February, 2013
The streets of Bogor in Indonesia are like many other South East Asian urban areas: crowded with people of every shape, size and dress; snarling with the noise of a myriad of different vehicles; and full of the aromas of street cooking stalls, motorcycle exhausts and the dust of partly finished buildings.
I was recently invited, with a colleague, to run a series of workshops for forestry scientists working for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at Bogor, about 90 kilometres northwest of Jakarta in Indonesia.
Late one afternoon we escaped CIFOR’s peaceful and rather glorious rainforest setting to experience Bogor’s world famous botanical gardens. When we arrived with only 20 minutes to closing time, our driver arranged to drive us around the quiet, green sweep of gardens. And we enjoyed seeing giant bamboo, grand old trees, sculptured lily leaves and the local security patrol.
But at the end of the day, it was the fascination of the uneven decaying asphalt streets that gained our appreciation. Everywhere we looked there were people to arrest our attention, make us smile and remind us of a different world.
“Hi Mister,” young boys shout gleefully, almost as if they were being very daring, and regardless of whether they are talking to me or my male companion. Another young boy yells out: “will you remember me in the morning?” Not sure what he meant exactly…
Some women wear hear scarves, while others don’t.
But all smile, nod or laugh when I poke my small camera out the car window in a vain attempt to capture yet another scene.
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