Wednesday, 28 June 2005 - We wanted to go for a day trip to some places closed to Jakarta. For that reason we hired a chauffeur driven car hire service which is quite cheap here. The driver picked us up from the appartment at 9 am and we could use that service until 9 pm.
[/i]
Botanical Gardens in Bogor
First we went to Bogor which is a place 60 km away from Jakarta. There we visited the Botanical Garden. The whole botanical garden is like a big park with many different pathes and a river passing through. It seemed that most of the visitors are classes from primary schools. When we started our walk through the gardens we were just surrounded by kids. And all of them knew the english word “mister”. And obviously they call everybody “mister” who doesn’t look asian.
However, we were walking around for one or two hours. We saw all sorts of plants and trees. Some of these plants I knew from flowerpots but in a smaller version. Here in the tropics they are just so huge. It’s really amazing. Moreover we visited the Orchid House. Here we saw Orchids of course. And it was quiet because there were no kids 
The search for the temple
Next stop was supposed to be a chinese temple in Puncak, approximately 30 km away from Bogor. We should have been there in about one hour. But as soon as we have left Bogor we got stuck in a traffic jam. The reason was a broken down vehicle which was standing in the middle of the road. The driver was lying under the car and tried to repair the breaks. The whole car - if you can call this thing a car - looked so strange. He must have built it hisself. It seemed to fall into bits.
As we have passed that place we went to Puncak. And we went through Puncak. And we left Puncak. Our driver stopped now and than and asked for the way to the temple. But somehow we never really got there. We’ve been driving now for 3 hours. That was far too much for 30 km.
Eventually, we stopped in one town in a street full of little shops and people. In the second row, behind some shopkeepers, we found a chinese temple. 10×10 meters, some chinese figures and some joss sticks. We really doubted that this was the place which we ment to visit. But anyway, now we were here and had to make the best of it.
Cian Jur
We found out that the town where we were is called Cian Jur and we decided to have a look around. First we went to a bazaar. Actually, this turned out as a long small passage where lots of shopkeepers offered any kinds of goods - food, clothes, household appliances, knives and even guns. The place was narrow, crowded and dirty. The passage in the middle was 1.5 meters wide. And apart from pedestrians there were mopeds, cyclists, people with handcarts trying to find there way through the chaos. But the main attraction at the moment were WE. People were shouting there favourite english word “mister”. Everybody was looking at us. It was a strange feeling to walk through this bazaar.
Afterwards we walked through a few other streets and markets in that town. But everywhere the same - people where smiling, waving, looking at us. We were sure that not many tourists have been to this place. But we were amazed by that hustle and bustle everywhere as well. It gave us the impression of the life in a smaller town where life seems even simpler than in Jakarta.
The way back
On our way back we passed rice fields, tropical vegetation, tea plantations. At the roadsides there were lots of little shops and restaurants. Most of them were very little stands. But you could also see posh restaurants. We also stopped for a coke and to take some pictures. We had a nice view over a valley full with deep green tea plants.
The rest of the journey took us about three hours. I fell a sleep. Carsten and Edi where listening audio books, reading or also sleeping. At least we hired a car for 12 hours and spent 9 hours in the car, so we really made the most of it ;o)