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rizky's posts with tag: buitenzorg
|  | situated just 50 minutes away from the hustle buzzer jakarta at the city of bogor or it was called buitenzorg (meaning beyond worry) during the colonial time. these botanical gardens are situated in the city center of bogor and adjoin the istana bogor (presidential palace). the gardens cover more than 80 hectares and are said to be the inspiration of sir stamford raffles who was governor of java from 1811-1816.
initially i planned to go to these beautiful botanical gardens really early in the morning to catch the foggy gardens, but i couldn’t open my eyes since i watched too much dvd and went to bed too late at the night before. so i packed my camera and headed to the train station at 07.50. fortunately the nearest train station just 70 meters away from my place, and successfully caught up the 08.00 comfy air conditioned train.
it took 50 minutes to reach the bogor station by train, and walked the pedestrian for another 15 minutes until i got to the botanical gardens gate. and it cost me rp 9.500 (1 dollar) to enter these tropical forest paradise. actually for those who doesn’t really want to drops sweats while enjoying these huge gardens, some eco friendly electric powered vehicle are available for us dollars 1-2. in my case i'd rather walk and discovered a lot of interesting stuffs along the gardens path.
today the gardens contains more than 15,000 species of trees and plants located among streams and lotus ponds. there are 400 types of exceptional palms to be found along the extensive lawns and avenues, helping the gardens create a refuge for more than 50 different varieties of birds and for groups of bats roosting high in the trees.
the bats can be easily detected by the noise they make while competing for space under the canopies. the orchid houses contain some 3000 varieties, and parted in two; the natural species and hybrids.
just near the entrance gate i saw the beautiful monument of lady olivia mariamne raffles, the first wife of raffles who died in istana bogor from malaria and buried in tanah abang cemetery. there written a beautiful-touchy poem:
oh thou whom neer my constant heart
one moment hath forgot
tho’ fate severe hath bid us part
yet still forgot me not
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