Day 8—25-DEC—Christmas and the Volcano!

Mount Krakatoa, between Sumatra Island and Java Island.

Last night, we got to bed sort of late.  After Midnight Mass, we headed back to our room and discovered they had already set the clocks back (Indonesia, or at least this part, seems to be an hour earlier than Singapore).  So, the clock in our room read 0:00, 25-Dec.  We slept in as late as we could, but still woke before 7.  So, we ordered some room service, and had a lounging lite breakfast in our room.  It seemed appropriate to sip some java while cruising by the island of Java (on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day in the morning).  We made it upstairs to the trivia contest by 9:30, then the Brunch Buffet at 10.  They had all sorts of interesting things, from English pudding, to mackerel and shrimp, to pasta, turkey, beef wellington, and on and on.  Many of them were really good!  A few were…well they were free, so no harm!

Christmas Brunch

During brunch, the ship pulled up near Krakatoa, which we could see from our table.  After eating, we went outside, and decided it would be nice to view from the balcony in our room.  It looks cool, but pictures rarely do justice. 

Krakatoa.  The center is the caldera, but the original island was all of this.
So much was blown away in 1883, it left several small islands.

Krakatoa from our balcony.

In 1883, it was the biggest volcanic explosion in recorded history, reportedly heard for thousands of miles away.  It was once a very large mountainous island, but after that event, it was three very small islands, and a 50,000 foot high dust plume!  It is said anyone within 10 miles was either dead or deaf.  Since then, the main caldera has grown, and became a new island in 1927.  The new island is Krakatoa Atuk, meaning ‘son of Krakatoa’.  The new island grows about 5 meters per year, which works out to 1/2 inch per day on average.  I don’t think our pictures over the two hours today will demonstrate the growth, however.

In many years/decades, it will probably look much different.

Our afternoon involved a nap and two trivia quizzes, one of which we ALMOST won.  Bummer!  It was movie villains, where they show a movie picture, and you have to guess the name of the villain and the movie.  One of the snapshots was the bad guy in Die Hard, which we knew the movie, and knew it was a German guy, but no one in our group knew his name (Hans Gruder).  One of our group members was married to a German guy, and lacking a better option, we wrote down her husband’s name.  (Trust me, it was really funny!!!)  We did not get points for that guess.

Christmas dinner.  See?  I wore a tie and a jacket!  Fancy!

Our dinner reservations were for 5:45, which was a bit early, but the other option was 9PM.  So, we ran to our room, changed into appropriate clothes, and headed off just in time.  Dinner was very nice!  We sat with a table of 8 people, four of which were from Australia, a couple from San Francisco, and us.  Theresa had the ham, which was tasty and traditional.  I had the half lobster tail, with scallop and shrimp, which went well with my escargot and bouillabaisse.   All in all, it was a nice Christmas dinner.

After dinner, we went to the show, which was a medley of skits and singing by the crew and the entertainment staff.  It was entertaining and humorous.  I was surprised by how much they used Christian songs and themes (appropriate, but unexpected) and also that they used actual lit candles at the beginning (open flames?!).  Anyway, it was a nice wrap up for our Christmas 2016!