June 23, 2024
CHILEHAUS - amazing German Brickwork

Built in 1922-24 for client H.B. Sloman with architect F.Hoger. Was first building in the Kontorhaus ( office or counting) district of Hamburg. An icon of Expressionism in an inspiring environment of modernity and tradition. Love all the unique brick details, have never seen this type of craftsmanship before. Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Kontorhaus District has some amazing architecture. Tower in construction currently in bankruptcy, City trying to work thru it.
Hamburg Rathaus (Townhall) below. Building started in 1886, Renaissance Revival Architecture, at cost 11M gold marks.

We only had about 8 hours of port time in KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia today, due to Port operations. I went out with Delia to see one of the most notable buildings in town, the floating mosque or Masjid Bandaraya. Our GRAB driver actually took our picture when we asked him to wait for us, and then take us to the mall afterwards.

MALAYSIA , on BORNEO ISLAND made palm seed oil their biggest export back in 1966 and was the top global exporter until 2008, when Indonesia surpassed them. Sadly, the resulting tropical deforestation has created major habitat losses and population declines for the Borneon Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants and Proboscis Monkeys . Many of us on the ship took tours to see these amazing creatures and I wanted to share some of their amazing photos too.

BORNEO ISLAND is a fascinating place, that I had honestly only heard of from the reality tv show Survivor. I'm still learning so much, but I had no idea it is the largest island in Asia and 3rd largest island in the World! It is a mini continent, with 3 different Countries sharing the island's land mass ( Indonesia 73%, Malaysia 26% and Brunei 1% ). We are only going to 2 ports in Malaysia now, one in each of the states of Sarawak and Sabah . Below is a video that highlights and explains thing well.
















