Sabang, step one to paradise

[The Jakarta Post Travel]

One cannot ignore the tsunami when talking about Aceh province. The country’s westernmost province was decimated by a magnitude 8.9 quake followed by a destructive tsunami in December 2004. Hundreds of thousands of Aceh people were killed in one of the most devastating natural disasters in history. Most parts of the province were shattered. 

 

When I visited Banda Aceh for the first time in August 2012, I was stunned by how the city had developed over the past few years. I still got a sense of misery from the loss of family, friends and homes and of the struggle to put the desolation behind and rebuild everything that was destroyed, but at the same time they wanted to move on.

 

On my second visit to the province in December, I went straight to Weh island in Sabang city.

 

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