Jogjakarta: I left my heart in Dieng Plateau

After another breakfast of chicken, noodles, and rice, I treated myself to two delicious coconut dessert rolls. They were so good I couldn’t resist a second. We were picked up at 7:30 again, and were driven 3.5 hours to Dieng Plateau. I spent the first hour or so blogging, and editing photos, and then began to notice all the beauty around me. And by beauty I mean green. Lots and lots of green. I kept thinking to myself that I had my hiking shoes and even though I was wearing a dress they could just drop me off right here and I’d spend my day hiking. 

Beauty!

Eventually we got up in the mountains and I began to notice an increasing amount of plantations. I grew more and more excited the higher up we got. Our first stop was to look at the view, where we were fed peanuts which were soaked in milk? Maybe. I forget. But I know the reason for eating them was so that you would have lots of energy to make love, since it gets cold in Dieng plateau in the winter. For real? Probably like 20 degrees celcius Angie had previously commented on how much cooler it was, though we were both still wearing short sleeve and shirts and felt comfortable. Then we headed to see Arjuna temple, which was a nice change of pace as there were very few tourist there, and no one asked to take our picture. After exploring, and playing in the grass for a bit (a commodity here) we were escorted to see a volcanic crater. 

Arjuna Temple

It smelled like sulfur, and all around the water was bubbling. Andi informed us that the sulfur water and rock is used to create medicine for itchy skin or skin with sores on it. At least it used to be. Now everyone is turning to western medicine. 

crater

Our final stop was at Telaga Warna. 2 boys in leather jackets were our escorts here and I was a little nervous when they started leading us to the top of the hill, on a random dirt path. Luckily I was in my element, so for part of the way I ended up leading the group. Hiking in a dress and flip flops wasn’t the best experience, but was much cooler than any other option. My dress had a ton of pricklies in it when we got down, but overall I’d try it again. The view at the top was breathtaking and I remembered reading about these lakes when I first started researching Indonesia. The lakes are different colors, and change color depending on the time of year you see them. 

pre-hike

At the bottom of the hill the leather jacket boys kept asking for our facebook names or emails. We refused and got in the car. We were then taken to yet another delicious lunch before being driven 3.5 hours home. 

Top of the hill

You begin to learn small things about people after being in a car with them for so long. Our driver likes his hard candies and likes to giggle at mine and Angies message alerts. He’s quite cute, but doesn’t speak much English, but apologizes over and over again every time we hit a bump. We also managed to listen to 1 album 4 times. It was called Roberta, but really it was just popular songs sung by a person named Roberta. It was actually my favorite album in the car as well. Killing Me Softly was on it as well as Marvin Gay, and the voice was a bit jazzy as opposed to just awful like all the other Indonesian singers. Once we arrived back in Jogjakarta we headed to dinner, which consisted of tofu, and beef, and some strange soup. Not too bad, although the dessert was the worst I have ever had. 

Once we arrived back at the hotel we got ready and headed out for some beers with Chris. We met up at a local backpackers area and Chris brought his friend Rose who he had met at the hostel. We shared itineraries as she was traveling through Indonesia for 2 whole months. This evening made me happy of our pre-planned, no work trip, but also ready to get back out into that crazy, I have no idea what I’m doing traveling. I think over winter break I want to take a small solo trip. I have no idea where I’ll go, but I think it’d be fun to do 4 or 5 days on my own, stay in hostels, and meet random people. I have an entire 5 weeks off, so I think I could easily fit this in. Any suggestions about where I should go?