Further Wanderings

Despite it’s reputation as being well and truly out in the wilds of Sumatra, Banda Aceh was a modern town, full of western conveniences brought by, or at least in order to cater to, foreign NGO workers in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami.  In leaving the city behind we were heading down a far more adventurous road. 

There were, in fact three roads out of Banda Aceh.  We’d taken the eastern costal road from Medan on the way there.  Sections of the western coastal road still hadn’t been repaired following the tsunami.  The third option was the one took on our journey south: the mountain road right down the centre of Sumatra, through the region known as the Gayo Highlands.

 

Deep fried crispy vegetables were a specialty of Aceh, including these beautiful (and tasty) kumara (sweet potato) chips

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 While getting IN to Indonesia was no problem, onward travel presented some minor difficulties.
First came negotiations with the bemo (microbus) driver about our fare.  Then came finding an ATM for him to stop at so we could pick up some more Indonesian Rupiah.  Then came debating whether he’d really agreed to take us all the way to the northern bus terminal.  Then came him putting us on another minibus headed there and paying our fare for us.  So while it was a bit of a hassle, it wasn’t really all that bad.

We purchased our tickets for a night bus headed up the trans-Sumatran highway, leaving just enough time for dinner before journeying north to Banda Aceh.

Pulau Weh

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Upon returning to Bangkok we set about achieving two important goals: 1. Have as pleasant a rest as possible in between two big spells of travel (back from Cambodia, on to Malaysia.) 2. Eat as much yummy Thai food as possible during ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Following our surprisingly simple journey into the country, and a very pleasant night in Battambang, we woke up nice and early to catch a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. When I'd visited Cambodia about 3.5 years before the roads in ... [Continue reading this entry]

A quick entry just to get us up to date: We left Chittagong at 14:35, with the only hitch being a minor disagreement with our autorickshaw driver about exactly where he'd agreed to take us and for how much. [Continue reading this entry]