Sunday 3 March 2013

Bogor - an Indonesian adventure..

just back from a couple of days adventure to Bogor with Karen, Yolande, Trupty, Nitin, Victor and myself

Nearly everything we learned about Indonesian culture  over the last 3 months, we experienced in the last 48 hours.

Early Saturday morning we headed off on our journey, little did we know what was ahead of us. A 140km journey, which should have taken 4 hours max ended up taken 10 hours.

On the road to Bogor, all was going well until we got to within 1 hour of our destination and hit a road block. Turns out they close the 2 lane road in one direction every  2 to 3 hours for 2 to 3 hours, and allow cars to drive in both lanes in same direction. Still can't figure out the logic behind it, but had to wait twice


Victor and Trupty at the front of the road block, our car was only 10 cars back from avoiding a 2nd 2 hour wait.


During the first wait our driver Deny brought us to the most amazing and beautiful flower garden. "Taman Bunga Nusantara", at the end of approx 10km on the narrowest, bumpiest road you could imagine.










Finally arrived at our destination, exhausted and relieved. But the adventure doesn't end there. Turns out that our online reservation and confirmation means nothing. They didn'y have the rooms we booked , They said the Jakarta office never contacted them about the booking, whatever that's supposed to mean. Luckily they had a house available that we could use.

Next morning we had a guide arranged to take us on a walking tour of rice fields and local villages. That's what we thought anyway. Instead, the guide joined us in our car and we drove around the mountains. The only time we stopped was when one of us suggested it to go to a shop or take a photo of  a nice view




In the afternoon we  headed back to Bandung, thankfully it only took 3.5 hours. Throughout the 2 days  kept asking Deny "Is this normal". with a shrug of his shoulders and a smile he calmly said yes..

If you're planning anything here you need to bear in mind that time and distance mean nothing due to the sheer volume of traffic and that Indonesians tend to be very quiet.  But they are always so friendly, welcoming. remain calm and always, always have smile,

#ibmcsc Indonesia 

2 comments:

  1. This is an awesome - adventourous journey...Good Going!!! Still 3 weeks to go to know more about Indonesia. Looking forward to read more n more about the expierences.. All the Best!!! Also as you said , time and distance means nothing... :)) but always smiling friends.. :)))

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  2. Will make traffic in Dublin seem a dawdle when you get back! Looking forward to reading more about the project you and the team are working on, hope the pace on that moves a little faster!

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