“All good, ma?” My son, Bo, looked at me as we took the stairs up. The sun was peeping afar, soon will be brilliantly shining that morning, We had more steps before we reached the summit. I could see the golden ray already..
“Yeah, I can handle it. We’re almost there, right?” I replied, catching my breath while my eyes feast on the breathtaking view engulfing us. Misty clouds, burst of golden sunshine, and majestic hills. Alhamdulillah, we welcomed a bright, new morning at Sikunir Hill, Dieng, Central Java, Indonesia.
Assalammualaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Hi everyone.. I hope your days are great as ever!
Happy 2026!
Brand new day is coming and I sincerely hope 2026 will bring all the great things for us all, wherever we are.
2025 has been super special for me, in terms of family, personal life, works and passion. Such a remarkable journey, as 2025 marks a new chapter for me personally.
While welcoming 2026, I feel like sharing our early days in 2025 as we travelled to different parts of Indonesia. My family and I decided to visit Dieng area in East Java. We have not been here before, visiting the famous mountainous areas with its fertile, green farms as well as hills and tracks to enjoy the sunrise and more.
Our trip started from Jakarta, which took us around hours with one stop at the Forest Kopi, one of the cafe shops or more like the first Cafe we visited on our way to Dieng from Jakarta. Located in Kembangan area, Batang, it is still around 30 km before Dieng, our final destination.
As the name suggested, Forest (or hutan in Bahasa Indonesia ) Kopi (or coffee), the coffee shop was located in the middle of forest. Some parts of it are pine forests and I love it so much for its sparkling freshness. Moreover, here we can also enjoy tea plantation, lush forests and greenery mountainous area.
This cafe here mostly offers munchies and some snack, plus some main dishes like fried rice, noodles and chicken rice. As for the beverages, they vary, including coffee, tea, wedang jahe and bandrek, Indonesian traditional ginger drinks. Perfect for the cool temperature we enjoyed here. And I have to say, we were starving when we arrived here
Read my contribution at Google Map on Forest Coffee **HERE
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As we continued the trip, we drove to the forest and country side to reach our final destination, Sikunir Hill. The road heading to Dieng is just stunning! All the greeneries certainly makes me feel so relaxed and blessed, to have the opportunity to enjoy nature’s best with my beloved family.
We have booked the accomodation and before catching the sunrise at Sikunir Hill, we explored the area as well.
We started getting out of the house we rent at 4 AM and I have to say that it was a bit late apparently. Later we learnt that many people started going out at 3 AM to catch the sunrise here.
It was pitch black, yet we could tell that there were so many people around heading towards the same spot.
We passed through Telaga Cebong or Tadpoles lake in English, beautiful and serene in early morning. The photo I post below was taken on our way back to the cabin, compared to the one above I took at 4 AM.
We walked a bit to the main road and then took the ojek, motorcycle ride, to get to the bottom of the hill. From there, we started climbing up and it was quite an exercise. My kids went up faster obviously, while I took my pace. I arrived late as the sun was already shining, but it still felt so surreal. Well, there were a lot of people at that place of course,
We enjoyed the scenery, took photos together again and again. It was a precious family time and I sincerely hope it will stay as another beautiful, core memories for my family.
For my review on Sikunir Hill Dieng, please read HERE.
For some tips to those who want to come and visit this place, before climbing up, you need to check many things, including your level of fitness, your gear and the weather. Make sure you do check the weather before going to get properly dressed. As it’s super early, the weather can be dropped down to 10 - 13 degrees C or even colder. Moreover, strong wind might be coming during rainy season. Obviously, you also need good, comfortable shoes to walk and hike up. And don’t forget to always hydrate yourself, bring your tumblers with water.
Moreover, there are some stops for you to enjoy the scenery of so many mountains, if you get lucky and if the weather is perfectly friendly. The higher, the more tiring the hike will be for sure. The first stop we took is already 2219 meters above the sea level. So please please pay attention to the lack of oxygen at this level, better get used to it before hiking. Nevertheless, I saw many families and group of people traveling with young kids and toddlers and they did climbing up, so it’s somehow manageable.
Again, if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to see Mt. Sindoro, Mr. Sumbing, Mt. Kembang, Mt. Merbabu, Mt. Merapi, Mt. Ungaran and Mt. Prau as well as Mt. Slamet.
Once we’re happy with the climb and the sun started to shine brightly, we started walking down and got our breakfast here, Dieng potatoes cooked as stew. We also got some traditional munchies and Carica, the distinct and typical food from this area.
After our climb, we visited one of the temples here, called Arjuna Temple. We also explored Telaga Warna or colored lake, which I will share in a different post if you don’t mind.
Well, that’s a little adventure I had to welcome the new year. Hope you do have a great start of the year as well.
See you on the next adventure!
! I love hiking 
and as I live by the mountains I have a lot of opportunities to do so, however I prefer to explore new places.
Maybe it’s time to explore Asia.
Hugs 
to you climb till top