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The Bukit Lawang Diaries: Entry #6
Through the Botanical Gardens
The Bukit Lawang Botanical Gardens in four flowers
There’s a lot you can do in a two hour lunch break, it seems, especially when your village is rich with yet unknown discoveries. When I was tipped off to a nearby botanical garden by a friend who knew my love for herbal teas and all things floral, I knew just how to pass those long midday hours.
A quick motorcycle ride down a canal path that I’d walked a few times before brought us to a hidden turnoff down a gravel path. Between swerving around muddy puddles, hitting the odd rock and bouncing up and down dips in the makeshift road, I was lucky to still be on the bike! We pulled over to the edge of a steep slope, an outcropping that overlooked the valley below. The first flowers were coming into vision as we descended another uneven trail.
The air at the bottom was muggy, sans the breeze that flows atop the canal’s running water. Mosquitos circled us and attacked us through our shirts and trowsers; little pests. Rounded stones began to line the path, and we walked alongside a patch of young ginger plants. A worn shack revealed itself.
Pak Basiran was lounging in one of the benches — a recycled oil barrel painted green, set horizontally and made sittable…
