An Unthinkable Trip to Aceh

Last month, suddenly, I was asked to do a trip for work. One thing that is really "bizarre" for me in a way is that I had to take a trip to Aceh. Aceh is still a part of Indonesia, but, Aceh honestly is someplace that would be really unthinkable for me to go on my own. For me, Aceh is really a far away place where everything is rather scary. You know, with the Shariah Law, its long history of conflicts, and all. And, I had to go there.

But then, nonetheless, I was excited. To think about it, I have been to a lot of places before. But, seriously, I never really went out of Java to explore Indonesia. Well, I did go to Bali once. But then, I dont know if it really counts of going out of my way to visit other places in Indonesia. Lets go to Aceh, thats what I thought!

Before going to Aceh, I was worried because I dont wear hijab, so this had become an issue for me. The news about Aceh on this specific issue are rather scary, you know, for they have been telling us these stories of women being punished in Aceh for not wearing hijab. So, yeah, I had then had to prepare for this, I really was scared of what I was going to go through in Aceh. But, still, I was excited. I dont know. LOL

So, after long hours of flight and long hours of transfer in the Soekarno Hatta Airport, Jakarta, I and my friend arrived in Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport, Banda Aceh at noon.

The airport looked a lot like a mosque.

We were picked up by a driver that we have rented before. It was an awkward feeling, about the hijab thing. We didn't know what we were supposed to do, so we just put a scarf over our head when we got out of the airport. Apparently, this was not only experienced by both of us. In the bathroom, I saw women were putting their hijab or scarves on. I'm sure they were feeling awkward too about this.

Getting out of the airport, a big banner of the travel exhibition that we were supposed to attend had welcome us.

First thing first, we visited the hotel where the exhibition was going to be held, to take care of our administration matters. Just for information, I was supposed to attend an international travel exhibition, TIME, which was attended by various travel stakeholders from all over Indonesia, and from other countries as well. After we got to the hotel, apparently, a lot of women who were coming for the exhibition too didn't wear any hijab, they just dressed as they usually do. So, this had surprised us, it is apparently not as scary and strict as we thought it would be.

So, we went to the exhibition for two days, as we went to Aceh for work. Sadly.

But not too sad. I got to attend a travel exhibition for the first time in my life, such a new experience. I attended the gala dinner at the Governor's house. I attended events and press conferences which were attended by representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, Garuda Indonesia, the local government, and I met so many new people. It was great.

At  the second day, after finishing all the agendas that we were supposed to do, we finally got to get around Banda Aceh for a little bit.

The infamous Mi Aceh.

Our lunch for the next day, Ayam Tangkap. It was really good and it is a great thing, since I have never heard nor had this dish before. It was a chicken dish, the chicken is cut in small pieces and seasoned and buried in Temburu leaves.

Museum Tsunami

While on the first day, I was still feeling awkward with my clothing, and thus I still had my scarf on, on the second day, I decided to just dress comfortably. Still polite and covered of course. And it was okay. :)

We didn't get to enter the Museum since we were too late. But, we did enter first floor. Inside the Tsunami Museum, there is this big pool, with these big balls surrounding the pool. I didn't notice at first, but apparently, on each one of these balls written the name of the countries who helped the people of Aceh during the Tsunami in 2004. On the roof, hang these countries' flags too. The people of Aceh really wanted to show their gratitude towards the people who had helped them in times of crisis during the Tsunami, that's what came to my thought as I was looking at it.

PLTD Apung I

Masjid Baiturrahim Ulee Lheue ~ the mosque which somehow survived the Tsunami 

This mosque is one of the miracles that happened during the Tsunami. This mosque is located really near to the sea and the area where it is located was cleanly swept by the fierce waves of Tsunami. But it had survived somehow and had become a witness of how the Tsunami easily swept thousands of people in the area.

Masjid Baiturrahim Ulee Lheue in 2004. Picture courtesy to voa-islam.

Pantai Ulee Lheue (Ulee Lheue Beach)

The beach was located nearby, and so, even though we didnt have time to visit it properly, we still managed to pass it and caught a glimpse of its beauty at sunset. The beach was supposedly the beach area hit the hardest by the Tsunami. It is just difficult to comprehend, how a beach this peaceful and beautiful could be such a deadly place at that time.

Kopi Tarik and Teh Tarik at Solong Coffee

Kopi Tarik and Teh Tarik which literally in English would translate "pulled" coffee and "pulled" tea are the specialties of Aceh.

Uniquely, in each kopi tarik shops, the coffee and tea are made only by one person. So, the taste of coffee and tea in each shops could be different depends on the one who made it.

Teh Tarik

Solong Coffee (or Warung Kopi Solong) is one 'legendary' coffee shop in Aceh

So, sadly we then had to leave Aceh the next day, so no time to really get around and travel Aceh. We didn't even get to go to Pulau Sabang, and a lot of people had told us such a shame that we didnt get to go. But then, I really did get a precious experience of travelling there. Travelling to Aceh is not scary. The local government of Aceh even made a point out of this for a number of times throughout the exhibitions.

So, hopefully, next time, I get to travel to Aceh again. To travel. :)

Reminiscing KKN

Well, I know that I am not such a good blogger: most of the time, I just feel too lazy to write. However, lately, it's always been really busy for me with school, work and social life, so give me the chance to make it as my excuse this time. LOL
It's been more than a month since my KKN ended (um, if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, you may read the previous posts :P). However, tonight while preparing a little present to send to the kids in the village where I did my KKN, I started to miss them so much. I have never really thought of myself to be someone who dote much on little children. I never really got along with little children, so the fact that I actually got along with these kids during my KKN, I even surprised myself.
To be honest, the members of my KKN unit in Krajan did not get along very well with each other at first. It was hard for all of us. For most of us, we barely knew each other. And yet, we were faced with the hardship of living in some remote village, without anyone to take care of us. It was quite a mess. At that time, I even really doubted myself to be able to make it to five weeks. Things started to heat up, and ended up breaking out in a hot discussion among us, I really wasn't comfortable with how things were that time. And suddenly, these little kids were in front of our house, with their loud yet shy voice, asking us to teach them. For me, they were like angels. They basically saved us from having a big fight.
After that day, they came to our house basically almost everyday to study and play with us. And after that day, the members in my unit started to get along really well. Everything started to fall into places, nicely. At some points, we got tired of teaching and playing with them, including me. However, for me especially, it was a precious experience. Among all of the things that I've done in my life, it was one of the most precious.
It might look to other people as we teaching them. Well, yeaaaahh it was we teaching them. But, somehow, these kids were actually teaching something too to me. They taught me about simplicity, and about being humble. All these times, I have lived with a great family, went to good schools, knew great people, and traveled to beautiful places. However, then, only with these kids that I really thought deeply about my life, and the meaning of life. What is my purpose in this short life of mine?
Days passed, they still came to our house after school almost everyday. I met them at school too sometimes, to teach them. Even though they were really shy at first, every time I passed in front of their school, they started to wave and called out for my name cheerfully. Every time it was my turn to teach in their class, they started to scream out my name happily. I was also really, really happy.
Without much realizing it, five weeks had passed, and it was time for us to say goodbye. It was really sad for me. I said my goodbyes with tears starting to welling up, and while giving my best effort to hold myself from crying in front of the kids, my voice started to tremble. In my head I was totally cursing myself to be so weak and sentimental. And these little kids in front of me, who just had these strange visitors from somewhere --namely us-- five weeks ago, and had just started to get along together, they also started to tear up, even the little boys who were usually just picking on me. How emotional I must have been that day, I couldn't really say it with words. I could only hoped for them to have dreams, to have goals in their lives. I hoped for them to spread their wings, because it hurt me so much that these kids have so much potential and yet they are trapped in this situation where they aren't even aware that there is this big world waiting for them out there. I hoped for them to have meaningful lives, happy ones.
Now, I am back to my usual school life, for my final year. However, while before, I really had no idea what I wanna do with my life later in the future, now, I at least know one thing. I have this dream of having a good job that can earn me a lot of money (well, I still need to live LOL), and at the same time, building a free school for kids, or anything, so I can teach and learn with kids in special situations just like these little kids in my KKN. I know, its a big one, but its a dream worth fighting for, nonetheless, dont you think? :)

The Next Challenging Vacation #KKN Edition

So, after having my Europe trip til the beginning of this year, I'm now having another 'vacation', umm, not too far from my house actually. It is still in the same town as where I live, in Blitar. However, the life I'm having in here... you can say, it's pretty different!
Well, talking about this 'vacation', its not exactly a vacation. I'm having a 5-week-community service program right now, which is one of the prerequisites to graduate in my school. But calling it a vacation is not too wrong either. In fact, I just went to one of the beaches that surround us here.
The beach is called Jebring. This beach is actually not too far from our place, but the thing is it just takes out all of your adventurous side. The road is rough. Describing it with 'rough' is not enough I think though. Besides broken asphalt roads, its basically just pointy rocks being put together as one extremely rough road. And the fact that it is all about going up and down hills just adds up to the whole situation. It just scared the heck out of me, I kept holding on with both of my hands tightly on our entire way there. And prayed to God to keep me alive. :P

However, once we got there, I instantly forget how rough the road was. The beach was really beautiful, even though the big and ferocious waves were kinda scary.

However, this beach seems to be overly exploited for its ironsand. Ironsand itself is 'a type of sand with heavy concentrations of the metal iron' (Wikipedia). The government (or the company??) seems to be doing some beach reclamation efforts now. However, it just seems really sad to me, this is one beautiful beach, but they just ruined it like that. 

It was just such a great feeling for me to be there, it was gorgeous. I just hope that this ironsand mining will be in some appropriate control, so the beach wont be ruined. And then, on my way back home... oops, I forgot: gotta go through the rough road again! -____________-''


Ps: sorry for the bad quality of the pictures. I took them with my ipod, since my camera just got broken. Well, this will do for now! ;)