 hour flight to Alice Springs.  It is more than 900 miles- like flying from New York to Chicago and still in the same territory.
At Alice Springs we were a little surprised when a large family group stayed at the Airport and flew on the Uluru or Ayer's Rock. So there were only about 10 of us  plus aide from the ship who were met with our luggage at the airport by our local guide.   Like in Bali we left most of our luggage on the ship and and just brought a small amount of stuff to last 4 days.
We boarded a small bus with a trailer attached. The luggage went in the trailer.  It was already getting hot so we all got water bottles.  It got to  43C or about 109F , but the humidity was fairly low.
We went to the Desert Park near Alice. This is a very nicely done, mostly outdoor park where you walk around on paths to see various animals and plants that are relatively common in the area.  They have a nocturnal house too.  It was hot, but interesting.
In the afternoon we visited the "Flying Doctors" service.  There have been stories about this operation reported over the years.  Australia is such a huge country with people spread out all over that medical care is hord to provide in a timely way.  The Flying Doctors help reduce the time to get doctors to patients or patients to hospitals.  Their headquarters is here in Alice.   Afterword we checked into the hotel and we said we wanted to see some of the artists shops in town so our guide dropped us off in town and told us where to find a taxi- so we could get back to our hotel. The hotel was a mile or two from the town center, which would be walkable except when it is 109F!
It turned out that most of the art shops were closed because it was in the holiday period when school was out and people travel! This was disappointing because we wanted to see some work by the aboriginal people.  We took a taxi back to the hotel.
The next day our driver/guide, who was quite good and knowledgeable about the area and many of the customs of the aboriginals, met us with the group of people who had gone to uluru.   We drove off to the west from Alice prings and saw 4 different areas where there are breaks in the mountain ranges.

At one break there were "rock wallabies" , which are a smaller species- we saw 2 or 3. The guide said they hide very easily and you won't see them if they don't feel like being seen.  These areas we visited all had some water.  Some had enough for swimming, while others were just small amounts.  The guide explained that there is actually a lot of water in the area, but it is all underground. The places where it is visible are where the ground level is lower.  The water does flow along ancient rivers undergorund.  Above ground we see lots of dry river beds.  It does rain in this area and sometimes these rivers are flowing quite vigorusly.  All the roads on which we road had dips where water flowed over in the rains.  A number of vehicles we saw had snorkels so they could drive through these dips when it was wet.
We had lunch at a Glen Helen resort  off of Namatjira highway that was not far from Hermannsburg that is on a different road. We later learned about Pottery from Hermannsburg that has many collectors.  Albert Namatjira was a highly respected water colorist, who did many paintings of these areas.   We saw more places on the way back to Alice.  Once in Alice we visited the  telegraph station that was part of the series that connected Adelaide with Darwin through the outback.
WE returnee dto the hotel. We were tired from the walking in the heat and decided not to join the group for a Camel ride in the evening. We had ridden Camels in India and decided that it was worth doing - once.
We had a "taste" of the outback. It is beautiful country, but a bit hot.  It does get quite  chilly in their winter too, though not freezing cold.
 The next morning we flew to Cairns, which was about a 2 hour flight to the northeast from Alice Springs.

A Trip to Indonesia- Java and Komodo

After a few nights in Bali we flew to Yogyakarta- mainly we wanted to see Borobudor and Pranbanam sites and the areas around the city.  We had to get up very early in the morning in Bali to allow extra time to get to the airport due to unpredictable traffic in Bali.  It turned out that the traffic was no issue so early in the morning!  The security and boarding for the flight was fine, and the flight was also fine.  In Yogya, we were met by out guide "Yoga" and Driver- Mr. Tomo who served us well for the next 4 days.  The Hindu temples at Pranbanam are near the airport so it was easy to go there. The complex was bigger than we expected, and due to school holidays there were large numbers of kids around. The temple were built around 1150 CE and have had a lot of restoration done. There are large amount of stone lying around from the restorations- parts that they did not know where they were from or for smaller features not restored.  It was rainy this morning which made the visit less pleasant.   The temples have steep steps, but we managed to go up a number of them.  The kids outside kept approaching Jim to get their picture taken with him size they rarely see tall people.  They also approached him many times asking certain questions in broken English. After a couple of these he realized there was a pattern to the questions. After quite a few of these an older man came by and said they were his students in English- most were very young so they were to be admired for having courage to approach strangers and try to speak in a strange language, but after 4 or 5 it started to be annoying, but politeness still ruled!   Much of the English teaching took place while Janet explored a temple or two without Jim who hoped to get better pictures if the rain stopped.  We saw only the main complex, but there are others close by, some Buddhist.
We had lunch at a very pleasant place by a stream not far from the temples and then made our way into town to the Phoenix Hotel. The Phoenix is a colonial era hotel that has been modernized and was very pleasant. We walked down a nearby road ro a shopping area, but it was hugely crowded on this day off from work and school.

The next day we made the long drive to Borobodur. Again there were large numbers of young Indonesian kids around in addition to foreign sightseers. The weather was very good- no rain, a few clouds and blue skys, but it was fairly hot in the direct sun and high humidity.  There are ten levels at the this Buddhist temple built around 750 CE and with the crowds it took awhile to get around.  Jim Managed to walk all the way around the upper 7 levels but finely got tired enough to stop.  Janet and Yoga waited atthe bottom after going around 4 or 5 levels.  One is supposed to walk clockwise around these temples, but most of the kids were not told this and they went the other way.
There are some nice views from the heights on such a nice day.   The site was largely buried when it was "discovered" by Raffles around 1813. They did some clearing, but it is a big place and it was mostly restored  over many years around 1970.  It is an amazing structure that had to have required a huge effort to build originally.  The builders realized the structure was not stable and added much stone to make it better, but there were drainage problems that slowly and continuously made it fall into disrepair.
We went to See two other Hindu or Buddhist sites nearby- Mendut Temple and Cowen Temple- these are much smaller and not at all crowded. We also vistied a modern Buddhist Monastery that has very nice sculptures.   We had lunch and road the back roads to our hotel to relax and have dinner.
Our next two days we visited a nice museum in town, saw a shadow puppet maker,  the royal palace and visited some batik makers.   Java is known for exquisite batik cotton and silk, but there is a lot of cheap stuff made for the masses as well. On our last afternoon On Java we rode to the beach on the south coast and watched the sunset. It was a very nice beach with lots of people in the water and having fun.

On Dec. 20 we flew back to Bali where we rejoined most of our luggage and stayed the night at Amandari. The next day we relax went to The Klungung market and attempted to visit Tenganan Village as mentioned earlier and then we boarded our ship for the night.  The next day the ship left Bali for Komodo.

We arrived at Komodo after an overnight at sea.  The harbor looked like a crater of a volcano and probably is.  We joined a lot of other people on the dock and walked to the visitor center.  They take large groups around a mile or so path and end at a small watering hole where 6 or 8 Komodo dragons sit.  They were not too active but two or three did move around. The group at the watering hole were big and we were told were males. After a little while a smaller female walked through the woods to the watering hole.  We watched as she walked through with her long tongue coming out frequently. We were told that the tongue is how they sense smells.   We were very careful around the dragons, but they did not attack anyone. There are rangers around who carry long sticks with a "Y" shape at the end. They use these to keep the dragons from getting too close to people.  It was interesting to see these ancient creatures.
We walked on toward the dock and back to the ship and sailed off toward Australia.