This is part of the Homecoming series, in which this Mama covered our last homecoming trip to Indonesia. The rest of the trip can be found in the list of links at the end of the post. Cheers!
Our time in Bogor was not spent only in Opa Oma's house. Two times (that is also read as two 'whole days'), we also 'borrowed' Oma's car to take a day trip to nearby tourist attraction, namely the Puncak area.
Puncak (peak in Indonesian) is basically a highland area nearby, about half an hour drive away from Bogor without traffic, where you can find quite a few interesting things such as rolling hills of tea plantation, a safari, holiday villas, etc. A few years ago, before the current tollway was built, the road through the area was also the only thoroughfare connecting Jakarta to Bandung, the capital of the province.
Anyway, for us, with Kecil in tow, the main objective was to see the Safari AND the tea plantation. The Safari, because well... a little kid and animals... you know? I am sure you all still remember how Kecil enjoyed last year's Safari trip.
As for the tea plantation, given that Kecil LOVES her teas (cold, warm, with milk, with no milk, flavoured, just sweet), this Mama thinks it's only right that she should know where her beverage of choice comes from.
The plan was to hit the Safari first, then continue to the tea plantations. Alas, sleepy heads as we were, we had a bit of a late start, got stuck in slow moving traffic, and only arrived at the Safari only an hour before lunch time.
Not only that, in all our haste, Mama forgot to bring the big camera, and we were only left with the 'barely charged' small camera. Doh. I hope that explained the dearth of pics with regards to THIS Safari trip. Rest assured that we all had a great time there. Why, the battery even held up enough to produce the following EPIC picture:
Whoa! What a great sight!
Of course, Mama seized the great teaching opportunity and told Kecil, "That's how your teeth would look like if you don't brush your teeth regularly. EEeeks!"
This was the last picture we took before the camera battery 'died'. Sigh.
Which still did not mean that we left the Safari then. Oh no! The safari part (where you ride your car/ the provided bus to see the animals roaming around in their enclosures) was done, but there was still the amusement park, the animal shows... why, they even have a swimming area!
We actually stayed on the park all the way until closing time, when the rain started and the fog came in. And since it was really getting dark, we decided not to go further up to the tea plantation that day, so we called it a day, and joined the slow moving traffic down back to Oma's house.
Now for the following trip....
Mama brought the big camera. Ha! But guess what, after the slow moving traffic (again!) up the mountain, Kecil was actually sleeping when we hit the plantations.
Those who ever thought the picture above was the tea plantation, please whack yourselves. Tea plants are green, all right? And they don't look like Christmas trees in the background either. Not to mention, nobody in their right mind would build a gigantic bird-like topiary in the middle of a tea plantation.
Well... since we did not quite 'go' to the plantations so much as we 'pass' through the plantations (the road wounds through rolling hills of tree plants), we simply moved on, and somehow found our way to this garden: Taman Bunga Nusantara, Cipanas.
Nestled somewhere in the valleys, quite a bit from the main road, Taman Bunga Nusantara still benefit from the cool mountain air, which I believe beneficial to all the plants and flowers there. Greeting us in was the giant peacock topiary, plus a few more interesting one. Such as these:
Well... OK. That last one wasn't quite a topiary. More of a gigantic statue of .... not sure. A mythical figure? Might be. The lake was also home to a few swans, both the white and the black variety.
The whole park contained a few gardens, each with their own theme. There was a labyrinth in the middle, which we tried. We got kind of lost, at which point Kecil got a bit distressed. So, Daddy hoisted Kecil up and made her the navigator. We did manage to get out.
Then there was also the amusement park area, with some rides and the likes. Kecil found it on the map.
Unfortunately, before we managed to get to that part of the Park, it started to rain. I mean, like really heavy rain. Duh. This is why it is always better to use early part of the morning to do your activities. The weather around Bogor and Jakarta is such that it tends to rain throughout the year, usually in the late afternoons.
We managed to make it to a shelter in time before we got totally soaked, where we waited in the hope that the rain will subside.
It did not. Subside, I mean. So... we did not get to explore the rest of the park. Good thing at least we did not quite get stuck for too long, for rescue did come, in the form of ....
Cute yellow tram! Haha... I wish. The tram's route took it around the gardens, but you have to pay at the entrance to get on, and it did not stop to pick us up. However, a similar (but less cute) pick ups followed not long after the tram. Apparently they were deployed by the park management to pick up stranded visitors such as yours truly. Ha!
So ended our trip to Puncak? Well... we were at least done with the park. We encountered more traffic on our way down, so... we did show Kecil the tree plants, but we did not stop to take pictures and all (Mama was also navigating for Daddy, who was not familiar with the area). We did make one last stop for pictures (and dinner). We thought the cow looked so cute and we couldn't resist:
Cimory Riverside is a huge sprawling complex of a restaurant. Well.. there's only one restaurant there actually, the Cimory, but there is also a shop selling some of their goods and local delights. I couldn't find any official website, but supposedly Cimory started with selling their own milk products (milk and yoghurts) before they came up with the idea of building the restaurant.
Apart from the happy cow, we were very happy to visit the place because the location is well... to die for. Check out the view:
Unbelievable. There's that garden right next to the river, with beautiful pathway. The river itself was amazing, because we were still in the highland area, so.. it was all big rocks, rapidly moving water and lush greeneries. A very far cry from rivers we usually see in urban settings. So cool.
So... the restaurant is basically an open-air concept. Interestingly enough, most of the restaurant was smoking-friendly, with only a small area dedicated to the non-smoking crowd. Still, since that particular corner comes with a GREAT view, we so did not mind. The restaurant offered a mix of local and Western food. We tried their specialty sausages, which turned out great. They also offered a great selection of warm beverages (like warm strawberry milk for Kecil!), perfect for the slightly chilly weather.
Here's a view of the restaurant from the river walk:
Do you see the dustbin near left bottom corner? Ain't it adorable? Hahaha...
So... that concludes our trips to Puncak. Both trips involved a pretty arduous driving up and down in slow moving traffic, but I guess like everyone who made the traffic jam, it was pretty worth it. We are very happy we went and (this Mama) hopes we can come back there some other day, preferably when it's not raining. Less traffic would be a bonus. Ha! Cheers!
For the rest of the Homecoming 2012 series:
MIA announcement featuring our family photo at the mountain, the beginning, outbound ports, mountain trip part 1, part 2, part 3, baa, Surabaya, Opa Oma's house, and Opa & Oma.
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