Istana Bogor & Kebun Raya Bogor

So this post is kind of out of order but oh well. The Sunday after my @America powerpoint session I got a chance to go to Bogor and tour the presedential palace. Fancy fancy. So fancy I couldn't wear any of my own clothes. I ended up having to borrow my sister and mom's batik jacket and skirt. In Bogor we met up with all our exchange student friends. 3 Germans that live and volunteer in Bogor, Andrew and Amy came down from Karawang, Nathan from Bekasi, a lot of AFS people and me.
      We started with a tour of Istana Bogor. It's the presidential palace from old times. It's European style very white but there's Indonesian wood carvings and style. I kind of spaced out on the history lesson that was all in Bahasa Indonesia so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. But I could not take pictures inside so I guess I'll have to describe that part.

The pointy part is a flag. And Micha from Germany is the person. Don't the clouds look nice.

Right beneath the flag inside is a small hallway with two huge mirrors reflecting back on each other. So you saw a million of yourselves. There were some Inception jokes. Of course.

Inside the palace it was very white just like the hallway you see above. But the art was amazing. A lot were portraits. Funny thing, you know how royal or presedential pictures usually have the men very stern and unsmiling. Well here not so, not so. There'd be a picture of an old man maybe with hat or something on giving the hugest grin. they all looked like nice grandfathery type people. Old people are just so cute - in theory.
But my favorite was a picture of a mythical battle. If you imagined a war between ice and fire and earth then you'd be close. It was huge and their faces. It's probably some Indonesian story. I'd be interested in hearing it. Oh and I loved the portraits of the daughters and wives of the royal men (?). They actually were the ones not smiling with beautiful traditional clothing on. It was very regal in a dreamy way - they were looking off into the distance.

Look at the green and the clouds and the chandelier! It's a nice palace.

These are the grounds surrounding Istana Bogor. Strewn with statues of naked people.

There's also like a lake and possibly a moat.

Hello unclothed crouching lady

Next we went to Kebun Raya Bogor aka Bogor's bontannical gardens. This was just a nice stroll. A nice stroll with ...

 A river!

Indonesia's San Francisco Bridge. Let me tell you, this bridge had a 15 person maximum. And it's a bridge. It swayed like it was made out of rope. I don't look afraid in this picture but that's the tea in the cup talking.

I was frightened by the 10 or so kids approaching me on the max. 15 people bridge.

 The plants were nice. It was green. There was another lake. I was talking a lot so I can't describe each plant species that I saw.

What an amazing tree. Trees I love you.

Our group. thank you facebook friend for uploading this

 After our stroll we went out to eat of course. I don't know the name of the place. I ate some vegetables - (sayuran) shared with Amy my fellow pescatarian here in Indonesia. It was raining afterwords as we said goodbye. Because we all live in different cities here in Indonesia.

I just like this picture. I thought all my non facebook friends should be able to see it. Generous of me, yes? It's on a street somewhere in Bogor I think.

Burger Queen hehe.

Teman-teman di SMAN 62 makasih untuk membaca blogku.And other friends, family, and random people you too - thanks for reading :).