Yesterday, me and my family went to Bogor Presidential Palace. It’s a special event, because the palace only open for public a week in a year, only in June. There was really crowded there, which indicated the high public enthusiastic.
The Istana Open held from June 13th-21st 2011. You have to registered yourself first a week earlier. It’s all free of charge. You can choose the day and time you want to go in. On the day and you’ve chosen, you have to came 30 minutes earlier to re-registration and you’ll get a ticket. They also will give a mark on your hand.
Oh, by the way, you have to wear a formal and polite clothes. Sandal is not allowed, also if you bring a bag. Camera is forbidden too. You are not allowed to take a picture inside the palace area. You’ll enter the palace in a big group. Before you enter the palace, there is a standard metal detector. You have to queue.
Because of camera is forbidden inside, I will just describe how’s the inside. The dominant color of this building is white, with a lot of European touch because Indonesia was colonized by Dutch people before we proclaimed our independent day. There so many large-sized handmade painting there, also the human statue with the real scale, mostly about women. We also can see the “Kaca Seribu Bayangan” or “A Thousand Reflections Mirror” inside. It’s a pair of mirrors, positioned facing one another so we can see like it’s a thousand amount of our reflections. The mirror’s pretty large, about 1.5×3 meter square.
In the palace garden, you can also see a lot of deers grazing peacefully. The deers in one of the icon of this palace. There also a beautiful garden pool with floating lotus.
One thing I’ve regret from the day was that no clear instruction to the public visitor. I think it would be better if the event committee say clearly about what we can and can not do inside the palace area. I saw some camera activated and the tour was not arrange settled much. I also could take my mom’s picture inside the area. Could it be marked OK?
Although I have some complaints, Bogor Presidential Palace definitely a beautiful place to go. Hope next year it’s gonna be better. If you in Bogor, come to the palace will give you a new experience. In the ordinary day you can see the deers from the fence and feed them some carrots. They’ll like you, hehe..
Know your country, love your country. [diaprilize]
aprilize 
Leave a comment