I was given a duty to be a facilitator or moderator in an FGD for one of government institutions, another duty was to be an interviewer, interviewing the local institution head. Because my client is a government instituon, they treated me like government official guest hahaha. They provided a car and driver to picked me up in airport, afford all my accomodations there also giving me a short little vacation, lol.
So, I arrived at about 3 PM at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Banda Aceh, the province's capital. The flight from Jakarta was near 3 hours, it was quite longer than flight to most of another big cities. So, I reccomend you to take full service airlines, because they served you full meal and they had in flight entertainment, The moment the plane was going to landed, I stunned. The view from above is so breath taking, Anything about Indonesia's natural beauty looked like they all lay down there, from the hilly mountain, forrest and cliff also the beaches and the islands.
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| Baiturrahman Grand Mosque |
From the mosque, we headed to my real destination, Meulaboh, a city in west coast of Aceh province. Mr. Surya were asking me if I want to visit Aceh Tsunami Museum before leaving, but I afraid that I would arrived at hotel late night, I felt quite tired (and hungry, :D), so I asked Mr. Surya to went straight to Meulaboh and visit anything interesting on our way.
The first stop was Keude Leupung. Which is an Acehnese Restaurant. They offer mostly seafood menu and of course, the famous Mie Aceh or Acehnese Noodle! The taste was not so different compared to Mie Aceh in other cities, but tasting Mie Aceh in Aceh is exciting, isn't it?
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| Magical view during the trip |
After stuffed my stomach, we continued our journey (the view was magical), and this time we stopped at the Puncak Geurutee. Another unlucky me, the weather was unfriendly. It should be a nice view of clear blue sky and sea with small little islands. But okay, I can google it later.
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| Not so good weather at Puncak Geurutee |
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| Kopiah Teuku Umar Monument. He was shot dead at this place |
After 3 days in Meulaboh, I went back to Banda Aceh. I really need to catch my flight but I have like 2 hours before the flight. So I took my time to visit Aceh Tsunami Museum. The museum was amazing, it really gives you the feel of the tsunami victim. And there was a chamber where a list of victim names is carved on the wall and a prayer was played on the speaker, at the roof of the chamber there was glowing Allah calligraphy. I got so emotional there, I even cried. The experience there was so immersive. But I needed to go fast to the airport.
(sorry for very few pictures. I broke my phone before I have the chance to upload it)
