October 12, 2011. On Sunday, October 9, Mark and I went to Bogor Botanical Gardens. Sunday is a popular day for the gardens and it was pretty crowded. There were a lot of groups having meetings with loudspeakers on the grass, lots of souvenir and ice cream sellers, and a lot of people who like to take pictures of the occasional white person.
We were requested to do many things I feel the average visitor to the park is not requested to do. For example, within the first minutes of being in the park, I was approached by a college student, surrounded by at least five of her classmates, who asked me to do an interview to help her complete her assignment. We continued to be asked throughout our visit. I guess there was a group of college students who descended on the park with an assignment to do an interview with a foreigner. It got to the point where my response to any college age student approaching us with the question, "Excuse me, can you please help me?" was, "Yes, but I don't have time to do an interview." At times they seemed a bit surprised by this response because although they had not yet asked for an interview, I had already replied that it was the one thing with which I would be unable to help them. This response was usually followed by a few moments of silence, comprehension, and a look of slight disappointment. I don't take joy in disappointing people and I am happy to help someone complete their assignment and do an interview, but I can't do interviews with every person from the class and still have time to look at the gardens. I did, however, like surprising them with my answer. I guess they hadn't thought about the possibility that some of their other classmates might have gotten to us first.
The zoological museum attached to the botanical gardens is filled with many types of preserved animals. When we went in we were immediately approached by some adults with a group of small children. I'm not good at guessing ages, but they were about waist high. At first we tried to avoid and outrun the children with pieces of paper coming right for us, but eventually they caught up. The children were encouraged by the adults to approach us and ask if we had seven minutes so they could ask us questions to practice their English. The children were a bit hesitant, so the adults took over, and after we were asked several times, instead of running away (one effective possibility if you are not interested in looking at the rest the the museum) I decided to stop and told them that I had one minute instead of seven. They seemed cool with one minute. What happened next was actually pretty cute, despite the fact we were in the middle of experiencing a pretty bizarre situation. The adults had the children line up in a line in front of us. Maybe there were about five little girls. They then got out their several sheets of scripted questions and read them to us in unison. I think I was just supposed to let them ask me the questions and then give them a short answer so they could move onto the next question, but they didn't tell me this. After each question, they waited for my answer, and although I deviated from the script on more than one occasion by adding a question of my own in return, they did not let this affect them in any way, ignored my question, and continued right along with their script.
The previous two situations were experienced by us for the first time in Bogor Botanical Gardens. The request for pictures has happened on several previous occasions since we've been in Indonesia, it was just a bit out of control during our Sunday visit to the Botanical Gardens.
After we had escaped the first request for an interview, we walked a bit. I find it to be quite obvious when someone is taking a picture of you with a cell phone. I noticed this to be happening while we were walking. It continued all day. While I was trying to find a bird in some trees with a really interesting call (I was unsuccessful), our first official request for a picture occurred. We also found this to be a bit odd and funny since we are both really sweaty and Mark's shirt already had the sweat blotches on it, but they didn't seem to mind. I hope that's not why they wanted to take our picture. After we consented, first the woman took a picture of us with the man and then they switched and the man took a picture of us with the woman.
As I wrote earlier, strangers have requested to have their picture taken with us before, and we have also watched it happen to other white people. At times I was getting a little annoyed at the not so discrete discreet photographs. At one point we sat down on a bench to take a break and have a drink. There was a group of school girls sitting on a bench across the path. I noticed a few pictures being taken of us, so to make myself feel better I decided to get out my camera and take pictures of them. They definitely did not seem to mind. As soon as I took their picture, they all got up and approached us. It seems I had opened the door for them to come and ask us for a posed photograph. We consented to one picture, but I think they took that to mean one pose, because obviously the picture taker must also have her turn to be in the picture. (At least we didn't have to pose in every possible permutation like the tourists who had their picture taken with some school girls in what turned out to be at least a ten minute photo shoot. We observed this one afternoon from the safety of the second floor windows of Cafe Batavia.) Before we consented though, they had to agree to have their picture taken as well, and they had to answer the question I have decided to ask to all future picture requesters, which is, "Why do you want to take our picture?" The reply I got from the school girl, once she figured out what I was asking with the help of her friend, was, "Because we like you." You can't say no to that. Once my Bahasa Indonesia improves and the language barrier isn't so high, maybe I will be able to get some more interesting responses to my picture question. Maybe one of the responses will be, "Because I have never seen anyone sweat as much as you!" That would be pretty sweet.
The gardens are actually quite nice and I think a return visit is definitely in the future, provided it is not on a Sunday. We took the train from Jakarta to Bogor. It cost 7000 rupiah (Rp), which is about 80 US cents depending on the current exchange rate, and took about an hour to get there. We also learned that the first car of some trains is for women only. On the way there I followed Mark when he was shooed out of the women only car so we could sit together.
Bird highlight: I saw a blue kingfisher grab something out of the river that runs through the Botanical Gardens. I saw it fly in and sit on a tree branch above the river. It was hard to miss because it was so blue. Unfortunately, the branch it picked to sit on was blocked from our view by leaves. After it grabbed something from the river it flew off into the trees and we lost sight of it. It was definitely blue and white, possibly a Colllared Kingfisher, but I can't be sure.
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| Bogor Botanical Gardens |
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| Souvenirs |
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| Mark in the Orchid House |
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| Would you like to take your picture with someone this sweaty? |
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| They were taking our picture, so... |
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| The resulting picture exchange |
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| Mark on the swinging bridge |
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| Candice by tree roots |
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| Roots |
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| Becak - Bicycle taxi |
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| Houses in Bogor |
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| View from cafe - Can you see the gunung (mountain)? |
