INDONESIA – Visit the Bogor Botanical Gardens as a stop between Jakarta and Bandung

My road trip through Java (Indonesia) together with my daughter started in Jakarta. We would continue to Bandung. One option was to go by train but I wanted to see the Bogor Botanical Gardens and the Puncak Pass with its tea plantation. I hired a private car with driver for the trip. We started our drive after breakfast and arrived late afternoon in Bandung. Not everything went as it should have gone. I do however suggest going by car so read my tips to avoid the problem I experienced.

Bogor Botanical Gardens

The Bogor Botanical Gardens are located in Bogor about 60 kilometers south of Jakarta. It took us about two hours to get there from the Intercontinental Jakarta Midplaza hotel. It was a sunny and humid Sunday and we were not the only tourists visiting. The gardens were flocked with mainly local tourist and local school kids. These kids continuously asked the so-called wismans (foreigners) if they would practice English with them. At first I answered their questions but after doing that several times it got a bit boring as all the time the questions were exactly the same. I started to get a bit annoyed and turned down most requests.

Some history facts on the gardens

The Bogor Botanical Gardens are the oldest in South East Asia founded by the Dutch East Indies government in 1817. I had visited the Singapore Botanical Gardens just two weeks before. The two gardens actually share some history as Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles played a role in both. He reshaped the Bogor Botanical Gardens as per English style-garden and he founded the first botanical gardens in Singapore. In the first few years several botanists collected seeds and plants totaling to about 1000 different species. Over time the garden grew bigger and even a secondary garden was opened. The original garden was expanded several times until the size it has today. It survived the Japanese invasion and the trees didn’t became material for the war. Today you can see close to 15000 different species in the garden. It’s a unique garden with two centuries of history.

What can you see in the gardens?

I walked together with my daughter most of the Bogor Botanical Gardens in about two hours. We were soaked by sweat afterwards due to the horrible humid heat. We just went on and on ignoring the heat and drinking liters of water to keep us hydrated. The park also includes one of the palaces of Indonesia which is not accessible and takes up about a quarter of the park. After entering the Bogor Botanical Gardens we walked counter-clockwise covering the most important parts.

For example: The palm collection, medical plants, orchid garden with one flowering orchid, wood plants collection and various other collections. There is also a Dutch cemetary in the garden with Dutch worden which was of special interest to me. If you have been to gardens in England you will see some resemblance as the layout is in a similar design. As I wrote the Bogor Botanical Gardens were packed with people. Families and friends enjoying a pick nick, lovers cuddling and colleagues discussion daily topics.

It was the second big botanical garden I saw after the Singapore National Botanical Gardens a few weeks earlier. After about two hours we walked back to the entrance to our car. We would continue to the Puncak Pass. Although we thought we would.

Puncak Pass

The idea was to continue to Bandung over the Pancuk Pass but it was closed. This normally happens on a Sunday when the road turns into a one way road alternating each two hours. We arrived just 10 minutes after closure and decided not to wait 2-3 hours as it would get dark anyway. If you want to take this road, especially Sundays, then depart from Jakarta at 07:30 and not like us at 09:00. At the Puncak Pass you will see some beautiful scenery of tea plantages and a tea factory. It’s a winding road and my friends say its word to take that route. I trust them.

I found it interesting to see how local people enjoyed their day at the Bogor Botanical Gardens. If you go from Jakarta to Bandung I recommend stopping in Bogor for the gardens. There are also plenty of hotels to stay the night if you would need a night there. You could add the miniature park into your itinerary then. We continued to Bandung by highway as the Pancuk Pass was closed. Make sure to check out my 2 – 3 week Indonesia itinerary to see what I did more in Indonesia.

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Gallery Bogor Botanical Gardens

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