This Is Very Inconvenient For Visitors, As The
Only Public Conveyances Are Handsome Two-Horse Carriages, Whose
Lowest Charge Is Five Guilders (8s. 4d.) For Half A Day, So That
An Hour's Business In The Morning And A Visit In The Evening
Costs 16s. 8d. A Day For Carriage Hire Alone.
Batavia agrees very well with Mr. Money's graphic account of it,
except that his "clear canals" were all muddy,
And his "smooth
gravel drives" up to the houses were one and all formed of coarse
pebbles, very painful to walk upon, and hardly explained by the
fact that in Batavia everybody drives, as it can hardly be
supposed that people never walk in their gardens. The Hôtel des
Indes was very comfortable, each visitor having a sitting-room
and bedroom opening on a verandah, where he can take his morning
coffee and afternoon tea. In the centre of the quadrangle is a
building containing a number of marble baths always ready for
use; and there is an excellent table d'hôte breakfast at ten, and
dinner at six, for all which there is a moderate charge per day.
I went by coach to Buitenzorg, forty miles inland and about a
thousand feet above the sea, celebrated for its delicious climate
and its Botanical Gardens. With the latter I was somewhat
disappointed. The walks were all of loose pebbles, making any
lengthened wanderings about them very tiring and painful under a
tropical sun. The gardens are no doubt wonderfully rich in
tropical and especially in Malayan plants, but there is a great
absence of skillful laying-out; there are not enough men to keep
the place thoroughly in order, and the plants themselves are
seldom to be compared for luxuriance and beauty to the same
species grown in our hothouses.
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