UNEXPECTED
PLEASURES OF TRAVEL
THE
HUMBLE MAN OF BOGOR
2
May 2012 the flight from Singapore touched down at Spoekarno-Hatta
International Airport in Jakarta, clean and orderly, another face of Indonesia.
$25 visa on arrival. Within a few minutes, passport is stamped and out to the
clean lounge awaiting the luggage. A minute later, a wiry young man, who has a
strong sun tanned Latin look, introduces himself. I am here to take you to Mr
J. We are off to Bogor and depending upon traffic, we will be there between one
and two hours from now.
First
of all who is Mr J?
And
BOGOR?
All fans of Palms would recognize this path lined with palms at Bogor
Let
us go back to 22 March 2012 (seven weeks
prior)
A
cold morning in Omaha, the last place you would expect the magic of Bogor to be
born.
These
are the unexpected pleasures of travel; they happen in places you least expect
to happen.
As
I entered the waiting room of the non-descript OMA airport, to catch a 0600
flight to Denver on my way on a tortuous route to Asia! (Oma to den to lax to
hnl to gum to hkg to kul to pnh!), a fit looking happy faced Asian man smiled
at me and I smiled back. Our eyes met and we acknowledged a couple of times and
the flight was called and I took my seat, 1 A and who should be in seat 1 B?
Our Asian friend!
I
thought he was on his way home to California or SF, since he said he was
traveling to San Francisco. We began to talk about travel; soon I realized that
he knew a lot about international travel (something rare in an American), the
nuances of various airlines, ranging from Qatar Airways to Singapore Airways
and his various recommendations on specific routes. When the flight landed in
Denver a few minutes later, I gave him my card and he promised to write, but
when I was aboard my flight to Los Angeles on the same seat, who should be
sitting next to me?
Mr W who picked me up at CKG and Mr W who organized all the travel to Bogor,Jogja and Borabudur
That
was Mr J, with an impish smile and his usual welcoming face. He is from Jakarta
he said, in Indonesia and he comes to USA regularly, as he does to Europe in
connection with his business, buying and searching grains and proteins for his
business of animal feed distribution in Indonesia. But what spiked my interest
in our conversation more than his business was his interest in health of the
people and even more importantly was his good set of ethics and behaviour, very
reminiscent of Dharma of the Buddhist philosophy, I thought.
Something
in his demeanour was very attractive to the soul. I told him I was on my way to
Phnom Penh and explained a little bit about Community based Peers and Education
regarding health in a resource poor community.
We
said good-bye at LAX, he went on to his SFO gate and I went in search of HNL
gate.
The
flight segments LAX-HNL and HNL-GUM are very long, 5 ½ and 7 ½ hours long, at
both HNL and GUM the connections were tight. While waiting for a connecting
flight to KUL at HKG airport, I noticed that Mr J had sent me an email wishing
me welcome to Asia and hoping that we meet again.
He
was always prompt in answering emails, especially considering he was on the
road a lot: Barcelona, Phnom Penh, Bali and Kuala Lumpur in the month since we
had met! He took time to reply to my emails. A man after my own heart, since I
like to answer emails promptly and thus feel connected. On that particular
trip, after Phnom Penh, I went on to Paris and after a brief stay, went off to
serve the Indians. I had planned to return to Paris on the 30th
April, while checking for airfares to return to Paris, a thought occurred to
me. If Mr J would like, I would go home via Jakarta even though it is a bit out
of the way. I wrote to him and gave him my dates and also expressed a desire to
see Borobudur, a place of historic and spiritual interest to me. I told him
that I could arrive on the morning of the 2nd at 9 AM into Jakarta
and hopefully spend the last two days in Phnom Penh and go back to Paris to
arrive on the 9th.
That
is how I happened to be at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on that
morning.
welcome Lunch at Sentul City. Healthy food throughout my stay in Indonesia
You
can call me, W, said the Latin looking Indonesian.
Bogor
Bogor, I searched my mind. Something so familiar about that name. I thought
about Multatali and Pramoedya ananta toer, giants of Indonesian literature of
the past. Yes the ancient Hindu city of Pajajaran, then Buddhist, then Muslim
and finally Dutch, Buitenzorg and home of the one of the best/largest/most
diverse collection of plants and one of the best 10 botanical gardens of the
world!
at the entrance to the Bogor Botanical Gardens, Bogor, Jawa, Indonesia.
I
became so excited at this possibility! Fairchild in Miami, Kew in London,
Marjorelle in Marrakech, and our own Botanical Gardens in La Habana, TanSacha’s
garden in Thailand, Butchart in Victoria. And the smaller ones in former British
colonies and also the one in Bangalore. All these went through my mind…Melbourne,
Versailles.
This
was to be one of the many gifts on this first trip to Indonesia!!
