We headed out from the Gili islands towards new adventures in Sumatra. We booked flights from Lombok to Banda Aceh. Early morning on the 18th we caught a public boat from Gili Meno to Lombok. We had decided to stay a night in Senggigi, a holiday town on the west coast of Lombok. As we arrived to the port on Lombok we were attacked by locals who we offering all kinds of tours around the island and different kinds of transportation to different cities in Lombok. We bargained our minibus transportation to Senggigi and from the center of Senggigi took a taxi to our hotel.
We stayed the night in a new but average hotel, which was partly still under construction. As for Senggigi, we didn't enjoy our time there one bit, mainly because of the aggressive locals. We ate in a couple of decent but overpriced restaurants and laid by the pool. In the evening we managed to go see one sight: the Hindu temple of Senggigi.
The next morning we were eager to continue our journey to Sumatra and got on a bus to the airport. After 12 hours of travelling (our flight was from Lombok to Jakarta, from Jakarta to Medan and from Medan to Banda Aceh) we finally arrived in Banda Aceh and shared a taxi with a Swiss girl to our hotel. The hotel we stayed in was an old business hotel which had lost its glare a decade ago. Our room stank of cigarettes but was tidy enough. Anyway the hotel didn't have any non-smoking rooms and you were allowed to smoke pretty much anywhere in Banda Aceh so no point in complaining.
The next morning we went to walk around the city and see some tsunami memorials. Aceh was badly hit in the 2004 tsunami and the city even has its own tsunami museum (built by the Americans for over 6 million dollars). But first we headed for the big mosque by foot and we soon noticed that we were the only people walking. None of the locals walked anywhere and there were no other Westerners to be seen. We were so annoyed by the locals staring and laughing at us that we soon switched from walking to the sidecars of mopeds.
We also visited Lampau and its "boat on a house" sight as well as a 2500 -tonne power-generator vessel that was brought 4km inland by the wave.
The tsunami memorials were a nice thing to see but overall we didn't really like Banda Aceh mainly because of its strict Muslim customs and the too upfront interest of the locals for us anywhere we went. First it was funny but then it got annoying as we got asked for the hundredth time to take a photo with some local guy.
So in the morning of 21th we couldn't have been happier to get out Banda Aceh and head towards the island of Pulau Weh.
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