Gallery Hotel KresnaHISTORIC HOTEL$$$
(%0286-324111; www.kresnahotel.com; Jl Pasukan Ronggolawe 30; r/ste from 840,000/1,580,000Rp; aiWs)
Kresna dates from 1921, when it was a retreat for Dutch planters, and still exudes colonial charm with stained glass and polished floors. Rooms are comfortable and spacious, but would benefit from a little updating. Facilities include a bar, pool table and a large heated pool.
5Eating
Shanti RahayuINDONESIAN$
(Jl A Yani 122; meals 12,000-25,000Rp; h7am-9pm)
Locals rate this inexpensive place as one of the best for authentic Central Javanese cuisine; the chicken curries are great.
DiengINDONESIAN$
(%0286-321266; Jl Sindoro 12; meals 25,000-40,000Rp; h10am-8pm)
A well-presented pick-and-mix restaurant set in an old Dutch colonial building. Available dishes include mie goreng (fried noodles), rendang, four kinds of soups, fried chicken and shrimp, and a range of veggie and tofu dishes too. It's good, not mind blowing, but service and ambience are a cut above the typical local food option.
8Information
BNI BankBANK
(Bank Negara Indonesia; Jl A Yani; h8am-4pm Mon-Sat)
Telkom OfficeTELEPHONE
(Jl A Yani)
Near the alun-alun (main square).
Tourist OfficeTOURIST INFORMATION
(%0286-321194; Jl Kartini III; h8am-3pm Mon-Fri)
Can provide maps and brochures of Wonosobo and the Dieng Plateau, and contact details for tour operators in the area.
8Getting There & Away
Wonosobo’s bus terminal is 4km out of town on the Magelang road.
From Yogyakarta take a bus to Magelang (25,000Rp, 1½ hours) and then another to Wonosobo (10,000Rp, 2½ hours). Regular buses also connect Borobudur and Magelang (10,000Rp, 40 minutes) until about 4pm. Rahayu Travel (%0286-321217; Jl A Yani 95) has door-to-door minibuses to Yogyakarta (55,000Rp, 3½ hours).
Hourly buses go to Semarang (45,000Rp, four hours), passing through Ambarawa (30,000Rp, 2½ hours).
Frequent buses to Dieng (12,000Rp, one hour) leave throughout the day (the last at 5pm) and continue on to Batur; you can catch them on Jl Rumah Sakit, 100m from Duta Guesthouse.
Dieng Plateau
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The spectacular lofty volcanic plateau of Dieng (Abode of the Gods), a glorious, verdant landscape laced with terraced potato and tobacco fields, is home to some of the oldest Hindu architecture in Java. More than 400 temples, most dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, originally covered this 2000m-high plain, but they were abandoned and forgotten and only rediscovered in 1856 by the archaeologist Van Kinsbergen.
These squat, simple temples, while of great archaeological importance, can be slightly underwhelming for non-experts. Rather, Dieng’s beautiful scenery is the main reason to make the long journey to this isolated region. Any number of walks across the volcanically active plateau are possible – to mineral lakes, steaming craters or even the highest village in Java, Sembungan. Dieng is also base camp for the popular climb to Gunung Paru peak. Most start hiking in the wee hours to catch the sunrise on the summit.
You can either stay in Dieng village, or commute up from Wonosobo, which has better facilities. The route up to Dieng is stunning, snaking through vertiginous hillsides of terraced vegetable fields.
The temples and the main natural sights can be seen in one day on foot. Get a very early start if you can, before the afternoon mists roll in. It’s a pleasant three- or four-hour loop south from Dieng village to Telaga Warna (Coloured Lake), Candi Bima (Bima Temple), Kawah Sikidang (Sikidang Crater) and then back to Candi Gatutkaca, the Arjuna Complex and the village.
1Sights & Activities
Arjuna ComplexHINDU TEMPLE
(admission incl Candi Gatutkaca & Kawah Sikidang 25,000Rp)
The five main temples that form the Arjuna Complex are clustered together on the central plain. They are Shiva temples, but like the other Dieng temples they have been named after the heroes of the wayang stories of the Mahabharata epic: Arjuna, Puntadewa, Srikandi, Sembadra and Semar. All have mouth-shaped doorways and strange bell-shaped windows and some locals leave offerings, burn incense and meditate here.
Raised walkways link the temples (as most of this land is waterlogged), and you can see the remains of ancient underground tunnels, which once drained the marshy flatlands.
Candi Gatutkaca is a small Shiva temple (a yoni was found inside) with a square base south of the main complex.
Telaga WarnaLAKE
(admission weekdays/weekends 100,000/150,000Rp; h8am-4.30pm)
Exquisitely beautiful and ringed by highland forest, the lake has turquoise and cobalt hues from the bubbling sulphur deposits around its shores. To lose the crowds, follow the trail counterclockwise to the adjoining lake, Telaga Pengilon, and past holy Gua Semar, a meditation cave. Then for a lovely perspective of the lakes return to the main road via a narrow trail that leads around Telaga Pengilon and up a terraced hillside.
Museum Kailasa DiengMUSEUM
(admission 5000Rp; h8am-3pm)
Southwest of the Arjuna Complex, this museum, set in two separate buildings, displays an array of Hindu statues and sculptures including Shiva’s carrier, Nandi the bull (with the body of a man and the head of a bull); a headless image of Shiva himself depicted in the lotus position; and there's an animist gargoyle sporting an erection. There are also exhibits on local geology, farming, culture and the temple excavation process. All displays are in Bahasa Indonesia.
Candi BimaHINDU TEMPLE
F
Candi Bima is unique in Java, with kudu (sculpted heads) looking like spectators peering out of windows.
Candi DwarawatiHINDU TEMPLE
F
The restored Candi Dwarawati is on the northern outskirts of the village.
Gunung SikunirVIEWPOINT
South of Dieng village, the main attractions are the sunrise overlook of Gunung Sikunir, 1km past Sembungan, and the shallow lake of Telaga Cebong. Views from Sikunir are spectacular, stretching across Dieng and east as far as Merapi and Merbabu volcanoes on a clear day. To reach the hill in time for sunrise, start at 4am from Dieng. It’s a one-hour walk to Sembungan and another 30 minutes to the top of the hill. Most guides charge 100,000Rp to 150,000Rp per person.
Kawah CandradimukaLAKE
Nine kilometres from Dieng village is the pleasant 1.5km trail to Kawah Candradimuka through the fields. Another trail branches off to two lakes: Telaga Nila (a longer, two-hour walk) and Telaga Dringo. Just a few hundred metres past the turn-off to Kawah Candradimuka is Sumur Jalatunda. This well is in fact a deep hole some 100m across with vertical walls plunging to bright-green waters.
Kawah SikidangLAKE
(admission incl with ticket to Arjuna Complex)
Kawah Sikidang is a volcanic crater with steaming vents and frantically bubbling mud ponds. Exercise extreme caution here – there are no guard rails to keep you from slipping off the sometimes muddy trails into the scalding-hot waters. At research time, however, locals were building a brick path to make it easier to delineate the safe zone. Kawah Sibentang is a less spectacular crater nearby, and Telaga Lumut is another small lake.
SembunganVILLAGE
South of the geothermal station, the paved road leads on to Sembungan, said to be the highest village in Java, at 2300m. Potato farming has made this large village relatively wealthy.
Kawah SileriLAKE
Kawah Sileri, 2km off the main road and 6km from Dieng, is a smoking crater area with a hot lake.
Gunung ParuHIKING
A popular, steep, three-hour trek to Gunung Paru (2565m) begins in the village at 3am. The top isn't a defined peak but a rolling savannah with views of five volcanoes and eight mountains. Several outfitters offer the trek. Bu Djono does the deal for 250,000Rp. Bring extra water.
4Sleeping & Eating
Dieng’s dozen or more guesthouses are notoriously poor value. Spartan conditi
ons, semi-clean rooms and cool or lukewarm water are the norm. There are decent sleeps, but you do get what you pay for here.
Food isn't Dieng’s strong point either. Hotel and restaurant Bu Djono is your best bet and has beer, but be prepared to wait.
While in town you must try the local herb, purwaceng, often served as tea or with coffee, which warms the body in cold weather and is said to act like a kind of Dieng-style coca leaf.
The village is tiny and most accommodation is on the main road.
Bu DjonoGUESTHOUSE$
(%0852 2664 5669, 0286-642046; Jl Raya Dieng, Km26; r without bathroom 100,000Rp; W)
This simple, friendly place has been hosting backpackers for years and has a certain ramshackle charm with basic, clean, economy rooms. The pleasant, orderly restaurant downstairs (mains 15,000Rp to 25,000Rp) has tablecloths and lace curtains. Good tours to Gunung Paru are offered. It's close to the turn-off for Wonosobo.
Hotel Gunung MasHOTEL$
(%0286-334 2017; Jl Raya Dieng 42; d 180,000-275,000Rp)
This solidly built hotel has a wide choice of reasonably clean rooms, with good light. Upstairs rooms have a little deck and keyhole views to the farmland. It's almost opposite the access road to the Arjuna Complex.
Homestay FlamboyanHOMESTAY$
(%0813 2760 5040, 0852 2744 3029; www.flamboyandieng.com; Jl Raya Dieng; r 200,000Rp; W)
One of three homestays on this corner, and all are decent value. The carpets may be stained, but the cubist paintjobs are creative. All rooms have private bathrooms, high ceilings and good vibes.
Dahlia HomestayHOMESTAY$
(%0852 2639 0053, 0852 2722 3433; Jl Raya Dieng; r 225,000Rp)
This lovely family home offers quaint, simple rooms with wood furnishings and private bathrooms with hot water. Does meals too.
Homestay ArjunaHOMESTAY$
(%0813 9232 9091; Jl Telaga Warna; r 200,000-250,000Rp)
Rooms in this newly built, somewhat garish home are clean with hot-water bathrooms and detailed ceilings. Some access a lovely terrace overlooking verdant farmland. There's a koi pond in the lobby. It makes basic meals and offers free drinking water for reusable bottles. The call to prayer is crystal clear, though.
8Information
The BRI Bank, near Hotel Gunung Mas, changes US dollars.
8Getting There & Away
Dieng is 26km from Wonosobo (12,000Rp, one hour), which is the usual access point. It’s possible to reach Dieng from Yogyakarta in one day (including a stop at Borobudur) by public bus, provided you leave early enough to make the connection; the route is Yogyakarta–Borobudur–Magelang–Wonosobo–Dieng.
Travel agents including Jogja Trans in Yogyakarta offer day trips that include sunset at Borobudur, but you’ll spend a lot of your time on a bus and (unless you're fortunate) generally end up seeing Dieng clouded in mist.
Borobudur
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Along with Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar, Java’s Borobudur makes the rest of Southeast Asia’s spectacular sites seem almost incidental. Looming out of a patchwork of bottle-green paddies and swaying palms, this colossal Buddhist monument has survived Gunung Merapi’s eruptions, terrorist bombs and the 2006 earthquake to remain as enigmatic and as beautiful as it must have been 1200 years ago.
It’s well worth planning to spend a few days in the Borobudur region, which is a supremely beautiful landscape of impossibly green rice fields and traditional rice-growing kampung (villages), all overlooked by soaring volcanic peaks. Locals call it the garden of Java.
This region is establishing itself as Indonesia’s most important centre for Buddhism, and there are now three monasteries in the surrounding district. Visitors are welcome and you can even join the monks at prayer time for chanting.
History
Rulers of the Sailendra dynasty built Borobudur some time between AD 750 and 850. Little else is known about Borobudur’s early history, but the Sailendras must have recruited a huge workforce, as some 60,000 cubic metres of stone had to be hewn, transported and carved during its construction. The name Borobudur is possibly derived from the Sanskrit words ‘Vihara Buddha Uhr’, which mean ‘Buddhist Monastery on the Hill’.
With the decline of Buddhism and the shift of power to East Java, Borobudur was abandoned soon after completion and for centuries lay forgotten. It was only in 1815, when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles governed Java, that the site was cleared and the sheer magnitude of the builders’ imagination and technical skill was revealed. Early in the 20th century the Dutch began to tackle the restoration of Borobudur, but over the years the supporting hill had become waterlogged and the whole immense stone mass started to subside. A mammoth US$25-million Unesco-sponsored restoration project was undertaken between 1973 and 1983 to stabilise and restore the monument. This involved taking most of it apart stone by stone, adding new concrete foundations, inserting PVC and a lead drainage system, and then putting the whole shebang back together again.
In 1991 Borobudur was declared a World Heritage site.
BOROBUDUR UNDER ATTACK
In its 1200 years, Borobudur has repeatedly suffered attack from forces of nature and at the hands of humans.
During its period of abandonment, which lasted for as much as a millennia, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions destablised the monument further and the Javanese jungle reclaimed the site as giant roots penetrated the monument and prised apart stone blocks.
After rediscovery its fame grew and in 1896 King Chulalongkorn of Siam visited and removed dozens of sculptures and relief panels; some are now on display in the National Museum in Bangkok.
On 21 January 1985, bombs planted by opponents of Suharto exploded on the upper layers of the monument. Nine small stupas were damaged, but were later fully restored.
Periodically, the highly active Merapi volcano has also damaged the site – in 2010 eruptions covered the monument with a thick layer of dust and 55,000 stone blocks had to be removed so the blocked drainage system could be cleared.
Right now it's the sheer pressure of numbers that is most worrying. On holidays up to 90,000 people ascend the temple, and despite (deafening) warnings from PA systems, the selfish still clamber over the statues and deface the reliefs.
Many locals feel that a system to manage visitors must be introduced, with guides escorting groups around the monument.
1Sights
Borobudur TempleBUDDHIST TEMPLE
( GOOGLE MAP ; admission 250,000Rp, sunrise or sunset 380,000Rp, 90min guided tour 1-5 people 100,000-150,000Rp; h6am-5.15pm)
Indonesia's signature Buddhist monument, Borobudur is built from two million stone blocks in the form of a massive symmetrical stupa, literally wrapped around a small hill. Standing on a 118m by 118m base, its six square terraces are topped by three circular ones, with four stairways leading up through carved gateways to the top. Viewed from the air, the structure resembles a colossal three-dimensional tantric mandala (symbolic circular figure).
It has been suggested, in fact, that the people of the Buddhist community that once supported Borobudur were early Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhists who used it as a walk-through mandala. Though the paintwork is long gone, it’s thought that the grey stone of Borobudur was once coloured to catch the sun.
The monument was conceived as a Buddhist vision of the cosmos in stone, starting in the everyday world and spiralling up to nirvana, or enlightenment. At the base of the monument is a series of reliefs representing a world dominated by passion and desire, where the good are rewarded by reincarnation as a higher form of life, while the evil are punished with a lower reincarnation. These carvings and their carnal scenes are covered by stone to hide them from view, but they are partly visible on the southern side.
Starting at the main eastern gateway, go clockwise (as one should around all Buddhist monuments) around the galleries of the stupa. Although Borobudur is impressive for its sheer bulk, the delicate sculptural work is exquisite when viewed up close. The pilgrim’s walk is ab
out 5km long and takes you along narrow corridors past nearly 1460 richly decorated narrative panels and 1212 decorative panels in which the sculptors have carved a virtual textbook of Buddhist doctrines as well as many aspects of Javanese life 1000 years ago – a continual procession of ships and elephants, musicians and dancing girls, warriors and kings.
On the third level there’s a lengthy panel sequence about a dream of Queen Maya, which involved a vision of white elephants with six tusks. Monks and courtiers interpret this as a premonition that her son would become a Buddha, and the sequence continues until the birth of Prince Siddhartha and his journey to enlightenment. Many other panels are related to Buddhist concepts of cause and effect or karma.
Some 432 serene-faced Buddha images stare out from open chambers above the galleries, while 72 more Buddha images (many now headless) sit only partly visible in latticed stupas on the top three terraces – one is considered the lucky Buddha. The top platform is circular, signifying neverending nirvana.
Admission to the temple includes entrance to Karmawibhangga archaeological museum, which is just east of the monument and contains 4000 original stones and carvings from Borobudur and some interesting photographs. You can also glimpse the Elephant House more like an elephant prison), where two small elephants suffer, with their front feet chained together. This is the black eye of Borobudur, folks.
Lonely Planet Indonesia Page 18