February 10, 2026
Who doesn't love a spectacular sunset?!? We were treated to many in this gorgeous retreat. Below is a sampling.
This trip was so meaningful for many of us. Anna, Bosco & I got to celebrate our completion of the PADI Open Water Certification. Jimbo and Ben completed their PADI Advanced Diver certification. However, Basia may have conquered the most impressive goal, a life long fear of submersing her face in the water! At age 70, she became a snorkler under the patient tutialage of our Dive Master Ellie!
Basia detailed the experience on her Blog www.basiak.blog below is her celebration Beer and she doesn't normally drink!
Some days I just don't want to sight see! My birthday was one of them. I just wanted to indulge in a good movie in a comfy, cool theater, eat some popcorn and follow with a yummy lunch! That's exactly what I did, despite some of my friends trying to convince me go on a 5 hour van to see 2 gigantic temples.
The ancient temple of Soo Poo Kong was our next stop. We were all wilting in the heat by then, but they promised an air conditioned room for a 20 minute movie on the history - so we rallied! Basically, the Temple was erected as a thank you to the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho who let the fleet stop here on their way somewhere else in Asia back in 1416 because his helmsman, Wang Jing Hong, was sick. Wang recovered from his illness in a cave on this site and built first the statue and then the temple to thank Ho for his life.
SEMERANG is the capital of Central Java , the world's 13th largest island and the 5th largest in Indonesia. Despite it's size, it is the world's most populous island, holding over 150 Million people (over 55% of Indonsesia's population). Today, I did a 50 person bus tour of some of the Semerang's history , so I could cover a lot in one day.