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Berestagi and the Karo villages

Locations

traditional house just outside Berestagi

Centre for local tourism, with two climbable volcanos and several attractive, if run-down, Karo Batak villages sporting traditional houses

sulphur patches on the slope of Gunung Sinabung

Berestagi is very much a local tourist town, catering for the crowds of Medan, just two hours away, and also, apparently, for people further away, those who have their holiday homes in the pleasantly cool mountains; the town sports many large apartment-compounds. The attractions, apart from the cool air – much cooler than in hot and steaming Medan -, are the volcanoes here, which can be climbed relatively easily, without equipment. Gunung Sibayek, which does not really look like a volcano, but smokes nevertheless, is to the north of town and has large patches of yellow sulphur on its side. Gunung Sinabung to the SW of town, is a real, cone-shaped volcano which seems much more quiet, and is the harder one to climb.

the municipality building is pretty recent, but still in traditional style

gable of a modern municipality building

Batak lady

The other point of interest, and as far as I am concerned, the main point, is the architecture of the Karo Bataks. Thankfully, in Berestagi itself are still some examples present, also in the form of newer buildings that maintain a taditional architecture. Many of the villages around town still have the real old wooden houses, called Rumah Adats – traditional houses catering for 6 to 20 families (there is obviously some resemblance with the long houses in Kalimantan). Unfortunately, many have abandoned the preservation and pulled down most of them, or let them rot away. It obviously takes too much to maintain, and less and less younger people are interested in sharing their family home with several other families, without much privacy at all.

the entrance to the market, too, a traditional style building

colourful, as always in Indonesia

South of Berestagi there are the villages of Gurusinga and Lingggatulu, mostly run-down, located in between extensive clementine plantations. A little further is Lingga, with many more houses, on stilts, thatched roofs, intricate gable triangles, and much better kept – in fact the most famous of the Karo Batak villages here. Another group of villages, SE of Berestagi, are Barusjahe, Balanjahe and Desa Serdang, the latter only reachable on foot, as the bridge connecting the village with the outside world had collapsed. Little of interest in terms of houses here, but watching village life is as interesting, and certainly more colourful. Only disturbing issue is that in some villages a bule – foreigner – is still clearly a novelty, encouraging children to go and follow you en-masse – a true pain in the neck! Perhaps there is a benefit in going to touristic villages after all, where people are much more used to foreigners. In Lingga one is expected to provide a voluntary donation – and kids, uniquely in the region, ask for pens, bonbons and dollars! -, but the state of the houses is much better than elsewhere, many have been repaired, suggesting that the donation is indeed used for what it is meant for.

Gurusinga & Linggatulu

Lingga

Barusjahe & Desa Serdang

the market itself

market woman

an another market woman

In fact, the nicest building happened to be just outside Berestagi, completely unexpected, not mentioned in any tourist guide, with a three story roof – admittedly, it won’t be there long anymore, on the verge of collapse. But there is hope in the form of new construction: many of the government buildings have adopted the decorative gables, which feature prominent on new offices. And churches too, use traditional structures, which easily combine with a cross to top the bell towers.

There is not much else to do in Berestagi, except for Gunduling Hill which provides for a nice view over town, and over the volcanoes, and also serves as picnic place in the weekend, every inch of the local park covered with mats, rented out by the local entrepreneurs. And as in every Indonesian town, the local markets are an attraction, the main one with plants, as well as the vegetable and fish market further down Mainstreet.

Bukit Lawang

Locations

Orang Utan young in the Bukit Lawang reserve

A visit to the Orang Utan reintegration program is really entertaining, bringing you real close to these fabulous creatures

Bulit Lawang’s claim to fame is the Orang Utan reintegration program, which used to prepare apes rescued from captivity – mostly from domestic use – for the wild again. However, the program now has lost its funding, and in order to generate money has turned to tourism.

the entrance to the Eco Lodge in Bukit Lawang

A visit to the Orang Utan reserve is a delight. First day I did not get further than the ranger’s house, where we took shelter from the rain – and so did the apes, four large adults and two youngs, clinching desperately to their mothers. All enjoyed the cabbage, carrots, pineapple and whatever the rangers had brought, and the small ones got extra milk and vitamins. Having these animals right next to you is quite an experience, they look at you as if they, somehow, recognize that you are somewhat familiar. And their features are familiar to you, no doubt, delicate hands and feet, clear faces. Worth the soaking I got, as just when I crossed the stream in the dug out canoe it started pouring down – glad I didn’t go all the way up to the feeding platform, what I did the next day in dry weather: a steep climb no doubt very slippery in heavy rain.

view of the jungle, home to the Orang Utans

large Orang Utan coming out of the jungle

Orang Utan with young in the trees

Orang Utan in the ranger’s hut

young Orang Utan, hanging from the roof

baby Orang Utan

close up Orang Utan

there are also other monkeys, attracted by the bananas

this is a pig-tailed, or long-tailed, macaque

and another banana lover

a so-called Thomas leaf monkey

Nearby bat cave was not nearly so exciting, also because contrary to expectations there were no bats in this cave, but the short hike through plantations and jungle was nice enough, and so was the scrambling into the cave. Just as wet as earlier during the day, but this time from transpiration, not the rain.

Medan

Locations

sticky rice parcels on a food stall in Medan

Large and unattractive city with a small-town atmosphere in its low-rise centre, for however long that may still be preserved

Medan is mostly large and unattractive, never mind that it offers some of the comfort and facilities that Banda Aceh, where I was based at the time, lacks: restaurants, super markets, cinemas etc. Touristically, Medan is more a base from where to travel to Bukit Lawang or to Berestagi, or even further, to Lake Toba, but the city has a few attractions in its own right.

the triangle gable roof of the Medan Museum

collection traditional drums inside the museum

The local museum has an interesting collection of Sumatran anthropological pieces, including a fabulous set of drums, but most of it is only half lit, and there is very little English explanation. The city’s mosque, Mesjid Raya, is a mosque like so many other mosques, and the variously called Medan castle or Medan palace, officially known as Maimoon Palace, which is the old sultan’s residence, is in fact a rather large house, no doubt attractive at its time but now pretty run-down.

the Grand Mosque, Mesjid Raya, of Medan

the Maimoon Palace, locally known as the Medan Palace, the residence of the old royals

inside the mosque

part of the palace is still being used, I am not sure by whom

every soldier with his helmet

war cemetery in Medan

One of the more interesting places is the military cemetery, the ‘hero’s grounds’ – if you have been in the army you automatically become a hero; whether you died in battle or of old age, you still get buried here. Rows and rows of simple crosses, with white painted helmets in front, many dating from the time of independence.

becaks, the taxis of Medan

not all of Medan is big-city-like, here houses along the river

roofs, with TV antennas

Although the city still has a provincial feel over it, with the airport almost inside, and very little high-rise, shopping malls are taking over. Most of those seem to be attracting window shoppers only, and very few buyers; perhaps economically Indonesia isn’t ready yet for the malls, but to compensate this, all malls have a large food court, usually at the top floor, and sometimes accompanied by an ice rink, also on the top floor! Why you wouldn’t put this in the basement instead, beats me, but never mind.

fruit juice stall

food stalls

Traffic is becoming the chaos one expects from a large Asian city, albeit still dominated by rickshaws and becaks, as well as the usual army of motorbikes. Yet, the center of Medan is in fact very small, somehow stimulating becak drivers to try to drive around it several times, creating the impression of large distances, and the expectation of a higher fee. Which, from the perspective of a European, is still an incredibly small amount of money, of course.

June 2007 – 10. the history

Blog entries

the entrance to the Dutch cemetary in Banda Aceh

Aceh’s history is a violent one, but perhaps with, finally, hope for the future

The early history of Aceh is not well documented, but its rise to prominence, as the Sultanate of Aceh in the 16^th Century, is not disputed. Strategically located to control traffic through the Malacca Strait, Aceh gradually increased its influence, especially under Sultan Iskander Muda, who established links with the Ottoman Empire, and with the Dutch East Indies Company, to fight the trading monopoly of the Portuguese just across the water. By then, Islam had firmly established itself along the coast, an observation already made by early travelers like Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo in the 13^th Century. Aceh became known as the Verandah of Mecca. This did not prevent the Acehnese from being ruled by women, and in the 17^th Century several subsequent Sultanas rose to the throne.

Aceh’s wealth has, for centuries, come from its seafaring

yet, these are the more recent traces of wealth

Subsequent Aceh influence came from the fact that, in the early 19^th Century, it produced about half of the pepper consumed in the world, a source of riches which was reflected in the increasingly sophisticated Acehnese court. A wealth, however, that also attracted the interest of others. Under the pretext of fighting pirates that were operating off the Aceh coast, the Dutch invaded, and declared war on Aceh in 1873. Somehow, Dutch superior fire power inflicted a lot of damage, and killed a lot of people, but it took the best of 40 years before the Dutch claimed to have won the war – they definitely never won the hearts and minds, though, and the scant collaboration they received from local rulers was mostly economically driven, to avoid a naval blockage and protect their trade.

women walking through the highlands, coming from their paddie fields

a Dutch memorial for the fallen soldiers of the Aceh war, end 19th Century

There is a Dutch cemetery in Banda Aceh, where many of the fallen Dutch soldiers have been buried. The cemetery is well maintained, no doubt thanks to local efforts. Rows and rows of crosses, some more eloquent than others, and the occasional larger tomb, for one of the more important officers, or governors, who also fell in battle, or just died from natural causes. As did many children: the most poignant part of the cemetery is the corner where the graves of babies, toddlers and children are located, many victim of some or another tropical disease rather than war. As so many local children still are, too, of course.

not all of these are fallen soldiers

these are; what is remarkable is that the cemetary is so well-maintained

and some more, just to make this a little lighter

some colour in the Acehnese history

After WWII the Dutch never set foot in Aceh anymore, busy as they were with reestablishing their colonial rule in the rest of Indonesia. The power in Aceh had transferred to the Ulaama, the religious authorities, who favoured incorporation of the area in an independent Indonesia, but not everybody agreed, especially after Soekarno, Indonesia’s first president, reneged on his promise to grant Aceh a relatively large amount of autonomy, and incorporated Aceh into the province of North Sumatra, instead. And when oil and gas was found offshore in the 1970s, of which the profits flowed largely to the Indonesian State, the time was ripe for an independence movement. Gerakan Aceh Merdaka (Free Aceh Movemnet), better known as GAM, has been fighting the Indonesian government, more even the Indonesian army, ever since. The fight intensified in the late 1990s, after increasingly public support for GAM following a, army escalation phase initiated by the army to wipe out GAM for once and for all – how many times has this been tried, and failed, by government armies in the past? What didn’t help either was that the army made itself more unpopular by running side-businesses, like illegal hardwood extraction, marihuana production and protection rackets, as well as forcing fishermen and coffee growers to sell their harvest at low prices to army buyers.

palm trees against a clouded sky

So all in all the Acehnese have had their share of fighting against foreign and Indonesian domination, but it needed a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions to change the status quo. Although apparently peace negotiations had already been underway before the tsunami struck, the aftermath of the tsunami – where both army and GAM lost a large part of their strength – will certainly have helped in furthering the ultimate peace agreement, which was signed in August 2005, as well as, thanks to the large influx of foreigners and Indonesians from other parts of the archipelago, putting pressure on both parties to live up to the agreement. With the relatively open and fair elections for Governor described above as a first, clear-cut result.

Perhaps even the tsunami, whatever its extreme-size cloud, had a silver lining.

full moon in Aceh

May 2007 – 09. the mountains

Blog entries

mountain stream in the jungle of Aceh Tenggara

A few photos from a field trip into the mountains of Aceh Tenggara, one of the districts where my employer was working

In December 2006, two years after the devastating tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, Aceh was hit by massive floods, this time from the sky rather than from the sea. I am sure this happens more often, largely unnoticed by the world, but with thousands of international organizations present in Aceh at the time, an additional aid program was quickly established.

The program focused on restoring people’s livelihoods. A little tricky, at times, because a significant part of livelihood appeared to be provided by marihuana growers and their middle men, who walk from the central mountain valleys where the stuff is being produced across the mountains northwards to the coast, where they market it in Medan. Our IOM interventions were limited to restoration of irrigation works and provision of seeds to get farmers back onto their feet, but one never knows, really, what these systems are going to be used for after we have left, of course.

the view of the mountains in Aceh Tenggara

In any case, such program calls for a field visit, and in June 2007 I traveled from Takengon, in the center of the Aceh mountains, SE towards Blankejeran and the district of Aceh Tenggara, where the main efforts of the program were being carried out. From there, I continued to the main North-South road that links Sinkil to Medan, and traveled via Berestagi to Medan for a flight back to Banda Aceh. I don’t have many notes from this trip anymore, but a couple of pictures are worth sharing.

Next, and last: 10. the history

the first thing (and sometimes the only thing) an aid organisation does is putting up a sign board

one of the younger inhabitants of Kampung Uring

very few thached roofs here, but plenty of solar panels

the river near the village Kampung Uring; note the piece of washed-away bridge right of the centre

the piece of washed-away bridge, in case you missed it, due to the floods

which forces the people to an uncomfortable river crossing

contemplating

was he trying to get past under the tree, or was he just very unlucky?

I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was just trying

the tanker truck was also carrying fish, still alive!

next morning, early morning, the mountains are at their most beautiful

April 2007 – 08. the sights

Blog entries

the most impressive building is the Great Mosque

There are even a few historical sights In Banda Aceh, a minor tourist attraction

Despite being a rather small town, and despite having been further reduced in size by the tsunami, there are still some interesting historical sites in and around Banda Aceh.

The obvious place to start is the big mosque in the centre of town. The original mosque, the Mesjid Agung or Great Mosque, was built on the site in 1692, during the rule of Iskander Muda, one of the great sultans of early Aceh. The Dutch burnt the place down in 1874, but realizing that they hadn’t particularly won the hearts of the Acehnese by doing so, offered to rebuilt it. So in 1881 the current mosque, the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, was completed, an impressive structure to which over time more domes, and more minarets were added, to its current total of seven domes and eight minarets.

no less than seven domes and eight minarets, added over time

often the outside is decorated with colourful flags

Perhaps the more famous mosque is the Rahmatullah Mosque in Lampuuk, just outside Banda Aceh. This was the mosque that was frequently photographed after the tsunami, as the only building having withstood the force of the water in this part, fierily standing upright in between the rubble and the debris that was left of everything else around it.

another characteristic building is the Bell Mosque

There is little that remains from the powerful Acehnese Sultanates of the past. One building that stands out, though, is the Gunongan. Apparently, this used to be the bathing house and pleasure gardens specially built for Sultan Iskander Muda’s wife, a Malaysian princess. It is now a public park, everybody can freely walk in; it is covered in rubbish – no photos, I am afraid. Nearby is the so-called Bell Mosque, on account of its bell-shaped roof.

the seemingly heavily restored Indra Patra fort, outside Banda Aceh

I have mentioned the beaches around Banda Aceh already. Along one of them, to the north east of the town, are the remains of an old fort, Benteng Indra Patra. It is claimed that the fort dates from the 7^th Century, from before the arrival of Islam in Aceh, although what is left today certainly doesn’t look that old. Neither do the concrete bunkers that have been built along the beach, here.

access to the fort is by wooden stairs

inside are several structures, not necessarily clear what for

also, near the fort, the coast is protected by concrete bunkers, no doubt more recent than the fort itself

and in between all the concrete and stone grey, some colour

outside the mosque, plastic toys being sold

Of course historical buildings are not the only attraction in Banda Aceh. Like every self-respecting Indonesian town, it has a market, a large covered bazaar just behind the main mosque, but also innumerable stalls in the streets, selling everything from fruit and vegetables to plastic toys.

And just sitting along the road, and watch the spectacle of people pass, is equally entertaining. The one thing that has astounded me, ever since I arrived in Banda Aceh, is the enormous resilience of the Acehnese people. They have been fighting for their independence for hundreds of years, most recently they have been fighting what amounts to a civil war with the Indonesian army for 30 years, and then a large part of the population was wiped out by the worst tsunami the world can remember, affecting each and every family I have spoken to. And yet, the Acehnese have picked up their lives again, picked up where they left it, or perhaps a few steps back. And you see it, in the streets.

Next: 09. the mountains

and this sums up the frustrations of the young

March 2007 – 07. the town

Blog entries

parking warden in the centre of Banda Aceh

A bit of a day-to-day description of Banda Aceh, and its dominant business in the time I was there

So what does it look like, Banda Aceh?

Traffic is dominated by motorbikes, even more so than in India. It seems that children grow up on the bikes, as 2 year olds they ride with their parents, it is indeed not unusual to see four people, daddy, mummy and two children, on a bike – without sidecar, just a two wheeler -, and by the time the kids are 8-9 years old they ride by themselves. The concept of minimum age is unknown, even if the law specifies such age, people are unaware of it. Then there are the becaks, motorbike with sidecar, the sidecar being an extra wheel with either a wooden plank, no more, or a proper seat installed, operating as taxis. Both bikes and becaks are the most heavily protected participants in traffic, not by helmets – although some do wear those, varying from plastic caps with a chin strap, usually hanging loose, to the most frightening black helmets covering the entire head and neck, with black reflecting plastic visor; especially women riders, having their heavy helmets on top of their head scarves, are a sight. No, they are protected by the two guiding traffic rules in Indonesia, rule 1 being that if a car hits a motorbike, the car is guilty, and rule 2 that if a motorbike hits a car, the car is also guilty. That, even with these rules, bike drivers could potentially be killed in the process, does not seem to be of concern to bikers, and they behave truly suicidal, oblivious of any other road users. For the rest traffic is in fact very relaxed, Banda Aceh is small enough not to have too much of traffic jams. Cars are a strange mixture of old vehicles somehow still moving, modern Toyota station wagons representing the newly acquired wealth of Acehnese business men, and the SUVs and four-wheel drives of aid agencies.

outside the covered bazar

taxi rank, Banda Aceh style, also outside the bazar

the lottery stall

The dominant business, at least the visible business, is indeed the post-tsunami aid, every conceivable agency or NGO is here, and every one of them wants their logo displayed as prominently as possible. There is something like 5 billion US$ already committed to tsunami rehabilitation, with another 3 or 4 billion pledged, and nobody has ever seen so much money in their entire lives, here. Many agencies are blamed for being slow in spending, and for delivering poor quality. As for being slow, this is probably a function of not having the experience, eg almost everybody is building houses, yet most NGOs have never done this before, and certainly not on the scale that is required, and of massive opportunism – a euphemism for fraud – amongst the potential beneficiaries of those houses, village leaders taking money from people to get on a list who have never even lived anywhere close to the coast, let alone been affected by the tsunami, other people trying to get more than one house by getting themselves on more than one list, etc. In an Indonesian context, nobody thinks this is a bad thing, and if a village elder gets two houses, there will be no one in the village complaining, because they are all being paid off one way or another. But foreign agencies obviously do have a problem with this practice, if and when they need to report to donors. There is, in any event, enormous uncertainty about exactly how many houses need to be build; the official estimate of 130,000 seems very ambitious, given that so many people, entire families, died, and official criteria specify that you can only receive a house if you had one before the tsunami, you own land to build it on, and you have no other house elsewhere.

proudly selling rambotan, tropical fruit

market woman

one of the most attractive things is to dried fish sellers along the coast

one of the most attractive things is dried fish along the coast

although not everybody is actively selling… and fair enough!

fish provides great pictures

and great variety

but inkfish is the most picturesque

and there is no shortage of it

My own organisation still has funding to build close to 1000 houses, but we cannot find genuine beneficiaries anymore, yet in many villages people have been waiting for their house for up to a year, following promises from NGOs that have not yet been fulfilled. Many agencies went out to ‘claim’ whole areas, and signed up with tsunami victims, real or imagined, to build houses, last year, without yet having broken ground in construction. However, in some villages where, according to pre-tsunami Google Earth images, there were just 15-20 houses, now there are close to 100. There is no real oversight, poor coordination, even though there is a relatively capable Indonesian agency called the Bureau for Reconstruksi and Rehabilitasi which is trying hard; I think this whole exercise is just too complex to be managed properly – and with too many conflicting priorities, like pressure to ensure integrity, a time consuming process, against pressure to make progress quickly, and pressure to spend money. As for the poor quality, which has been measured out in the international press recently, most of the work is in fact quite OK, it is just a minority of houses that are substandard, mostly because of poor supervision, and building contractors taking short cuts – where in the world do building contractors not try to take short cuts? It is easy to find fault in such a massive operation, but as far as I am concerned, a lot has been achieved here already, given the enormous destruction of almost two years ago, the low level of existing capacity, not in the least because of a long simmering independence conflict in Aceh, and the fact that much of that capacity, including government departments, was also wiped out during the tsunami.

Next: 08. the sights

January 2007 – 06. the facilities

Blog entries

beach fun, Acehnese style

There is not much to do in Banda Aceh, apart from hitting a few golf balls on a curtailed driving range and walking fully dressed along the beach

The town of Banda Aceh is pretty quiet, there is not a whole lot to do. It may be the capital of the province of Aceh, and it may be the heart of the tsunami rehabilitation activities of the international aid community, but it remains a small town, with rather limited facilities.

I have mentioned the shopping, and the restaurants. Excellent sea food, in restaurants and from the market, huge king prawns, several different varieties of fresh tuna, you name it, they have it here. Less than five minutes from our house is a range of food stalls selling sates, gado gado (vegetables) and sticky rice, and I cannot think of a better take-away than this.

But there is little else in terms of entertainment, obviously: a devout Islamic society doesn’t sport cinemas, bars, nightclubs, and that is fair enough. Having said this, the Acehnese authorities are flexible enough to allow the concealed selling of alcohol in supermarkets, as well as the serving of alcohol in certain restaurants frequented by the foreigners. Whether this was tolerated thanks to the broad understanding of other culture’s needs, or out of gratitude towards the foreigners that came to Aceh to assist in the rehabilitation, or perhaps because the authorities had been paid off by the shop and restaurant owners, who knows. Fact is that, as long as parties were held inside the houses populated by the foreign aid agencies, and didn’t end up as complete drunken orgies extending to the gardens and swimming pools, they were also tolerated by the authorities, without the need for any pay off. (Sadly, not all foreign experts had the decency to stick to these rules, but that is another story.) Sharia law in Aceh was one thing, but foreigners were excepted, a sensibly-enough unwritten common understanding, which made life for the expat community quite bearable, indeed. By the way, something that did not necessarily counted for especially my female non-Acenese, Indonesian staff, many of whom were regularly harassed by the Sharia police for not covering their heads, even if they were Christians.

the clubhouse of the golf club that only has a driving range left

Room for sports was also fairly limited. There were a few tennis courts, but they were often being used early morning and late afternoon – no flood lights -, and at other times is was simply too hot to play. The golf course, built years ago by the cement factory situated just to the south of Banda Aceh for their foreign employees, has not survived the tsunami – the nine holes have been washed away, and only a very short driving range remains! The army has its own new driving range – aptly called The White Elephant -, where one can hit a bucket with 50 balls for 10 US$ cents, but after a while, a short while in fact, this is also not very satisfying anymore.

the driving range itself (big hitters will reach the new houses at the back)

not sure whether the spelling mistakes are intentional; there is some protection from the sun

There is a beach out of town, fabulous strip of yellow sand bordering the turquoise Pacific Ocean. But to actually use it as we would, back home, in bathing suit jumping in the water, and then flat out drying ourselves on the beach, perhaps with a book or a magazine, or a cold beer from the beach bar or a cool box, no, that is not done in Aceh, doesn’t really fit in the Islamic culture. And even the few who decide not to respect the local culture, soon start to feel increasingly uncomfortable under the stares of the Acehnese, not only because they have never seen so much uncovered flesh, but more so because they are completely at a loss why one would, voluntarily, burn one’s skin, and if one side has been burnt, also voluntarily, turn around for the other. And they have a point if you put it that way, no?

another expression of beach fun, this is where you go with your girl friend

although not the most inviting, there is a beach club, too, even with (alcohol-free) beer for sale

For swimming one is therefore confined to private pools, for instance at some of the guest houses. Or to the pool of the only three-star hotel in town, the newly constructed Swiss Belair, which has, however, introduced separate swimming hours for men and for women. With the result that during the women’s hour, the lobby is packed with man staring outside, at the pool. Also not the most inviting option, for women at least.

fishing boats on the beach

and more boats, picturesque

and even more, same reason

So most of our physical activity comes from walking, either in the mountains a little further outside town, or in the fields and past the rice paddies behind our house. And having a dog means that we do this at least three or four times a day. Obviously, the neighbourhood thinks we are completely nuts, walking a dog, on the leash. They have dogs, too, but these are outside dogs who will have to fend for themselves, and largely need to feed themselves, too. Yet, at one stage somebody had hidden two very young puppies just off the side of the road, and probably because I decided to take the two home, hid two more the next day. So now we are stuck with four pups, all four far too early weaned from their mother, totally dependent on us, and the protection from our dog, who has declared himself solidary with the pup rescue project. They are really ugly, and totally destructive, but good fun. We have embarked on a reintegration program – reintegration into the domain of street dogs, that is, after all that is where they came from – and we try to link them up with existing packs, but so far with mixed success. The neighbourhood stills thinks we are completely nuts, walking a dog, and now with four pubs trailing every time we go out.

Next: 07. the town

this sums up the Acehnese beach potential; note that the text is in English only, not in Bahasa Indonesia: meant for expat consumption

December 2006 – 05. the elections

Blog entries

what it is all about, the elections: the governor’s mansion

Although fair, the first free elections for governor in Aceh were mostly boring, and heavily regulated

Back in Banda Aceh, early December, we finally had the local elections, for governor, the first time Acehnese have voted for their own rulers. The elections were a spin-off of the peace agreement that was signed some eight months after the tsunami, between the independence-seeking GAM and the Indonesian government, or more accurately the Indonesian army, which has profited from multiple side businesses in the province during the years of armed conflict (like there is illegal logging, extortion, growing marihuana, and what have you). Popular belief has it that the peace deal was a direct result of the tsunami, that inflicted so much damage on both parties, and also suddenly focused the eyes of the world, including those of 100’s if not 1000’s of foreigners who arrived in its wake, on Aceh, but in fact I have it from reliable source that a peace deal had been in the making for months before the tsunami, and a final draft was sent out two days before the disaster struck. In any event, tsunami or no tsunami, elections were on the block.

The official date had been set at 11 December – after multiple postponements, from May to June to August to September. In fact the run up to the elections was a very interesting process, first with the identification and vetting of candidates: local parties were not allowed, only national parties could participate (so that GAM could be excluded), but in a compromise independent candidates could stand, too. The two weeks of campaigning were quite funny, yet very disciplined. Somehow all eleven candidates had produced posters with the photos of themselves and their proposed vice-governor next to them, all looking very seriously, wearing the Indonesian national symbol of a petjie, the black, rimless hat. All male candidates, of course. There was nothing to tell them apart, especially because the photos had been touched up to make them look younger, resulting in everybody looking the same – in fact one of the candidates I met gave me his poster, and I did not even recognize him on there!

the candidates presenting themselves in a parade

a rare woman candidate, or perhaps its the wife of Mr nr eight

and another car, different colour, same petjie

and all these cars are the military protection for the parade of candidates; somewhat concerning, no?

Election rallies were strictly controlled events, where the candidates sat in cars, trucks, pick-ups, which drove through town in convoy, waving… yeah, well, waving to nobody, because there was nobody watching the convoy, except irritated road users whose passage had been blocked. And heavy police presence, mean-looking riot police, somehow did not encourage enthusiasm. During the campaign some candidates were still disqualified, because they failed the Koran test: all had to demonstrate detailed Koran knowledge, which was tested by the independent election committee. Anyhow, in the end the unexpected occurred, and an independent – who happened to be the local representative of GAM – won hands down, with the second place for another independent – who happened to be the GAM leader in exile. It is hard to see how the electorate could have prepared a stronger message to the national political elite – who is distinctly unhappy with the outcome, or so it seems. Let’s hope that the new guy gets a fair chance, and does not descend to the common political level; did I tell you that he replaces an interim governor, who was propelled to center stage because the previous, appointed governor landed in jail for corruption?

Next: 06. the facilities

one of the becak owners also shows his colours

November 2006 – 04. the field trip

Blog entries

children in an Acehnese village

Around Aceh, via the east coast across the Highlands to the west coast, to get a little insight in what this province looks like

My employer, IOM, is working throughout the province of Aceh, first and foremost on the post-tsunami program, which naturally concentrates along the coast: with the building of houses, rehabilitation of schools and clinics, and large and small scale economic stimulation projects an attempt is made, together with hundreds of other organizations, to build back better, a term coined by Bill Clinton. But a significant part of the IOM-specific program is also directed towards the peace efforts: we are not involved in the negotiations between the Indonesian government and the GAM, the guerrilla movement that has been fighting for Acehnese independence for some 25 years, but IOM facilitates development projects that need to convince the local population that peace actually improves their lives.

the front of a traditional Acehnese house

another traditional house, wood and thached roof

One of the most rewarding elements of my work – ask any humanitarian worker – should be to get out in the field, see what we are actually doing, talk to people who benefit from our projects, and listen to those who have suggestions, complaints or other comments; only by doing this we can learn how to improve what we are doing now, and how to do things better next time.

Sadly – ask any humanitarian manager – the demands of the office job, coordination meetings, donor meetings, government meetings, operations meetings, strategy meetings, staff meetings etc, are such that I don’t get out enough. For instance, I still regret that during the entire year that I have been working in Aceh I have never had the time to visit Nias, an island hit by an earthquake some months after the tsunami, for which my office also had a significant rehabilitation program.

woman working her rice fields

one of the volcanos near Banda Aceh as backdrop for the paddies

Of course, visiting projects close to Banda Aceh is easy, can be done in a few hours, or half a day at most, but I had been thinking of a field trip visiting some of the programs further away, for some time. Finally, in November, I freed a full week for such trip, which easily takes me around most of the province, from what is called the East Coast – but in reality is mostly the northern coast -, to West Coast – which is also the southern coast, on account of Sumatra being oriented almost perfectly NW-SE -, all badly affected by the tsunami. To get from one coast to the other, one can cross the island through what is called the Central Highlands, precisely where the peace dividend projects have been initiated.

Starting of from Banda Aceh eastwards, the road initially follows the coast. The scenery is that of rice paddies, and colourful people with their typical conical hats working the fields. Two volcanoes dominate the skyline in the distance. Past Seulawah the road enters the hills, only to come down to the coast again at Pidie, also called Sigli. Traces of the old railway line from Medan to Banda Aceh can be spotted, in the form of a raised ramp for the tracks, or the occasional isolated bridge, with no roads linked to it. The tracks themselves have been removed, or stolen, or recycled, long ago.

rice paddies

three women at work in the fields

fishing boat near Panta Raja

fishermen near the beach, early morning

nets are being laid out, still early morning

everybody gathered after the landing of boat and nets

the captain of the fishing boat

three of the fishermen working a net

Panta Raja, the fishing village at the mouth of a small river, is a little further along the coast, and so is Birueun, a slightly bigger town where there is accommodation. The countryside here is less attractive, farm lands, flat, but very fertile. In order to see the fishing boats in action, we got up early in Birueun. The boats are beached a little further south, but by the time we got there, they had already left. Yet, some of the boats were fishing near shore, interacting with groups of men on the beach pulling in the nets, which proved an interesting process to watch.

bucket hanging from a house post

village tools

fire wood stacked under the house

women at work (I am not sure what they are doing?)

the family who just received a new house

a new house, typical post-tsunami construction

Further along the coast is Lhokseumaweh, a dull town mostly known for its offshore gas reserves and the associated gas processing plants onshore. Yet, every time we got off the main road into villages land inward, the scenery changed rapidly; any built-up was mostly traditional houses and other assorted forms of wooden shacks, invariably with the friendly atmosphere so characteristic of rural life in this part of the world. Of course, towards the coast, where the tsunami has destroyed every conceivable building and devastated the communities, the situation was quite different. Construction is in full swing, and those lucky enough to have been served first are now living in a standard 38 m2 house built by one NGO or another, often all of the same design, same colour – wiping out any authenticity in this area.

Not many NGOs will support the construction of religious buildings, which is perhaps the reason for one of the most peculiar things we experienced all around Aceh, the collections for mosques – although this doesn’t happen just in areas damaged by the tsunami, but everywhere else, as well. Some obstruction to force cars to slow down will have been installed, often empty drums on the road or so, and several people are then holding up carton boxes or cloth bags asking for donations to the construction. This cannot possibly make a significant difference, yet some dedicated individuals obviously spend a lot of time waiting by the side of the road. (NB: later I encountered the same collections in other parts of Indonesia, for mosques in Pulau Madura, but equally for churches in Northern Sulawesi, so this is much more widespread than I then thought, and clearly not disaster-related)

From Birueun we turned inland, to the district of Bener Meriah and the Central Highlands. Interestingly, here one also finds the occasional sterile villages, result of government relocation programs for conflict victims, those whose houses were burned down, either by GAM (the Acehnese independence movement) or by the Indonesian army.

the bridge connecting two sides of Takengon

In Takengon, at the lake with the same name, we stayed at the oldest hotel in town, offering a beautiful early morning view over the lake: strings of mist still trying to get away, huts on stilts, fishing canoes floating around in search of catch. In fact that was the only thing the hotel offered, as for the rest the place was pretty run-down, dirty carpets, cupboards falling apart and the filth of years of Indonesian officials visiting in the garden. Takengon is a lovely place, especially the older quarter, white houses with rusty corrugated iron roofs, and the ever present status symbol, the satellite dish. Smaller towns and villages along the main roads are dominated by wooden houses with balconies, the RuKo-type – Rumah-Toko, or house & shop combined, a favourite in Indonesian context – but more rural than the hundreds of concrete RuKos being built in Banda Aceh. A tour around the lake was nice enough, people cultivating rice along the shores, sometimes in tiny little paddies, and a truly rural lifestyle reflected in the villages.

the lake at Takengon, early morning

fisherman on the lake

a fishing platform

rice paddies surround the lake, in parts

Highlands village with coffee drying along the road

more coffee being laid out, on plastic tarpaulins

village woman raking the coffee

From Takengon we took on adventure, and steered towards an as yet unknown road (unknown by the aid community, that is), to Meulaboh on the West Coast. This took us some 5 hours, the road being remarkably good, being asphalted in parts and graded for further work in others, despite the area being almost totally uninhabited. Initially, close to Takengon we still passed a few villages, focused mainly on coffee harvesting at this time of the year, but further into the mountains there was nobody anymore, with the exception of logging people, most likely illegal judging from the totally flattened, raped patches of land they left behind. The attraction is clear: primary jungle, huge trees, beautiful, and very impressive. And the screams of monkeys in the distance, far down in the valley, losing their habitat.

deforestation in the sparsely populated areas

although this may be villagers clearing trees for new farmland – still illegal, of course

Down the mountains, we enter rice country again, with the occasional wooden village, but closer to the coast near Meulaboh everything had been wiped out, there was not a single building older than two years: the result of the tsunami. All construction was new, standard size, design, etc.

Acehnese man

and another Acehnese

Some of the barracks, officially called TLC – temporary living centers – are still heavily populated, two years after the tsunami. They are in a poor state, stagnant water, stinking communal toilets and rubbish everywhere, yet nobody wants to do much to improve this for fear of creating permanent squatters. It is already difficult enough to get people out of the barracks, even if they have been given a new house. Many of the new communities do not yet have water and electricity connections, and besides, in the barracks food is free, an incentive to stay for many who still have to rebuild their livelihoods. To complicate matters more, other inhabitants of the barracks are people who formerly rented houses, or squatted. They officially do not qualify for new houses, and have no place to go, really, as house owners who may have had two or three houses in the past are now only given one – never mind that some do get multiple houses, because they managed to get themselves on multiple lists of beneficiaries, either through poor verification procedures or through bribing village officials charged with communicating housing needs to NGOs. Other barrack inhabitants are just opportunists, who have moved in, in the hope of getting something out of this, free food as a minimum, but perhaps a house at a later stage, who knows. Just to show some of the complexities of the rehabilitation work.

fisherman near Meulaboh

The Acehnese West Coast is the most somber terrain I have ever seen. Pretty, with spectacular beaches, in some areas still fringed by palm trees. But most of the coastal strip is very narrow, and stops abruptly 500 or 1000 m land-inwards, where the mountains rise up steeply. And this is where the tsunami hit hardest. In Calang, a small town between Meulaboh and Banda Aceh, nothing pre-tsunami exists, everything is new, the town was totally wiped out. Some 5000 people died here, and only 400 survived, mostly because they were somewhere else. Roads have disappeared; original bridges don’t exist anymore and have been replaced by metal Bailey structures, or just by wooden planks (which subsequently have been stolen again by people desperate for wood to rebuild their houses). House construction is frantically underway, finally, but somehow everything looks the same, standard, without character, no authenticity. The ultimate in creating equality amongst the people, well, at least amongst the house owners. All the way to Banda Aceh, an 8 hour drive from Meulaboh, this scenery does not change, new houses, schools, government buildings, everything is new. In places, there are no houses going up, yet there are traces of old foundations testifying that this area has been inhabited previously. The sad reality? There may be nobody left to build for.

Next: 05. the elections

the coast between Meulaboh and Banda Aceh still shows the traces of the tsunami

only some stems of palm trees are still standing, everything else is gone

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first-hand travel experiences and impressions of travel destinations

Berestagi and the Karo villages

Centre for local tourism, with two climbable volcanos and several attractive, if run-down, Karo Batak villages sporting traditional houses

Bukit Lawang

A visit to the Orang Utan reintegration program is really entertaining, bringing you real close to these fabulous creatures

Medan

Large and unattractive city with a small-town atmosphere in its low-rise centre, for however long that may still be preserved

June 2007 – 10. the history

Aceh’s history is a violent one, but perhaps with, finally, hope for the future

May 2007 – 09. the mountains

A few photos from a field trip into the mountains of Aceh Tenggara, one of the districts where my employer was working

April 2007 – 08. the sights

There are even a few historical sights In Banda Aceh, a minor tourist attraction

March 2007 – 07. the town

A bit of a day-to-day description of Banda Aceh, and its dominant business in the time I was there

January 2007 – 06. the facilities

There is not much to do in Banda Aceh, apart from hitting a few golf balls on a curtailed driving range and walking fully dressed along the beach

December 2006 – 05. the elections

Although fair, the first free elections for governor in Aceh were mostly boring, and heavily regulated

November 2006 – 04. the field trip

Around Aceh, via the east coast across the Highlands to the west coast, to get a little insight in what this province looks like

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Centre for local tourism, with two climbable volcanos and several attractive, if run-down, Karo Batak villages sporting traditional houses

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A visit to the Orang Utan reintegration program is really entertaining, bringing you real close to these fabulous creatures

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Large and unattractive city with a small-town atmosphere in its low-rise centre, for however long that may still be preserved

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Aceh’s history is a violent one, but perhaps with, finally, hope for the future

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A few photos from a field trip into the mountains of Aceh Tenggara, one of the districts where my employer was working

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There are even a few historical sights In Banda Aceh, a minor tourist attraction

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A bit of a day-to-day description of Banda Aceh, and its dominant business in the time I was there

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There is not much to do in Banda Aceh, apart from hitting a few golf balls on a curtailed driving range and walking fully dressed along the beach

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Although fair, the first free elections for governor in Aceh were mostly boring, and heavily regulated

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Around Aceh, via the east coast across the Highlands to the west coast, to get a little insight in what this province looks like

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Recent Posts

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