A trip to Bogor
by prudence on 15-May-2010
We're temporarily in Indonesia. Our first base is Jakarta, and today, the first day of the weekend, we took the train to nearby Bogor.
It was all a little confusing on the way out. We were aiming for the Pakuan Express, but were told the wrong time, and the train was a bit late anyway. So train after train (comprising many levels of respectability and passenger density) came and went on the platform where we were waiting, and of course, we had zero idea which was ours. By the time we'd asked "is this one ours?" every time a train came in, pretty much the entire platform knew we were off to Bogor, and one young guy kindly made it his personal responsibility to get us on the right train.
Nice enough train. The seats were soft, there was a bit of aircon, and it rattled along at a respectable pace, getting to Bogor in about 50 minutes. The views en route are lovely -- of village houses and little mosques with red-tiled roofs interspersed with coconut trees and banana plants, and backed by a big, looming mountain.
Our goal was basically the Kebun Raya, the botanical garden. It's really beautiful -- a haven of green lushness in the middle of the city. Wonderful old trees, millions of butterflies, shady places to sit and recuperate, and a great cafe serving excellent food and life-saving cool drinks. (Not that you ever lack for food and drink in Indonesia. There is always a handy vendor -- that's one of the things I love.)
The gardens also shelter a number of adorable cats. We watched a very touching scene, where Mum arrived proudly bearing part of a fish, and nobly offered it to Junior, who proceeded to systematically reduce it to nothing. Mum came back later to make sure he'd done a good job, and could literally only find the smell.
We were very entertained by the groups of school-boys and -girls who had been given an assignment to interview some tourists in English. There weren't many of us about, so no fewer than four lots of language students now know how small New Zealand is (very), how much we like Indonesian food (lots), and how much Indonesian we speak (not much). They were all fun and friendly young people, and we only drew the line at interviews when we had to head back to the train.
Again plenty of people made sure we got on the right train, and it departed slap bang on time. Not sure why it took an hour to get back this time, but we were happy to enjoy the journey in reverse.
So, a good day out. The gardens were great, but it was the people who made it special. There are pictures here.
It was all a little confusing on the way out. We were aiming for the Pakuan Express, but were told the wrong time, and the train was a bit late anyway. So train after train (comprising many levels of respectability and passenger density) came and went on the platform where we were waiting, and of course, we had zero idea which was ours. By the time we'd asked "is this one ours?" every time a train came in, pretty much the entire platform knew we were off to Bogor, and one young guy kindly made it his personal responsibility to get us on the right train.
Nice enough train. The seats were soft, there was a bit of aircon, and it rattled along at a respectable pace, getting to Bogor in about 50 minutes. The views en route are lovely -- of village houses and little mosques with red-tiled roofs interspersed with coconut trees and banana plants, and backed by a big, looming mountain.
Our goal was basically the Kebun Raya, the botanical garden. It's really beautiful -- a haven of green lushness in the middle of the city. Wonderful old trees, millions of butterflies, shady places to sit and recuperate, and a great cafe serving excellent food and life-saving cool drinks. (Not that you ever lack for food and drink in Indonesia. There is always a handy vendor -- that's one of the things I love.)
The gardens also shelter a number of adorable cats. We watched a very touching scene, where Mum arrived proudly bearing part of a fish, and nobly offered it to Junior, who proceeded to systematically reduce it to nothing. Mum came back later to make sure he'd done a good job, and could literally only find the smell.
We were very entertained by the groups of school-boys and -girls who had been given an assignment to interview some tourists in English. There weren't many of us about, so no fewer than four lots of language students now know how small New Zealand is (very), how much we like Indonesian food (lots), and how much Indonesian we speak (not much). They were all fun and friendly young people, and we only drew the line at interviews when we had to head back to the train.
Again plenty of people made sure we got on the right train, and it departed slap bang on time. Not sure why it took an hour to get back this time, but we were happy to enjoy the journey in reverse.
So, a good day out. The gardens were great, but it was the people who made it special. There are pictures here.