14 March - arrive Jakarta.
15-17 weekend exploring the city.  For good review of gay bars and  clubs in the city look at Travel Gay Asia website
18-19 overnight visit to botanical gardens at Bogor
20 March Raja Ampat liveaboard customers take the midnight flight to Sorong via Makassar (details below)

About Bogor Botanical Gardens

Described by Lonely Planet as truly world class and only 1 hour by express train from Jakarta.  It was Governor General Raffles who first developed a garden here, but the spacious grounds of the botanical gardens known as KEBUN RAYA were expanded to the current 87 hectares by Dutch botanist Professor Reinwardt, with assistance from London’s Kew Gardens, and officially opened in 1817.

 

It was from these gardens that various colonial cash crops, such as tea, cassava, tobacco and cinchona, were developed by Dutch botanists including Johannes Teysmann, during the infamous Cultivation Period in the 19th century. The park is still a major centre for botanical research in Indonesia.

It’s tricky to pick out highlights in such a verdant wonderland – there are more than 15,000 species of trees and plants – but the gardens are said to contain 400 types of magnificent palms, including the footstool palm native to Indonesia, which tops 40m.  There’s a good stock of graceful pandan trees (look out for their unusual aerial roots) and some huge agave (used to make tequila) and cacti in the Mexican section. Drop by the Orchid House (admission an extra 2000Rp) and take in the lovely ponds, which have giant water lilies over a metre across, and look out for monitor lizards, exotic bird life and deer.

Fly Jakarta to Sorong for Raja Ampat Liveaboard

The best route to Sorong (SOQ) is via Makassar also known as Ujung Pandang (UPG).  From here there are many flights every day to Sorong so if one is cancelled you have the best chance of catching a different flight and reaching Sorong in time.

You can fly to Makassar / Ujung Pandang from Jakarta (CKT) and the best airline to take you all the way from Jakarta to Sorong via UPG is Sriwijaya Air www.sriwijayaair.co.id  With this airline you can book on-line without the need for a local agent and they have decent luggage allowance of 20 kg

Depart Jakarta (CGK) flight SJ 598 - 20 Mar 2013 00.30 arrive Makassar/Ujung Pandang (UPG) 03:45 Depart Ujung Pandang (UPG) 04:30 arrive Sorong (SOQ) 07:45