We arrived half dead in Banda Aceh following the shitty night minivan from Takengon. Again we had a problem due to it being the weekend. There were no free hostels available. Everyone told us they were full and wanted us to stay at the most expensive places. The first hotel we asked had one room, but we went everywhere else to be met with rejection. Only then did it dawn on us that we should have asked if they had a room for four people. Hindsight is often neglected. We got a room for 150,000 rp for the four of us and all three girls decided to have a rest. In the end Cannelle joined me for breakfast at Tower Cafe where we had our first experience of sort of Padang food where they plonk down a bunch of plates and you just eat whatever you fancy and pay for those items. It was the first time we had Rizol (spring roll thing, really nice), andal andal (coconut covered caramel thing. The girls loved it) and Pulut (sticky rice). Every piece was 1000 rp and the Indonesian bakeries are a godsend for us and so, so cheap. We went to visit the mosque which is really something and then for a walk down the memorial gardens to the old artificial hill built by an old sultan for his Malaysian wife (Gunongan). So far, so pleasant. Its a nice city to go for a stroll around and you can see that they have taken care with the cleanup. We then met a motorcycle driver who invited us for tea with him. It was short as we had to meet the German girls to visit the Tsunami Museum, which was the primary reason we had stopped here. It really is an impressive museum and totally free. Be careful though as they want money for the cloakroom if you leave any items there which is mandatory. I refused to pay on the way out as they didn't mention this when we deposited the items. They have an interesting museum, showing the power and speed of the water, as well as some more technical explanations. The people must have been hit hard and its weird walking around a city in which you know almost everyone must have lost at least one relative in the tsunami. Afterwards the girls went back and I went on to see the giant 4,500 tonne boat that was deposited 4km inland. Its an impressive site and again its entrance by donation only. I toured around the site for an hour or so and there were a lot of visitors in Banda Aceh for the weekend for a maths conference so they were not used to foreigners and I had to pose for a lot of photos. Most of it is harmless enough though. Just don't leave home in a rush as you will have a hard time making it anywhere on time. I decided not to visit the boat on a roof until the following day and on the way back I was accosted by a tricycle driver who had met the German girls earlier and been offering to take us around town for free. I invited him to join us for dinner that evening. This was our one and only bad experience with the locals of Aceh. He arrived and said he would take us to a vegetarian Chinese restaurant that was cheap. It was not cheap and it wasn't vegetarian. Three of us ordered chicken nuggets as it was the only cheap thing on the menu. Bad choice. It was meager and shit. We told him it was more expensive than street food and he said it wasn't. It was. He then proceeded to try to get us to hire him to take us to the port or the airport. We told him we would just take local buses and he said that he had never heard of a tourist taking a local bus. Well now he had. Not sure who he was mixing with. Its illegal for locals to drink alcohol in Aceh and they can only drink it with tourists. He ordered a beer even though none of us were drinking and then said it was expensive. I reckon he wanted us to pay for it, but after the awkward sales pitch, none of us were inclined to pick up his tab. It was a horrible experience and we believed we were heading out to dinner for a genuine chat with a local. Shame really. Even worse was to follow when first Cannelle and then I came down with food poisoning. We decided to rest in Banda Aceh, while the others went to Pulau Weh. Manu would later be struck down on the way to the island as well. Insult compounded by illness from the chicken nuggets.
We didn't do much as we were both sick and spent all day in bed feeling incredibly weak. I just about made it to watch Spurs win 2-1. The pressure was on Arsenal now when they played Wigan on Tuesday.
The next day we took the labi labi to the port, but not before the locals tried to make us take a charter. They love their charter transport in Asia. Shame I don't or we'd get on famously. We had been told the boat was at 10am, but only at weekends. In the week it goes at 2pm so we were four hours early and left twiddling our thumbs. Excellent. We chatted with a load of tuk tuk drivers who set us up with a friend of ours on the other side. They were also setting us up for the return journey, but on this side there are labi labis and they were going to be disappointed. There were no seats in economy class on the slow boat so we rested it out and grabbed a tuk tuk to Iboih on the other side. It cost us 60,000 rp even though the price is supposed to be 80,000 rp. We haggled them down and only later realised its like 40km or so, so maybe the price is not as steep as I first thought. We saw the same Dutch girl from Berastagi which was surprising as she wasn't supposed to come North so we found a cheap place to stay and met up with Manu and Brechje (Dutch girl for dinner) as Mimi was busy taking magic mushrooms with the owner of her guesthouse. We went to the Italian place at the start of the village which does really nice food (including home made pasta that you can watch the guy make). We decided to go snorkelling together the following day, as neither Manu or Bee can dive.
We went to the dive shop to enquire about their dive sites for the next few days, but they said they would know by the end of the day. The dive shop gave us a lift over to Rubiah Island and we hiked to the far side to go snorkelling. There were some jellyfish but not as many as in Moalboal. Bee had a shitty snorkel and it limited her ability to snorkel, so Cannelle lent her hers and we went snorkelling together. There are some strong currents out there, but again they are nothing to worry about if you are a strong swimmer. Make sure you don't get too tired though. I think I saw an eagle ray glide off in the blue and we saw some trigger fish. The fish life is nice, but the coral is totally destroyed. Its much worse on the near side of the island and the snorkelling there was quite boring. I was also half drowning having taken Bee's mask for her. A dive shop should not be renting out snorkels like that. Having seen the snorkelling I figured the diving would be ok, but not amazing, especially as we were out of season for rays. Shitty again. Then came the really crappy news. There was a festival/environmental thing/something noone really understands that would mean noone could go in the water on the diving side of the water for 3 days. No diving, no snorkelling, no swimming. Shit. That's what we came for. I asked a dive master (not realising he was a dive master) if there was anything truly exceptional to dive out there. He said not really if you aren't a fan of sharks, though the morays would have been cool. I would have dived if we didn't have to kill three days, but his answer persuaded me that it wouldn't be worth losing three days of the holiday to dive there. They suggested we could visit the beaches and waterfall. Thankyou very much, but after 2 months in the Philippines, the lures of Pulau Weh island were not very appealing. Its a pretty enough place if you haven't just spent 2 months in paradise. Oh well. Our hotel owner was pissed as we would be checking out early. Manu played some beach volleyball and then we all met for dinner at the Italian after some more snorkelling (quite nice) in front of the Iboih beach. We met some Germans who seemed a little lost on their travels and two Finnish guys (with some serious gambling problems) who had spent 6 weeks on Danau Toba. Cool. Maybe its a good place, even if Manu hadn't liked it and Bee thought it was just ok. We said goodbye to Manu and we were actually starting to travel with people here, like in South America.
The next morning we met Bee (carrying the most ridiculous sized rucksack ever) and got a ride to the port with one of the dive instructors. We took the boat across and thought we would have a really boring day in Banda Aceh. Instead the time flew and we had a great time just shooting the breeze in Banda Aceh. We went back to Tower Cafe and indulged in some more small snacks. Cannelle started to get a little jealous of Bee even while really liking her, because she thought she was so pretty and that me and her got on well. I think she reminded both of us of Cannelle. She has the same fidgety niceness that's really endearing. We really enjoyed travelling with her and it was cool to spend time with someone who was really like us. We ended up getting the most ridiculous night bus ever to Medan. For 120,000 rp you will never see a bus more luxurious. It was almost like you had your own armchair to sleep in and thick blankets. I think its no exaggeration if I say that I slept better on that bus than any bed in Sumatra until now in Banderlampung. Bee told us about the shit experience she had had in Bali with a volunteering organisation and I told her that maybe she should go into setting up her own NGO for a job in the future.
In the morning we said goodbye to Bee. Cannelle was enjoying travelling with different people and we'd slowed the travel down to the pace that it will be on the next trip. We are also starting to narrow it down to three more trips, but big ones fuelled by big budgets. Pacific/Asia, Western Europe/Americas, Middle East/Africa. Should be a good three trips, possibly funded out of London. We managed to get on a bus across town after some ojek hassle and then another bus to Parapat for only 25,000 rp. We asked to be dropped in the bus station to check for buses to Bukittingi first, but they dropped us there and there is just one office. There is no bus station here. You have to chance it on the road or pay 180,000 rp here. If you know when you are going to leave stop here and book it. If not then you may have to use a place in Tuk Tuk. We paid 205,000 rp, but a German guy paid 230,000 rp. Shop around. We walked down to the harbour (don't bother just take an opelet for 2,000 rp) as we ended up in the wrong harbour and had to pay for an opelet to the other one anyway. The boat to Tuk Tuk is 10,000 rp (be prepared for touts), though the other harbour has a boat for 5,000 rp to a town 3km from Tuk Tuk. Not worth it unless you love walking or pack light. We beat off the touts to get dropped off near Bagus Bay Homestay. We got a place for 40,000 rp and booked for 2 nights assuming we would want at least that long on the premier tourist attraction of Sumatra. Well you would think so. We had been to Sipiso-Piso and seen the beautiful lake from there. The lake looks stunning from Parapat (personally I would just stay there or even better in the town 5km from Sipiso-Piso as at least you can get local cheap food and avoid the bullshit of Tuk Tuk). From Tuk Tuk the lake just looks very meh. Tuk Tuk is overdeveloped and very meh. There is nothing local or authentic about the place. They have surrendered it to tourists in much the same way the Dutch have surrendered the centre of Amsterdam. Ghost town like as there aren't enough tourists here anymore. How the hell did the Finnish guy spend 6 weeks here? How could you even spend 6 days here? I figure 6 hours may be too much. Even when you ask the guy what to do here he says meh. Well where is the best place to see the lake. It all looks the same. Its just a lake. Wow you could feel the enthusiasm. There really is nothing to do. Shit why did we book in for 2 nights. Bugger. Don't get me wrong. Its a pleasant place to relax (as that's all you can do). You really have no choice. Accommodation is cheap. Food is expensive but affordable due to cheap accommodation. The lake is not that special, especially compared to somewhere like Maninjau. The German bakery place was the saviour as they had fresh cheese (5,000rp for 2 slices, 5000rp for a home made roll and 4000rp for mayonaise). I just ate porridge and cheese sandwiches for 2 days, which was heavenly but hardly the Asian experience. If you need to step off the tourist trail and recuperate this place is perfect. If you don't then its hardly worth coming. Until the last week it was the only place we visited in Sumatra that was not a highlight.
So do we hire a motorbike or not? Bee had said its ok, the hostel worker says it all looks the same. Fuck it we just walked and took opelets. Cheap day. We witnessed a close shave between an opelet and a tourist on a motorbike, so be wary of the idiotic driving here. We went to the town with the tombs (the one with the other ferry) and proceeded to be underwhelmed. Nice, but hardly worth getting out of bed for. We have high standards for Sumatra. We could not find the stone chairs when we went to that town and given the nature of the tombs we weren't that bothered to try. The lake has not real clear views apart from Tuk Tuk. The view from the hill near Sipiso-Piso was still by far the best view of the lake we had had. We went back and played monopoly and ate cheese sandwiches. There was a huge group of morons on the lake all walking around an Islamic country in the shortest tops and shorts imaginable. It was land of the package tourist again and full of morons. I imagined Bukit Lawang to be the same as this was as far as the banana pancake trail people made it to in Indonesia. Christian place you see, so they can drink. Woohoo. That's what its all about, eh lol. I listened to some idiot saying how Bali was so much better than the rest of Indonesia because they were Muslim and Bali was Hindu and therefore respecting of all religions. You do get some bollocks on your travels. Even the French girls in Berastagi had been saying how all the women here were clearly subjugated and forced to wear the headscarf even though they hadn't bothered to actually interact with locals. Blind naivety is annoying. People take their views with them and they see what they want to see. I thought travelling was supposed to open the mind and your eyes not just reinforce what you left home with. May as well have stayed in their cocoon. I have found that the least hassle and nicest people I have met travelling have often been in Muslim places. We also met some locals who said that their husbands didn't want them to wear headscarves, but they wanted to anyway. As with Morocco, it doesn't strike me as a persecuted and suppressed people. Bali itself doesn't even look that impressive, but we will see when we get there. Anyway back to boring Toba.
The next day we did nothing, because there isn't anything to do and then we took the boat across to get the 5pm night bus to Bukittingi. We somehow had a super boring German guy latch onto us. He asked us a question, so we started talking. Well I did. I asked him questions and he barely responded, never asking anything in return. Does he not realise conversation is a two way thing. Oh well. Conclusions. Aceh is awesome and the people are great. Just if you meet a tuk tuk driver offering free rides, avoid him. Toba is so overrated its not even funny and everyone interesting we met travelling thinks the place is super boring. It was the first place in Indonesia where the locals had no interest in talking with us as well. They only wanted money or a business transaction of some kind. It is however a good place to unwind if you want to step off the tourist trail. Anyway onwards to Bukittingi, to cross the equator and for Cannelle to be in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. Something that I thought was a cool and big deal, but she doesn't seem to see the significance of this big thing. I thought it was cool when I did it in Ecuador.
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