Bogor, A Pleasant Escape

After getting our China visa we went directly back to our hotel, packed our bags and took a noonish commuter train one hour south to Bogor and installed ourselves in a hotel with a pool, a volcano view, and an attached swanky air-conditioned mall.

It was time to get the heck out of Jakarta. The foul air from too many vehicles and too many indoor smokers had us both coughing and blowing our noses like crazy. I thought I had pretty tough lungs and sinuses but I was defeated.

Bogor is 800 feet above sea level and feels a tad cooler than Jakarta. It is also home to Bogor Botanical Gardens, high on the standard list of area attractions. However, in our opinion, the gardens are skippable. It is a nice stroll through the more the 1 square kilometers of green space, but the gardens are not much above ordinary; mostly native trees. The much touted Orchid House, "with over 3000 varieties of native orchids", was a big disappointment with only a handful of varieties, and in fact, most of the orchids on display appeared to us to be the usual white and pink Phalaenopsis found in US supermarkets.

Bogor, a pleasant change from Jarkarta, but skippable if your only reason for coming is the Botanical Gardens.

Gongdangia Station (Stasiun Gondangdia) - waiting for our train to Bogor.


Views from our hotel in Bogor of Mount Salak volcano.




The hotel pool.


The entrance to the gardens.


Gigantic trees with buttress roots at the Botanical Gardens.




The over touted Orchid House and its disappointing stable of Phalaenopsis orchids.


Sun-Ling always enjoys a lily pond.


The Mexican Garden was neat. Lots of gravel and no shade trees to keep things as dry as possible.


Surprised to see Bintang Radlers in the local supermarket; thirst quenching and just the ticket to wash down some takeaway street food.


And if you get this far, here's some amateurish bonus video of us at the pool during a very loud call-to-prayer at the very nearby mosque. Link here for the email readers.