Gabe's Post - Jakarta/Bogor

Hello. Yesterday our goal was to attempt to escape Jakarta in the most convenient way possible. This brought us to the train station, ready to purchase tickets to go to the town of Bogor. It is a smaller place known for its botanical garden and lack of being Jakarta. Its an hour away by train and the tickets cost 2000 for the sardine can train or 7000 for the Singapore MRTesque commuter train. We took the commuter train.

It was a fun ride. We stood most the way there, but Michelle got to sit in the female only compartment in the front of the train (it was pink). Other people rode on top of the train. On the sardine can trains, people hold on to the people at the door so they don't fall out. The Indonesian country-side slowly changed from the color of the blue gray water running down the streets of Jakarta, to a lush green of the hilly-rain-foresty-country-side.

After about an hour of travel and having to get off at a station to wait for another train, we made it. It was raining, but not much. Basti, who was with us, had to turn around to go catch his plane. We got some food first, a green fried egg looking crepe. After a brief foray involving me and michelle wandering in a clothes store, while Shreyas sat in a tiny cubicle with a computer, advising his loved ones that he is alive, we made our way to the Botanical Garden. Well not really, we hopped in a green tiny van with a few benches in the back, that serves as both the buses and taxis of the town, and paid 2000 each.

We wandered a bit in the gardens and made our way to a cafe which was nice but a little pricey - 30,000 a meal -- by the way the conversion here is 10,000 Rupiah to 1 USD. Shreyas had a nasi goreng and a tea tarik, I had some bockwurst and an avacado juice, Michelle had fish and chips with ice lemon tea. It was pretty good and the avocado was delicious, as was the tea and the tea. We then split a fried banana plate (fried bananas, ice cream, nuts, cheese, chocolate) and walked around a bit more.

After, we basically just reversed the trip and made our way back to Jakarta.

The rest of the night was basically me and Shreyas chucking 6 darts at a time at a dart board in the Hostel, while Michelle had ramen and chatted with an Aussie. Then Shreyas and I decided to go out with three guys here and head for a bar. We had some beers and some steaks and some satay and another beer, and paid less than 50,000 each. We started to lose our group 1 by 1 to tiredness, until me, Shreyas, and one other guy decided to just walk back. The last member of our group never came back, so I am assuming he is still out having fun.

Then I went to bed, because it was late.

Goodnight-lah.