What a disappointing yet facinating day in Jakarta.
So today was all about the Safari and botanical gardens. Baring in mind, we docked at port meant a short hop, skip, and a jump ashore. Greeted by traditional dance and dress, we made our way to coach number 1.
The long epic journey to the Safari Park began. WITH A POLICE ESCORT.
BOGOR SAFARI PARK
We left the ship at 9.00am, and didn’t get to the Safari Park until around 11.30am. Yet we still had lunch and botanic gardens to visit. But will talk about that later.
So entry to the park was 300,000INR for internationals. A total of $30AUD. Bare in mind for the tour itself we paid $180AUD each!
The park was great; we got driven around in the coach for what must have been 90 minutes. Taking breathtaking pictures of the white tigers (as below), hippos, buffalo and much more.
After our 90 minute drive around the park, we were given just 30 minutes to wander around the baby zoo. Full of baby animals, Tina had a friendly lemur come up close and go between her legs while she squatted down. Kangaroos, of which one had a Joey in its pouch.
So you had the opportunity to have your picture taken behind a tiger. Which was very much alive, as we found out when the keeper poked its bum for the picture.
But the most incredible was our picture with a baby orangutang. As you can see from all the pictures below it was awesome. The cost you say, well the tiger was 20,000INR each and the orangutang was 25,000INR per person. So a total of 90,000INR, which seems an arm and a leg. But when you think at the moment you got 17,000INR to the £. We got all that for just over £5! Anywhere else in the world you would be paying upwards of £100, even more just for a tiger picture.
LUNCH AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAINS
So we still hadn’t been to the botanical gardens, and only rocked up to the place for lunch at 2 pm. We were greeted by the most adorable children performing some more traditional dance.
The buffet was delicious, we had different curries with rice, and even those who couldn’t get away from western cuisine could indulge in some chips. I couldn’t get enough of the Samur Daging all over some rice and chips. Bottle up that sauce!!!
So we got back to the coach just before 3, and it became apparent we were not going to the botanical gardens.
This was then confirmed over the public address system. Pissed, as we booked the tour for the botanical gardens. But I’d rather miss that and get to the ship instead of the other way round.
So the long, long journey back. 3 hours it took to return to the ship in pork. That wasn’t before we caused utter mayhem in Bogor itself. Even with a police escort telling cars to part for us, you could see locals mouthing Fucking Tourists. It did slow us to get a real good look at the local culture.
There is so much poverty, everywhere in Indonesia we have been to so far is deep below the poverty line. There was us carrying over 1,000,000INR which would be a weeks wage for someone or a months rent.
It is undoubtedly opened our eyes to what life is like in areas where wealth is hard to come by.
OUR FINAL DINNER IN THE WATERFRONT
We went because of two reasons. One was because we are fed up of the pantry same, same food. Secondly was because it was Australian food. Not that we had any from the Australia section.
WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU HAVE ONE OF THE BIGGEST PARTIES ON A PORT DAY?!
Why would you have a party on a port day? The ship had so many different workshops on from dancing to costume making. But we couldn’t partake in any of that as we were stuck in a traffic jam for 6 hours of the day.
Having said that, the costumes were great in many parts, and the party was in full swing soon after 9.30pm. We went back to the room about 10, as the clocks went forward, so we lost an hour and wanted to be up for breakfast in the morning.
Tomorrow is our final day on our first cruise. Let’s hope it is a packed day!
