Banda Aceh

We got the 8am ferry from Palau Weh back to Banda Aceh. When we stepped off the boat there were loads of army around and some people in civilian clothes carrying big machine guns. As we started to walk through to the carpark they started shooting the machine guns, they were really close to us so it was really loud and scary. We got told later by our Becak driver that this was a terrorist simulation, and they were just practising. I am not overly convinced myself, it seemed quite panicked, but we got away safe and sound.

The lady that ran Olala's, where we stayed on Palau Weh gave us the name of a Becak (a Becak in Sumatra is basically a motorbike with a side car, big enough for two people) driver called Herry. So when we got to the carpark we asked around and luckily he was there.

Whilst in Banda Aceh we have to renew our visa, as you only get a month on arrival, if you want to stay longer you have to get an extension. So first we asked Herry to take us to a cheap hotel, to drop the stuff then onto the embassy. The hotel was pretty cheap and had good wifi, but it was too early to check in, so we left the bags there, and set off for the Embassy.

When we arrived at the Embassy we were told that to extend the visa they needed proof of our flights out of Indonesia. Now I was aware of this but I was also aware that it is not guaranteed that you get the visa extension, so i did not want to book flights for a months time if we had to leave next week. Anyway with some help from Herrys translation skills, we managed to establish that as long as we have the return flight, we will definitely get the extension. At that point we decided as it was still early to see some of the sights of Banda Aceh before heading back to the hotel to book the flights, then back to the Embassy.
Banda Aceh came to international attention on 26 December 2004, the day the Indian Ocean earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra. Banda Aceh was the closest major city to the earthquake's epicentre, and suffered further damage when a tsunami struck shortly afterward. It was the worst hit area out of all the locations hit. 167,000 people died and many more were injured. The tsunami resulted from an earthquake of magnitude 9.3 and struck at about 6:58am. The epicentre was about 155 miles off the coast of Banda Aceh.

There are various tsunami related sights to see in Banda Aceh, the first we went to were a couple of boats that ended up in a small village. These boats were carried about 1km from the harbour, they are both fishing boats. The first one has landed at quite an angle, and when you step onto it, it is the strangest feeling. Not only do you have to lean about 45 degrees to stand up, the whole boat feels like it is swaying. When Herry told us it feels like its moving, I was like, yea of course it does. But it really does, its very odd. The houses that were flattened have all been rebuilt around the boats, it must be very strange to live there, with two big boats in your front garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next stop is the big boat, this boat weighs somewhere in the region of 700 tonnes, and was carried about 6km by the tsunami. It was an off shore power station, and now serves as a power station (on shore) supplying power to the town of Banda Aceh. Its really hard to get your head around something so massive being carried such a long way by water. There is also a memorial here to the people that lost their lives to the tsumani. All of these places are quite difficult to visit, because such a massive number of people died here. But the things that makes it weirder is that again this is another place where everyone wants to take our photo. One woman in particular spotted us from the top of the boat and was practically having convulsions she was so excited to see us. It was like she had seen Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny all rolled into one (and yes she was gripping me really hard, and no i didnt think she was going to let go!)

Also at this sight was a lot of pictures taken after the tsunami, quite a lot of these were very disturbing, showing hundreds and hundreds of bodies. There was one in particular that shows the mosque, this was the only building still standing after the tsunami (You can make you own mind up as to whether this was some sort of divine intervention, or just that the mosques are the sturdiest built buildings). Here are a few of the photos, don't worry no bodies in these ones, the last photo shows Banda Aceh before and after the tsunami, terrifying.

Last tsunami stop of the day was the boat on the house. This is a fishing boat that again was carried about 2km from the harbour by the tsunami. At this site we met a man that had lost a whole generation of his family in the disaster, i find this very difficult, I just don't know what to say to these people, words just are not sufficient.

Inside most of these sites there are massive plastic sheets that are strung up and they have the names of the people that died and their ages. That really brings it home that just in this area alone 167,000 people died, absolutely tragic. We went past a massive park a couple of times and were told that there was kind of school games event going on in the park the day of the tsunami, all of those people were washed away.

After that pretty emotional morning we headed back to the hotel and asked Herry to pick us up in an hour to head back to the Embassy. After being unable to book the tickets online, Herry came back for us and took us to a travel agents.

Now the next country on the agenda was India, but it is quite difficult and time consuming to get an Indian visa in Indonesia. So time for a cunning plan, we can fly to Kathmandu (Nepal), and get a month visa on arrival, we can then apply for our Indian visa there and cross the land border into India. So flights to Kathmandu booked for the 25th July, we headed back to the Embassy.

We dropped off the passports and got assurances that we would get them back in the next 5 days. The rest of the day was spent using the wifi in the hotel. The following morning Herry came back to collect us and take us to a beach nearby called Lampuuk to wait out the visas...............