Acheh Part 1

Acheh Elections (regental and mayoral) for its 16 regencies and municipalities was planned this year in October.  But I was told yesterday, it will be held Jan 2012.  Or, is it for its gubernatorial election - to elect its Gabenor?  Am not sure..

The thing is, I want to be in the observation team with ANFREL, insyaAllah.

So I am going to write about Acheh, starting from tonight, as a preparation.

I first visited Acheh from 19th to 25th June 2010.  It was a long overdue visit -  I really wanted to be there in 2004 - in the humanitarian team but was unable to.  I went there alone, knowing that a friend - Rinie, was there.  Unfortunately, Rinie was working on field, so I was to plan (yup, I went there without any plan) and execute them on my own.

with Rinie, on top of ship - the PTD Apung, which was carried away to land about 5 km away during the tsunami.

I stayed at he Landing Hotel - the nearest good hotel to the Masjid Baiturrahman, Banda Acheh.  It is also near the Pasar Acheh and wet market.  Avocado is extremely cheap there compared to Malaysia.  I discovered the richness of the taste of avocado juice here, like I discovered what manggo juice should taste while in Makkah.  Avocado juice has been my fav since.

This masjid - still in construction process, has already been used for sometimes,  there is no concept of CF in Acheh.  The river is the Acheh River.  It was reported that this river was fulled with dead bodies after the Tsunami.  My taxi driver told me that once in a while they will hear people mourning, while on a bridge connecting two parts of the city and they can smell stinging odour of the dead!

I bought the Air Asia ticket to Acheh way back in Jan 2010 if my mind serve me correctly.  I did not notice that my passport was to expire less than 6 month while checking-in.  I then ran (by taxi :P)  to Putrajaya to renew my passport.  The process took me less than an hour, only that the journey made it a three hour in total, so I missed the flight! Haha!

I bought the next flight to Acheh that caused me more, a lot more so it was not a budget holiday by the way.  And did I mention I did not able to book a hotel online so it was more like a gamble?

Heheh... talking about tawakkal !  tbc!

My complete set of lunch/dinner/whenever while in Acheh - ayam tangkap, white rice and avocado juice - superb! Alhamdulillah.