Banda Aceh, Pulau Weh, and Medan

After hitting the Peace Corps gong, symbolizing our last time leaving the Surabaya office, my amiga, MEBs and I flew to Banda Aceh on the island of Sumatra.  

We spent the day tuk tuk-ing to the tsunami sites, enjoying the friendliness of the people and the fact that they are a lot less grabby than on Java. Perhaps they have something with that sharia law, although I'm guessing things are different in the villages. We didn't have time to get to them. 

The city had been reconstructed with the inflow of NGO rebuilding funds, and it was probably the nicest Indonesian city I'd seen (should also be noted that in 2+ years in Indonesia, I never visited Jakarta).

After losing a clingy French couple and a South African with a shady past, MEBs and I headed to Pulau Weh which is supposedly the best snorkeling in Indonesia. We wouldn't know b/c it stormed the entire time we were there (and I think the snorkeling with Gina on Bunaken was pretty super). This was fine by us as we spent most of the time sleeping in our treehouse shack, eating, trying to avoid our numerous run-ins with death, and spending time with our Western-posse community of Hollanders, Aussies, and Americans. I also learned of the "chocolate banana pancake" which I'd like to be more a part of in the future. 

How we almost died numerous times

 "Take a right at the attacking, killer geese."

MEBs' hair caught in our tree shack bed net.

Prior to this photo of us safe on land, drinking tea, we had attempted to motorboat and snorkel in dangerous storm waters.

Riding the public ferry through a storm back to the mainland with a thousand of our closest smoking, crying, and vomiting friends. 

The Western Posse and Chocolate Banana Pancakes

After Pulau Weh, we headed for the city of Medan, which has nothing of note, except that we were reuniting with our friends John and Jay there. We swapped travel tales, piled four people onto a becak, and played basketball in the hotel. Jay and MEBs continued to Lake Toba, and John and I had to leave the country to renew our visa. John and I also ate hamburgers and saw a movie. After closing Peace Corps service, all of these things were most enjoyable.