Aceh, Ramadan Mubarak...

So Ximena and I arrived to Banda Aceh straight from Pulau Web. None of us really knew what to expect from this city, especially in the eve of Ramadan.

We got a basic room in a Chinese hotel. All the other budget options were fully booked due to Ramadan. Aceh is sort of a capital for Sumatran Muslims to go celebrate Ramadan.

Banda Aceh quickly captivated us. This city is so full of life and cultural diversity between the Indonesian Muslims, the Indonesian catholics, and the Chinese. So dynamic. Our hotel was right in the heart of the food market and the night market. Could not be better than that.

Aceh also has a wonderful basar, regular market, right around the maim mosque there. Very big and full of everything. The city is covered in different little key activities. The street of hairdressers. The street of car repair. The street of fabric and sarongs. The street of furniture. The restaurant street. The jewelry street... Fascinating,

What a refreshing break from the different secluded places we had seen so far in Sulawesi and Sumatra.

In the night market we ate the absolute best beef sate EVER! In the warung street, I had a ginormous es campur (shaved ice covered in condensed milk and various syrups, chunks of root and jelow), yummmmmmy.

We spent our time eating while in Aceh because the food was so delicious!

On our second night, we met, in a souvenir shop, a young local, Iqbal. Such a genuinely nice and big heart. We quickly bonded. He told us how he was heart broken because his wife to be and love of his life had called off the wedding with him because his social and financial condition was not as food as another pretendant her father was preferring for her. Apparently she dared telling him that his life and his job were not good.

Wow! It was so sad to hear him unload his story on us, like that, standing in the doorway of his family's shop, while the rain was pouring. We spent a good hour chatting about life and love, and did all we could to bring light back into his soul, and comfort him. It worked I believe. He smiled again. I caught myself telling that if he liked his life and his job, then both were good, no matter what others say. It is funny, because I had never realised that myself until that evening. And it kind of made tilt in my head and help me reflect a lot on my own life. It made me smile as well. :-)

That same day, we decided to go check out one of the key monument resulting from the tsunami: the boat on the house. Only a 3km walk. On our way there, we walked by a few tiny towns and warungs, and when almost there, we found ourselves in total awe when seeing that the sunsetting sky, along the river filled with traditional very colorful boats, was filled with hundreds of kites of all colors. The kites very very simple and basics, but all flying at different altitudes. It was a magical spectacle that no photo can properly capture. No one nor any book had ever mentioned this. After that, the boat on the house, literally, a fisherman's boat that had been dragged by the tsunami wave all the way, 2km away from the coast and on top of this modest house, was a bit blend and um interesting of a tourist attraction. We headed back toward the night market. Sate time!!!!! :-)

The next day, sadly Ximena had to leave, after two weeks of travelling as 'husband and wife', much more convenient when traveling in Muslim places. (Ha! We even tried to pretend that we were both from Pakistan once, was funny).

But before Ximena left, we went to have a delicious (my best so far) bubur ayam (chicken porridge) in the big park of the tsunami monument while waiting for the museum to open. What delightful breakfast and start of the day it was.

Then, at 9am, we made it to the museum. First half hour, there was a power cut, so we waited outside. It was so strange and inconceivable to me that a museum could experience a power outage.

The entrance hall of the museum was so poignantly stunning and creative. A long corridor with an extremely high ceiling. The whole room is totally dark. Water is falling along the walls. I think the intent was to recreate to some degree the feeling of the post tsunami night time. Scary and freaky to even think about it, but so well conceived. The rest of the museum was just a series of photos, mostly of poor quality relating the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. The also was a very moving 10 minute video showing a compilations of news stations and other amateurs' videos. Very powerful.

Then was time to say goodbye. :0(

After that, I went back to the park, had a delicious coconut and lime shake. Then back to the hotel, and slept of the rest of the afternoon. That night was the first night of Ramadan. I got a sense of it when I heard the unusually long call to prayer. So at about 9pm I headed to the main mosque across the city. What a spectacle it was! A defile of Muslims all very nicely dressed. But the most beautiful part of it was all the women, dressed in a similar traditional white outfit, and populating the streets, walk in and/or out of the big beautiful white mosque. A gorgeous night.

The next day, I left as well, heading to Tapaktuan on the west cost, to try and follow the road that Bruno had told us about and which according to him was so beautiful.