Going straight to Bogor?

Yesterday with the six of us left Bandung to go to Bogor for the weekend. We would like to see some of the country life.  We left early as we were told that traffic to Bogor can be very bad, specially in the weekend.
The first three hours of the trip were pretty ok, we took the scenic route and there was a lot to see.

An hour before Bogor we stopped at a nice viewpoint with a wonderful view!

View near Bogor

The locals take the opportunity to sell all kind of things. The glasses looked like soda's but when I saw the little boy, it became clear: bubbles. Kids like it everywhere in the world, even big kids!
We noticed that we were higher as it was cold there!

Seller

Shortly after the viewpoint we get stuck in the traffic, no movement at all! We waited for a while and than the driver heard that the road was closed for two hours. No idea why?
The driver proposed to go to a flower garden 13 km's back. Better than waiting so we decided to go. It took an hour and we went into the countryside more and more, the road became more bumpy with the minute. And than suddenly we were in front of a wonderful flower garden Taman Bunga Nusantara.

Behind the entrance of the park

In the garden there are a lot of different places, beautifully decorated with all kind of flowers. It was really a pleasure to walk around. The park wasn't as big as it looked like on the map.

Peacock

Giraffes made from buxus

We went to Bali, walked trough a Japanese garden and went up the watchtower and had a beautiful view. Really a peaceful area. I liked it better than the famous Botanical garden in Bogor.








The best were the nicely shaped animals made out of plants: Besides the Peacock and the Giraffes we met also Dinasaurs.

The cleaning lady waved kindly to me when I made a picture.

They even build a clock from flowers, and a maze.

It was a pity we couldn't stay longer as it was very relaxed, but we wanted to see the botanical garden, but.....
When we just passed the place where we had to stop in the morning we were stuck again....they had closed the road again. Later we learned that they do it to control the congestion in Bogor. The road is one way for two hours and they switch every two hours. We were just two minutes to late, grrr.....The most amazing thing was that everybody stayed very calm and relaxed. We took the time to have a late lunch to kill the time.

Within half an hour after we start driving again, we reached our hotel, where we had another surprise. The resort we booked didn't knew about our reservation and it took some negotiation to get a family house with three rooms. 

During dinner I had my first sate kambing! Delicious!

A day full with obstacles, but also a day where we really learned about the real Indonesia! Patience is a virtue!


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