Bogor – The City I Fell in Love

It was the mid-semester break and I have already planned for months to go to Bogor, Indonesia. Packed my clothes just enough that I can rotate my undergarments for a week.

Bare necessity.

Flew with Malaysia Airlines, economy class. Luckily I got the aisle seat so I can stretch my legs for an hour flight. Departed from Kuala Lumpur and landed in Jakarta, one can imagine my excitement once the plane had entered into Indonesia territory.

• Check Out: Cheap Flights at Best Prices

Called a girl, (lets named her Lily) I knew her during her visit to Malaysia for a student exchange program and she set up my accommodation. Lily lives in Bogor, and I arrived from Jakarta thus I decided to stay in Depok which is halfway between Jakarta and Bogor.

I stayed in Margonda Residence. It’s not really a hotel and not really a house. The closest thing I can describe it is that it is a hybrid between a hotel and a studio apartment. The facilities are okay with an access to a restaurant. It is situated behind a shopping mall and surrounded by a wet market.

• View Margonda Residence rates Here

It has a pool and light on the wallet. Good deal for a student like me.

Region

Bogor is located in Java. The ride from Depok train station to Bogor was around 35 minutes (26.4km). From what I was informed, Bogor is a scenic region with plenty of tourist attractions.

They even have a little Italy where you can ride a gondola as if you were in Venice! But sadly I didn’t go there because I wanted to play it like a local! Therefore I wandered into the central town of Bogor, where it was sunny but a little chilly.

Transportation

*image: Flickr

GrabCar and Uber aside. To move around in Bogor like the locals, Lily and I rode in an Angkot to move around the city. An Angkot is usually a busted up van that works like a minibus. Except it has no doors. The driver, blasting Indonesian national dance genre, Dangdut (Google it), driving like his father owns the road with zero consciences with the packed passengers pressing against each other suffering from 7G of gravity when he took a turn so sharp that it could cut a diamond in half.

5 stars ride. 😛

The Angkots have plenty of routes which span over 10 kilometres long each. You can pretend as if you are riding a tour bus around the whole city if you keep changing the routes for every terminal (not really a terminal, just where the lots of them hang around) you stop. Fares are quite reasonable, if not, cheap.

Remember, no complaining as you’re playing local for a change!

Culture

If you are mindful and observant, you can witness a lot of things during the ride. The people of Bogor, I must say, are a bunch of creative lots.

Indonesia is famous for Tippers. These people hang around traffic junctions to provide services in exchange for some spare change. They often get a bad reputation since some of them pester pedestrians to pay for their unwanted services. Should that happen to you, just be assertive.

Tell them no from the get-go to avoid getting pestered.

Tippers are in another league in Bogor. You might see a 7-feet costume in steel frames with a scary mask or any other eccentric character. Sadly, I did not take any picture of them because you need to pay for a picture. I didn’t want to sneakily take a picture of them. That would be morally wrong. Every now and then, Tipper Musicians would jump into the Angkot and play their 38-inch out of tune guitar with off-key singing for 30 seconds with the hope that you can spare some change. Hey, the old rule applies. If you bob your head you gotta pay them!

We arrived at a Batik compendium somewhere in the middle of the Bogor, the road was closed for some reason. To my surprise, it was because of Pak Joko Widodo, Indonesian President, was being driven around in his city.

Lily informed me that he resides in Bogor and always chills around in his town. What a cool guy I thought.

Cop a Batik

Now, going back to Batik Shirt, why is it important for me to buy one? Batik Shirt is basically the quintessential Navy Blue Oxford button up for every Indonesian guy thus I had to get one. It is very versatile that it can be a formal shirt or casual regardless of circumstances.

The patterns are cool. The classics are usually based and inspired by flora and fauna. Some aggressive designs include cultural affiliation in their patterns.

I had a conversation with the merchant who is well versed in Batik. His shop lot consists of Batik shirts only. He told me, there are 9 motives (distinguishing patterns) in Indonesia. The motives are influenced by geographical locations of Indonesia. They are Padang, Sumatera, Sulawesi, Papua, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Java and the rest, I can’t remember.

• Related: A Mini Adventure in Padang, Indonesia

Each motive is attributed to the philosophy of each respective region. The patterns imprinted are the manifestation of the will of the people from the regions. I chose the Padang one because its philosophy is mainly focused on masculinity and strength since Padang, in ancient time, was once full of formidable warriors. The merchant suggested it to me since I looked like a man who takes no survivors. 😛

I believe everyone needs to get one. I intend to buy all 9 motives every time I visit Indonesia again.

Food

The shopping was fun. I bought other things too to go along with the Batik Shirt. Lily got hungry. I got hungry. And off we went to find food. We argued a little about what kind of food we were going to get. I wanted something greasy and savoury. She wanted something light and spicy. We agreed on the staple Indonesian food. Ayam Geprek (Chicken Rice) from Ayam Geprek Istimewa.

It is a side of chicken with rice. Light, spicy, filling and savoury.

 

A post shared by Ayam Geprek Istimewa (@ayamgeprekistimewa) on Jul 27, 2018 at 11:22pm PDT

Despite looking simple, believe me, this is one delicious meal I could stuff my face with it like a fat kid locked up in a chocolate cake factory overnight. The skin was crispy and the meat was tender. The rice was quite starchy (which is a good thing) and the sambal was spicy. There are options for the sambal. I chose the one with lime in it because citrus will always fit in any kind of food. Sweet and citrusy? Delicious. Savoury and citrusy? Tasty. Spicy and citrusy? Justice.

Washed it all down with a tall glass of thick and sweet avocado juice. For dessert, we shared a box of Kek Lapis Bogor (Layered Sponge-cake with cheese). You couldn’t find this anywhere outside of Bogor. And if you are a tourist, you will certainly bring home a box of this layered cake goodness.

Nightscape of Bogor | *image: Flickr

I walked Lily home in the pouring rain through her neighbourhood. It was a compact residence-styled city planning with short and narrow alleyways with lamp posts illuminating the walkway with a yellowish tint.

Picture this, our faces were just inches away, talking loudly because rain was pouring hard. Her eyes were glistening and beautiful. My eyes jumped around as to not getting lost in hers. 

Here I was, in Bogor, Indonesia slowly falling in love.

I thanked her for bringing me around Bogor. She smiled and we both watched the barefooted, wet and umbrella holding Tippers providing protection from the rain for bystanders who want to cross the street. 

She said Goodbye, I said Goodbye.

I took the train home alone as if it was the resolution of playing the local hero. Now I understand why most believable actors use method acting. 😛

From time to time, my heart still yearns from wanting to walk aimlessly in Bogor. 

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are the author’s and in no way reflect the views and/or opinions of Fat Starfish.