Sailing aground Australia part three

It was an overnight cruise from Kuri Bay to Broome and this time we moved alongside the ‘new’ pier. Maureen and I visited Broome for a holiday in 2016 and I don’t think they had such a long pier at that time.

Once again, we were able to take the free shuttle in to the town centre. The town had not changed that much, and we were able to have a walk around, but not too long as it was very hot.
After our holiday in 2016 I wrote blogs about Broome so I didn’t wish to repeat a blog I have included three links below and as the area around Broome hasn’t changed much new readers might find the links interesting.

Remember when?

String of Pearls

Come fly with me!

From Broome we sailed for Geraldton, which took us two days at sea.
On the 9th of November, while at sea off the coast of Western Australia near Monkey Is. a remembrance service for HMAS Sydney, which was sunk in these waters on the 19th of November 1941.

The service was held in the theatre at 11.00 am – the theatre was packed.

Above photograph is of the Australian ex-servicemen who arranged the service and also handed out poppies and service sheets as we entered the theatre.
The service was a combined service for Remembrance Day (11th Nov) and a memorial service for the crew of HMAS Sydney, none of the crew of HMAS Sydney survived.
Our schedule was that we would arrive in Fremantle on the 11th November – a port day.
If you wish to read of the battle see the link below – the wreck of both vessels in the battle were located in 2008.
https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/hmas_sydney

The Last Post was played, followed by a minute’s silence – followed by Reveille.

The Last Post

Sailing around Australia part two

After leaving Darwin we experienced a Kimberley Coastal cruise as we made our way to Kuri Bay.

A coastline mile after mile (kilometre after kilometre doesn’t have the same ring) of un-spoilt and untouched coastline.

I doubt that there is much change since William Dampier visited the area in 1688.

Just above the K in Kimberley you can see Kuri Bay where we anchored for some hours.
This bay is only accessible by ship or seaplane, it is the location of Australia’s first south sea pearl farm, which began in 1956 after the West Australian Government repealed the Pearling Act that prohibited the production, sale and possession of cultured pearls.
The nearest town is Derby, which is 223 km (139 miles) south west, not that the distance matters as there isn’t a road or track.

As for going ashore this was only allowed if you were part of a shore excursion.
Going ashore was by tender shuttle and you were warned that this area is one of the hottest areas in Australia.
If you had booked to go ashore you were expected to be fit enough to walk for an hour and a half and be able to climb an unmade pathway. In addition, you had to take your own water and you were warned that there weren’t any toilet facilities.
If you didn’t have the energy to visit the pearl farm yo could take a seaplane trip in one of the pearl farm company’s Mallard aircraft built in 1947.

  The aircraft held a maximum of ten passengers and two pilots – the aircraft was busy all day, and landing was never dull for the plane spotters on the ship.
The pearl farm is owned by a company called Paspaley Pearl which has a string of pearl farms across the north of Australia, the head office is in Broome.

I found it a lot easier to climb a bar stool than pearl farm hill.

I might not have captured a sunrise but as we sailed from Kuri Bay, I took this sunset from our cabin.

and a little later.

Princess often has specialist speakers, and most are very good and interesting. Maureen and I listened to one speaker chatting about Kuri Bay, – he was interesting and had plenty of slides to illustrate his talk. He did warn people who had booked to visit the pearl farm to be very careful during the walk to & from the pearl farm because most accidents happened as people walked down the hill not up the hill.
Plus don’t leave the path due to snakes and unfriendly insects. As I listened the speaker confirmed my choice not to go ashore . . .

The staff who work at the pearl farm are flown in and out I think every three months.
The technical staff who deal with the oysters and implant the seed are highly trained Japanese. The pearl is the only gem made by a living creature.

As the afternoon drew to a close, I couldn’t stop clicking the camera.
The whole area was wild and untamed – civilization was our next stop – Broome.

A Happy and safe 2024 to all who follow and read my blog – thank you.

31st October

Coral Princess being owned by an American company, the staff followed American culture particularly for the 31st of October.
It must be me, but I find it a little odd to celebrate the dead. I know it is usually a ‘fun time’ but I still think it odd.

Various areas of the ship were decorated to celebrate the dead and the staff embraced the idea.

The above bar was the Crooners Bar – a favourite of ours for pre-dinner drinks.

At least the spider wasn’t a red back

which is a highly venomous spider that originated in S. Australia.  Whenever I see a red back, it is DEAD in a very short time!

It didn’t matter which bar we visited it was horror night. The above is the Wheelhouse Bar for a night cap after the show.

Crooner’s Bar with little green skeleton man.

The idea of celebrating the dead has been imported to Australia and appears to be a sweet begging process for children.
When I was young I was not encouraged to knock on the door of strangers. That was considered very impolite.

The 31st October during my childhood was Duck Apple Night.

Duck apple

The origin of the game has a number of answers some say it is to do with finding a mate for life, depending on how successful you are with the apples.

I’ve also read that it is to celebrate the end of gathering the harvest and the start of winter.
Whatever the reason, it was always good fun – I suppose health and safety today would ban such unhealthy games of various faces using the same water and attempting to bite in to a common apple.  c’est la vie . . .

To be fair to the American readers the British have a celebration connected with death, but on the 5th November, not the 31st October.
This is when British children create a large bonfire and place the effigy of a man at the top and set fire to the bonfire. The children stand around and watch fire consume the effigy.

Guy Fawkes – the one on the left.

Once again all to do with history, when in 1605 an attempt was made to blow up the Houses of Parliament when the King (James the 1st of England who was also James the 6th of Scotland), and his ministers were inside the building.
The plot failed and the main conspirator, Guy Fawkes, was captured on the 5th November and interrogated until he gave the names of the other plotters.

Later in January 1606 a Bill went through Parliament requiring church ministers to hold a special service of thanksgiving for the failure of the plot annually on 5 November.  This bill remained on the Statute books until 1859.

In 1790 it was reported that children were begging money for the ‘Guy Faux’, and when I was a child it was common for children to ask for a penny for the guy – they would have a dummy that they had created which was destined for the top of a bonfire and the money would buy fireworks – the fireworks represented the gunpowder below the Houses of Parliament.

Penny for the Guy ?
Those who were caught with Guy Fawkes were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered so parts of their bodies could be sent to different areas of the land as a warning.

Guy Fawkes avoided the hangman by jumping off the hangman’s scaffold which cause him to break his neck- but his body was still drawn & quartered.

Children in 1954, they have a guy and need help with the bonfire.

When I was a child the street in which I lived was nowhere near any open space, so we built our bonfire in the street – we knew where to build it because the scar from last year was still visible.
We could rely on the adults to help because creating the bonfire helped them get rid of old broken furniture and anything else that would burn.

Children at the time couldn’t understand why Bonfire Night was not a holiday . .

“Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot; for there is a reason why gunpowder and treason should ne’er be forgot.”

A look around Darwin

Unlike Brisbane, Darwin City paid for the coaches from the ship to the tourist office in the city centre. The transport ran all day to and from the ship.

Maureen and I asked in the tourist office how to get to the Cyclone Tracy Museum. We were told that we could go by bus and the bus terminal was around the corner and it would leave in thirty minutes. Perfect for us as we wanted to buy a few things from the local shops.

The shopping area was quiet, but pleasant.

We soon found our way to the bus depot and looked around for a seat near the bus stop that we wanted – number 6. The stop that we wanted was not in the shelters shown above but in an unsheltered area, and it was hot.
As we looked around an elderly Aboriginal lady called to Maureen to sit next to her on a park bench seat that was shaded a little by bushes. So, we took the lady’s advice and joined her.
Maureen and the lady chatted about our visits to Darwin and Maureen confirmed that we were from Sydney and she asked if the lady managed to visit Sydney occasionally.
The lady answered -‘Yes Dear, I managed a visit at least once a year when I exhibit my work.’
It turned out that this lady was a famous artist.
As the bus pulled in the lady said to Maureen just wave your pension card and it’ll be free.
We asked if the ride was free even for none locals – follow me said the lady, so we did and as our artist friend boarded and waved her card at the driver we followed suite, as did a group of passengers off the Coral Princess cruise ship who had overheard our conversation with our artistic friend.

     Darwin Museum & Art Gallery 

Free to go in and visit – fully air-conditioned, with a cafe and a small shop. It is located about a ten-minute bus ride from the city centre and the bus stopped right outside the main door of the museum.

Termite mounds – the termites live off dry grass and the food is stored within the mounds where they have created storage area, living areas and tunnels. As the termite numbers grow so they expand the mound and have been known to be over seven meters tall (twenty-three feet).
I took the photograph and it towered over me.

Giant sponge

Found at a depth of 40 mtrs (130 feet) in the 1990’s and is considered to be about a hundred years old.

The museum is full of interesting sea and plant life, but I have to mention

A large male crocodile called Sweetheart.

I think this picture gives a better idea of how big the crocodile was when it was capture in 1979, but during the capturing procedure the crocodile drowned.
It was renowned for attacking fishing boats and the authorities were concerned that someone would be killed or seriously injured during an attack.
It is thought that the sound of the motor boat may have sounded like another male crocodile.
Sweetheart is 5.1 mtrs long (17 feet) and weighed 780 kgs (1720 pounds) and he lived in Sweet’s Lagoon, which is a long the Finneiss River and was known locally as Sweetheart.
It is thought that at the time of death Sweetheart was about fifty years old.

Below is an unusual pierce of art.

The above is the front of a ‘straw’ car/vehicle – it also had a straw driver.

The rear of the ‘car’

It looked like it had been made of straw/ vegetation, I tried to find more derails on-line but failed. I should have photographed the information details that were in front of the ‘car’.

After we had finished our time in the museum I asked at receptionist for the time of the next bus to the city centre.
It was fifty minutes which was too long to wait, plus we would have to wait at the tourist office for the shuttle bus to the ship.
I asked if she could arrange a taxi to the ship – it’ll be here in a minute I was told, which I took as a perhaps ten-minute wait. I thanked the receptionist and indicated to Maureen to take a seat, at which point a taxi arrived and honked. I do love good service.

During the trip back to the ship we chatted with the driver – at first, I thought he was Aboriginal until he spoke, and I asked where about in India did, he call home. He was from Bombay (Mumbai today).
He and his family had been in Darwin for some years, and he loved the place and earned enough to take his family back to India for holidays and he had also taken them to the UK.

His English was excellent, and he didn’t have any desire to leave Australia unless it was for a holiday.
He dropped us off close to the gangway of our cruise ship for the grand sum of $20 – overall a perfect day out.

Sail around Australia part one

Coral Princess – launched in 2002, maximum passenger number 1970, crew of 900 – maiden voyage January 2003. She and her sister ship Island Princess are the two smallest vessels in the Princess fleet. It is thought that the Coral & Island were kept by Princess because they were the only vessels small enough to pass through the Panama Canal.
Since 2016 when the new expansion of the canal was initiated the canal can now handle larger vessels.
I have heard that Coral Princess will be transferred to P & O Australia in a year or two.

Maureen & I had a balcony which we had booked a year in advance – I tried for a mini-suit but they had all been sold. The balcony cabin was fine except for the size of the shower – it worked well but I had to turn around to soap certain parts if I did not wish to turn the water off. It was challenging to keep the plastic shower curtain inside the shower base.

The view from our balcony – couldn’t complain.

Attending muster stations is no longer required – it is all on the TV – watch it on TV and then report to your muster station to be checked. The act of watching on TV I think registers on the system and on visiting the muster station your cabin key which is a Medallion     is scanned. The Medallion system worked very well. I have explained how the system works in earlier post, but will be happy to go into detail if asked.

Our cabin was on the starboard side and as we would be sailing north along the east coast of Australia, I would be able to photograph the sunrise from our balcony.

The best laid plans etc  . .

At least later in the day it was pleasant enough to sit outside.

Brisbane – the Coral Princess was one of the Company’s smallest vessels, yet it is still too large to pass under the bridge that crosses the Brisbane River. 
Brisbane’s cruise terminal is one of the most unattractive of all the cruise ports that I have experienced.
From our balcony we could see Brisbane airport and the various aircraft taking off and landing. There is a rail system from the airport into the city but there isn’t any public transport between the cruise terminal and the airport for passengers to use the rail system.
Princess arranged coaches from the cruise terminal to the city which takes about forty minutes at a cost of $40 per person round trip.
The first departure was 8.30 am and that group of people would be expected to reboard the coach for the return trip around 1.00 pm .
It was not a satisfactory arrangement, and the weather was not all that friendly with the promise of rain so Maureen and I decided to stay on board the ship.
This was our second visit to Brisbane via a cruise ship and we have yet to visit the city Centre.
The terminal cost $177 million dollars and was opened in 2020. To me it would be ideal for a fast river ‘cat’ to operate a service to/from the cruise terminal to encourage passengers to visit Brisbane city and spend money. We were not the only passengers who decided not to visit Brisbane because it was ‘all too hard’.

Our next port of call, which is stretching things a little, because it was an island, and the passengers were not allowed a shore.
We cruised off Willis Island and listened to a lecture about the island which is a weather station located 450 km (280 miles) off the coast of Australia.   I am writing this on the 16th December and a few days ago the island staff were evacuated due to tropical cyclone Jasper. Click below for the short film.

Evacuation

Finely managed to photograph the sunrise as we steamed towards Cairns.

On arrival in Cairns, we moored alongside at the passenger terminal which is only a short walk to the shopping area.
Larger vessel in the fleet would anchor off Yorkies Knob and the passengers would be tendered ashore and take buses to the city centre.

The dark building near the ship is Hemingway’s a brewery –
we couldn’t knock the welcome to Cairns. 

I took the above to record the artistical feel of the wharf, the brewery was on my left and the ship cast a shadow behind me. 

Cairns is a pleasant town with buildings that remind one of yesteryear. The last time we visited Cairns was around 1990, and not a lot had changed – wide streets, slow traffic, friendly people and the streets were clean.

As we walked around the town I clicked away with my camera but for some reason only a few registered – the above two are from the internet.

A gentle reminder to us that Cairns was a working port and we had to wait our turn to sail.

                                           Atlantic Infinity – Registered in Majuro 
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands, which is a coral atoll of sixty-four islands in the Pacific Ocean, one of them being Bikini Atoll of atomic bomb fame.
We sailed soon after for Darwin.
The morning that we arrived I took the above photo – thick fog perhaps – but it was condensation on the lens of my camera as I stood on our balcony for less than thirty seconds.

A dry cloth and we were back to normal.

Our plan for Darwin was to visit the Cyclone Tracy Museum where they had a soundproof room to experience the recorded sound as Cyclone Tracy ‘attacked’ Darwin.

The aftermath of Darwin after the cyclone – picture from National Museum of Australia.

The cyclone wiped out 80% of Darwin, with winds as high as 217 km/hour (135 mph), seventy-one people were killed during the 24th to 26th December 1974, a Christmas never to be forgotten. 

The howl of the wind in the blacked out soundproof room was frightening, what it must have been like for the locals in 1974 I cannot imagine.  

Twisted powerlines during the cyclone – picture from Territorial Generation

Part of the wind damaged power equipment in the museum – I took the above photograph in 2018. 

Photo delight

We hired a guide and a mini-bus from the hotel to see various sites of Penang. Our guide spoke English very well and was able to give us the history of the area and many interesting facts.

Above two pics thanks to KI.

Also known as the waterfall gardens due to there being a waterfall in the gardens.

Picture thanks to KI

The gardens are beautiful and relaxing except when one has to deal with the monkeys.
A few years after this trip Maureen & I took a friend from the UK around the gardens and the monkeys had become quite aggressive. Maureen & her friend visited the ‘ladies’ and I was holding both of their handbags because they had been warned of visits, even in the ‘ladies’, by the monkeys.
As they left the ‘ladies’ I was outside waving their handbags around our heads to frighten off the monkeys that were waiting.
The animals gave off a barking sound and would jump towards us before backing away – quite unnerving only having a handbag as a weapon.

Back to our group visit – we were shown around a small zoo – not one of my favorite pastimes because I have never been keen on zoos, even as a child.

Not sure what type of snake, but he didn’t look happy.

nor was the tiger.

Our next place of interest was the Penang Hill Railway.

When I was at sea, I visited Penang Hill in 1963, at that time the carriages looked like this

In 1977 the carriages were up graded and in 2005 they looked like – see below.

In 2010 they were upgraded again

Passing area

Always wanted to be a train driver.

Later we moved on to Fort Cornwallis 

Details of the fort and the entrance below.

Inside the fort . . .

Every bit a soldier . . . .

It was an interesting visit but also it was very hot.

At the end of the tour the cold beer was very welcome at the hotel.

Prince of Wales Island

So named on the 12th August 1786 to commemorate George IV’s birthday when he was PoW. The island is now called Penang.

 Bay View Beach Hotel pool from a balcony

View from our balcony

A perfect place after the long drive from Cameron Highlands – Penang Island is connected to the mainland by a bridge – 13.5 km (8 miles) of dual carriage way which was opened in 1985.
Since our visit in 2005 Malaysia has built a second bridge from the mainland to Penang Island.
The second bridge is 24 km (15 miles) long and was opened in 2014. This bridge is the second longest bridge is Asia.

The bridge that we crossed in 2005.

The above is our hotel in Penang, which is located at Batu Ferringhi beach area which is about 17 km (10.5 miles) out of George Town which is the main shopping area of Penang. 
The picture above is from the internet. The hotel looks very similar to when we visited in 2005. 

I took the above in 2005, part of the foyer and reception.

The Hotel’s private beach

and gardens

As much as I like swimming, the thought of swimming to the bar adds to one’s daily exercise.
The picture below is the bar (the red roof building) and we, mainly the men, would sit on underwater stools and tell tall tales of yesterday and order another round.
True friendship is listening to a story that you have heard before and pretending that this was the first time you had heard the story. At least the barman would smile as he poured another cold beer.   

One evening we decided to celebrated the birthday of one of our male friend’s and we planned to meet at a small outdoor bar next to the hotel (the drinks were cheaper), and we would decide as to which restaurant we would visit for the birthday boy. 

Our birthday boy was a little late and during our waiting time we had been watching the monkeys running across the roof.

The above might not be all that clear so I have cropped another photo below.

This fellow and his mates were having a great time running around the tree
tops and the roofs of various buildings.
Finally the birthday boy arrived and commented on the monkeys at which we all asked
‘What monkeys, we haven’t seen any monkeys?’
“How many have you had already?’ asked someone.
‘I only had one!’ was the stern reply –
‘It must have been a large one if you can see monkeys!’
The banter kept going until we couldn’t keep a straight face any longer. 
We agreed on a restaurant- the choice was quite large.
Each evening of our stay we ate at a different restaurant.

  Our evening was rounded off with a walk through the night market, where stall holders sold everything from clothes to DVDs, local artifacts, drinks and lolly ices. An ideal place to buy small presents to take home.

Tomorrow, we have booked a mini-bus and guide to show us around Penang Island. 

Camron Highlands

Camron Highlands so named after William Cameron geologist and explorer who, in 1885 was given the job of surveying the area. The highlands are in Malay (now Malaysian) State of Pahang and in 1887 the Resident (British Government Official) considered the area would be fine for a sanatorium, health resort due to the climate. A pathway was cut through the jungle, but nothing happened for forty years.

We left our KL hotel and boarded two mini-buses for the journey to the Highlands. The early part of the journey was mainly motorway until we started the zig-zag climb up to Tanah Rata where our hotel was located.

The winding road was a problem, particularly for me because I am not a good traveller by bus.

I took advantage of the stops the driver suggested as places of interest.

 

Strawberry Park Hotel, Cameron Highlands, our hotel.

Maureen on the balcony of our bedroom.

We took various tours around the area because our time in the Highlands was limited. The climate was perfect, just right to tour the main sites.

It was always tomatoing season, where ever you went just pick and eat.

and of course, strawberries, hence the name of our hotel.

We visited a tea plantation and watched the picking process and later the drying of the leaves and packing the tea. The above photograph shows some of the homes of the workers.

The plantation in the photograph was created in 1935 and was reopened in 1972, and when we visited in 2005, they were producing 600,000 kgs (1.3 million pounds) of tea a year, the equivalent of   820,000 cups of tea a DAY!

An insect ‘farm’ with friendly butterflies, and not so friendly

not all the insects were threatening.

Beehives for honey – the bees didn’t seem at all bothered by people wandering around.

An interesting quiet town, as we walked around the main shopping area.

Sam Poh Buddhist Temple built in 1972, which was open to all visitors, and it was free as long as we were quiet and we removed our shoes.
The majority of visitors are local Chinese or Chinese visitors from Singapore.

We only had two days in the Cameron Highlands, so we packed as much site seeing as possible, but all good things come to an end and we boarded our bus for the three and a half our trip to Penang. I was not looking forward to 250 km (155 miles) of winding roads down to sea level.


I need not have worried because we were not going to use the winding road but a freeway. The trip took us about four hours and it was a pleasant trip according to my stomach. 


How not to plan

We were restricted in our choice of airline from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur because we wanted a direct flight rather than transiting Singapore or Bangkok. At that time Qantas nor its subsidiary Jetstar flew to Kuala Lumper so we flew with Malaysian Airlines.
We ended up flying with this airline quite a lot over the early years of our group travel. We were happy with the service and the price.

I booked the tickets with a local travel agent, and I requested that the travel agent arrange for a mini-bus in Kuala Lumper to take us from the airport to the hotel. This was the first and the last time that I did not arrange a local travel / transport company at our destination myself.

Our problems began at check-in, we had eight tickets but only seven people had been booked. After several minutes of back-and-forth phone calls our eighth passenger was allowed to check-in.

After we had left the check-in counter, we compared our tickets and realised that our Germen/New Zealand friends where not seated near the remaining six, which was what I had booked, but they were not even sitting together as a couple

Back to the counter and another discussion to have our friends not just close to us but sitting together.

Finally, when we boarded and we were all sitting together. My seat was broken and would not stay upright during take-off & landing. It made me wonder what would happen next. Thankfully the flight was without incident and we arrived safely in Kuala Lumpur.

Once we clearer immigration and customs we were in the arrival hall, and I started to look around for the booked transport to take us to the hotel. I left Maureen with our friends and I went looking for anyone waving a sign containing my name or the names of any of our friends.
To say I was becoming angry was an understatement – I was as mad as hell!
Because all this happened twenty years ago I will not mention the Malaysian company’s name who were supposed to transport us to the hotel.
We had been waiting for some time when a young man approached me and asked if he could help. Being aware of touts I was reluctant to explain our problem until he took out a business card and explained that he worked for a Malaysian travel agent called Hasry (could be Hasty Travel) Travel and he was aware of the name of our ‘missing’ travel company.
He kindly rang the company that should have met us and was told by ‘our’ agent that they  thought we were due to arrive the following day – someone had failed to read the fax correctly.
I was able to speak to our missing travel agent and they asked me to use Hasry Travel’s transport service to our hotel and to pay them for their services, obtain a receipt, and I would be reimbursed the following day.

We arrived at the hotel around 11.30 pm (1.30am the following day for us) and as we were checking in I had the feeling that we were not expected. We were allocated rooms and as we were tired, and it had been a long day and all we wanted to do was sleep.
I viewed our room and was not happy. A quick look around and I was ‘upset’ to say the least. The room was below standard – we had a toilet that leaked, the shower leaked and flooded the floor, I could smell smoke and had requested a non-smoking room, we had two single beds, but I had requested a double,  what a start to a holiday.

The following morning after I had a short chat with the management, we were all moved to larger rooms, which were of a standard that we expected – double beds, non-smoking, non-leaking showers etc. in fact the standard of room that Maureen & I had experienced the previous year.

Our missing travel agent arrived with the promised money to reimburse my expenses, so I asked about a tour of Kuala Lumper with an English-speaking guide and a mini-bus. He was only too happy to mend bridges. . . .

At last, the holiday could begin –

War memorial, which is very impressive.

The old railway terminus opened in 1910- the new one would be opened in 2001.

Up to 2011 the old station had a 170 roomed hotel attached called The Station Hotel and the lobby bar was famous.
Up to 2009 you could still ‘buy’ a room for the night as long as you did not mind the peeling paint etc.
In 2015 it was taken over by a consortium of Singapore businessmen but their effort to rescue the hotel failed and the place is now locked and the inside derelict.

Next stop was the Royal Palace & the Guards

Foot guards

Driveway to the Palace – the guards didn’t mind us getting close to take a photograph through the main gate.

A touch of yesterday Royal Selangor Club, the area above was rebuilt after a fire in 1970. I took the above photo.

The above picture from the internet – the central area from earlier times. The club was founded in 1884 during the time when the British controlled Malaya. In front of the club the area would be used for games of cricket.

On the 31st August 1957 Malaya gained in dependence and the British flag located at Medaka Square (which used to be the Selangor cricket pitch) was lowered down a 95 mtr (312 ft) flag pole (one of the largest in the world) and the Malay flag was hoisted in its place.
Malaya did not become Malaysia until September 1963.

Another shot of the mast and the Malaysian flag.

We also visited a Mosque, which was interesting, but we all had to be

appropriately dressed.
The ladies with their head covered, but not the males.

Kuala Lumpur was not all history & culture- inside a large shopping Centre

Scream time

After the arrival problems things went well and I arranged for a minibus transport to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, which would be an approximately four-to-four-and-a half-hour drive.

The main thing I learned from this holiday was to use the internet (which was not as sophisticated as today) to arrange all foreign hotels, transport and places of interest myself, and only use the local travel agent in Australia to deal with the airlines.

That’s what happened for the next ten years for the eight of us.

It all began . . .

Living in Australia brings one in contact with a number of nationalities and often the initial contact changes to friendship. Maureen and I have been fortunate in gaining a

Malay Chinese friend who was married to a Polish lady,

a Ukraine via German, married to a New Zealand lady,

an Australian married to a British lady from Yorkshire, and

an Australian married to an Australian lady.
Our friendship grew out of meeting at our local church.

Unfortunately, our Malay friend became sick and passed away in 2004, which left a hole in our little group and made us all think of our own mortality.
As for me it brought home that Maureen and I were getting ‘on a bit’ and a trip that I planned for Maureen in 2005 might not work out as planned.
My idea was to visit the UK for a holiday, which would be the first time Maureen had returned to her country of birth in twenty-five years. I had visited the UK a number of times due to my work.
When our friend died so quickly after becoming ill I decided that we would visit the UK in 2004 and not wait for the 25th anniversary.   

Something that one might take for granted living in the UK, unless you have become a visitor.

We both came from Merseyside so we had to walk down Memory Lane, although we both thought the Cavern was ‘misplaced’.

Maureen and I had met at a club called The Gas Light, so we had to see if is was still a club – it used to be a converted warehouse with a basement and two floors, but now the basement had been filled in and it had become a small car park, plus the building had been demolished. We still have our memories.

I grew up in Birkenhead,so we had to take the ferry from Liverpool to Birkenhead rather than the underground railway.

Ferry Across the Mersey

After a time, the same song being sung would get on your nerves, but it did bring back memories of when we first met in 1965. 

We even managed to visit my old skool (school), it hadn’t changed, iron railings, concrete playground and a feeling of being locked in, but I was content until I was fifteen and had to consider my future.
Many of my classmates left at the age of fifteen (1959), but I stayed on for another year to sit various subjects for GCE (General Certificate of Education) and left in 1960 having gained a scholarship to HMS Conway Nautical College. 

From a concrete playground to living in huts with 20 other cadets on the Marquis of Anglesey’s estate in North Wales.
The experience of being at HMS Conway change my life – for the better.

 The local railway station close to HMS Conway was Lanfair PG for short, but above Maureen’s head is the station’s correct name.

We hired a car to visit North Wales so that I could show Maureen what was left of HMS Conway, which had closed in 1974 and we stayed in Caernarvon at the Black Boy Inn, which began life in 1522.

It was a pleasant stay.

Just outside Caernarvon Castle is one of the anchors of the last wooden sailing ship that carried the name of HMS Conway.

While in the UK we met up with old friends that we had not seen for a long time, particularly for Maureen considering it had been 24 years since she last visited the UK.
From Wales we moved to Scotland we both wanted to visit the Royal Yacht.

as well as Edinburgh Castle

We had visited England, Wales & Scotland and Scotland but I had one more place to visit before flying home – Belgium, and the location of the Battle of Waterloo, which took place in 1815 where Napoleon was defeated.

Manneken Pis
The statue has been stolen or damaged so many times that since 1965 the one on public view is replica and the original is in the Brussels City Museum.

We took a train to Waterloo and the battle site, and it was raining heavily but we were able to visit the museum.

As you see on our arrival we were due for more rain.

A better photograph of the museum, which I found on-line.

We walked along the road during a slight easing of the rain to the ‘Mound’. 

I was hoping to climb to the top for the view of the battlefield, but the weather made this impossible. 

There is a story that the lion on the top of the Mound was cast from the captured French guns after the battle.
The lion was cast in nine separate partial casts in iron and assembled into one statue at the monument site. The lion weighs over 28,000 kilos (28 tons) and is 4.45 mtrs (14 ft 6 inches) tall and 4.5 mtrs (15 feet) in length.
Battlefield view from the top of the Mound – photograph found on the internet.

All good things come to an end so we returned to London to catch our plane back to Australia – but I had one last surprise for Maureen – we would be stopping in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights, before flying home to Sydney.

I had booked the Renaissance Hotel as a surprise – and on entering Maureen was very happy indeed.

                                                                 Check-in area 

The above two pictures are from the internet today – but they are very similar to our experience in 2004. 
View from our bedroom window.

What more could I want after a long flight?

and Maureen didn’t have any complaints. 

A few weeks after our return Maureen & I were with our friends  and we commented as to how much we enjoyed staying at the Renaissance Hotel and that we planned to return in 2005 so as to have longer look around Kuala Lumpur.
Amongst our friends the Australian couple asked if we wanted company, so we said yes, at which point our Ukraine/German & his Kiwi wife also asked, followed by the Australian and his English wife – we had now become eight and I was voted in as the ‘organiser’ because I had already begun the arrangements for Maureen & I. 

If you look closely at the sign near Maureen’s right hand you will see the
Mr. Geoff Woos sign. The hotel was either not quite sure how to spell my name or they only had small signs. This hotel was not in Malaysia, but it is one where we all stayed.