After a well earned lay in, we wandered out to explore Banda Aceh. First stop was the Masjid Raya Baiturrahman, the Grand Mosque. Unfortunately we hadn’t realised quite how strict the dress code was and were turned away at the gates. We peered through the railings and agreed we’d return later with more suitable outfits. After a brief tour of a little market, we decided the heat was too oppressive and jumped in a becak to take us to the Tsunami Museum. The 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami devastated Banda Aceh. The tsunami followed the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and scientists say, in Aceh the wave reached heights of 30 metres. Although there were a couple of hours between the earthquake and the tsunami hitting, there wasn’t a warning system in place and people were taken by surprise. 220,000 people were killed in Indonesia alone with 500,000+ people displaced. The only good thing to come out of the disaster was the 28 December declaration of a cease fire, ending the civil war between the Acehnese independence movement (GAM) and the Indonesian army (TNI). Humanitarian aid flooded in and with a ‘Build Back Better’ motto, the schools, hospitals and roads are now in a better state than they have ever been.
Having read about the whopping $5.6m spent on building the museum, we had high hopes and were pretty disappointed with the place, the money would have been put to much better use elsewhere. The building is huge, modern and attractive and there are lots of photos showing the aftermath, with a couple of boards telling of how foreign aid helped out, but nothing really about the tsunami itself and half the museum was either closed or had old worn out simulators that no longer worked.
Unimpressed we jumped in another becak to take us out to the Floating Electric Generator Ship, a 2,600 tonne vessel, washed 5km inland, but when we got there it was closing for a two hour lunch break. Feeling a bit like we’d wasted the morning we ended up going back to the hotel, stopping for lunch on the way. As 2pm approached we headed out again, first back to the Electric Generator Ship (where we walked on the ships deck, had a few photos taken by local people and struggled to find a becak back into town), then to the ‘Boat on a House’ in Lampulo. Another humbling site, the boat was a fisherman boat and after saving 59 people, ended up perched on top of a house. Again, we struggled to find a becak, finally flagging one down to take us back to our hotel where we grabbed long trousers and a long sleeved top and head scarf for me, so we could visit the mosque. The building itself was beautiful, bright white walls topped with sparkling black domes, placed in a peaceful little garden park. A few more photos with local women and we left. Back at the hotel and we had a quick rest before wandering out for street food satay for dinner.
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| 2,600 tonne electric generator ship swept 5 km inland by the Tsunami, Banda Aceh. |
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| Masjid Raya Baiturrahman, Banda Aceh. |
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| Interior of Masjid Raya Baiturrahman, Banda Aceh. |
Religion is taken very seriously in Aceh and the province is devoutly Muslim (Berastagi and Danu Toba were Christian). In February of this year, the Aceh administration declared that both Muslims and Non-Muslims would be held accountable under Sharia law. This includes not wearing a head scarf or wearing tight clothes for women and drinking of alcohol. Anyone found drinking alcohol or breaching the codes on moral behavior, whether residents or visitors to Aceh, Muslim or not, could face between six and nine lashes of the cane, following Sharia law as implemented in Arab and sharia-based Islamic countries.
We had a ferry to catch the next morning and left the hotel to find a taxi to take us to the Ulee Lheue port. We bought our tickets and settled down for a cup of tea while we waited. The journey was only 45 mins and within no time we were in Pulau Weh. We jumped in a becak once off the boat, which took us around the other side of the island to Santai Sumur Tiga, to Freddies, a resort recommended to us by Tim. Luckily we had a reservation as it was full and other people on our ferry were being turned away. We’d booked in for 4 nights to give ourselves more relax time and once we saw our bungalow we knew we’d done the right thing. After a warm welcome from Freddie we were escorted to our room, it was spacious and airy with an amazing balcony with views out between the palm trees, across the beach to the sea beyond.
We spent that afternoon and the whole of the next day roaming between the balcony and the sea. The walk in snorkeling was brilliant with a huge array of fish, we saw lobsters (or maybe cray fish?), a shoal of cuttle fish, a few eels and a black lion fish, ticking off two of our ‘TO SEE’ list. There was a pontoon anchored a short way from shore where, with a bit of difficulty and some ungraceful beached whale moves, you could climb on and sit and watch the day pass by. Freddie offers a buffet dinner each night and for ease we decided to try it on our first night, thinking we’d alternate with the A La Carte restaurant. Once we tried it though there was no way we were eating anywhere but there. It was the most delicious gourmet food we’ve had the pleasure to enjoy in a long time. Each night (after we had a couple of glasses of white wine (such a treat!)) two starters were brought to the tables, from seared tuna steaks to guacamole, which we enjoyed while Freddie told us the details of how each element of the meal had been prepared and what ingredients had been used, he had such a passion for it, it was hard not to get excited. Then there was the buffet main course, tray after tray of delicious salads, pastas, casseroles, baked sweet potatoes, tempeh and all kinds of other things. Then we had dessert at our tables before we were too full to move and practically had to roll back up to our bungalow and bed.
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| View from our balcony, Freddies, Pulau Weh. |
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| Snokeling at Freddies, Pulau Weh. |
After a day and a half of relaxation we decided to rent a bike to explore Pulau Weh. After circling the island, we decided to check out Iboih, the main area of accommodation on the island. Lonely Plant had insinuated it was a backpacker haven but when we got there it was nothing more than a small collection of cheap cottages, a few dive shops and the odd restaurant, nothing that made us want to stick around and made us even more grateful we were staying at Freddies. Back on the bike we stopped at Kilometre 0, the most westerly point of Indonesia, Gapang Bay (again, supposed to be lovely but really not all that) and then headed back, through a group of angry monkeys, via a waterfall with huge fruit bats hanging in the nearby trees, around the confusing one way system of Sabang, to our resort for a swim and a snorkel.
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| The most westerly point of Indonesia, Pulau Weh. |
Having spoken to another couple who had snorkeled at Rubiah Island opposite Iboih beach, we decided to keep the bike for another day. After a breakfast pancake, we set off. Once in Iboih we chartered a little boat, captained by a small child, to drop us at the island. Heading away from the crowds all floating around in their life jackets without the slightest idea how to use their fins, to the other side of Rubiah, we found a little secluded, rocky cove and waded in. We weren’t disappointed, the snorkeling was great. After an hour we wandered back to the other side of the island for more snorkeling before trying to catch an earlier boat back to Weh. Unfortunately no one would take us and we ended up sitting around for an hour, feeling a bit out of place and uncomfortable (sometimes the constant staring can get a bit tiring) until our little boat returned to collect us.
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| Rhys and a shoal of sergeant major fish, Pulau Wei. |
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| Hundreds of fish, snorkeling off Pulau Weh. |
Freddie had arranged for a van to pick us up the following morning to drop everyone who was leaving at the ferry terminal. We took the fast ferry and were back in Banda Aceh by 9am. Freddie had also arranged for a driver to pick us up and take us 17km south to Lampuuk Beach. Our flight wasn’t until 4:30pm and another day hanging around in Banda Aceh wasn’t too appealing (it is a pleasant, clean city but doesn’t have much to keep tourists interested). Our driver was great, pointing out areas that had been completely flattened by the tsunami, mass burial grounds (just fenced off areas), markers showing the height of the wave and also telling his of his own experience, losing his 6 year old son when the wave hit and being reunited 2 hours later. We learned more during the 20 minute drive than we had at the museum.
When we arrived at the beach, we knew we’d made the right decision, a long, golden arch of sand with waves crashing against the shore. We walked the length of the beach before settling at a little shelter. Shelters line the beach, but when we were there, it was pretty much empty with only a small group of people huddling in the shade of the cliffs at one end. We spent a couple of hours playing in the waves and relaxing in our little hut before grabbing dinner at a little restaurant at the end of the beach and meeting our driver who took us back to the airport. We met up with Steve and Gemma who had been staying at Freddie’s too and waited for the flight. Once back in Medan we took a taxi into town, with a loopy driver, and were dropped at our hotel. We’d treated ourselves using our Agoda loyalty points and were very happy when we discovered that our hotel was actually part of the train station, meaning it would be easy to get back to the airport in the morning for our flight back to Singapore. It was a great room with proper pillows and even a feather duvet. As it was already getting late and we wanted to make the most of our room we just popped across the road to a food court in the shopping mall for dinner before turning in for the night.
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| Lampuuk Beach, near Banda Aceh. |
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