The crew also found inner balance during their stay – by exploring Bali, while exploring their own passions. Frankie went diving near Lembongan and discovered a reef still rich and teeming with life. Joh, Brad, Dave, Shawn and Siri continued their bargaining spree in Mas where they found sea chests and commissioned carvings and tools. Clark has a passion for maritime history and consequently sought out the spices that sparked much of the trade with the East. Tiina, our resident linguist, discovered that there is a word in the Balinese language which describes the sheer panic one would feel if one could not locate north and she spent a lot of time contemplating how language shapes your worldview. Katelinn’s desire for an authentic cultural interaction led her to the Holy Spring temple where she witnessed worshippers praying and making offerings.
Meredith took a scooter ride with a dear friend to a busy fabric market outside of Ubud where she bargained her way into some real deals. Donald found his zen in the busy marketplace of Denpasar which he described as his most challenging and rewarding provisioning experience to date. Liam, Rebecca, Paul, Mike, Nadja, Paula, Ali, Davey and others found their surfing fantasies in Pedang Pedang and UluWatu. Megan and Taia raved about the affordable spa treatments. Joani, Robert H, WT and Pania took in the Barong and Kecak dances at temple grounds near Ubud. Mike ‘Mitch’ M savoured the traditional nasi (rice dishes). Vicky escaped into luxury and a visit with her visiting family – and Paula, Niko and Rebecca also had family make the long treck to visit. Lauren, Tammy, Jan, Adrienne, Sophie and Chris, to name a few, spent time exploring the more relaxed atmosphere of Ubud and marvelled at the sheer beauty of the rice paddies just outside of the city centre. Logan and a group of friends spent some time in the relaxed seashore town of Padangbai. ‘Fred’ Weiss was not the only one to discover the mischievous macaque monkeys in Ubud’s monkey forest, but he did almost loose his glasses to their greedy little hands!
Bali was the halfway point on the Picton Castle‘s fifth voyage around the world. This inevitably meant that we would be saying goodbye to some of our crew. We bid tearful farewells to Georgie, Cheri, Paulina, David Brown, Alex and Rob M. Their humour and contribution and presence will be sorely missed by this Barque and her crew. However, it also meant that we would be saying hello to new crew. We welcomed six new crew into our floating family complex and we do hope they love it as much as we do.
I should mention that I am sitting in the galley house at half past midnight as I write this. Joh and Pania are attempting to help me by singing their version of Balinese traditional Barong music as they scrub the galley shelves. Ding Ding Ding…Do do do do…. Ding Ding Ding. We too find a balance on the ship between work and play. While we cannot whistle and work (whistling generally being taboo) we certain can giggle while we work – or Ding do do do – in this case.
Karima Kasi Bali. We had a wonderfully enlightening stay!
*Thank you to the Captain, Pania, Brad and Taia for their photographs.
[cpg_album:328]