Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Kalibiru, at the Edge of the World

(continuing from the previous post here)

Our chat, weeks before my arrival in Jogjakarta...

Friend whom I had a crush on : Just list down the places you want to visit in Jogja.
Me : Dieng!
Friend : Dieng? Ok aja!

Our chat a day before my arrival...

Friend : We have to skip Dieng. It's raining and not advisable.
Me : ok #sadface
Friend : Where else? On Saturday, do you mind going to Kalibiru?
Me : Ok. I'll just follow whatever your plans are. :)


I googled Dieng... found pictures exactly like this one that I personally took. It was LOVELY! 
(Later we found out there were some landslides in the Dieng area and I was glad we didn't end up going there.)



So the next day around 11am, I was picked up from my host's house (also known as Manis Manja House Basecamp). He told me that it was his first time to Kalibiru and admits he "somewhat" knows the way. Hahaha... he did in fact had to check his cellphone several times to make sure we were going the correct way. Oh well.... to get lost is an adventure in itself! We had to pass vast paddy fields and countryside to reach our destination.

Kalibiru Tourism Forest or village is located at Menoreh hills of Kulon Progo regency, 60 kms from Jogjakarta and is at 450 meters above sea level. As seen in the picture above, you could see the lake called the Sermo Reservoir from there..
.
I don't remember how long I sat rigid at the back of his motorcycle holding anything else except his back. He drove very fast and I began having fears of falling off and being in the news the next day. Gah! But I was relieved that we safely reached our destination!

Selamat datang! Welcome!

The parking lot is just behind this sign. Ehh.. my friend is in the picture. :P
What I did notice was that the narrow roads started to swivel and heading uphill. I didn't see any cars on the roads. It was pretty quiet. Some were even so steep that I had to jump off the motorcycle while he pushed the bike up. Huhu. Kesian dia. I should helped him to push but I didn't. He must have been overly exhausted by the time we reached the entrance to park the bike, and then from there climb some more.

The steep climb uphill...  
We paid around 3,000 rp each for the entrance fees and another extra if we wanted to try the flying fox, rock climbing or just climb a high perch to get some "over-the-edge" pictures. If you know what I mean.

You could choose to either do some trekking to the reservoir (left) or just climb this house-tree (right) 
We chose the later which resulted to us waiting for our turns as there were many others and only one person was allowed to climb each time.

For what???

To get these pictures which we can show back to our friends at home and just gleam. Hehehehe.

The picture that fooled many people at home who thought it was so high above the ground.
When in reality................

... we were fastened with a safety harness and climbed these bamboo stairs to a wooden platform above.  
My friend helped took the picture standing on a higher hill that faces the wooden platform. Safety measures were done to anyone who climbed the platform so that they'd be safe and won't jump to their deaths. Hehe.

But it does looks like it's far above the ground, huh? To me it felt I was at the edge of the world, ready to fall off! Haha! 
After taking the desired pictures, we headed downhill and stopped over at a food stall to have a lunch of fried indomie. It's good to know that Kalibiru is adequately equipped with working toilets, mushollah, team-building activities, food stalls and some picnic areas too. All under rp 3,000.~ 1 dollar. :)

This was my THIRD visit to Jogjakarta and it still never fails to amaze me with it's many nature wonders. I've been to Jomblang Cave, Tubing in Gunung Kidul and visited both Prambanan and Borobudur, but still Jogjakarta has many more to offer. I'll be back for Dieng. That's for sure!

Many, many thanks to owner of jembertraveler.com for the tour. It was a memorable one! Sorry for any misdemeanors from my part! Oppsss.. identity revealed. :P

3 comments:

chekgu Bani Hassim said... [Reply]

mmg gayat!
tapi view yg mendamaikan membuatkan kita terlupa semuanya!

AjlaA said... [Reply]

wish to go to jogja tooo. slowly baru nk cover indonesia sikit2. hee

Jard The Great said... [Reply]

@ chekgu... hahaha! betull!! berbaloi-baloi!!

@ ajlaa... pergi.. jangan tak pergi. Airasia kan ada? :P