Chasing the Perfect Fuji shot.

[drron29]

Yes a funny title for a cruise report but one of the things that is on my bucket list since I first started a bucket list was to photograph Mt. Fuji without it covered in cloud. We have had nearly 100 trips to Japan but am still after that shot. The first opportunity will come on the Muse when we visit Shimizu.

But first a little of the time before we board the Muse later today.

First in the week before we go away we take the couple who keep an eye on the house out to lunch. usually Tziki Bar at Forest Glen. A great place if you like Greek food. The octopus tender and tasty, lamb ribs in a lemon sauce fantastic, the calamari and roasted cauliflower are very good and of course bakclava for dessert.

 

 

 

 

On our last day one of the butcher birds brought her chick along to get to know me and catch a few insects i was disturbing.

 

On the night before we leave we always go to our favourite Vietnamese restaurant for dinner - Nguyen brothers Maroochydore. Rojaan alwas has the vermicelli salad with lemongrass beef and this time I had the spicy lemongrass beef salad.

 

[mysty]

Awesome meals!  Have a glorious time on the Muse!  Best wishes for a perfect picture of Mt. Fuji! 🥰

[Host Jazzbeau]

9 minutes ago, drron29 said:

Fuji without it covered in cloud

I think this may be what you're looking for 🤣

 

 

[DavyWavey70]

I Hope you manage to catch Fuji in all her glory DrRon. If not it’s just an excuse for trip no 101! So pleased that you both got to meet M&M. The six degrees are closing in in the Cooler! 

[GrumpySushiBear]

I feel your pain @drron29. I finally managed to see it from the shinkansen after many trips. I had given up and at first thought my family was tricking me when they told me to look out the window 😅 Good luck! 

[drron29]

So early Friday morning up early and got our Limo to Brisbane airport We were travelling on Virgin Australia. Now at checkin we like to do so with a real person. They made it really difficult. Travelling Business Class and they want you to mingle with everyone to use a Kiosk. And they had 5 departures between 0900 and 1000. A real zoo. Finally we got want we wanted and down to security.

That was a disaster. First a very entitled young woman pushed my trays back and pushed in between Rojaan and I. Said I was moving too slow-yes because the belt had stopped whilst the agent spent some time with a bag. So I told she was a very entitled lady who had absolutely no respect for others so don't bother saying anything more as I have utterly no respect for you and your selfish ways. She didn't utter another word.

 

But worse was to come. As usual I set off the alarm because of my knee replacement. I was sent back thriough the X ray and told to wait until they had another officer to wand me. That took another 10 minutes and then the officer had OCD and repeated the wanding 3 times.

 

Finally through into the terminal. Now as everyone knows things come in threes so don't be surprised that VA don't have a lounge for Business class passengers. So after we had a coffee and muffin we went to wait at the gate. Luckily as time for boarding was approaching I noticed the flight number at the gate had changed. Told your flight has been changed to &$B. Actually I noticed it was 73B. Only about 6 people there. Ten minutes later they made an announcement re the change of gate and a minute later boarding started but they had only 1 gate agent. The first people in the general boarding lane cut in front of me but were told in no uncertain terms to wait until priority boarding finished.

 

Now I only found out the night before that our flight had been changed to a Max 9. So our Max has just arrived in Australia so the wifi hasn’t been activated.
But at least a glass of sparkling wine pre departure.

 

+

At least this time I had a window seat.

 

 

 

 

So take off then views of the southern parts of Brisbane.

 

 

 

 

Then the Brisbane River valley and looking back to Brisbane's water supply - Wivenhoe Dam.

 

 

[drron29]

Not long after that Lunch was served. Harissa hummus as an appetiser, rojaan had chicken with spicy potatoes which was ok and I had Thai vegetable curry wich was awful as well as bland.

 

 

 

Fortunately the wines were better. Rojaan had a nice pinot Grigio.

 

And I had one of my favourite labels - Petaluma Pinot Noir which was great. We also had a fantastic FA. always happy, chatted to everyone but always kept an eye on everyone so always got a refill long before I finished my wine. It helped that she and her family were going to Tokyo in May and was vey appreciative of all the tips I could give her.

 

Now flying over rural Queensland is generally quite featureless and different shades of brown. But this has been a very wet wet season particularly in the Far North. I have never seen so much green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now all those streams drain into lake Eyre in the centre of South australia but every few years it fills and the water birds come from everywhere. So if you are in Australia from May to October try and get to lake Eyre. It is a fantastic sight when full.

 

Now after 4 hours of flying from Brisbane the northernmost State Capital in Australia we finally crossed the Australian coast with just 90 minutes to go to Bali.

 

 

 

[drron29]

The first sight of Indonesia was Nusa Penida an island just off Bali.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now on approach to Denpasar airport on Bali.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drron29]

So to the Intercontinental. We got what appears to be the usual upgrade to a room on 2 floors with the bed upstairs. But it is comfortable. Two separate showers and a standalone bath which also has a hand held shower. Should be acceptable to even the fussiest guest. I'm using the bath as the shower floors are marble and way too slippery for me.
So the bathrooms. First downstairs and then upstairs.

 

 

 

 

And the downstairs room.

 

Our little gift.

 

And the view.

 

 

 

[drron29]

We were told we had access to the Singaraja lounge and went there first. not impressive so we asked where the Club IC was and went there. Obviously at checkin they hadn't got the lounge pass into the system. Showed it to them and everything OK. An impressive area,good selection of food, very friendly staff but not as well trained as in Bangkok. First the menu for drinks and the nightly canapes.

 

 

 

 

The canapes.

 

There was also a buffet selection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For winesRojaan had a French Sav Blanc and I decided to try an Indonesian cab Sav. It wasn't bad so I kept drinking it.

 

The garden lights on the way back to the room.

 

It had been a long day so we fell into bed at ~ 8pm local time and woke up at 0830. That was 1030 QLD time. A very relaxing sleep.

Edited March 18 by drron29

[drron29]

Wandered down to the lounge for breakfast about 0930. Here is the breakfast menu.

 

 

 

 

And the buffet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our hot dish Rojaan had the avocado toast and I eggs Benedict with salmon.

 

 

 

 

[drron29]

After breakfast we had a stroll around the property.

 

The fish were obviously used to being fed.

 

The beach wasn't much with quite a bit of rubbish.

 

 

 

I don't think this sign achieved much.

 

A lot of the sun lounges had towels but no people. And only 2 people where on the beach.
There was a wedding on later that day.

 

 

 

 

Then past their Convention centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fletcher]

@drron29 if your shots of Fuji are cloudy there's a nice woman in the UK called Kate who is a dab hand at Photoshopping. 

[Port Power]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

@drron29 if your shots of Fuji are cloudy there's a nice woman in the UK called Kate who is a dab hand at Photoshopping. 

I have a few photos from August last year when on Silver Muse.  No cloud at all, but then a little white “cloud” formed from the steam from the volcano vents.  @drron29 saw them in my trip report at the time, following on from his own voyage, so I won’t attach them here.  Obviously I was very lucky.  Timing is everything.  I hope he does achieve his dream photo.

[drron29]

Well if is official SS food has gone down hill. The soups have disappeared from the Atlantide menu as well as the available everyday menu. Scallops and filet much smaller and the large Australian prawns replaced by smaller Argentinian shrimp.

 

 

 

 

 

[jollyjones]

 

But the vegetarian offerings appear to be much more interesting.

What an improvement. 
 

[fdnycruiser]

Good luck in your quest for that perfect shot of Mt.Fuji. I was fortunate to get several with no clouds. However, my favorite was by accident. We had arrived in Tokyo after a day flying. We were tired, but still on Florida time. We woke up way early as Dawn was breaking. Opening the curtains, I couldn’t believe it.From our hotel room, we saw Mt.Fuji clear as day, as well as Tokyo including the Tokyo Tower. To see it from Tokyo is a rare sight indeed.

[fdnycruiser]

[MJN1]

"At least I had a window seat this time"

WHY - on  a Boeing 737 Max???

😱🫣😳

[drron29]

3 hours ago, MJN1 said:

"At least I had a window seat this time"

WHY - on  a Boeing 737 Max???

😱🫣😳

I am a daredevil.Like taking a risk 😉. But seriously we normally are on a widebody leaving Australia and sit in the centre as mainly the business cabin is 1-2-1.

 

But back to Bali.

Later that afternoon I went for another walk. Down to the beach but turned right rather than left.

 

 

But lots of rubbish on the beach side of the tree.

 

 

And a view across to the airport.

 

 

 

The hotel villas. A long way from the facilities.

 

 

 

And behind the villas a veggie garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drron29]

And back out into the hotel grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I wandered outside the hotel grounds. Not that much.

 

 

Reasonable prices at the Turkish restaurant. Put $A in place of the K and a decimal point in front of the last number and you have the Aussie price. $US 2/3rds of Aussie price.

 

Then I went into a large convenience store. Very clean and a good range of food and drink. lovely fruit. I nearly bought some mangosteens.

 

I did buy a cold pomegranate juice. Ticket said 18500 so I handed over a 20000 note and got 5000 change.
I then went outside to drink my juice. they had a few tables and chairs out the front. whilst I was drinking A woman came up and sat down beside me. Asked where I was from then asked where I was staying. I said the IC and she replied that is an expensive place. I have no money but I can make you happy. Time for me to leave and retreat back into the hotel grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[drron29]

That afternoon we decided to have afternoon tea because we could and it cost nothing. The menu.

 

 

 

And the food. I had mine with mint tea.

 

We then decided we had better do another walk.

 

 

 

 

 

That didn't stop us from going back for Happy Hour. The nights canapes. no picture though.

 

But also nibbles for the weekend.

 

Plus a special dish from one of the restaurants. The fellow putting it together only knew it as a special dish.

 

Plus a couple of other different additions to the buffet.

 

 

And Sunday breakfast. Avocado toast for Rojaan and Okonomiyaki for me.

 

 

 

[MJN1]

Dr Ron, can we get this thread back to its' topic? 😘

Today, no editing 🥰

[fdnycruiser]

Fantastic picture!

[drron29]

21 hours ago, MJN1 said:

Dr Ron, can we get this thread back to its' topic? 😘

Today, no editing 🥰

 A bit hard for me to get it back to the title as we are 5 days from reaching Japan. Our first port is Naha, Okinawa. Somehow I don't think I am going to see Fuji from there.