Dieng Plateu located at Wonosobo, Central Java, about 14 hours drive (bus) from Jakarta but of course depends of the traffic jam and another 1 hour from Wonosobo to the upland volcanic Dieng. The Dieng Plateu is a caldera complex form by the eruption of Mount Prau. Due to traffic jam it took us 14 hours to arrived at Wonosobo, just before lunch, far behind our schedule. Our big bus couldn't go up to Dieng so we have to change to a small bus at Wonosobo terminal, we go straight away to homestay at Dieng. The cold weather welcome us when we arrive at Dieng even tough is just 01.00pm, we start to explore after a quick unpack.
We don't have much time to relaxing at homestay so we are straight away to explore Dieng, the first stop is Sumur Jalatunda (Jalatunda well), about 20 minutes away by bus from our homestay, along the way you could see potatoes fields. The well isn’t impress me, nothing much to see, I don't recommend to visit it.
The second spot is Kawah Sileri (Sileri Crater), not far away from Jalatunda well. We have to walk about 10 minutes to see the crater from parking lot. It is surrounding by hills, so the view is nice but the crater itself, just so so.
The last spot we visit for today is Merdada lake, the lake itself is not interested me but the view, the green hills surroundings. We didn’t stay long here, just take some pictures and back to homestay to take a rest.
The best things to see in Dieng is sunrise on Sikunir hill (Bukit Sikunir), it is really worthed even tough we have to wake up so early. It is still 3.30am but we are woke up already, the road still dark when we went off to Sikunir hill, but there are some jeeps passing by and I’m sure we have the same destination. It is really piercing cold, it is like going into my bones even though I am wearing jacket and clothes underneath. Homestay – Bukit Sikunir takes about 20 minutes journey by car and another half an hour trekking to reach the spot and it is really worthless. The view is really magnificent, so beautiful, like a giant sunrise painting, all the tired journey has been pay off.
From Sikunir hill we are going to Sikidang Hill, is similar with Sileri but I like Sikidang more because the view a bit different. Not only green hill surroundings but the colour of the land, so it make perfect combination. The sulphur is also more strong and giving us a choking smell, we have to wear mask.
On our way to Colourful Lake from Sikunir we saw a unique spot, cloud lake. A farmer passerby even told us that that kind of view is very rare on that area as he almost pass this way everyday. Yeah, it is amazing landscape but we have to make our way to Colourful Lake to be able to catch the Dieng culture festive on time.
The best spot to see the Colourful Lake is from 'Bukit Sidengkeng' and 'Batu Ratapan Angin', both of them is next to Colourful Lake, the different is you have to pay the entry fee if want to see from 'Bukit Sidengkeng' as it is locate inside the ecotorism area and free of charge if we choose 'Batu Ratapan Angin'.
We went for the Batu Ratapan Angin, we have to do trekking for about 15 minutes and on top of the hill you will find two big stone, that is the spot. We din't manage to go to to those stone as we are pretty tired so when we find a nice spot to see the lake with no need to climb until the top, we decide to stop and take pictures. People believe that long time ago the lake has many colour but nowadays it only has 5 colour (if you lucky), they are green, blue, silver, yellow and brown but mostly in 2 colour, green and brown. We are not lucky enough, we only able saw 2 colour with dominate by green.
We intentionally arrange this trip because this festive happen once a year, this festive is to cut children's “gimbal” hair. The festive preparation has started a day before with a some race and also 'wayang'. They only cut the 'gimbal' hair if the child is agreed, also the child can make a wish to their parent, what they want if they get their hair cut done. In this festive, there are 5 children who get their hair cut down. There are ceremonies to do all these things and these what we are come for. Those children asked a goat, bicycle, gold earring, chicken and even milkita and buavita (kind of drinks).
We couldn’t wait the ceremony to finish because have to catch the bus back to Jakarta, so we left after 1 child get her hair cut down.
How to go to Dieng
1. From Jakarta take bus to Wonosobo
2. Take minibus at Wonosobo Terminal - Dieng
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