Krakal Hot Springs

     Talking about Indonesia is like 1001 nights story. It has never ending stories. Especially for the tourist destination places.  Java is the most popular island in Indonesia among some islands. Kebumen is a small town in central java. It has 22 districts in which each district has its own unique and  it has many beautiful tourist attractions.  Far from the city center there is one historical destination. It is located in Krakal village. About 15 kms from the city. Hot water spring of Krakal. 

Why was it named Krakal? Based on the story (I don’t know wether the story is right or not) hundreds years ago there was a man named Kyai Agung sabdo Guno. He was relatif of Surakarta Kingdom. He suffered from skin disease. Many people has tried to cured him, but failed. Then one night he dreamed. He saw a small well in the midle of teak forest that could cured his skin disease. Then he went to that place and found it. It was a teak forest surounded by stones. The small stone is called  “kerikil”, then big stones called “Krakal” which was the stone from volcanic mount. It is correct that Kebumen has some variety of rocks. Some came from volcanic mount. Which can be concluded that there was once a volcano mount in the place where the volcanic stones were found. There he found a small well which expelled hot water and tasted salty. He stayed there for a long time. He takes a bath from the water of Krakal everyday. Day by day his skin disease disappeared. Then he named that place as Krakal.

If you are in the city center of Kebumen where you can stay in some cheap comfortable hotels, then you can ride to the east passes a wide exotic greenfield. You’ll pass some villages like Karangsari, Sruni and then Krakal. You’ll find that the place are very easy to be accessed.

Today many people come to this place not only for vacation but also for curing their skin problem. What facilities are in Krakal Hot Spring.

1.       Bathing room

The room is quite big, with only 7000 rupiah, you can submerge in a hot water in a bathtub. The water is warm and it excrets smoke, but it feels very fresh. You can relax and enjoy the fresh water in all of your body, but rembember you just can stay there for about 15 minutes, because the shulphur is quite dangerous if it  is inhaled for  a long time.

2.      Well

There are two active wells from where the hot water comes from. Hot spring Krakal emerged from rock formation of  Penosogan Karangsambung.

3.      Park

When you entering the gate of Krakal Hot Spring Water, you straightly see a big cozy park. it has some big trees that make it very shady. It is facilitated with some kids playground like swing, slide and open stage.

4.      Open Stage

In the park there is a wide open stage. It is ussually used for some performances like traditonal dance, singing performance, ebleg (a tradtional art performance from Kebumen). Kids can play here like they were a famous star. They will be very happy.

5.      Deer breeding

Behind the Krakal Hot Spring Water, there is a small teak forest. I don’t know who owns the forest. There are some deer in the forest. People said that the deer were cattled.

6.      Turkey breeding

Beside the Deer breeding, there is a house (that it’s the traditional house of Java) and beside the house there is a small barn where some turkeys are lying. Many years ago, some people in my village had some turkeys to be cattled, but now no one has them. As I know, only in this place I can find turkeys. It is beautiful bird.

       7. Teak trees
          Along the way to the deer breeding we will get through some teak trees. these trees are very expensive. Teak trees can be made furniture like chairs, tables, cupboards and beds. They can't be easily broken. they lasting for many years. that's why teaks are very expensive.  

   

           Well, that was about Krakal. Even the place is not quite wide but it scenic beauty allure visitors to escape from the bustle and hustle of city to get tranquility in the midst of natural green landscape.  There are still a lot of tourist resorts in Kebumen like exotic beaches, cold upland, historical venues and mystique caves. Then are you ready to explore Kebumen. Let’s get start.