The Illustrious Vegetable Skyscrapers of Dieng

Asia » Indonesia » Wonosobo
December 4th 2011

Published: December 6th 2011

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ZJB

Cool mists of these agro wonders

After two hours of riding a scooter through vicious puddles of rain and sucking the exhaust of poison puffing buses, cargo carrying trucks and numerous other rumbling vehicles along Java's needle-thin but traffic packed roads, I was just waiting for the downpour to slow or stop. And so it did finally. I was free or so I thought.......... then a rattling sound preceded my rear tire jamming and skidding to a complete standstill. Turns out the chain on my bike had broken and become entangled with the rear wheel. After the pouring rain in the early evening, it appeared quite bleak as I was in between towns in one of Java's 'suburban villages' after dark. (Even the villages here are densely packed and from my perspective more resemble suburban towns with an agro-bent).

Just as I was about to start looking for a repair shop, a young man drifted across the road. I noticed he had been watching me as I muckled with the chain and was scowling at myself......WTF!

Soon, he and another young man showed up with some tools. Sukarno and Antok, the names of my two new friends, eventually broke the chain loose so we could

The typical Central Java mountain road

Infrastructure,namely roads and transport, are not a strength in Indonesia.

wheel and then ride the bike downhill to the nearest bengkel (repair shop). After several rebuffs at shops that had closed already, they finally took me to a friend's house where I chatted and joked (in my minimalist Indonesian) with the men there. Several small children gawked at me circling and then backing off until they seemed to lose interest. The women smiled at me but drifted around in the background. I have heard gossip that the area of Temenggung harbors terrorists, but there are also some damn nice folks around there. My experience spoke volumes.

At the repair shop/home, another young man, a friend or relative (or so they said) of Sukarno and Antok, inspected the bike and told me in English that my old chain was beyond repair. He offered to get me a new one. While he took off on the bike to buy one, I chatted and laughed with an uncle aged gentleman while a gaggle of children continued to do their own thing, sometimes sheepishly stopping to look at me with near reserved curiosity. Within an hour, the chain was repaired and my two new friends escorted me to a nearby hotel. They recommended

My savior from Temanggung

Antok, here, spied my difficulty and went through a lot of effort to help me.

I stay there rather than drive another hour to the town of Wonosobo where I had originally planned to sleep.

We chatted for a while at this 'motorbike motel' (parking for cars was limited) and I learned a number of Javanese words while Antok and Sukarno played with my camera. They told me work was hard to find in these parts and they would soon embark on their part-time work, road repairs. They kept using a word that contextually seemed to mean unemployed but it could clearly have meant something different given my still quite adolescent vocabulary. Apparently, their 'road work' only provided enough for them to eat.

There are no 401k plans or even any money left over to save when the pay is doled out. I got their phone numbers and they soon left for work. My invitation for them to join me on my journey to the mountains of Dieng was politely rebuffed with a smile and a firmly enunciated "dingin!" (Cold in Indonesian).

Before sunrise the next morning I was off to view the sunrise over Central Java's volcanic but idyllic wonders. From Yogyakarta to Dieng you can see a chain of hills

Potatoes for ages

Like a mountainous PEI potatoscape at times.

and mountains along the road. The mountains are often surrrounded by mist most mornings. Several of these mountains such as Merapi and Merbabu near Yogyakarta and Mount Sumbing near Dieng are famous for possessing magical and mystical powers. Early religion and belief systems often began on these rich loamy soils (some of the world's best) before Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and then Christianity made their way inward from the coast.

The density of the population and the dense somewhat monotonous suburban look of these active farming villages testifies to the soil's enduring richness. (Rice paddies often sit between stores, homes and churches/mosques on the side of the road resting tightly next to each othere much like suburban homes in places like Orlando and Phoenix. But here the architectural ingenuity and styling (in a working class way) is dizzying.

I made my way to the outskirts of Wonosobo, the neighboring town to Dieng, and spied some stunning rural scenery. Red soils and a misty cloudiness lazily raved amongst the mountains and across Central Java's suburban countryside. After stopping several times along the way up the winding mountain roads to admire the view and make sure I was going the right

Contstruction workers

Working in the field seems a bit like working construction in the city especially when the landscape orients you to the vertical like Dieng.

way, I rolled into the town of Dieng. Dieng is situated in a volcanic crater near the top of a large mountain, and surrounded by several of Java's highest elevations.

I arrived first at the temple complex of Arjuna. Apparently, these Hindu temples, once populated by Brahmin priests, were all over the Dieng plateau until an earthquake hit some thousand years ago and many of them disappeared. The remains of this flourishing belief system are scattered all around the area amidst hot springs, sparkling lakes, mountain trails and geothermal power plants. (60 MW of power mostly shipped outside the local area). It is a kind of natural Disneyworld where hikers, bikers and group tours can all find something worthy.

The beauty of the hills in these mountains, carpeted with the most dense agriculture I have ever seen, is belied by the dangerous potential of mudslides as the forest is no longer seen. The forest has been sacrificed to the riches gained by selling potatoes, asparagus, spring onions and other veggie wonders that decorate these hills like paint on a canvas. (Sometimes financing piligrimages to Mecca but probably more often used to build homes, mosques and families)

Workers

Tek-tek traditional dance

Rena and I came upon this scene on the way to visit his friend

hack away on the ground at different levels of the hills (like floors of a building) and neat little squares of potatoes line the hills like the windows of skyscrapers. Ironically, these farmers are often the same workers who labor buidling the roads and skyscrapers strewn about cities like Jakarta. Here the skyscrapers are supported by literal mountains of vegetables. The oleh-oleh(souvenirs) snacks I bought all derive from the indigenous stock of sayur (veggies). The potato chips are enak sekali! (very delicious).

Upon arriving at the main site of Hindu temples, I was offered a guide, Rena. He was fun and a little bit crazy. He really enjoyed speaking English, but also taught me some funny words in Indonesian and Javanese. His explanation for why they marry so early here, not religion but the lack of a social welfare system for the elderly, struck me as prescient. He quickly led me all around the landscape of Dieng in several hours before it started to rain. Everyday now during rainy season it starts to rain around 10am or so. Pretty quickly the roads became rivers and we were descending the mountain under slight flood conditions, of the flash flood variety.....of

Carica Manufacturing

A special local fruit, found only in Dieng(?), called Carica (Kareeka) in small scale production for oleh-oleh....snacks for souvenirs. (Considered a small papaya).

course if there were more trees around, I suspect the roads might be less inundated. (?)

Rena put me up at his home, a humble but comfortable (by local standards) little place in Wonosobo. It was surrounded by rice fields. A stream passing through was also a hot spring where locals bathed. His tiny wife allowed me to dry my clothes and fixed us some hot tea while his 2 year old daughter shyly kissed my hand. He soon took me around town to visit a number of his friends. We walked and rode down the narrow little alleys that are a trademark of towns and cities here. Views while riding around the city of Wonosobo are spectacular as it sits high up but beneath a the crests of a number of mountains that mist up in mornings and evenings.

Although I did not get a chance to really experience much local cuisine, I understand there are some fabulous little local places (or so my homestay mother, Ibu, tells me). Rena's wife fixed hot tea a number of tasty rice with vegetable dishes during my stay. I was given the chance to visit several local homes including a

Me in the Misty Hot Springs

friend of Rena's. The wife of his friend presented a large spread of meat and vegetable dishes to be eaten over rice....called "lauk" here.

My favorite experience was drinking hot tea with gula Java (local palm sugar) which you ball up and eat after every few sips. It was very nice during the cool evenings and mornings there. Tea plantations are another common sight in these hills. So like the rice, nearly everything you eat derives from the rich agro-tapestries of the surrounding hills.

Mosques sit in rice fields here. One of my teachers told me that because it can be quite cold here, and it really does get cold, mosques are built in large numbers so people don't have to walk too far for prayer. It is so strange to hear the muezzin call in the middle of rice fields. It is just so different from the images I grew up with on the news and from Hollywood where deserts predominate in the Islamic world. I guess loads of people, such as the population of Java, conjure up immanent danger while oil and the money it generates is more forboding.

There are far more muslims in

Rena

My friend and guide in Dieng. A free spirit.

Java then in the Middle East. Why aren't they part of the Hollywood steretype? I guess Indonesians don't quite fit any Hollywood molds.....at least not yet.

Probably due to the rainy season but also due to Indonesia's lack of recognition outside of Dutch tourists, I saw not a single other Westerner during my two day journey. Although quite distinct, the hills and mountains still remind me of the natural landscapes and agrarian cultures of the Golden Triangle in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, China and Vietnam.

Because of the rain, I didn't get to see as much of Dieng as I'd like. Apparently, Java's highest point is here and on a clear day you can see all the way to Mount Merapi near Yogyakarta....over 100km away and more than three hours ride by motorbike. I know Rena would love to have more guests ( I was his tenth foreign visitor he said). If you can do it, there is no place I could so far recommend in Java more highly.....but you must be prepared to rough it just a little.

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