Bogor Botanical Gardens, Indonesia
Ok, this place is stupid old dating back to the 1400s when this was a managed garden to protect rare plants. Honestly incredible forward thinking by the Sunda Kingdom.Upkeep was halted when the kingdom was destroyed, but the Dutch East India Company (not a great humanitarian endeavor, let me tell you) built it back up. This was around 1740s
Then in 1811 the Brits invaded and installed Stamford Raffles who eventually formed Singapore and the amazing Raffles hotel brand was named after, took charge and really started fixing it up.
1816 the Dutch negotiated control back and made it officially a botanical garden, not just a protected reserve. They sunk a lot into it for over 100 years. After independence, Indonesia proper took over, and for a while were very invested with outside money gifts and national pride at play.
In 2020, they kinda went private ownership, which is weird because the President's house is on the grounds, and well, things are going downhill on keeping the place up.
I took the train from Jakarta down to Bogor which is the terminus on this route. Then I walked a good 3/4 mile to the entrance. It's the tropics and it was also rainy season. A brave choice by Rob for sure.
Entering
From the south entrance I took the first right and headed east. It's the primary entrance, although I think there is one on the far east side. This had some decent areas and fauna to wander through.East of River
Crossing a bridge that still does allow you to go over the river, you can go to the eastern regions. This has orchids, event spaces, supposedly a corpse flower (That I never found), and a semi formal garden.Back West by Presidential Palace
I crossed another bridge on the north end of the gardens, which is actually near the Presidential palace. Security appears a little loosey goosey but there could be measures in place that I don't see. I didn't test it.
Paths abound
Yes, Meksiko (Mexico) plants
Apparently very similar environments
Cacti thrive
Bridges over the river you can't use anymore
Lack of attention to maintenance
The aquatic garden area
Wet plants in the ponds
This would be uncomfortable to fall into I think
The orchid house, 3 buildings of protected growing space
It is really nice, so many, in a growing space, and other explorable areas
Very pretty and allowing me to do a motion implied shot with the waterfall
The severely neglected outdoor orchid garden
Like nobody remembers this part exists
The Indonesian bird, so this is probably the National garden
Long pathways back on the west side of the river
There is like some romantic myth about these two trees, which I just wasn't feeling that connected to
Another neglected item in the gardens
I mean... this sign gives me ideas
Summary
Well, it is a large space, there are some interesting areas of plants but overall it's in bad shape. There hasn't been foreign money injected recently and local money isn't available.My honest opinion? It's probably a "skip this place" which makes me super sad. Botanical gardens are in my top 3 go-to attractions when I am in a far off land.