Visiting Dieng Plateau

Dieng plateau is located in the province of central Java, Indonesia. What's so special about it? You might ask. Well, at least the nature gives us splendid view. Furthermore ancient people had built temples in the exotic plateau. What can we see there? Let's find out.

Dieng is a high land deep in the heart of the island of Java. The height of the plateau is more than 2000 meters above sea level so the weather is very cold. It is always cloudy there especially in the afternoon. In the morning usually the weather is clear. The view is splendid. Visitors can see the beauty of some valleys, hills and potato plantations.

It is accessible from Semarang, the capital city of central Java and also from Yogyakarta. It takes about three hours by car from Semarang. Tourists may stay in Semarang or Yogyakarta. It takes the whole day to visit Dieng from Yogyakarta, but you can visit also Borobudur temple on the way back from Dieng. Wonosobo is the closest town to Dieng where visitors may have lunch. There are two good restaurants in Wonosobo. For those who visit Dieng by bus, they have to stop in Wonosobo to find smaller cars because bus cannot go to the plateau due to the small roads there. If you stay in Semarang, you can start at 8. But if you go from Yogyakarta you'd better start earlier, let's say at six o'clock.

Along the way from Semarang and Yogyakarta visitors can see the beautiful scenery of rice fields, hills and mountains. The weather is always sunny there. But as we get to the town of Wonosobo the weather changes. It is always cool there. You'd better stop at a restaurant here in Wonosobo to take a rest for a while and to order lunch that you will have on the way back. The streets from Wonosobo to Dieng plateau is small and it begin to climb, so bus cannot go. After about ten kilometers from Wonosobo we will pass mountains with beautiful valley. We can stop somewhere to enjoy the view and to take some pictures. It takes about one hour to get to the plateau.

The best time to visit Dieng Plateau is in early morning.  So it is better for you to stay in the small town called Wonosobo.  It is not far from the plateau, only about forty kilometers away.  You would better start before 7 o clock so you can enjoy beautiful view of valleys, plantation of tobacco and potatoes and hills.   You can stop to take pictures and enjoy splendid view along the way. 

In the plateau there eight ancient Hindu temples from the 8th century. Unfortunately history of Dieng is hidden inside the cloud of history. There is now written record from 8th century so we know very little about the kingdom who built those temples. We have no ideas as to the kings and the capital of the kingdom. We can only assume that the capital must have been around it maybe in the north coast of Java where people used to trade with India and Southeast Asian countries.

The temples were found in 19th century by a Dutchman. They were in a small lake at that time. Then he dried it. Today there is a small museum in the western part of the plateau where we store small statues of Hindu gods like Nandi (buffalo), Ganesya (Hindu god with a head of an elephant), Durga (a beautiful goddess) and ornaments from the temples. Expert estimated that the temples are older than Borobudur and Prambanan temples. We do not have any ideas about the original names of those temples but today they have names like Arjuna temple, Bima temple, and Gatutkaca temple. These names are taken from Indian epic of Mahabarata.

From the temples we will continue to another temple - candi Bima, the temple of Bima. It is located several hundred meters from candi Gatotkaca. In the niche of this temple there are faces of gods. Then following the small road we will get to a crater called Sikidang. The smell of sulphur is very strong here. We can see a boiling crater here. Sometimes local people show the heat of the water by boiling eggs inside the crater. Around the plateau there are many craters. This one is the easiest to visit.

After visiting the crater then we do a little trekking by visiting a small forest where we can see Semar cave. Local people believe that Suharto, the ex president once meditated here in his youth to attain spiritual power. Unfortunately the gate of the cave is always closed so we cannot see the inside.

Then we can visit a lake called Telaga warna. It means colored lake. The color of the water is bluish green and sometimes brown. Perhaps it is the influence of the sulphur. Besides this lake we can also visit a sprig called Tuk Bima Lukar. There is an ancient bathing place here but unfortunately the location is far from the lake.

Usually tourists only visit the temples, the museum, the small forest and the lake. After this we go back to Wonosobo to have lunch. There are two good restaurants there. After lunch we continue to Semarang or Wonosobo. For those who stay in Yogyakarta, usually we visit Borobudur on the way back. From Wonosobo we can choose a different route where we will pass many beautiful rice fields and plantation of clove. Clove is an ingredient for Indonesian kretek cigarette. About two hours later we will get to Borobudur. Then we will get to the hotel in the city of Yogyakarta at about six PM.