The Botanical Gardens of Bogor

Leaving Cibole, I thank my guide for his help (especially for answering my endless questions!) and head solo to the small city of Bogor. If departing from Jakarta, Bogor is easily reached by train and bus, so easily many residents have taken to living in Bogor and commuting the hour to work each day in Jakarta. It’s nickname is “City of Rain,” which I soon discover is quite fitting.

Bogor is home to the well landscaped Kebun Raya botanical gardens. Technically, the gardens are one of five branches of the Kebun Raya. The gardens lie in the heart of the city and take up nearly 80 hectares. It was started during Dutch times first by Raffles, and then more seriously by the Dutch biologist Reinwardt in 1817. During the Dutch cultivation period, the growth of various types of “cash crops” were researched at the botanical gardens. The institute at the gardens is still one of the leading agricultural institutes and is continuing to work to develop new strains of rice and other important crops.

Sunday mornings are supposed to be the biggest day for the gardens, so when I set out on Monday morning during a slight drizzle the gardens weren’t crowded. The drizzle of course became a down pour, and I did my best to make it to the Orchid house before getting too wet. The orchids were really quite beautiful, different shades of purple mixed with some white blossoms. Do not litter signs were clearly posted and I saw no rubbish within the Orchid house, and only minimal amounts around the garden. The plenty of natural rain in the city seems to be doing wonders for the plants as everything looked vibrantly green. One thing I did observe is that KFC seems to be a popular place to grab food for picnic lunches, as garbage cans were overflowing with the Styrofoam containers. Outside entrepreneurs were selling other plastic wrapped food and canned drinks, as well as various edible roots.

The entrance fee is very minimal, less than a $1 per entry, so it can be assumed most of this money goes to upkeep and not toward any related community projects. I did learn about another group, Friends of the Indonesian Botanic Gardens, who work to develop public awareness on the importance of Indonesia’s flora.