So here is the last blog post of my journey. I am sorry it was so late.

So the next stop was Semarang, Indonesia. It was interesting to say the least. The day included a bus ride to a train station. Then we crammed onto this tiny and hot steam train. It took us through neighborhoods and rice fields. It was very pretty. We stopped about half way to move the locomotive behind the train to push it the rest of the way up. Thankfully, they switched to a bigger train. The ride was nice because we made friends with Mike and Amy from Washington D.C. I bet the youngest couple on the ship. They were funny though. We experienced our first Eastern style toilet together. Hopefully my last Eastern style toilet experience too. Anyways, when we took the train break, there were tons of people outside waiting to sell stuff. In your faces big time. I had to try and stop mom and dad from buying junk. Mom swears I convinced her not to get this Batik bag but whatever. Dad somehow managed to buy a metal water buffalo and almost succeeded in buying an elephant too. Mom bought some shadow puppets and a cool carpet dress. Thankfully, the train was leaving. It took us to a supposed coffee plantation, which was cool since we were on Java island, but it ended up being more of a rubber plantation. We had lunch and then a "guide" who spoke very little english took us around and showed us the steps of the rubber process, from tapping the tree, to adding the acid, to smoking it. Then they took us to a room where someone was roasting some coffee beans. Mom gladly accepted a handful of hot coffee beans in her hand to taste. After that, we took a bus back to the ship.

The days on the ship were spent studying, playing blackjack, attending tea time trivia, and playing bingo. At one point I was even the chip leader for the blackjack tournament. We even recruited a group of people for trivia. Mike and Amy were obsessed.

The next day was Bali. Truly amazing. It was like the Mexico of Asia. Dad and I spent the first day in Bali going scuba diving off a beach called Nusa Dua. It was very cool. There were all these water sports boats around, para-sailing, banana boats, and flying fish. We took this little wooden boat out to dive. Then we had a wonderful lunch on the beach, and we even got to see a cremation funeral procession. We stopped at a silver store before heading back to the ship to get ready for dinner. We had dinner at this bird park where I almost got attacked by a crane. The dinner was good, deserts were interesting. Then we watched a tribal Kecak dance. It told a story, but no one knew the story, so we were all a little confused. It was good though.

The next day we went on a shopping tour. First stop, Batik place. People would use the Batik wax to make different designs on your shirt. I had flowers while Dad got a dragon. We then went shopping. Afterwards, we went to another silver shop. It was a little expensive but we managed to haggle it down. Next we went to a wood carving shop. We managed to buy way more than we should have. Dad, of course, ended up with a huge wooden ram. We then drove through the village of Ubud. Ubud was the village where the lady in Eat, Pray, Love stayed. It was so cute, all the shops and little eateries. I wanted to stay there so badly. Our final stop was at a painting shop. Mom and I each bought some paintings. The shop was located in a beautiful, traditional, Balinese home. Then, back to the ship.

The next stop was Komodo Island. It looked like Jurassic Park from the ship. Unfortunately, it was raining that day. We tendered to the island and then began an hour trek through the forest looking for dragons. We ended up seeing 3 along the trail. The only protection we had were some boys with these sticks which they hit the dragons nose with. We saw one more on the way back to the ship. We went through this little market, which was quite sad to be honest. People were doing everything they could to sell pearls and wooden dragons and shirts. Goodbye Southeast Asia, hello Australia.