Bandung: Site Visits in Botanical Garden & Tea Plantation

I was in Bandung from 3-9 November for an agrotourism workshop, which had about 20 participants from various countries such as Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Philippines, India, Taiwan and of course the host, Indonesia. After a gruelling 3 days workshop filled with presentations, we were ready to say goodbye to Bandung and go to agrotourism site visit namely to the Archipelago Botanical Garden in Cipanas and the Gunung Mas tea plantation in Bogor. It took about two hours from Bandung to reach Cipanas using the hilly road, and witness one motorcycle accident on the way, which thank God was not a fatal one. We arrived first at the botanical garden and had about two hours to walk around. There were different types of garden such as the French garden and American garden that was cultivated as part of the landscape.

Gunung Mas Tea Plantation

Tea plantation in Gunung Mas in Bogor

Tea pickers

The participants in factory garb - minah kilang huahua

Watching the workers airing the tea leaves

The group in front of the tea factory

The Archipelago Botanical Garden in Cipanas

a peacock with seasonal flowers in bloom for its tail

French garden

View from top of entrance

Agnes from Philippines and Hong from Vietnam with me in front of the garden's entrance

Mediterranean Garden: Love the cactus!

"Clown" flower from Vietnam

Didn't have time to go thru the maze, so just took a picture of it from the observation deck

Hydrangea in bloom

My mum loves this flower, she said it's called bunga Siti Zubaidah

The participants on our last nite out in Bandung, only managed to go to one factory outlet.
But we did went to the Bandung Electronic Mall (BEM), which is just like Low Yat plaza, really. We came back by angkutan kota or van sapu which cost about Rp5000 or RM1.75 per pax. By taxi, it could've easily cost about Rp50,000 for night fare (without meter).