Dieng plateau - recommended site to visit in Java for nature lovers

Hello dear friends, today I'd write about a short folklore again from my homeland accompanied with some pictures when I made a trip there 8 years ago, plus the travel stories and recommendation.

This regency, Wonosobo, was the first place I lived in independently without my family's protection. It takes about 7-8 hours drive by bus from my hometown to reach Wonosobo, so I only went back home once a year during Sugar Feast Festival (Eid al-Fitr), because that's the only time I was able to have a long vacation.

I was still 19 at that time and I've been living there for about 4 years, working as a marketing representative of a pharmaceutical company for OTC products. So this town has always been my most memorable place during my youth.
Despite the hard time learning at a very young age to survive alone with a small salary while most of my peers were still happily enjoying their university experience and pampered by their parents, I was quite happy to finally enjoy freedom for the first time in my life.

Wonosobo has the temperature between 20-22 Celcius degree during the day, but I believe that it was colder than this 20 years ago and much colder at night of course.
It took a huge effort just to adjust my self to the climate since my hometown is an extremely dry region and the lowest temperature there is 32 celcius degree.
However the site I wanted to highlight in this post is Dieng Plateau, approximately 30 km away from the city and it sits at more than 2000 m above sea level (a reason for its name 'Abode of the Gods' ).

Dieng is much colder than Wonosobo with an average temperature of 14 degree and 8 degree at the lowest, during the daylight. If one is afraid of cold, then one shouldn't travel there in August as it is the coldest month in a year, where the temperature at night until early morning can even drop up to - 2 celcius degree.
But this climate gives us to possibilities to cultivate crops which normally grow in subtropical countries like potatoes, lettuces and cabbages for example.

My residency in this region had basically trained me well so that I was not extremely shocked when I moved to Germany 10 years ago, despite the fact that it was the coldest winter in my state after at least 5 years.
I think Wonosobo has the most comfortable climate for me among all the place I have ever lived in. The people and the food are great too.
If you seek a bustling night life and typical big city entertainments you'd be disappointed, but if you want a more or less leisurely life then it should be perfect.

The nearest big city is about 3-4 hours drive away, but if you're content with just an occasional treat of Eurepean cuisines, then I think it should be tolerable to just travel to Yogyakarta or Semarang few times in a month. (This note is aimed to those who think of spending their retirement in Indonesia for example).
In fact I have a friend married to a French residing in Banjarnegara (the neighboring city) and she was actually the one driving me around during this short visit at 2012.
Her two kids have all been homeschooling and only travelling to the capital for the exams.

Anyway I was travelling alone this time for two reasons:

1. My husband had to oversee the construction of our house and...
2. I wanted to check out personally, how this place was like after a decade has passed. I want to know whether this place was still as green, rather quiet and not too much polluted as before so that it is still worth it to take my husband there despite the exhausting trip.

I must say that it was still nice, unfortunately I still haven't had the opportunity to take him there because we had to prioritize somewhere else during the Indonesian trips afterward for some particular reason, and the route was completely in another direction.
I hope I would still have the chance to take him and our daughter there when we visit Indonesia again in the future.

We have Grab service nowadays that makes it more convenient for a family with little toddler like us to travel around.
Another methods to go to Dieng-Wonosobo are: joining a tour; using a shuttle service; or a public transportation.

From Jakarta we can take a train to Purwokerto, Yogyakarta or Semarang or a plane to Semarang or Yogyakarta. I suggest you to spend the night in these big cities first before continuing the trip to Wonosobo to fill up your energy reserves.
Joining a tour maybe the most practical way for foreigners but if you want to enjoy your visits without hectic, I would recommend you to travel independently.

You can ask the hotel to arrange a shuttle service to Wonosobo and either get a hotel there, or directly drive further to Dieng-plateau and stay up in a guesthouse. Th guesthouse offers full accomodation, not only breakfast. The price is low, it's clean and the food is good, but don't expect to find luxury. Dieng is not conditioned for massive tourism, so it's rather lacking in infrastructure to serve tourists.

The advantage is that you can enjoy the nature, original culture of inhabitants and it's quiet. A real rarity in Indonesia 😁.
You won't even have a light pollution at night so that you would be able to admire the stars and make an excellent photos if you have a good camera (unfortunately I didn't have one and I finally felt so lonely missing my hubby after travelling around for weeks all by my self 😅, so that I decided to go down to the city and meet my old friends instead of spending night on the mountain) .

Well... I didn't feel lonely travelling alone when I was still single LOL, but at that time there wasn't even a smartphone, let alone a great camera, so I didn't have any nice photos either from my single trips 😊.

I'd suggest at least 3 days stay in Dieng, if you are the type who love hiking. Moreover, Dieng is the best place to enjoy the magnificent golden sunrise, especially beautiful with 3 mountains as a backdrop.
One day is definitely too hectic unless you don't mind waking up very early just to drive there and get back before the mist come.
Dieng would normally be covered by thick mist in the afternoon so that the trip would be too dangerous as well with the abundant of twisting roads. Furthermore, you won't get the best view at all in this circumstance.
The tour package of the travel agents normally set up a meeting point before dawn from Yogyakarta. That's why I wouldn't recommend that for leisure travelers 😉.

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6. Six pictures above were taken in Telaga Warna, Dieng (Color Lake). I didn't have the best view because it was after the dry season, the water was not at the most abundant amount and it was a bit cloudy so that we can only see the green colour. It's called Color Lake because this lake can show us many different color (blue, green, yellowish, and sometimes like a rainbow depends on which angle the Sunray touched the water). The scientific explanation is because this lake contains a big amount of sulfur which reflect the sunrays into different color each times. Beside the Color Lake there is an adjoined lake called 'Telaga Pengilon' (Mirror Lake). The water is very clear like a mirror.

The folklore said that there was a king made a competition to seek a son in law. The candidates must make a lake for the princess to swim and to provide enough water for the citizens.
The king chose the first prince as a winner cos he was the fastes with the ripply and wavy Menjer Lake as a result and married off the princess to him.

But the king regretted his decision afterwards because the other candidat has made a much more beautiful lake, whose water was so calm and clear representing the steady and upright personality of the creator, whereas the chosen winner was found to be rude and rash just like the wavy lake he made.
The second prince was the one creating the mirror lake.
When the princess bathed in the mirror lake, her beautiful shawl adorned with pearls and gems was blown by the wind to the adjoined lake and since then the lake became colorful. So the adjoined lake to the Mirror Lake was now becoming the Color Lake.

Moral of the story:"Doing everything as fast as possible doesn't always bring out the best result, quality needs time. Making a rash decision will often cause regret."

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The ticket for foreigner to enter the lake site on the ground level is quite expensive, it's not worth it since people don't swim in the lake anyway. 10 dollars just to watch a lake is too much. I'd prefer take the sidewalk hiking uphill for a while to get the better view of both lakes from above for free.

Not far from this site we can visit the Sikidang crater. The landscape is like a moon landscape. The sulfur gas emitted by the crater is so strong that one better wear a mask. Dieng is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and one can find many small craters in this site with boiling lava.
The biggest one and most dangerous one is protected by a wood fence. The fence is not corresponding to a proper safety standard I would say, but it is more to warn the tourists to be aware of the danger and take care of their own safety.
If there is an eruption threat or potential emition of poisonous gas, the entrance to location would normally be completely closed down.
There were local inhabitants selling eggs boiled with the lava too. I didn't buy any, cos I was rather skeptical if it's harmful eating eggs boiled with lava contains sulfuric gas.
There was a bad record of 149 deaths caused by poisonous gas emitted by one of the crater at the Dieng-plateau about 40 years ago (it was in Sinila crater, another walking distance from Sikidang crater), we'd never know if such thing can happen again.

Btw I didn't actually rode the horse, it was just an acting to make a nice photo with a docile horse 🙈.

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Not far from the previous sites we can find another tourism objects which are the Arjuna temple blocks. The temple is not as magnificent as Prambanan or Borobudur, but this temples belong to the oldest legacy of Hindu empires in Java. As far as I remember we don't have to pay to visit these temples.

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18. As a closure you can enjoy the scenery of the mountain while the mist started to descend creating the infamous mystical aura of Dieng Plateau. See ya!

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