Then we got on another bus to take us to Takengon (another 6 hours). The road went over so many mountains that we lost count and parts of the road had been destroyed from land slides. We went up to about 2000 metres at one point and it looked like we were in Canada. The journey was very very slow but the scenery was amazing and we made it to Takengon just before dark.
Here is part of the 'road' and our driver:
We had a day off in Takengon to recover from the journey. Unfortunately, the mosques' noise seemed to go on all night and they even had sirens to tell people when they must start/stop eating etc. due to it being Ramadan.
Takengon was very friendly and it was a fun place to spend the day and hang out with the locals.
Great shop:
Nic having a much-needed shave:
We left Takengon and had our final 8 hour bus journey to Banda Aceh. We had to stop for an hour as one of the brake pads fell off the bus and we had to get it replaced.
We had one night in Banda Aceh and the following day we got the ferry over to Pulau Weh. We stayed for the week in Gapang, a very tiny place consisting of a beach, dive centre, 5 guest houses, a few cafes, some very friendly locals and dogs, and a stunning view of the Indian ocean:
We spent the week, reading, sleeping, eating, socialising with the great people that we met and diving. The diving was exceptional and we had a good mixture of easy dives and crazy dives with lots of mad currents.
I've never seen so many Moray eels in my life:
This is a scorpion fish trying to blend in:
You can just see Nic in the background flying through the ocean - a crazy current dive:
On our last dive we saw a pod of dolphins going to and coming back from the dive site - a nice goodbye.
We left our tropical paradise and went back to Banda Aceh for a few days. Banda Aceh was a victim of the 2004 Tsunami and 61,000 died here. We went to see some of the sights, including the "boat on the house":
and the 2600 tonne power generated vessel that was carried 4km inland by a wave:
There is a park in the centre of Banda Aceh, which is a memorial and a thank you to all the countries that supplied assistance after the disaster. Each country has a plaque like this one:
We also went to see the enormous Mesjid Raya Baitarrahman (mosque) that somehow survived the tsunami intact. We weren't allowed in but we got some photos of the outside:
Our flight back to Penang, Malaysia has been cancelled, so we're having another day in this very pleasant, friendly city. I got my haircut again and I've decided that they don't know what a trim is in Asia!
Soon we'll be back on the bikes and heading to Thailand. Sumatra has been one of the most beautiful and special places that we've visited.
1 comment:
Great memories. Was in Blankejeren for a week. It was like being in some alpine paradise. My daughter was born at Iboih on Pulau Weh. This was back in 1993. Sumatra is my favorite destination of all the places I've visited. Dis you make it Pulau Banyak? Spent 2 weeks there. Pure tropical paradise. Those islands were the closest land to the epicenter of the earthquake that caused thw 2004 psunami.
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