Dieng. It’s been a long time since I visited the plateau. The lake with the multi-colored waters set in the beautiful highland valley outside of Yogyakarta. I wanted to go back one more time. To experience some of the things I didn’t get a chance to do the last time I visited. It was going to be an interesting day trip from Yogyakarta.
If you want to join the Dieng sunrise tour you have to wake up early. In fact, we never even went to sleep. The driver picked us up from the house at 12:30 at night. We piled into the car with pillows, warm clothes and a bag full of camera equipment. We closed the door and set off into the darkness.
Dieng is a three-hour drive outside of Yogyakarta. The town, if you can call it that, is nestled in the highlands in a valley. It’s famous with tourists for the Telaga Warna turquoise lake. Yet the reason why we were setting off so early in the morning was for the sunrise from Sikunir Hill. I had been told it is beautiful.
Sunrise at Dieng
It was almost 4am when the car eventually rolled to a stop at the car park at the bottom of Sikunir hill. Despite the time there were small groups of people huddled together in coats talking excitedly. There must have been about 25 people in the car park all looking excited.
From the car park it’s a 30-minute walk along a track to the top of Sikunir Hill. Sunrise happens at about 5am, so instead of setting off straight away we bought a cup of tea at one of the small shops. The tea was hot and sweet and helped warm me up.
After drinking the tea we set off up the track. The path was dark and uneven steps are dug into the side of the hill. We used the light from our phones to help us see. Above us we could see the light from the stars. It looked so beautiful this high up away from any big city.
When you are almost at the top of the hill you reach a small rest area with chairs. Here the path divides. To the left there is a path that takes you to a lower viewing point on Sikunir hill. To the right you can follow another path that takes you all the way to the top of the hill. This is the best place to view sunrise and it’s the path that we took.
From the rest area it’s another ten-minute climb to the top of the hill. You can tell when you are almost at the top, because you can see the silhouette of a hut at the top of the hill (set against the stars. It looks so beautiful, but I couldn’t take a good photo).
At the top of the hill there were a crowd of people sitting down and waiting for the sunset. We tried to find a spot by the front of the crowd.
It was cold at the top of the hill, but there wasn’t a wind. We settled down and waited to watch the sunrise from Sikunir hill. It was a really beautiful view. Watch the video to see what it’s like for yourself.
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