Give Banda Aceh two days. Start at the Tsunami Museum and the Kerkhof beside it, then see the PLTD Apung barge and the Lampulo boat that the wave left inland. Visit the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque at dusk, drink kopi sanger in Ulee Kareng, and keep a third day for Lampuuk beach or the fast ferry to Pulau Weh.
Updated · Wimup Editorial
Banda Aceh sits on the northern tip of Sumatra, the old seat of the Aceh Sultanate and the city the 2004 tsunami hit hardest. It has rebuilt around its memorials, its black-domed mosque and a coffee culture that fills the warung from dawn to midnight.
Ridwan Kamil's ship-shaped memorial opened in 2009 and is the best place to understand 26 December 2004. Walk the dark, dripping entrance passage first, then the chimney lined with victims' names.
The black-domed mosque the Dutch rebuilt in 1879 to 1881, after burning the original, stood through the tsunami and is the city's heart. Come at dusk, when the call to prayer starts and the white walls turn gold.
A 2,600-ton floating power station the wave carried kilometres inland from Ulee Lheue port, where it still sits among houses. The deck and the small museum beside it put the scale of the water in plain view.
A fishing boat that came to rest on a house roof in Lampulo, where 59 people climbed aboard and survived. It is a short, affecting stop; read the panels on the walkway before climbing up.
A white, many-lobed royal pleasure mound from the 17th-century sultanate, traditionally said to have been built for a princess from Pahang. The garden remnants across the road complete the set.
The provincial museum keeps a raised wooden Rumoh Aceh house you can climb into, plus rencong daggers and sultanate manuscripts. The tomb of Sultan Iskandar Muda is in the same grounds.
Banda Aceh's best-known coffee house has strained robusta through a cloth sock since 1974. Order a sanger, the half-coffee, half-condensed-milk local, and watch the pourers stretch it between pots.
The noodle house locals name first, open since 1967, serving thick yellow noodles in a spiced curry broth. Order it goreng or kuah, with crab or beef, and add emping crackers.
The Baiturrahim mosque, rebuilt in brick in 1922, was left standing here when everything around it went. The mass grave for about 14,000 victims is nearby, and the harbour wall faces the sunset.
A long sweep of pale sand under green headlands, about 17 km southwest of the city, and its calmer swimming beach. Lhoknga's surf breaks are next door if you came for waves.
The memorial museum, with its dark entrance passage and chimney of names.
A replica of the airliner Acehnese donations bought for the young republic.
Families buy beef and buffalo meat and cook sie reuboh; markets overflow.
Daytime eating goes indoors; evening markets sell food for breaking the fast.
Mass prayers fill the Grand Mosque and its square at dawn.
The city marks its official founding date of 1205 with civic events.
A second meugang, then sacrifice and shared meat across the city.
Village feasts for the Prophet's birthday run on for weeks in Aceh.
The province's culture week of dance, food and pavilions.
Prayers at the Grand Mosque and visits to the mass graves.
About 16 km southeast of the centre at Blang Bintang. Damri buses meet arrivals and run to Terminal Batoh; a car takes about 30 minutes.
Express boats from Ulee Lheue reach Balohan on Weh in about 45 minutes; the car ferry takes about two hours. Weather can cancel sailings.
The city bus network runs fixed corridors from the centre out to the edges of town; look for the marked shelters.
Motorbike sidecar becak wait near the mosque and markets; agree the fare first. Grab and Gojek cars and bikes are the easier option.
Thick yellow noodles in curry spice, fried or in broth, often with crab.
Fried chicken buried under crisp curry and pandan leaves.
Goat or beef curry cooked in a huge pot for feasts.
Banana dough parcels steamed in leaves around coconut.
Strained robusta with condensed milk, pulled until frothy.
Vegetable curry soured with fermented coconut pulp.
Beef boiled with vinegar and spice, the meugang dish.
Sun-dried tuna in a spiced curry, an Acehnese staple.
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