One of amazing moments is when
the sun rises from east. Have an opportunity to witness it in the right place,
right time, and with the right person, it’ll be excellent. I heard the sunrise
is more than just beautiful if it witnessed from a high place like mountain. In
my previous experiences with mountain, I had never seen the sunrise. That’s why
the mission of my newest adventure was sunrise.
Sikunir, was the destination of
my adventure to hunt the sunrise. This hill is in Dieng Central Java, not far
from Wonosobo or Banjarnegara. I made a plan to visit this place long time ago,
but several damned reasons caused me to cancel it. But this time, I’ve made it!
Yippie!!! As always, I told my partners in crime about the plan and they just
accepted it without any comments (man, I know there’s no reason to refuse this
good idea). However, it would be so boring if we come to Sikunir just for
sunrise since there are some good places to be visited in Dieng Plateau, and
then we listed how we would fool around there. The plan was like this: Friday
23rd in the morning we would have the trip from Semarang to Dieng. Friday
at noon we would arrive and find a cozy place to spend the night before the
sunrise mission. In the afternoon we would explore Dieng Plateau, and hunt the
sunrise at the top of Sikunir on the next day. To spend the time, we could
continue the exploration or maybe sleep before we back to Semarang. Everything
was settled. Buuuuuut, on the D day one of my partners in crime was sick (the
‘nyemingo’ one). Nothing we could do but postpone the plan… *sigh
On Saturday, we finally started
the journey (Yay! Sikunir here we come!!!). It was 9.30am when we left
Semarang, and we took the alternative route (Bandungan-Sumowono-Temanggung). FYI,
the route to reach Wonosobo is more than one, from Semarang we can choose
Ungaran-Bawen-Ambarawa-Temanggung or Ungaran-Bandungan-Sumowono-Temanggung.
From Temanggung there’s an alternative route:
Temanggung-Parakan-Ngadirejo-Jumprit-Tambi-Dieng but the road is narrow and not
too good. Another route is Temanggung-Parakan-Ngadirejo-Wonosobo-Dieng, the
road is wide and good but farther. We arrived in Wonosobo at almost 12pm
(actually, if we had no troubles we could arrive earlier in this town). We had
a yummy lunch called Mie Ongklok, it is a special cuisine from Wonosobo. Mie
Ongklok featuring satay (roasted chicken or mutton) with sauce is the best
combination. After we were full, we needed to full-tanked our motorcycle. FYI
again, from Wonosobo to Dieng there’s only one gas station in Krasak, a smart
driver will full-tanked the vehicle before leave for Dieng. But don’t worry,
for those who are not smart they can find gas retailers around Dieng with
higher price and not guaranteed quality (well…not smart, huh?).
After more or less an hour
journey, we reached Dieng (this place is so damn cold but the sun is so bright…
not good for our skin, trust me). We had to find home stay to spend the night
right away. Since it was weekend, home stay in this place would be full in the
afternoon. Well actually we could build a tent in a camp ground, but the
temperature was too low for us. Several days before we arrived, the temperature
in Dieng was around -1o (me and partners had already known it would
be a bad idea, in addition the ‘nyingo’ was still in his recovery). The home
stay we can choose is so various. Cheap, expensive, clean, dirty, narrow, or
wide just up to you. For those who don’t want to spend too much money, please
DON’T ask the villagers to find the home stay, the price will be higher (they
will keep some of the money for themselves and give the rest to the owner).
It’d better we find it by ourselves and meet the owner to choose the room (or
to bargain maybe). As we did, we got a great home stay: new building, wide,
clean, comfortable bedroom, bathroom with hot water, acceptable price, living
room with television, usable kitchen, and kind-hearted owner (Pakuwojo home
stay). It is located near the Sikunir hill, in Sembungan village. Sembungan
village is the highest village in Java (2200 masl), and 800m from the top of
Sikunir.
In the afternoon we visited Kawah
Sikidang, a cauldron full with sulfur water. The smell of sulfur is not too
good (smells like fart everywhere haha…). The water is hot so visitors can boil
eggs there. Other tourisms in Dieng are Telaga Warna (a lake with unique
color), Telaga Blambangan, Telaga Menjer, Telaga Cebong, Pakuwojo Mountain,
Sikunir Hill, Curug Sikarim (waterfall), Arjuna Temple, Bima Temple, and the
rest I don’t remember eheheee… unfortunately, we just visited Kawah Sikidang
that afternoon. One day is not enough to explore Dieng I guess.
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| Sembungan, the highest village in Java |
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| Kawah Sikidang |
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| Kawah Sikidang II |
The next day we woke up at 3.30am
and got ready to hunt the sunrise at Sikunir’s top. We started to walk from
home stay at 4am, I still remember it was so cold and windy. We just needed 30
minutes to reach the top. Additional info, visiting Sikunir on weekend isn’t
good idea. The top is too crowded, hard to find a nice spot to see the sunrise,
and almost impossible to get a real magic moment with someone special. We were
already there, no choice but enjoy everything as much as we could. Good things
about that place in that time were the clear sky full with stars, crescent
moon, awesome horizon, mountains (from the top we could see top of Merbabu,
Merapi, Sindoro, and Ungaran), and the golden sunrise itself (the cold and
strong wind were not included). Agree, sunrise is more than just awesome. The
view from above is also amazing. Before went back to home stay, we visited
Telaga Cebong. A lake surrounded by hills, field, and trees. I think I love
Sikunir, yay!!!
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| sunrise |
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| Waiting for the golden sunrise |
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| more than 2200 m above the sea level |
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| Cebongan Lake |
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| View from the top |
In the home stay we cooked our
breakfast and took a rest. At 11am we left Sembungan and took the shorter route
(Jumprit-Temanggung). We passed Tambi, a beautiful large tea plantation. It
would be nice if we could take some picture there, but we didn’t. We bought
bakso bakar (roasted meatball with spicy taste) and bakso uleg (special cuisine
from Temanggung) for our lunch in Temanggung before we left for Semarang.
I love adventure and travelling
more and more. Looking forward for the next agenda, unyanya :3
Another double date
24-25 August 2013
Dieng Plateau- Central Java
(with my Bebiihui, Pasku-Nopai)
