Quick Stop in Indonesia

Are you planning for a stopover in Jakarta or Bali? Bali is very beautiful and you will enjoy the Hindu culture if you can stay for more than a day. The people are extremely friendly and life is quite cheap
Have a good stopover
Matt

I would assume your stopover is in Jakarta? Based on feedback, perhaps you would like to go to Bogor.

Note the Bali is different from the rest of Indonesia

We do stopover in Jakarta, but we'd like to get out of the city and go somewhere quieter, hopefully avoiding the bikini & beer scene. What do you think? We probably would only stay one night.

If I was you I would get on the DAMRI bus at the airport that goes down to Bogor.
Trip is in air con bus, takes 1-2 hrs depending on the traffic and costs around 20,000 ( well it did Nov 2006).
Lots of hotels in Bogor- I stay at Pensione Firman in Bogor but that may be a bit too backpacker for you.
My friend Adang can suggest another hotel. I have just sent him an sms and will have a quick answer for you.

In Bogor you have the beautiful Kebon Raya Gardens to visit next door to the Palace-not open to the public.
You could always hire a car and head off to Puncak Pass ( not at the weekends) and have lunch there, admire the scenery, see the tea plantations- it is much cooler than Jakarta or Bogor.

Pamela.

Your options are pretty limited if you only have a 24 hour stopover. Anything further afield than Bogor, even Puncak, is going to be a challenge as a day trip. Apart from the Kebun Raya, Bogor doesn't have much to offer, it is basically just a suburb of Jakarta these days. If you're lucky there may be a cultural performance on at TIM (Taman Ismail Marzuki) the night you're in town. Your hotel will probably have a TIM program or you can check their website here

BTW, there isn't much of a "bikini & beer scene" in Jakarta unless you plan on spending your time cruising the nightclubs.

Hai there, quite limited time you have for such big Indonesia scenary..
If I were you, I would go further to northern part of Jakarta(well known as old Dutch part - SUNDA KELAPA seaport). This place used to be the base for VOC and still can be found some BATAVIA style building, including the FATAHILLA museum. This only occurr if you such interested for history and the old city of JAKARTA ( from late 1700's).
Alo there is a big amusement park also, named Taman MINI Indonesia Indah(the complex that represent the Indonesia in miniatur, including the sceme of some big islands of Indonesia archipelago).
Also the Amusement park TAMAN IMPIAN JAYA ANCOL for the seabreze and the only beach in JAKARTA(ANCOL area). The bus goes from SARINAH PLAZA(JAKSA street area) or can catch the directly DAMRI bus from Airport. One day will be nice since you spend some times in beach arround Northern Jakarta.
Wish you luck.....

Thank you all for your help. The other option we have is to stop in Maldives, so that may be more practical for a day trip. (If anyone has any suggestions there. . . )

We'll have to save Indonesia for when we have more time, I guess. I was hoping we might be able to catch a little something, but doesn't seem possible.

Thanks again!