hi guys, wondering if i wana do bandung --> yogyakarta 6 days enough to travel? tq tq

When I was in Bandung last year, thinking of what you're thinking. Check wth the driver and told me possible but travel to Jogja from Bandung itself is almost 7-8hrs due to bad road condition. We decided not to.

anyone knows if the volcanic ash clean up effort at borobudur is complete? or are some parts of the temple still closed to public?

I come back I tell you lah.

thanks stimix. i m actually thinking of taking train so shud b better right...

impractical, i'd say. it takes at least 15 hours any mode of transport other than flight. I have done my research :'(

Wonder if the place is okay for a girl to travel solo?

Aiya mix mix, so jialat. Both of us choose wrong time to go Yogya liao. Rainy season leh, every day rain. And the famous ramayana outdoor dance thing at Prambanan not on - they only got indoor performance. But I can say the roads here are good, and traffic is A LOT more civilized than in north sumatra. I will have no hesitation about driving. Can't tell you anything about the road to Dieng because I'm still in Yogya, but I rode a bike to Borobodur then Kaliurang to try and get a view of Merapi, then Prambanan. Even some ulu-ulu places along the way, the roads were uniformly good; better in some respects than Malaysia liao. If you're heading north from Yogya towards Borobudur or Magelang, you might want to stop at this place just south of Muntilan. Some houses there got half-buried in a mud-flow during the eruption last year and you can still see the half-buried houses and mud and sand everywhere, and lots of people stopping to gawk. Hawkers, people peddling VCDs of the eruption people collecting donations, singing Quranic verses, like funfair nia.

And the entrance fee to Borobudur USD15 and Prambanan USD13 pengsan lah. Prambanan definitely more worth it than Borobudur in terms of sheer impact. And a travel tip. If you're flying in to Yogya, there's a railway station just across the road from the terminal with quite a number of trains every day going to Yogya. The Tugu station in Yogya is just north of the Sosrowijaya area where all the cheapo hotels are. The hotel you book is in this really nice lane about 10 min walk from the railway station and it was fully booked when we walked past yesterday. Looks quite nice.

No choice liao...nowadays weather is so unpredictable..even here in KL.

The station opposite Jogja airport. Yeah I saw it via wikimapia but dunno the schedule.. If hv to wait for 1 hr die liao.. ...Now thinking of getting a fake student card to enter those attractions liao....Wondering why you dun use your "Student" card?

Anyone knows Yogya beach is a reckon to go? many thanks.

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Added on February 28, 2011, 3:48 pmAnyone been Merapi Valcano? i am contemplating to go.... it is something new to experience.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ghhmY1kapcs/TOD1...00/PICT0898.JPG

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ghhmY1kapcs/TOD2...00/PICT0896.JPG

This post has been edited by waisang: Feb 28 2011, 03:48 PM

I'm going there thursday morning..for day trip only..then night time travel by train to Bandung..and Jakarta on the last day..

Mix mix, you better cancel your plans to go to semarang liao. Waste time. The Cinatown there got lots of nice curvy roofs like Malacca, but all the front hor, ugly boxy, functional concrete, like they bom all the front of the shops and then rebuilt ugly way. Got one temple there Tay Kak Sie, not as old as the Ching Hoon Ting in Malacca, but same kind of concept, also recently renovated, so look nice nice. Then got one lumpia stall, suppose to be famous, but most expensive I have ever eaten. Rp 10,000!!! The Old City with all the Dutch buildings is falling into ruins, nobody take care, then I think the biggest colonial building there, the Lawang Sewu, is also collapsing. Then the road going into Semarang is chockablock wif traffic for many many kilometres - you will pengsan driving there. Don't waste time. The worst bit of my experience of Semarang was going all the way to the Sam Poo Kong temple, paying the Rp10,000 entrance, only to find that the entrance to the temple halls in the compund there are all barricaded and you have pay an additional Rp30,000 to get in! Even locals have to pay Rp20,000. Too much liao these people. Some more all the temple buildings look spanking new! There's supposed to be some cave in there wif a statue of Zheng He. One chinaman, probably from Taiwan, sneaked in trhough the barricade, came back out and told us nothing to see, all fake wan.

I will recommend instead from Dieng, you drive straight to Solo and spend more time there and visit the Candi Sukuh with the erotic stuff. Might do that tomorrow liao on a bike. Or you can stop halfway for the night at Ambarawa. Pass there on the bus, looks like quite a nice town in the hills, with a Chinese temple some more. You might consider spending the night at Bandungan nearby. The views from the hills there are supposed to be stunning and got some old ruined temples also.

As for Dieng ah, highly recommended. The gradient is OK until you get to about 10 - 12 km from Dieng. Then it becomes steeper - more like Genting Highlands, but without the sharp switchbacks. And the road surface is quite ok, just a few bumpy bits here and there, NOTHING at all like Sumatera Utara. The only thing you want to worry about is the traffic. Dieng is cold in the evening, so come prepared. Cant' give you any temperatures, boh thermometer, but I had two blankets over me, socks, a t-shirt and a cotton jumper, and a cotton drawstring thingy - OK lah. Make sure the place you stay in got hot water. We stayed in Bu Jono, reocmmended by Lonely Planet. The people there are friendly and helpful, but try not to eat there. Very kwailou taste the food, ugh. But there is really nothing much to eat there anyway. You might try looking around at some of the newer and smarter looking places along the main road, there are a few. The highlight of the trip to Dieng would definitely be going to Sembungan and then walking about 2 km to the top of this hill, Sukunir. If you go there early enough before the clouds and mist come, you will get a spectacular view of a couple of volcanoes, a sea of clouds below, and views of the terraced slopes of Dieng. It's like Cameron Highlands on a vast scale and much higher, with the terraces going in some places all the way to the mountain tops. They plant mostly kentang and kobis there. The disadvantage of this intense agriculture is you get the awful smell of fertilizer there all over the place.

The other place you might want to go to is the Telaga Warna. It's like a watered-down slice of Jiuzhaigou - a greenish pond. There's a trail round the lake, but here's a travel tip - if you don't want to pay the Rp9,000 admission fee to get into the lake, try getting in through the Dieng Plateau theatre - there's somebody there collecting money for some multimedia thing inside I think but nobody at the counter when I got there, and from there, got steps going down tot he telaga warna thingy. It's higher ground than the lake, so you can see the whole thing and appreciate the colour much better than from the lakeshore. The rest of the plateau got some kawah this and kawah that - craters with bubbling mud ponds and poison gas coming out.+

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Added on March 2, 2011, 11:53 pmOh ya. Borobudur ah, the top three levels with the stupas and the buddha statues inside closed for cleaning of the volcanic ash when I was there on Sunday, so didn't reach nirvana liao. Maybe if you're lucky, by the time you get there, they will have reopened the area already. It already looked quite clean when I looked up on Sunday, but maybe there are other conservation works they are still doing.

This post has been edited by PangurBan: Mar 2 2011, 11:53 PM

Wow..very informative indeed..

OK, probably skip Semarang since not many days there.

BTW, from Jogja to Dieng, do you drive or ride? and do you think an 1300cc car/suv can climb those slope?...Any contact to the car rental appreciated.

We took the bus to Dieng. Change four or five times! Didn't rent any cars - took motorbike or bus or taxi or becak all the way, so I can't give you any information about car rental.

I think a 1300 cc car will be ok going up to Dieng, as long as you don't get carried away and buy too many of those buddha statues, pagodas and other stone stuff made of volcanic rock when you drive through Muntilan. Lots of motorbikes on that road, and the road surfaces are all ok. If your car can go up Genting, it can get you to Dieng.

Went to Candi Sukuh today. Highly recommended, in some ways better than Borobudur and Prambanan. It's got a glorious setting high up on the side of the volcano and you drive through some really beautiful scenery to get there - tidy little villages, vegetable plots, groves of trees, and tea plantations, much, much nicer than those at Cameron Highlands. On a clear sunny day like today, the experience can be quite stunning. Candi Sukuh looks really weird in Indonesia - it looks just like an Inca or Aztec pyramid. even the bas reliefs look Inca-Aztec-Mayan. And there are three huge turtles there much like the ones you find in Chinese temples, those holding up stone tablets.

But wait, there is better yet to come. Go further up the mountain to Candi Seto. This one is even better in my opinion than Candi Sukuh and fewer people got here because it's more isolated. The setting is really spectacular and the temple itself is really something. Steep roads, and some bumpy bits.

Don't miss these two, I would say they and their surroundings were the highlight of my entire trip.

This post has been edited by PangurBan: Mar 3 2011, 08:44 PM

@ PangurBan, thanks for all the detailed info~
me and my friends plus the driver are also planning to stay at Bu jono at Dieng~
btw, is the place with hot water?

Got. If you take the more expensive room at the back, I think got ensuite shower with heater. If you take the cheaper rooms, Rp70,000, you get hot water from a tap into a bucket in the common bathroom, and mix it with some cold water.

Oh thanks for the fast reply~
the driver gonna stay with me in 1 room & the girls in another~
hope to hear more on your travel updates~

glad to hear about the review on those candi near by solo like candi sukuh~
makes me more anticipating about the trip~

enjoy your trip there~

Interesting, do you have this hotel contact? what kind of room? is it dorm? thanks.

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Added on March 4, 2011, 12:11 amHi PangurBan, how was u plan your Dieng, Borobudur, Candi Sukuh, Candi Seto etc? how much time you have spent for each places? my driver told me that i can do Borobudur+Dieng for one day trip.

I am thinking now when i arrive yogya at 835am, after check out from the airport, i straight to go Borobudur+Dieng or Candi Seto, i plan do overnight in Dieng, do you think i have enough time to do so? perhaps i can shorten/skip some places for visiting.

please comment, thanks.

This post has been edited by waisang: Mar 4 2011, 12:11 AM

I'm also thinking of covering both Dieng & Borobudor within a day but probably will be very rush bcos to Dieng already ~3hrs journey & probably spend 3 hrs there b4 rushing to borobudor for sunset (~ 4.30pm) By the time reach Jogja probably 9pm dy..

1 stone kill 2 birds haha. So your timing probably abit hard..bcos..Arriving at Jogja at 8:35 am..but passing thru immigrationg & baggagese + looking for transport will be another 1-1.5 hrs wated. and going direct to Dieng +3hrs & etc..yopu probably back to Jogja by midnite dy.

To Chetto & Suwuh temples probably OK..

um.... howo Borobudor and other first where possible during the journey, once we are leave from the yogya airport, and since thinking to stay over night at Dieng? does it make sense?