Bali Botanical Garden

This guide to Bali Botanical Garden traces its founding in 1959, when President Sukarno ordered the first botanical garden ever built by Indonesians for themselves on a patch of misty highland forest above a crater lake, only for political upheaval in 1965 to leave it half finished and abandoned for a decade. You'll hear who returned in 1975 to resume the work, why they expanded the garden fourfold, and what they set out to rescue from the vanishing forests of eastern Indonesia. Look for the giant fig tree said to be the garden's unofficial mascot on the slope above the paths.