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Published: August 8th 2007
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Mountain and paddy
Beautiful scenary along the way to Dieng. 24 July 07
Dieng Plateau
“Dieng is another country”, this is LP’s South East Asia on a shoe string described the Dieng. Today we are going to Dieng Plateau. We go by tour this time, 10,000Rp for each person.
Dieng is located at northwest of Jogja and the area is in the volcanic mountains and over 2,000m high. Dieng was not in our list of planning initially, we planned to go to Merapi in beginning, but after we were informed that to trek at Merapi we got to have a good shoe and sweater. Furthermore, now it is not allowed to climb the Merapi mountain as the volcano is still active. Merapi is one of the most active volcanos in Indonesia. We saw the smoke from the volcano while we were flying to Solo. We heard that Dieng is very beautiful thus decided to replace the Merapi.
Our driver is Dan, he is not only a driver but a good tour guide as well. He told us a lot of things in this 3 hours journey. According to Dan, the Merapi has erupted several times, and got a large explosion killed many peoples and destroyed the village at
A long the way
A long the way. the foot of the mountain. For Dieng, it is an ancient volcanic caldera, though it isn't about to erupt again, but that still provides some interesting thermal areas. Along the way, the road is winding and it is up and down. But the scenery is breathtaking, volcanic mountain, paddy field and etc, it was really very beautiful.
Wonosobo, a small city located at the foot of Dieng plateau. To further up to Dieng, as foreigners, we got to pay a ticket of 20,000Rp at the entrance. From here our van started to climb the Dieng mountain. We passes through tobacco plantation, terraced paddy field, potatoes plantation and steep valleys. It was a very beautiful mountain scenery. There are so many plantations here as its volcanic soil is very fertile.
Earliest Temples in Central Java
Our first stop is Ajuna which is a group of Hindu temples built even earlier than Borobudur. It is claimed as the oldest Hindu temples and the first known standing stone structures in Java. The name "Dieng" comes from "Di Hyang" which means “Abode of the Gods”. The plateau was once had 400 over temples, but it is only 8 remains today. The temples
A long the way
A long the way. were mysteriously abandoned around the turn of the first millennium.
The weather was good, blue sky with a hot sun. However we didn’t feel hot at all, as it was about 20 degrees only. I was informed that sometime the area could achieve 0 degree at night.
The Arjuna group consists of 5 temple which is Candi Arjuna, Candi Samar, Candi Sri Kandi, Candi Punda Dewa and Candi Sembadra. Each temple has a small shrine which is dedicated to respective god.
Candi Kaca is at another place which is not far away from Arjuna. However it is now in construction of fencing work, thus we straight go to the next candi, Candi Bima. Candi Bima obviously is a typical Hindu temple, its roof is smaller at top which represent a mount Meru. A unique is, each of the niches on the temple has a face looking out. This is rare to be seen in south east asia. It is not clear whose face is it. I believe it was a king or leader at this area. As it was a norm that the king was a god, just like the stone statue in Bayon temple, Angkor Thomb.
Kawah Sikidang
A long the way
A paddy field. After that we went to Kawah Sikidang, a volcanic crater. Infact the Dieng is a marshy plateau that forms the floor of a caldera complex on its active volcano complex. From far, we could see the smoke was coming out from the crater and we could also smell a strongly of sulphur fume.
When approaching, there was a bubbling pot of black mud. The water was boiling which couldn’t imagine of how many degrees down there. There was no fencing thus it is very dangerous. According to Dan, few years ago, it was just a small crater, but due to erosion after rain, the crater becomes bigger and bigger and form a big crater. The water is hot and you can imagine that the water beneath is boiling and it may break to be big in future
After taking some photos, we walked down and back to the parking area. On the way, we saw there were some small craters with water and smoke. Nearby there is a geothermal plant which utilize the hot water and its steam for generating an electric.
There was a hawker making and selling a little vase things from a type of wood
Volcano mountain
Volcano mountain. which has a distinctive grain. They peel a stick and there's the pattern. It was nice and is not bad to buy as a decoration in your living.
Telaga Warna
Our last stop was Telaga Warna (Color lake), this is a place like the 九寨沟 in China. As mentioned that here is a Volcanic complex and beneath has a very hot water.
Due to some chemicals of the volcano such as sulphur, when the light is right on the water, the water becomes green or turn to other colors.
There were some caves near to the lake. The caves was part the place of General Sudirman's guerilla campaign during Indonesian War of Independence.
After the color lake, it was time back to Jogja. A long the way, we stopped over at Wonosobo for lunch, it was 3pm already.
Tonight we dinner at Malioboro Mall food court.
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