Three days ago the massive structure that was going to take over the Lido pool deck began to take shape and great fans went up over the windows in the Lido restaurant. This morning, beautifully carved replicas of Javanese shadow puppets appeared throughout the buffet counters, and a massive stand of coconuts, partially peeled and ready to drink from, appeared near the doors to the aft deck pool. This morning they closed the massive fire screen doors that lead into the mid-ship pool area and the sounds of hammers and drills started to echo through the rest of the deck. Curious onlookers peered in from above on deck 9 and were witness to people scurrying back and forth with everything from bamboo to palm trees.
Last year it was Mardis Gras. This year, we’re bringing Indonesia’s Night Market shipside.
The whole team was given Batik shirts to wear, but alas they only had men’s sizes and mine was way too big for me, and far beyond my tailoring skills, so I had to make do with my little Hawaiian sun dress that I bought in Maui this past Grand Asia. It still looked very distinctly well…Hawaiian, but it’s better than a uniform and better than looking ridiculous in a shirt that is miles too big for me. That said, it kind of worked out in the end. …more on that later.
When you walked onto the lido deck your senses didn’t really know what to react to first. When we say that we transform the mid-ship pool deck for these things, we really aren’t kidding. Palm trees brushed the ceiling and market stalls were set up all around the edge of the rice paddy in the centre of the room where a huge bridge stretched across the water in the centre. You couldn’t actually walk on the bridge – though I’m sure that it would have taken the weight of a person – but it made for a great picture from up above.
The entertainment for the night roved, so there was no bottlenecks, the show shifted and the crowd would move to shift with it. Also they were smart this year any put all the food inside and all the entertainment outside, so the people who just wanted to eat wouldn’t get in the way of everyone else. Sadly, one thing I’m not a huge fan of is Indonesian food, so I didn’t eat much, but I nibbled at a few things, and drank out of a coconut (minus the rum, prohibition and all 
).
Outside, roving among the market stalls, were fully costumed characters from traditional shadow puppet shows, giant dragons and capering monkeys (I think the person playing the monkey must have been about 10 years old). There is a truly breathtaking beauty to the full cultural Indonesian character costumes, particularly for the women. They look like perfectly painted china dolls, like you could touch them and they might crack or prove to be made of nothing but air held together by imagination and the steam of the Indonesian jungle.
I didn’t get to see the shadow puppet show, thought I caught the beginning of one at one point, I was supposed to be doing social laps and I had picked that second to actually grab something to eat before it got too crowded and I forgot. There were also booths selling the traditional puppets, but while they’re beautiful works of art in their own right, I’ve always found them a bit unnerving, and they aren’t exactly cheap, those two factors combined to mean that I wasn’t going to be picking one up any time soon. I did however, pick up a hand-painted image of Ganesh the Elephant God and a hand fan (trust me, in this heat you needed a hand fan).
Early on in the evening I found my sundress replaced (well, covered over) with an Indonesian four piece traditional dress. Not the same as the character costumes wandering around of course, those are unique to themselves, but the kind of formal dress that normal people in Bali would wear. I didn’t actually intend to end up with yet another piece of cultural wear, but I tried it on and enough people said that it suited me (including at least one person who’s opinion I really trust), that it seemed worthwhile. Besides, I’m sure I’ll find some occasion to wear it again, and if not the pieces can be separated and worn with other things.
At the end of the night my feet were killing me (I’m breaking in those new dance shoes, and they always hurt for the first few days of wearing them), and the heat was starting to get to me, so I was grateful to crawl into the coolness of my air conditioned cabin…
The big event also marks the end of the Mariner Appreciation Days. From here on in life on the flagship goes back to normal. The CEO and his wife and entourage have departed, and last night we watch a jet fly over us that may well have been carrying our headliner entertainers to their next show in Japan (“There goes Rockapella guys, wave goodbye!”) and the entire ship’s contingent breaths a well-earned sign of relief.
But all that aside….I say again… once a year, we create magic on this ship…