Salt Water Hot Springs in Coron

 First off ... where is Coron? It's at the north end of the state of Palawan, in the country of the Philippines. We were in Palawan back last September when we had a boat ride in an underground river. Now we're back in the Philippines, but not in the exact same place.

There's some really interesting sights near Coron. I'm instantly drawn to the Maquinit Hot Springs. I've been a fan of hot springs ever since my California days in the 1980s.  Reading up on it you learn that it is salt water. I've never heard of a salt water hot springs. Gotta go!

Here's the ship docked at Coron:

When we first got here, we went for a walk. Yikes, this is a poor place. The main method of transportation is the tuktuk. Basically it's a motorcycle with a sidecar contraption that can hold several people. This is the taxi service. People who live here either walk or have a motorcycle. 

We walked thru the town, dodging tuktuks, dogs, and chickens. Then, down one side street, we saw the Dive Bar. Ha! Sounds like our kind of place. It was nice. As with lots of poor places, there's a big difference when you get to the tourist places. This bar was very nice. We struck up a conversation with the bartenders who were from Manila. Manila, they tell us is a metropolis of 14 million people!! To them, Coron is heaven! Truly, they love it here. The beer was good too. Red Horse, a Philippine brew.

On the walk back, I saw the town thru different eyes - could have been the beer 🥰 but mostly the conversation with the bartenders. Sure, it was poor, but the people seemed happy. It's not a huge, crowded city like Manila and it is surrounded by exquisite natural beauty. We noticed a barber shop striped pole and Jim decided to take advantage and get a haircut.

Nice job! and the cost? 300 Philippine Pesos, or about $3.25. I need a haircut too. Let's see if I get brave enough. After all, in 14 years of RVing around the USA I got accustomed to "hairdresser roulette!"

On to the hot springs

The next day, we saw a message on our ship's whatsapp group that someone had arranged a van to tour the town and go to the hot springs. They had a few spaces left so we jumped on it. We drove thru the town, stopped at the main church in town, then the Cashew factory. How interesting! Cashews grow out the bottom of a 'cashew apple' that looks like a bell pepper. At the factory, the separate the nut from the fruit, shell it, cut it in half, roast it, and flavor it. 

The hot springs was delightful. It was hot, but not too hot - my guess is 102-3 degrees fahrenheit. The water was crystal clear and the springs were large, with 3 separate pools. It was obviously a popular local attraction with lots of people there, but still not crowded. We enjoyed soaking for about an hour with a few breaks. Here's the video that Jim put together of our day:

Borneo - Yes, we have no Orangutans

 Jim and I were in Borneo in 1999. It was on our way to a dive trip on Sipadan and Sangalaki. We heard lots of stories about the Orangutans on the island of Borneo and really wanted to go, but we just couldn't work it in to that trip. 27 years later, we find ourselves on Borneo again and I want to see Orangutans!! 

From our port in Kuching, we signed up for an excursion (arranged by a fellow resident) to Semenggoh Wildlife sanctuary where they rehabilitate Orangutans. We understood that you were not guaranteed to see them, but chances were good. It was less than an hour van ride from the ship to the park, then we had good walk to the place where they feed the Orangutans. hmmmm ... it's not looking good.

 Another group from our ship went the day before. 

All we saw was the statue of an Orangutan at the entrance. It was a lovely walk and jungle however. 

The tour included a crocodile farm and the fairy cave. Both memorable experiences. We'll just have to come back again (actually the ship is scheduled to return to Kuching at the beginning of November. Maybe fruit will not be in season then!

For more about our stop in Kuching, see of our "Tech Tips and Travel Tales: Episode 322"

In addition to showing where we were, photos of the Orangutan park, Crocodile Farm, and Fairy cave, This 17 minute video also teaches how to use the 'circle to search' feature on your phone to look at anything and get an answer to 'What is that?' We also show the detailed map of our travels and how to make your own, and how to remove the fence from a photo.

The world of money

We are in Kuching Borneo. We tried unsuccessfully to get some local cash at an ATM. Don't know why it didn't work, our debit card has worked in all the other countries we've been thru. So, when we wanted to purchase a 50 cent item at a local store we didn't think it was reasonable to use a card and pulled out whatever cash I had to see if they would take it. 1 us dollar? No, they didn't like that. Let's see what else I have. How about Singapore dollars or Australian dollars? That's what I had in my bag. 

The cash I had in my bag. Indonesian, Australian, Singapore, Philippines, USA 😜

I ended up using the card after all. 2.50 Malaysian ringet is about 60 cents, it shows up on my credit card transactions as 0.64 USD.

QR Codes are not all created equal

Next stop The Monkey Bar for a beer. They had a sign by the register that said cash or QR code only, no credit cards. Well, that should be no problem, we know how to scan a QR code, and we have Google wallet all set up. We also have the Wise app with money in it, and Wise can scan a QR code to send payment. Nope, scanning the QR code just yielded a long number, no link, nothing else popped up, just the number.

Apparently they are expecting you to have a local banking app that will scan the code and pay. The Google wallet is still backed by a credit card and they don't want a credit card. 

Maybe the Wise app would have worked. I didn't think of that until we left. Luckily there were other shipmates in the bar and they had some cash, having successfully navigated the ATM earlier.

Turns out the QR codes are for their local payment apps Alipay, or Sarawak pay.

Singapore, Health Screenings and Line Dancing

 I've always been confused about Singapore. Is it a city or a country? There's good reason for the confusion. According to Google, Singapore is both a sovereign country and a city. It operates as a "city-state," meaning its territory comprises an entire independent nation that functions as a single metropolitan area without separate states or provinces. Expressing it a different way, Singapore is the capital of Singapore! If you look closely at the map, it is an island, so pretty easy to delineate.

 

Health Screenings

The ship was docked here for 3 days, giving us time to take care of some health screenings at the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. We had previously ruled out coming back to the states for medical checkups due to several factors. Even though our Medicare and supplemental insurance meant that the checkups would be free for us, the travel would probably cost more than the screenings in Singapore. And, we weren't even sure we'd be able to get appointments within a week or even a month back in the states. Here in Singapore we both had full Executive screenings including blood and urine analysis, physical exams, vision test, glucose, kidney and liver functions, colorectal cancer screening, blood tumor markers. Then I also had a mammogram and ultrasound, bone density test, and pelvic exam. Jim had an abdomen ultrasound and an xray of his neck. This was all completed in one half day!! The grand total was about $2500. We received a .pdf report via email a few days later and then a phone call from the Doctor to discuss the results.

We didn't do any sightseeing this time around. We will be back to Singapore a couple of times this summer because it is the one dependable source for fuel these days. We may decide to get some follow up medical procedures done then, or we may wait until we're in Bangkok, where it is less expensive. There is a hospital there, Bumrungrad that is very well known for it's care of an international clientele. We may even be able to get a doctor who will keep in touch thru video calls - that's what I really want. We do have medical facility on board, but that's not the same. Besides the medical staff on board rotates out every few months. 

Another Line Dancing Group

There was another gathering with a local line dancing group though! It was held at the Eurasian Community Center. The "Country Line Dance Association of Singapore" (CLDAS.com) has been dancing for more than 25 years! 

Michael (in front) Yeo, and Selina from the CLDAS came to the port to pick us up.

The Eurasian Community House

They are an active bunch of dancers! They prepared a list of 62 😮 dances for us to do together. They were still going strong when I started fading and decided to get a Grab ride back to the ship. 

Group shot:

Surabaya and Semarang, Indonesia

 Our sail away from Bali was on the evening of a full moon. So beautiful. And we were invited up to a balcony cabin of our friend Nuran for a 'sail away party.' 

Photo using my Samsung S25Ultra at 100X

When we woke up the next morning we were in Surabaya, Indonesia. We didn't get off the ship there, choosing to stay put on the ship for a while. Both Jim and I had plans for the next port, Semarang.

Jim scheduled a tour to the world famous Prambanan Hindu Temple

And Borobudur Buddhist Temple in Central Java. Dating from the 9th century, this site is renowned as the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

I didn't go on the tour with him because I was involved with the ship's line dancers and we were invited to dance with a local line dancing group in Semarang. It is just so cool to have this reason to get together with locals. 

The Odyssey "Wave Dancers" getting together with Henny's Line Dancers in Semarang, Java. They even gifted us the sarongs you see in the last photo.