Behind the Fog

The stories continued as the time we entered the gate of Dieng Plateau, and bus directly turn right on the crossroad. Again, we made the spontaneous decision to stop the bus right away. For a couple of minutes we're wondering around looking for affordable lodge. Just right on the corner of the road, there was a lodge called Flamboyan, there was no other guest than us, so we bargain to get the largest room, since we're group of eight, with the cheapest price, include the rented car for tomorrow morning to the sunrise peak.

It was about 12 pm and we're looking an authentic dishes from locals, or anything to fill up our belly. The funny thing is we don't know what the authentic dishes from Dieng, so we grabbed food from the nearest warung (means small restaurant in Indonesia, sometimes sells street food or local food), just typical Indonesian food, rice with chicken or tempeh. But there's something else on the menu, the authentic beverage from Dieng called Purwaceng. Yes, adult here used to drink that powerful Purwaceng because the weather always been so cold there. 

Still in the afternoon but the fog already covered most part of the town, rain started to fall and we're freezing. So we headback into guest house for the rest of the day, covered our body with tons of jackets and blanket,  and played the card game accompanied with the sip of hot cappucino. We're not taking any steps from the door, we all agreed back then we're not prepared for the fog, the fog just covered our windows view. 

Like we prepared before, we planned to watch the sunrise on our second day, so at 4 am in the freezing morning we took our trip to the peak at Dieng Plateu by car and continued by 30-45 minutes of leisurely hike. It's about 30 minutes time of waiting the sun began to rise but unfortunately it was covered by thick clouds. But we're still be ok with that, since the morning air our breath already cleared our stress. When the sun was already up high we took our lightning steps down the hill, and jumped back to our car. 

Next place was Telaga Warna, a green lake with such a beautiful scenery, sometimes the water change its colour from green to blue, white, crystal green, purple or red. Surrounded by natural forest makes the lake shows it magical atmosphere. One-time there's a kingdom ruled Dieng, and people believe that Dieng was home of the Gods from heaven, so around this mystical place there's a lot of cave and sacred place to meditate. Beside that there's still many stories about local myth about this place. 

The sun was going fast in Dieng, so we are. Next place in our trip was Arjuna Temple, the famous temple in Dieng from seventh century. It's about 9 am in the morning the weather is fine, we're took some happy photos, before we headed to the Crater. Didn't like the cold weather in Dieng, the crater was much warmer with its sulphuric smoke. I'm sure the volcanic activity still going on under the Dieng Plateau and most of places in Indonesia. According to history, in 1979 the Crater was erupted and spilled out its poisonous gas and killed 149 people at that time. However the tourist still attracted by its beauty and keep coming back to feel the magical sensation of Dieng.

Just right before the noon, we bought some souvenirs and the famous Carica (authentic fruit from Dieng, similar like papaya). Just thinking about that fruit already makes me craving it, the freshness on your throat that you can't imaging. Again afternoon the fog already covered our view in Dieng, then we packed up our bag then catched the next bus to Wonosobo, leaving all the magical beauty behind the fog and rushed back to the earth. 

Before we continued our trip back to Yogyakarta, we had a lunch in famous Mie Ongklok in Wonosobo, one of the sweetest and delicious me I've ever had. If you want to know more about Dieng Plateau and it's cultural heritage, maybe you can translate this page http://www.pesonadieng.com/. 

March 2010

 Film Photography by TaufikMP

Land Upon The Clouds

There's a time when I was a bit young and live apart from my parents. Where the decision was made by my self. It was the first year on my university life, new friends, new life, new challenge and all new things came up in my life. Me and my closest friends at that time, now they're become my best friends, being told about a place near Yogyakarta by our seniors and well-known cause it's magical touch and historical background. Dieng Plateau they called it, was known as the highest plateau in Indonesia.

Everything was just spontaneous at that time, we gather friends, summary of stories, and found a perfect date. It was on the early of March, we already made draft timeline on our mind, had our own role play among the others. There was 2 treasurer-Mikha and Ipil, time manager-Me, bargainer consultant-Tsani, photographer-Fika and Opik, and Crew, Candka and Ririn. At Friday on 7:00 am we gathered our money, and hopped on to Trans Jogja to Jombor Station. Then we took a bus to Magelang. Up to Magelang the trip was pretty smooth, until our halfway to Wonosobo we had to change a bus, and we made a such spontaneous decision, just by asking the driver where to go if we wanted to reach Wonosobo, and he said we must get off from this bus, on the intersection, luckily we asked him on the right time, I don't know what would happened if we late even just a couple minutes.

At the intersection we pretty much confused where to go, but someone yelled from a far, called us, then we went there, we asked which bus went to Wonosobo, he replied in a hurry, "Yeah just get on this bus hurry!", not so sure, still we got on the bus. I takes about one and half hours to get to Wonosobo, but here comes our next problem, we didn't know where to stop. It's the same problem like on the intersection, there was no sign board, no direction on the street and no track written on the bus, so the choice left was asking to the driver. So we asked where to get off and how to continue our trip if we want to go to Dieng Plateu, he answered just get off on the next intersection then took a smaller bus that waiting right on the intersection. So we did, and found exactly the right bus. It's just us, the bus still empty and about 10 minutes ride we own the bus, we took some pictures before the other passenggers came. 

It takes about 2 hours ride to reach the plateau, and we shared a bus with mostly old people who went or came to the market and brought their harvest or poultry. In the other hand this bus is the only way for people to reach Dieng Plateu. The height on Dieng makes it beneficial to its people to grow xrops amd many kind of vegetables. Just about halfway from our destination, it was just cliff and fog that we saw and the view was thrilling yet breathtaking. When the fog was gone, we're popeyed by the views, and all I could see was a green land above the clouds, like you just came into a fairytale. I've never forget what it's like but I have no words to desrcribe it. 

to be continued.
March 2010.