After another flight upon which Bradey was eternally paranoid
(gold!), we arrived in Banda Aceh and stayed at Lhoknga beach, home of
Banda’s famous surf break. The next day we hired a labi-labi (local van)
and cruised around, doing the ‘tsunami tour’ of the city, which
includes a number of monuments such as fishing boats and
power-generating barges deposited on people’s houses. It’s amazing to
see and really gives you an idea of the scale of the destruction. Not
every day you see a boat on someone’s roof.
In the
afternoon we caught the ferry over to Pulau Weh for a few more days of
R&R at the lovely Iboih Beach. Picture beach bungalows,
hammocks, snorkelling, and beautiful tropical islands. And Dan in a
skirt (don’t ask). We made the big swim across the channel from Pulau
Rubiah, where the best snorkelling is, back to our cottages, without any
casualties J. Later though, there were almost three casualties when the
lads went monkey-hunting; the hunters became the hunted after the
monkeys turned feral! I don’t think they’ve ever run that quickly in
their lives…! "Awww, ain’t they cuuuute! NO! Arrrgghhh! Ruuuunnnn!!!"
We
met Aussie travellers Rohan and Robyn, and a Canadian working in Medan,
Wendy, with whom we spent most of our time hanging out. Our adventures
included a Bintang-fueled night at Mama’s restaurant, which resulted in a
beer tower, loud music, local rocket fuel, a broken chair and which,
right at the end, got a bit silly and a punch-up between a troublesome
local and a bule ensued. The next day we had to apologise about the
disturbance and pay to replace the chair. The troublemaker was
apparently a serial offender who easily got jealous about female
tourists, and after a community meeting the next day, the community
leaders banned him from Iboih. Sexy times!
Again, we
sadly left a lovely spot and nice people as the boys’ time in Indo was
almost over. :( We cruised back to Banda Aceh and spent the afternoon
perusing the markets, along with going to Mesjid Raya, the famous mosque
in Banda Aceh with the beautiful black domes. Later in the arvo we saw
off the boys to KL; Ange and I headed back to Medan.
And then there were two.
We
had a couple of spare days before our flight to Kolkata, so we decided
to cruise to the nearby city of Brestagi, which is a ‘hill resort’ set
amongst volcanoes. ‘Resort’ isn’t the word I’d use to describe dirty,
dishevelled little Brrestagi, but it’s the term they use for settlements
that are located in high elevations to escape the humidity of Sumatra!
And Berestagi certainly isn’t hot…
The bus journey
there took us a bit longer than planned, because we initially made our
way to the wrong bus terminal in Medan … but the journey through the
countryside is beautiful. We had planned on climbing Mount Sinabung, the
largest of two volcanoes in the area, which requires a whole day. But
we had put our laundry in to be cleaned in Medan, which needed to be
picked up before 6pm, so climbing a volcano and getting back to Medan
with local transport would be pushing it! So we opted just to cruise
around and explore Brestagi’s markets, the town generally, its iconic
cabbage monument in the main street which represents the major
vegetable-producing industry in the Karo Highlands (hilarious – who
thought up that one?!), and the lake near Mt Sinabung. It was a nice day
out just wandering around, and we made it back to Medan with plenty of
time to pick up our washing. What happened next, well, let’s just say we
didn’t expect…!
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