Peaceful Dieng--free and easy :p

At least, and finally. I've graduated from my major in last February 2011. It's over. All my stress is gone, and I had no other business with that God damn*d papers anymore LOL. At the same time my work contract was ended in January and I got a new job began this March. So, I only had 'spare' time for having fun in the last weeks of February. I've spent time in February working on my graduation papers, paying my motorcycle taxes, and renewal my passport for my trip plan on April. Still, I wanted to have a vacation after all the stress I had.

The problem was, I was only able to have fun after the second week of February. So I decided to travel nearby Jakarta. With my friend, named Rosa we decided to go to Dieng, and continue our journey to Yogyakarta. Through CS, I asked for more travelmates and I met Desy. Desy wanted to go to Dieng, Semarang then Yogyakarta. She has friends in Semarang and Yogyakarta and asked them for a couch. Because I've already gone to Yogyakarta and this is the first time Ocha to travel around Java, so we changed the itinerary became Dieng-Semarang-Yogyakarta. Though, because my limited time, I only able to join them at Semarang.

So, we gathered at Jakarta Lebak Bulus bus terminal station waiting for Sinar Jaya bus to Wonosobo at 5 pm. I've already bought our tickets a day before. It costed Rp 75.000 each person. Around 12 am the bus stopped in Brebes so that the passengers could have dinner and used the restroom. The food was delicious and most importantly it was warm. We only had 30 minutes for that and the bus should continue the journey. At 4 am we arrived in Wonosobo bus station and a lot of calo alias panders were waiting for us. LOL. It's still dark and we felt pretty unsafe to continue our journey where a lot of panders around early in the morning. We sat and drank coffee in a small stall there and had conversation with the seller. Her name is Ibu Ani. Surprisingly, Ibu Ani is a researcher and a writer for farms in Wonosobo. Her husband is a musician and sometimes perform in Jakarta. She is very kind even offered us to stay in her house. Too bad her house is kind far from Dieng. She helped us to reject nuisance from the panders. They are never give up, believe me!

So, after 6.30 am we continue our journey to Dieng using a minivan twice and we arrived in Bu Jono Guesthouse. It's very easy to find it. Everybody know Bu Jono Guesthouse, just mention it to the driver. It's the first guesthostel in Dieng, so it's very old even the owner Bu Jono already passed away. We arrived there around 9 am and we were starving. We ate the fried rice there and the taste hmm ... surprisingly even I can cook better than that! LOL. We booked a room for three of us, and we got the spring bed bedroom. The rate is cheap especially we splited it for three persons. After unpacked our bags in our room, we walked around Dieng....

We visited a primary public school and the students are very friendly :D And we continue our walk around. We visited Telaga Warna (Colorful Lake). Telaga Warna have a tortoise color water if you are seeing it from the top of the mountain. So you need a little effort to hike. The color come from the high composition of sulfur beneath the lake. I think Telaga Warna is pretty same like the Tagatay in Philippines. 


Another place to visit after that is Dieng Plateu Theater. They play a movie about Dieng and don't worry they have subtitle in English. It explains us about Dieng as the number 1 potato plants in Indonesia and how the sulfur gases already killed people in the past. So becareful if there's warning about high increasing sulfur gasses around. It's poisonous. Not far from the Dieng Plateu Theater, there are some caves that unfortunately, most locals using that for some supernatural meditation. It's not like the buddhist meditation where are you look for peacefulness and happiness. But it looks for fortune from the 'dark side'. Just translate it into your own comprehension :p Anyway, I little bit terrified to walk around the caves and not brave enough to take a pose in front of the cave. 

Other interesting place in Dieng are the Candi's. They have a lot of candi's and if you are little bit difficult to find transportation to visit all the candi's, just visit the Candi Arjuna. There are some candi's around the Candi Arjuna, so just think you have already visited the rest of the Candi. Btw don't imagine the candi is big like the Borobudur. It's very small, but still it's a candi :D


Actually, you can visit all the Dieng destinations by cycle. It's nearby go around Dieng by vehicle but pretty far away if you are trying to walk around. If you can manage to bring along bicycle that'll be perfect. And why you should choose Dieng as a destination?
  1. It's not far away from Jakarta. If you are using the 8 pm bus from Lebak Bulus bus terminal, you'll arrive at 4 am the day after
  2. The air is SUPER FRESH. Let me make it bold here, it's SUPER FRESH.
  3. People in Dieng and Wonosobo are SUPER FRIENDLY and everything there is cheaper (based on Jakarta live expenses)
  4. Even you can try to hitchhike there, it's SUPER SAFE. Three of us, like you see on the picture (me-Desy-Ocha) can hitchhike safely from Dieng-Wonosobo even continue our journey to Semarang.
Please come to Dieng, Wonosobo and enjoy your time as much as I had. Don't forget to bring your jacket, it's freezing there. Good bye Dieng, glad to visit youuu :D

1 comment:

Unknown said...

ahh kangen dieng, emang Bu Jono itu ga ada tandingannya di Dieng :)