Heavily congested Jakarta on weekdays could lead you to great frustration, believe it or not. Many of Jakarta people will do their little getaway on weekend to nearest city with driving distance just to forget a little a while the crazy traffic and the ever-growing construction work.

I and my friends once decided to go to Bogor, one of some neighbor cities that often visited by people in Jakarta. Just around 60 KM south from Jakarta, Bogor offers some interesting activities to spend throughout weekend.  We started our trip in the morning, taking commuter train (it’s cheaper to take train compared to driving) from Sudirman station, located in the heart of Jakarta’s business district.  It didn’t take long until we hop in to our economy air conditioned commuter train. The train usually is not packed during weekend, Lady Luck was kind to us, we managed to get proper seat.

The moment we alighted to the Bogor station, we already knew the Bogor weather is somewhat friendlier compared to Jakarta. It’s a little chiller and of course once we got to the street the pollution is less.  We jumped to public van (called “Angkot” in our language) that brings us to the city center, nearby the famous Botanical Garden.  Our first pick was the Botanical Garden itself. The Garden was built during the colonial era, making this one of the greatest remaining history of British era in Indonesia.  The garden is also adjoined with one of the presidential palace that was built for our first president for resting purpose as well as presidential functions.

We did a simple picnic, enjoying a pack of homemade sandwich, fruits and soft drink, sitting on a bench and just experiencing the fresh air which is very rare to find in Jakarta.  We also did our garden touring to see thousands variety of plantations, and a quite comprehensive orchid houses.  We continued to do some bird watching that nesting in some of the trees there, quite interesting.  Watching the front view of presidential palace together with its lily ponds was also really memorable for us. We ended our botanical touring by dropping by to the zoology museum, exhibiting many of Indonesia’s native faunas.

Visiting Bogor without going to its famous culinary places that most people in Jakarta buzz about could be a biggest regret. So, there we went, from one eating point to another, just eating until the rest of the day. First it was grilled cheese macaroni, situated not so far from Botanical Garden, this famous macaroni house has never been empty by visitors, always full and people are always lured by the scrumptious choices of grilled macaroni.  Just beside the macaroni house, we found another exciting delicatessen called “Lasagna Roll”.  This creative idea of cuisine also tastes amazing.  Respectively surrounding that area there are Cup Cake House, Apple Pie House, Soya Bean Cake (Tofu alike) stall and the list of culinary places will never intend to stop.

Unfortunately having so much food at a very short interval like that isn’t good for us, our stomach was too full.  I guess our stomach was bloated. We couldn’t even walk. I would never again in my life to eat like that, crazily excessive.  Ergo,  we decided to rest in Apple Pie House until our stomach digested the whole food that we took.

In between those food extravaganza, Bogor also offer their  factory outlet  shops, though  it’s not as happening as its neighbor city Bandung, but it’s pretty sufficient to those who wish to find cheap branded clothing (manufacture rejected).  So if you’re interested in shopping, you can as well try hunting in those shops.

Well, there are still so many things that Bogor and greater area has for sure, the tea plantations, its famous peak (called “Puncak”  this road that surpasses Puncak is also hub to other neighbor city; Bandung) resting area with many villas and hotels available for rent or hundreds of creative culinary place that we could visit as well as other things that I probably missed out mentioning.  Since we only visited for only a whole day trip we didn’t have chance to do all. But we definitely will come back to experience other thing that this small city yet fun could provide.

Presidential Palace inside Botanical Garden

Orchid House

Bird watching

Giant Bamboo

Macaroni House and its famous macaroni

Cup Cake House (left) and "Tahu" or Soya Bean cake from Tahu Nyunyi House (right)