February 22nd – Manila and Corregidor Island

Today, as we approached Manila they was a tangible sense of excitement around the ship – as so many of the ship's crew are Filipino, they would have the chance to spend a few brief hours with their families who were thronging the pierside. Sadly, it was raining torrentially for most of the day, but this couldn't dampen the wave of emotion that was surging through the ship.

On a day when Manila's chaotic streets were even more inhospitable because of the drenching rain, it was a good decision to join the ship's tour to Corregidor Island, (a 75 minute ferry ride away in Manila Bay), to learn more about the country's tumultuous experiences during the Second World War.

The island guards the entrance to the Manila Bay, so it had tremendous strategic importance for the Americans in defending their colonial possession from the advance of the Japanese across the Far East after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Americans had heavily fortified the island, but with no reinforcements coming to its defence, the garrison under the command of General MacArthur were sitting targets to the relentless bombing and shelling by the invading Japanese troops.

We were taken to the evocative Malinta Tunnels, where the majority of the Americans were holed up, as they were pounded into submission. The dark, dank atmosphere was complemented by sound and light show that dramatised how awful the conditions must have been as food supplies, medicine and ammunition ran out, before the eventual surrender. The tunnels were further damaged in the fierce fighting to re-take the island back off the Japanese in 1945. As it became obvious that the Americans couldn't be stopped, up to 2,000 Japanese troops blew themselves up inside the tunnel, to avoid the dishonour of being captured alive.

The peaceful atmosphere today, made it hard to imagine what life here must have been like 70 years ago; but, as we toured the island, passing its gun emplacements, battle-scarred ruins, and many memorials, it was a sobering thought to consider that up to 10,000 men from all sides had been killed in defending, taking, and re-taking this small little island. Perhaps the most evocative sights were the skeletal remains of the old American barracks – its concrete ruins telling of the immense firepower that must have rained down on it, in the various battles for the island.

A very enjoyable and thought-provoking tour.

February 20th – Monkey See, Monkey Do in Borneo

Today, everyone was very excited to arrive in Borneo to get the opportunity to see the island's magnificent orang-utans and its remarkable-looking proboscis monkeys.

We arrived in the fairly non-descript port of Sandakan, which is chiefly famous for being one of the main ports that ships out all the timber from Borneo's ever-diminishing rainforests, and for being almost totally destroyed in the Second World War. So, the concrete urban jungle of Sandakan was not the main interest here – it was to get out into what's left of the island's tropical jungle to see what's left of its endangered wildlife.

First, we drove to the Sepilok Wildlife Reserve – a section of protected rainforest where injured or orphaned orang-utans are rehabilitated and made ready for reintroduction to the wild. There's around 200 orang-utans living in the semi-wild here, within the confines of the reserve.

Our trip was scheduled to fit in with the feeding time for the orang-utans, but our guide was careful to lower our expectations of wildlife-spotting opportunities – the better adapted these shy apes are to living in the wild, so the less reliant they are on handouts from the rangers, who keep the food they give them deliberately boring, to encourage them to fend for themselves.

So, before the 10am feeding slot, there was a fair amount of staring into the dense jungle, trying to get our first glimpse of these wonderful creatures. As the allotted hour drew close, we began to see trees shaking in the distance and the anticipation rose, then we got the odd view of something ginger moving in the distance.

All of a sudden, 2 orang-utans swung down gracefully from the trees, their long arms effortlessly swinging them across the ropes that led them to the feeding platform. There was a real thrill to see these soulful creatures so close up (about 15 metres away), and to observe their incredibly human characteristics – they share 97% of their DNA with humans after all.

I was surprised how little they interacted with each other – even when they were on the platform together, they'd get their food, and go to opposite corners turning their backs on each other furtively. Occasionally, a couple of the younger ones would try to annoy each other playfully, and would chase after each other – great to watch.

So, exhilarated by the chance to see at least 7 different orang-utans close up (when we told we might not see any!), we got on the bus to drive to the proboscis monkey sanctuary. As we drove along the completely straight road, our driver inexplicably veered off the road and smashed the side of the bus into a stationary tree – maybe he felt that seeing the orang-utans hadn't been exciting enough for us! Fortunately, it was only a glancing blow and we weren't going very fast, so no-one was hurt; however, the windscreen had been smashed up, and the window in the door was knocked out, so we had to wait for an alternative bus to take us to our next stop.

We arrived just in time for proboscis monkey feeding time, and we had the chance to get extremely close to some of the most extraordinary-looking creatures on God's earth. The males have that big bulbous drooping nose and a big pot belly (they look like they must drink a bottle of port every evening), while the smaller females have a distinctly un-cute upturned nose. But, the most startling thing about the male monkeys is that they are in a permanent state of readiness for mating (if you know what I mean). It was like a convention of ugly Viagra salesmen.

As they grunted their way around, bad-temperedly steeling food off each other, we saw a couple of examples of exactly why they have permanent erections – they will take any opportunity to get up to some monkey business with any monkey that's passing and not looking. In one disconcerting example, I saw one of the larger males pick up a passing juvenile and clamp its mouth onto his ever-ready nether regions – I think I will be scarred for life! It was disgusting behaviour, but strangely compelling viewing.

So, Borneo gave us some unforgettable sights – some of them I wish that I could forget, but I can't! Our drive back to the ship passed though vast plantations of palm trees – it was incredibly sad to think that this land would once have contained dense rainforests before all the wood was cut down and the palms planted. As a result of their natural habitat being so relentlessly destroyed, the orang-utan and proboscis monkey are both in real danger of extinction in the wild – I just hope that they're around in 50 years time for future generations to enjoy as much as we did.

February 18th and 19th – Judging the Crossing

From Bali we had two days sailing north towards Borneo, which meant that we had to cross the equator again. I was asked if I would participate in the ceremony, but as I didn't want to be kissing a fish, or get covered in eggs and flour, I volunteered to be the Judge, who basically issued the charges against the accused, before King Neptune sentenced them to their familiar punishments.

This meant dressing up in an odd toga and donning a white wig, which was marginally less humiliating than the punishments doled out to the accused.

When you've been on a cruise ship for almost 50 days, these sorts of activities seem normal!

February 17th – Beautiful Bali

Bali is one of those places where you want to spend a month to be able to see most of its beguiling sights, but in our 8 hour tour we did a good job of seeing and experiencing many of the essential Bali sights – temples, artwork, rice paddies, delicious food and friendly people.

As we drove away from the port of Benoa, it was obvious that Bali has modernised quickly and is well and truly on the tourist trail – motorbikes everywhere, fast food joints, and so many souvenir shops. But, it was equally obvious that many elements of traditional Balinese culture are still alive and well – you could scarcely move 100 metres without seeing a Hindu shrine, statue or temple, while the roads were lined with craft shops churning out the woodwork and stone carvings that the island's famous for.

We travelled to see the remains of the old palace at Semarapura, whose beautiful pavilions had their ceilings decorated with vivid depictions of demons torturing wrongdoers – seeing as this was the court of justice, these pictorial punishments would probably have scared the living daylights out of anyone up before the court.

From here, we ventured to the atmospheric Batuan Temple, where we got a chance to see the deep spirituality that permeates through every aspect of Bali life. Balinese temples are very different to Indian Hindu temples, there's no florid statues of the gods, just beautifully carved stonework and doorways.

Next, we headed to Ubud – the place where Julia Roberts came to "love" in the film of the book, "Eat, Pray, Love". Seeing as we'd covered off the "pray" part at the previous temple, and the "love" was unlikely to happen on an 8 hour tour, we settled on the "eat" part of the deal, by going for a delicious meal at the excellent Dirty Duck Restaurant, overlooking a green rice paddy field. The food was delicious and very spicy, while the cold beers were much appreciated on an incredibly hot and sweaty day.

Next we went to the Neka Art Gallery just outside of Ubud, where we saw how western influences crept into Balinese art from the 18th century onwards, before we moved onto to a traditional Balinese homestead, where again, the religious beliefs of the people appear to permeate through every aspect of daily life.

This brief glimpse of Bali brought back so many happy memories of the time Tracy and I spent here when we had our year off – we must come back soon.

February 14th-16th – Sailing the Indian Ocean

Having left the rocky seas of the Pacific and Southern Oceans behind us, it was smooth sailing, warm temperatures and sunny skies all the way up the Indian Ocean to Bali.

To keep us entertained, we had more riveting lectures (by me and others), wine tastings, shows, Valentines Day and Chinese New Year. This is what cruising is all about.

February 12th – Wine and Wildlife in WA

For our second day in Fremantle, the weather hadn't cooled down one single bit – in fact, it was almost 40 degrees out there in the relentless sun. I used the morning to visit a cafe and do some vital wifi-ing, and then it was time for my afternoon tour, entitled "Wine and Wildlife" – an interesting combination.

So, we drove out to the Swan River Valley to visit the Sandalford winery where, in the name of research, we ploughed our way through several bottles of decent wine – most of them had come from the Margaret River area, and the shiraz was my favourite.

Suitably hydrated and fortified, it was time to play with the animals. By now it was over 40 degrees, but the prospect of playing with koalas, kangeroos and wombats just about kept us awake. It appeared that the kangeroos suffer in the heat just as much as we do – most of them were sprawled out in the shade, and were so zonked out, you had to get up close to make sure that they were actually alive.

The good thing was that they were way too tired to be bothered by us coming up to them and stroking them, and the odd one just about had enough strength to hop over to me to eat kangaroo feed out of my hand. This left me with a handful of crumbs and kangaroo dribble which was less than pleasant, but I'd stupidly forgotten my hand sanitiser.

Next, we went to see a semi-comatose wombat who was happy to sit in an undignified sprawling pose for photos with us – he was just about the most over-weight, hairy and lazy thing that I've met since I played rugby at the Old Tiffinians, but at least, even with my sweaty hair caked to my head, I looked marginally better than him.

Finally, we went to the koala enclosure, where the spaced-out koalas moved so little that they looked like stuffed toys. Occasionally one of the energetic ones would steel himself for a big yawn and the twitch of a toe to show us that he was real. It was great to be so close to these beautiful creatures and have a gentle stroke of their soft fur.

By now, the extreme heat and the wine consumed was sending us all sleepy, so it was a quiet ride back on the coach through Perth to Fremantle.

So, that was the end of our Australian ports – now, we move on to the chaos (and thankfully cheaper prices!) of South East Asia. Next stop Bali!

February 12th – Wine and Wildlife in WA

For our second day in Fremantle, the weather hadn't cooled down one single bit – in fact, it was almost 40 degrees out there in the relentless sun. I used the morning to visit a cafe and do some vital wifi-ing, and then it was time for my afternoon tour, entitled "Wine and Wildlife" – an interesting combination.

So, we drove out to the Swan River Valley to visit the Sandalford winery where, in the name of research, we ploughed our way through several bottles of decent wine – most of them had come from the Margaret River area, and the shiraz was my favourite.

Suitably hydrated and fortified, it was time to play with the animals. By now it was over 40 degrees, but the prospect of playing with koalas, kangeroos and wombats just about kept us awake. It appeared that the kangeroos suffer in the heat just as much as we do – most of them were sprawled out in the shade, and were so zonked out, you had to get up close to make sure that they were actually alive.

The good thing was that they were way too tired to be bothered by us coming up to them and stroking them, and the odd one just about had enough strength to hop over to me to eat kangaroo feed out of my hand. This left me with a handful of crumbs and kangaroo dribble which was less than pleasant, but I'd stupidly forgotten my hand sanitiser.

Next, we went to see a semi-comatose wombat who was happy to sit in an undignified sprawling pose for photos with us – he was just about the most over-weight, hairy and lazy thing that I've met since I played rugby at the Old Tiffinians, but at least, even with my sweaty hair caked to my head, I looked marginally better than him.

Finally, we went to the koala enclosure, where the spaced-out koalas moved so little that they looked like stuffed toys. Occasionally one of the energetic ones would steel himself for a big yawn and the twitch of a toe to show us that he was real. It was great to be so close to these beautiful creatures and have a gentle stroke of their soft fur.

By now, the extreme heat and the wine consumed was sending us all sleepy, so it was a quiet ride back on the coach through Perth to Fremantle.

So, that was the end of our Australian ports – now, we move on to the chaos (and thankfully cheaper prices!) of South East Asia. Next stop Bali!

February 12th – Roasting in Fremantle

As we sailed into Fremantle, the mercury was well into the high 30s centigrade, and without much in the way of wind to cool things down, it was absolutely roasting.

As we explored the well-preserved Victorian streetscape of Fremantle, it was difficult to see that this used to be a fairly dodgy and run-down place until the staging of the America's Cup here in 1987. Since then, the town has been gentrified and its buildings restored, so that it's now a lovely place to go for a few drinks or have some food.

Before the America's Cup, Fremantle's chief claim to fame was that it was home to an infamous prison that kept its inmates languishing in primitive conditions, from the first transportation of convicts who were used to build the infrastructure of the young state in the 1850s, right through to 1991, when it finally ended its role as a high security prison.

As we'd visited the prison a few years ago, we only went to it to take photos from the outside. When we got there, we started to chat to one of the tour guides, who was waiting for people to go on the 5pm tour. He was giving us lots of interesting information, and when no-one for his tour showed up, he thought he might as well take us around for a tour that was not only private, but also FREE (my kind of tour!). It was so kind of him to do it, and he had a real passion for the gruesome stories of the brutal regime in here, and of what the prisoners got up to. In terms of cramped conditions, poor facilities, and treatment of the prisoners, those unfortunate enough to be sent here, didn't seem to suffer by comparison with those on other prison tours we've done to places like Alcatraz and Robben Island. That tour was a really unexpected pleasure.

As it was Tuesday, the famous Fremantle Market wasn't on, but we did have the compensation of it being Mardi Gras, so there was a rather bizarre procession of bohemian types gathering in the town square. The jazz band were great, but the artistic types seemed a bit too keen on showing their "wacky" credentials to be particularly entertaining, so we left to cool off on the ship.

As we were in town overnight, we went out that evening with a few friends for alfresco beer, fish and chips, and silly conversations – a perfect combination on a warm summer's evening.