Jakarta & Bogor

We flew to Jakarta on the island of Java, making it our fourth country of the trip: Indonesia. After Singapore, this bustling city with lots of noise, dirt, and traffic was a small culture shock. There are 34 million people living in the entire Jakarta region. After searching for a long time without sidewalks, we finally found a bus that took us near our hotel - even for free, since we didn't have an electronic bus card. Overall, everything was a bit more difficult than what we were used to. The card can only be purchased with cash and must have a minimum balance loaded onto it, but the ATMs didn't accept our card, so we only had a few rupiah from exchanging money on the plane. However, you can't pay cash on the bus, only with the bus card. It was a back and forth... We didn't expect much from Jakarta and unfortunately, we found out that was justified. Apart from the Merdeka Square, a large park with the Monument "Monas," there wasn't much beautiful to discover for us. However, the food was delicious at our favorite restaurant, Burgreens. There were also many stray cats in Jakarta, which we fed with salty corned beef from Indomaret, since there was no cat food available. Better than nothing. After two days, we were glad to continue to Bogor and leave Jakarta behind.

Bogor is located south of Jakarta, about 1 hour and 20 minutes away by train. We got this tip from Hendrik, who stayed with a super nice couple, Wira and Elfi, and arranged our accommodation for us. Wira is from Java but lived in Germany for a long time, speaks German very well, and still travels with his wife Elfi, also from Java, to visit acquaintances in Germany and other places around the world. We were warmly welcomed at their villa in Bogor. Bogor is the rainiest city in Java, and the first shower didn't take long to arrive. Unfortunately, Jana got the first stomach bug of the trip that night, and she wasn't feeling well the next morning either. So, we took it slow and visited the very beautiful botanical garden at a leisurely pace. Shortly after entering, we were approached by a group of students who asked if we wanted to do an interview in English. They filmed everything diligently, as it was an assignment for their English class, and in the end, they asked for a photo with us. It felt like the whole school appeared as soon as we were identified as good interviewees, and we ended up doing the same interview about 15 times. Including many photos. Apparently, we were a small attraction since there weren't many "European-looking" tourists in the park. It was very funny. We really liked the park, and we had a great time in Bogor with Wira and Elfi. With Jana, who was a bit weak but no longer vomiting, we continued by train to Yogyakarta, passing by many impressive rice fields.