Our Day Trip to Bogor...the mountains!!!

if you look really closely you can see blue in the background, behind the telephone lines. Those are the mountains that are rarely seen in Jakarta....only visible on clear, blue-skied days.

On Sunday, 7 am in the morning, our family climbed into a rented minibus with the Weeda family, and we all sat back as our hired driver took to the hills. Our goal was Bogor, the old capital city, its presidential palace and the surrounding gardens. We'd been told that it was a long trip that was usually accompanied by heavy traffic, but we thoroughly enjoyed our drive into Bogor and afterwards, into the mountains to climb among tea bushes high up in the cool mountain air. We enjoyed a special treat on the way...we saw the mountains that surround part of Jakarta. We've all been told of them, and last week I actually glimpsed them out of the library window at SPH (took a few photos of course).

Again, on our Sunday trip, we saw mountains once more. They're not Rocky Mountain heigh or width, but it sure was nice to see some depth to the landscape!

The one unfortunate thing about our trip is that most photos are taken while moving, and the bus windows are tinted a dark grey, so we often had reflection and not true colour...but that is the way of the tourist riding in a minibus for transportation. We could have had 2 vehicles for the 2 families but then we couldn't have had such a good time relaxing together, just following the road and having the bus driver pull over at the stops of our choice (he was very accommodating).

Most of this post will be photos, because sometimes, as the saying goes, pictures are worth a thousand words. On our way to the presidential palace (which we didn't photograph because it wasn't picture-worthy, in my mind...it was a low, white plain building) we saw a variety of modes of transport. Sometimes people just have to move objects by themselves, and this man looks as though he's carrying a very heavy load. The white box is perched on a motorbike...this would take a great amount of balancing, especially considering what is sometimes in those boxes!

This old fella is much too old to be cycling other people around...he's peddling a becak. We haven't ever ridden one, but only because opportunity has not shown itself yet. One day, though. Sometimes people just have to take to the streets, like this guy who's probably just bought his sacrificial sheep to sacrifice on holy day (monday). He didn't look like he was having much luck convincing it to come home with him.






Once we got to the gardens we walked around for about an hour. They were not very well kempt but the shade was pleasant, and so was the greenery. We came across a bamboo plot...and took this photo for Grandma Sunny. This photo comes with a warning...plant bamboo, but beware! I remember someone telling me that bamboo just keeps on growing, and this prove it. It was incredibly tall! Another photo we took for Grandma Sunny and Grandpa Tris is of this lily pad. Unfortunately it was used as a garbage dump, but that was in our favour because then it gives you an idea of just how big it is! Imagine if a frog grew to the size of it's surroundings...that would be some frog.

One of the coolest parts of the day, in my opinion, was when we came upon a bat tree. Someone had just disturbed their sleep and the bats were flying around making these screeching noises. I swear they looked like teradactyls. When I zoom in on them on the computer I can see their veins in their wings, their claws and their little 'fingers' in the middle of their wings. Very gross in an intriguing sort of way. Their wings spans were about 2-3 feet in length...very different from the cute little bats that come out at night here in Lippo.

This is the Weeda family, all in one spot. I realize that most of our photos together are of us eating at a long table, and that this is one of the first Weeda family photos I've taken. [By the way, if you would like to find out more about our trip from a different perspective, check out the Weeda's blog. Their link is to the right of this post]

Once we walked through the gardens we headed into the mountains, and our driver asked if we'd like to see a tea plantation. It is a terraced hill and the view was just beautiful. Above us there was a sky-diving station and so people would go gliding above us and land just below. The air was cool and reasonably fresh.
We never hired a guide and just walked the path down by ourselves, so we never did figure out how tea is picked, transported or packaged. Guess that's up to us to google and know for next time.

There's a lot more to talk about and show you, but there's only so much time. You are all waking up to start your day and we're now tucking into bed, ready to start our shortened week. Today was the day of sacrifice in the mosques, and all of those animals that you saw in the last few posts are now part of some underprivileged villager family's weekly meal.

Thanks for reading.