Morning Bogor

Bogor, Indonesia

A friend invited me to come work for the Center for International Forestry Research, which is located on a beautiful campus amid gigantic rainforest trees. It is purported to be one of the rainiest cities in the world.

The forest is lush, but strangely, there is very little wildlife. We spotted a few snakes and scorpions, but otherwise very few birds. The houses in the nearby neighborhood, however, have lots of birds in cages.

Life around the river is beautiful, but unfortunately hygiene remains a problem. We once were admiring the view of a man wading through the shallow waters of the river, when he dropped his trousers and squatted. Definitely not an open defecation free zone. Another time that Landry crossed one of these foot bridges, he saw a man crossing with his jam-packed garbage bin. When he got to the middle of the bridge, he dumped his trash into the river. Also spotted in the river: people bathing and swimming.