Yosh, I've been here in
Banda Aceh for 2 weeks. And 2 weeks more till I go back to
Jakarta. I got a project job here
(it's not related to previous post :D) for 3 weeks
to help to build a system for
Meuraxa Tsunami Drill. Let's skip about the event
(and the system, I'll write them next days), and look around the city!
I went here by plane from
Soekarno-Hatta to
Sultan Iskandar Muda (transit in Polonia). It's my first experience stopping in
SIM actually, cause everytime I went back to
Aceh, I'm going to
Lhoksukon plane stop airport, the nearest place to my reminiscently hometown
Lhokseumawe. Yeah
Lhokseumawe FTW! Because of bad weather, my flight to
SIM was delayed for 3 hours for sake, luckily my
flash is always with me
*kisses flash* (no hotspot in Polonia).
SIM is a very small building for
a Malaysia an international airport.
On the first weekdays I got very busy. My work responsibility is like... can I make it??! So I was starting to walk around the city on Saturday.
First destination: Baiturrahman Great Mosque. It's great, as usual.
Next destination: Taman Sari Kerajaan Aceh. I don't know why I love history so much, so archeological of kingdoms are must visited! There are many sites of
Taman Sari. First: Gunongan. It's a gift from
Sultan Iskandar Muda (a king of Aceh Kingdom on 16th century) to his queen
Putroe Phang (from Pahang, Malaysia).
Aceh people relate very closed to that neighbour country. Instead going to
Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali or other
Indonesian great places, they tend to go to
Kuala Lumpur for holiday and to
Penang for medication. Nooo wonder, since our ancestors are also related to that neighbour
(selain emang lokasi yang sangat dekat).
Alkisah, Putroe Phang sering merasa kesepian di tengah kesibukan sang suami sebagai kepala pemerintahan. Ia selalu teringat dengan kampung halamannya di Pahang. Untuk membahagiakan sang permaisuri, ia membangun sebuah gunung kecil (Gunongan) sebagai miniatur perbukitan yang mengelilingi istana permaisuri. Hari-harinya banyak dihabiskan dengan bermain bersama dayang-dayang di sekitar Gunongan, sambil memanjatinya.
Damn, why our queen was so childish?
Gunongan is indeed a nice place for playing around.. but not for whole days! I got bored after 30 minutes there
(maybe because there are no dayang-dayang to serve me). If I were her, I would rather help my husband to lead the country better than playing in a
"gunung-gunungan". Di area ini ada bak mandi nya
Putroe Phang, dimana ditengah-tengahnya terdapat lubang untuk dayang-dayang meracik shampoo organik khusus untuk
Putroe Phang mandi. Selain tempat bermain
Putroe Phang, wilayah ini juga dulunya dijadikan sebagai tempat peristirahatan prajurit-prajurit kerajaan yang disebut
Kandang (di sebelah Gunongan). Saat ini disana merupakan persemayaman
Sultan Iskandar Tsani, menantu
Sultan Iskandar Muda.
Entry ticket.. hemm mystic ahaha. Waktu gw datang pintu pagar terkunci rapat. Untung lagi ada bapak-bapak di deket pagar, langsung aja hajar
"Pak, pak, boleh masuk ga?" Ehh ternyata dia welcome banget, dan jadi tour guide private kami. Well, of course then we have to pay him for his story and accompaning
seikhlasnya (suggestion: more than 5000 IDR per person).
Next Taman Sari sites:
Museum Negeri Aceh. There are
Lonceng Cakradonya, Rumoh Aceh, and museum. Penjelajahan
Taman Sari gw lanjutkan keesokan harinya dengan mengunjungi makam
Sultan Iskandar Muda dan keturunan kerajaan lainnya. Lalu singgah bentar di Pendopo gubernur di sebelahnya. Hehe iseng banget ya! Gossips:
1) Pendopo merupakan bekas istana
Kerajaan Aceh.
2) Ada jalan bawah tanah dari istana ke
Gunongan (tapi belum ditemukan sampai sekarang)
3) Jika
Lonceng Cakradonya, bunyinya sampai ke seluruh
Taman Sari. Dahulu digunakan untuk memanggil para prajurit berkumpul. Sekarang lonceng ini sudah tidak bisa berbunyi lagi karena anak lonceng di dalamnya sudah tidak ada.
I also visited
Taman Ratu Safiatuddin and
Kapal Terdampar. Kapal PLN itu saksi bisu kehebatan tsunami. Ngeliatnya bikin takjub sendiri, dan agak merinding gitu
(btw, sekarang sedang dibangun museum tsunami oleh BRR)
Selain tempat wisata, of course I do some wisata kuliner!
1)
Gunung Salju. Well lebih tepatnya wisata kuliner kenangan haha because it's a restaurant that me and my friend often came to eat. Try the original ice cream! Try. the. ice. cream!
2)
Mie Aceh: goreng, basah, tumis, rebus... you name it. But my favo is the fried one. I mean, the SPICY fried one. More spicy more yummy! The most famous one is
Mie Razali I think, tapi ada tempat lain yang lebih enak kok
(di daerah Penayong juga, but I don't know the name)
3)
Roti Cane. Beda lohh sama roti cane yang biasa dijual di
Gampoeng Aceh Bandung Well basically the taste is same. Kalo di
Bandung, gula/susunya ditaburin di atas roti. Kalo di
Aceh, gula/susu ada didalam rotinya. Ga cuma gula/susu, ada juga isi srikaya, strawberry, nangka, coklat, dsb
4)
Kopi Ulee Kareng. Kabarnya mengandung ganja lohh
5)
Ayam Tangkap. Hohoho dah lama jadi orang
Aceh, baru kali ni nyobain ayam tangkap Disebut juga
Ayam Sampah (lihat saja bentuknya)
6) Phenomenon in
Banda Aceh lately, many burger shops in the street at night, don't know why! Don't eat there, there are many mosquitos. Actually the mosquitos are everywhere.
Banda Aceh is full of mosquitos!! Ga di rumah
(sepupu), di kantor, di jalanan.. gw selalu digigitin nyamuk, bahkan
soffell tidak mempan. Susah memang jadi gadis manis.
(*) more photos
Anyhooo, my traveling life starts here! Yez, who's not dreaming of traveling around the world, huh?! Everyone's drooling it. For next year, I've already spotted some leave times and planned to go some places in 
Yak itulah ruginya kalo cuma ngikutin temen yang udah hapal jalan, walaupun dah lewat berkali-kali gw tetep ga ngerti arah.
Cause now my job here had been finished. Time to go 
