Banda Aceh – A short but depressing stop along the way

Deserted streets (during prayer time)

December 26, 2004, the ground shook for 8.3-10 min with a magnitude 9.3 earthquake. Then within minutes, a wave swept across the Indian ocean.

After leaving Pulau Weh, under the recommendation of one of the cool Indonesian people I met in Gapang, I headed off to Banda Aceh to spend a few nights. Only after reading the lonely planet did I realize that this was the site that the tsunami truly reared its ugly head.

Most people only are concerned with Thailand and Phuket. Why is this? Statistics say that roughly 8000 people died there while estimates here in Banda Aceh top over 130 000 people. It’s the sobering fact that tourists died in Thailand while in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Somalia, Malaysia, etc, only locals perished.

Sobering is a good word to use here. When you realize that the internet café that you’re sitting in, after the tsunami, had 2 bodies floating in it. When across the street there were about 1000 bodies strewn about. Cars tossed like toys. Shops looking like they were bulldozed over. Of course none of this is present now, but when someone tells you that they can still smell the stench of dead decaying bodies, and that in the matter of minutes they lost their entire family, your ‘vacation’ quickly evaporates and you get thrown back into the real reason why you’re here in the first place.

The place across the street where I ate dinner was covered in water with a wave over 1 m high. Sure, 1 m is nothing, but considering that I’m about 10 min from the coast by motorcycle and you realize how far the water came in. I look around while I walk. There is no where to hide here. No hills to run to. Few trees sturdy enough to climb.

Devastation was quick and efficient. Those lucky enough to be spared natures wrath instead had to deal with malaria, lack of adequate water, food, shelter from the sweltering heat and other ranges of diseases inflicted on mankind.

And of course after that, dealing with the pain of lost loved ones, family and friends. Everyone I’ve met since I’ve been here has lost someone close to them. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you think about it. In addition, Banda Aceh is the place of recent separatarian violence which the Indonesia army quelled with brutal and lethal force. I meet a ‘refugee’ who fled to Australia during that time. There is still general distrust of the Indonesian government here which I can’t say I blame them.

Indonesia is a place of many religions, cultures and people. Prior to this trip, I knew little about the state of affairs here. Now, I’m glad (if that is the correct word to use) that my eyes have been opened yet again to the real world in which we live in.

All statistics from Wikipedia (of course).