Weekend at Dieng

The Dieng Plateau... what a beautiful place! Its so peaceful and cool... literally, the temperature dropped as soonas we got over the border into the mountains and was about 15 degrees overnight- heaven! Its nice to snuggle undera blanket to sleep instead of clinging to a fan... It took about 4 hours to get there, 3 by minibus then 1 by normalbus. The minibus was nice, we were sitting next to a guy who had a few boxes of pizza, i was hoping they were travelling snacks but no, for his family in wonosobo :( lol. The Dieng area is much more mountainous than jogja, and the bus trip in was beautiful. So green and pretty. We wound our way up the mountain and thru heaps of littlemountainside villages, all with a couple of mosques. People in the area were much less used to seeing white peoplei think. They stared, but unlike Jogja people, they only stared and didnt call out and harrass us. It was kind ofnice. We said hello to a ffew people and asked directions, quite pleasant when people arent used to tourists and sodont have the confidence or feel the need to be so forward. Dieng was such a sweet town. We stayed at the Bu Jonoslosmen, which was nice, and the owner was really friendly. The main attractions of Dieng are its temples and geothermal activity. Cos it was once a volcano, there are still sulphur lakes and craters and random bursts ofsteam from over the hills. The temperature was nice tho, great for walking, which we did so so much of! We got upat 3am, after being woken by the 230am call to prayer from various mosques, to walk to a lookout point before thesunrise. It was freezing but we did it, about an hour to the highest town in Java, Sembungan, then another halfhour up a very steep path to the top of a hill. It was so beautiful tho, definitely worth it. As we sat huffingand puffing on some rocks on top of the hill above the clouds, the sun came out and coloured the mountains. It wasgorgeous. I couldve sat there for ages but we went back down and moved onto a waterfall that the guide swore wasonly 2.5km away... yeah right :S after half an hour of very steep downhill walking thru the towns crops and fields, we spotted it in the distance, twice as far away! We decided to look from there and then started the climbback up... only to flag down a kind farmer with a truck to take us back up the hill! It was great fun, 6 of us sliding round the back of this truck, bit rough tho lol. We wandered on to have a look at a bubbling sulphurcrater (bit scary) and then a temple, Candi Bima, the oldest in Java I think. Me and Jess walked around it seventimes for goodluck while the guide had a nap in the shade. Complaining of how tired he was, the guide then tookus to a coloured sulphur lake, quite pretty, and we had a leisurely stroll around it, then practically ran upa very steep path to a point overlooking the lake. I dont get it- where did the little man get the energy to get upthere so fast?! lol. The walk back down to the village between peoples farms and crops was quite nice, as was goingthrough little streets and alleys to the hostel. We left the guide to have a sleep lol, and had a rest ourselvesfor a couple of hours, before venturing out to see some of the village wed missed in the pre-dawn darkness. Anotherrest followed lunch (all this walking- very tiring!) and we went out to find some of the lesser known places. Thereis a fountain at the mouth of the river, which is supposedly a fountain of youth... unfortunately, the river hadbeen irrigated for the farms above the fountain so there was only a trickle of youth getting thru... good thing wedidnt need it ;) We were also on the search for a restored temple above the village, and lots of kind villagerspointed us in the right direction, some even escorted us there! It wasnt quite restored... quite a few left-over bricks lol... We also just had a wander thru the streets, saying hello to people (so much nicer than all this "Hello, Miss, where are you going?" rubbish in Jogja, its very nice and civilised when people greet you with a good afternoon or good evening! Some kids followed us quite a way down the road, and jess even got a marriageproposal! We did a bit of a loop and snuck int he back way to the arjuna complex, a group of 5 hindu temples almost fully restored (none of this paying 20000 Rupiah "tourist toll") and then back out thru some cabbage crops..a really nice afternoon and weekend, very slow and relaxing, I read an entire book, and enjoyed the weather :) coming back down thru the mountains the next morning was like coming out of the clouds, there was that much mistand low-lying cloud. Definitely worth a visit, if only for the fresh air and opportunity to really stretch yourlegs (oh and enjoy the semi-constant call from the many mosques!)