A Day in Indonesia's Sharia Law City - Banda Aceh
When you think about Indonesia, you’ll probably think about.. the beaches of Bali or one of the other 17 thousands with it’s crazy beautiful volcanos, and all the other gorgeous stuff. What you probably don’t think about is the city of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra that enforces Islamic Sharia law. This is where a very strict version of Islamic law is enforced, and even teenagers are lashed publicly for cuddling in public. I also heard reports that it’s not even safe for tourists to visit here still because of the guerilla movement and the civil war that was going on for independence against the Indonesian government. I knew none of it could really be this bad in south east Asia or especially Indonesia where I have been before and had the most amazing time.
So, I booked a flight here to Banda Aceh to show you what it’s really like to be here for 24 hours as a tourist and to tell you the fascinating story of how Banda Aceh got to the place where it is today. This is my experience from Banda Aceh, Sumatra. This video is brought to you by our sponsor, Taptap Send.
More on them later on the video. So I just landed in Banda Aceh, which is the capital city of the province of Aceh in Indonesia, which is in northern Sumatra, all the way in the northern tip of the island. And Sumatra, by the way, is the sixth largest island on earth. It is a massive place. A lot of these islands of Indonesia are pretty big.
Now I'm just waiting for my luggage to get here, because I've been traveling for like the last 14 hours in three different planes from Bangladesh to Kuala Lumpur to Medan, and now here. So I need to find my luggage, get a Grab, and then go to my hotel. So it was drizzling a bit when we landed. You can see it on the plane window. But now it's like a full-on tropical downpour happening outside. So, the airport didn't have Wi-Fi.
But the gentleman here is helping me with his hotspot, so I could call a Grab. And then he is calling the Grab driver for me. So I need to go to the gate outside and it's raining.
So the gentleman, Hafiz, is actually driving me to the gate, so I don't get wet in the rain. Thank you, brother. - It’s okay. Thank you so much, man. - Good luck. Appreciate it. - Okay.
Actually, I will just.. sit in the front. - Indonesian opposite side. Oh, sorry. Sorry. (laughs) Thank you. (laughs) What's your name? - My name is Zulfan.
Zulfan? Okay. - You are Nadir? Nadir, yes. - From Pakistan? Bangladesh. Finally got on the car and I was literally about to get on the driver's seat because I'm not used to the driver's seat being over there and I opened the door.
And it was really funny. This is the English channel. Yes. Found my first subscriber from Banda Aceh My friend Zulfan over here. - Yeah. (laughs) - What's your Instagram? Nadir On The Go.
Found an Instagram follower. (laughs) Okay, I've arrived at the hostel or hotel and I'm going in. So when I entered, the receptionist thought I was Indonesian, and started speaking (Bahasa) Indonesian to me. So, I came to Indonesia today and everyone thinks.. - Indonesian?
I am Indonesian. Yeah. - I am so sorry. People are very surprised when they realize I don't speak Bahasa. When I got to the door, my keycard wasn't working. So, I had to go downstairs and come back with reinforcements. - Okay, this one. Thank yo so much. Aah..
Oh, man. Let's see. I’ve paid for a.. view. I have a view of..
(laughs) This is the beautiful view. So, technically I didn't pay for a view. I paid for a window room. So I do have a window in my room. Pretty big window, with a lot of light coming in. So I'm trying to cross the streets and I see like a crosswalk, but I don't know if there's a light for human beings.
There's like a light for cars. So not sure when to cross. So I just decided to be safe and like, go away from the busy intersection and cross the street. Okay, so what a start it has been to my journey into Banda Aceh or Aceh. Sorry, I mispronounced. People are so friendly.
They like.. helped me out when they really didn't have to. I just asked the guy if there's Wi-Fi in the airport, and he was like, “Yeah, I'll just..
give you my hotspot and I'll call the Grab and I'll make sure you get to the Grab. My wife will drive you.” And he had like, this cute little kid. And he like, gave me his number if I need help or something. Okay, let's not get run over. The taxi driver was also like, super nice.
He wanted to, get a coffee with me after he dropped me off at the hotel. Okay, I'll see you later for coffee, then. - Okay. And I was like, yeah, I'd love that, but.. I don't have any money because I just arrived in Indonesia.
So I need to like, go to a money exchange or something. So that's what I'm doing right now, walking to a money exchange while it's still like raining a little bit. Hi. Okay, I think I'm almost at the money exchange place. Not sure if it's open.
It is unbelievably hot right now. It’s not easy wearing jeans in this tropical weather. What time do you close? (Indonesian language) In 15 minutes? Okay, okay. Because it's a Friday, everything closes because it's, you know, the holy day in Islam. So today they're going to close very soon.
And I don't really have a lot of options in discussing the rates, because pretty much everything else is closed already on a Friday. This is the only place that I think is open past five. So I'm getting whatever rate they're offering me. So the exchange rate right now in Indonesia..
100 U.S. dollars is 1.6 million Indonesian rupees. So you're probably going to be a millionaire in Indonesia.. every time you go to the ATM. Speaking of money, if you are a Bangladeshi abroad, who needs to send money back to Bangladesh and you don't want to deal with any hassles, you should check out this app called Taptap Send.
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So make sure to check out Taptap Send if you need to send money to Bangladesh. Okay now I’m about to try to meet up again with my friend Zulfan, the taxi driver. And we're going to try to get a coffee or some relaxing drink.
Are we going to get a coffee? - I translate. (laughs) He needs Google translate. (Indonesian language) Motorcycle? In front of us we see the famous Baiturrahman mosque for the first time. We’ve arrived. Okay, what's your name? - Danny. Yes. Danny? Okay. Aah..
- And you? Nadir. Are you his friend? - Yes. So, Zulfan brought me to this friend, and we're going to get a scooter.
Okay. It's a scooter. - My wife’s. Your wife’s scooter? Home business. - Yes, that’s right. So, we got the scooter here. This is the gentleman's wife’s scooter.
So it's like a family business. I'm just getting it for the day for like, 200,000 Indonesian rupees, and then I can return it to Zulfan, which makes it easy for me. I don't have to come back here, Okay, so the light here doesn't work but I'll be fine. He wanted to get a photo with me, and I thought he wanted my document, my ID.
So we're going on a ride back to the hotel because I'm out of data. There's no.. phone holder here. Should have asked about that. So without that, I'm not really comfortable..
going out anywhere else today. I'm just going to wait, to get a SIM card tomorrow morning when something opens up. And then I can, like, take my bike around, use the headphones to navigate. Okay, look at the color of the sky behind me.
It's like gorgeous golden hour or pink hour, whatever that is. Once I started driving this scooter, basically, I realized the speedometer doesn't work. Indicators I realized, they work, but I can't see which way they're pointing. So I kind of need to know which way they're pointing. I’m meeting up with Zulfan right now because the gas is also almost empty, and he's going to help me fill it up. The coffee place is right next to the mosque, and it looks like gorgeous in the sunset right now.
- Tarwin. Tarwin? Nadir. And what’s your name? - Ismail. Ismail. So, I am at this very local coffee place.
And we are just gonna have a coffee. Thank you, brother. Okay. Let's try the coffee. Oh, it’s hot. Mmm. We're just talking through Google translate.
(laughs) I forgot to stir it. There's, like, sugar in it. Coffee is grown in Sumatra, right? - Yeah. Okay. This coffee is actually grown in Aceh. And, that's what makes it special.
You may already know but Sumatra is famous for its coffee. Yeah, yeah. Sweeter now. In Aceh’s language, Thank you is Teurimong geunaseh. And (bahasa) Indonesian, it is.. Terima kasih - Terima kasih. Terima kasih.
Okay brother, I'm going to go get gasoline. Thank you, brother. Teurimong geunaseh. - Teurimong geunaseh. Teurimong geunaseh. I'll see you tomorrow then. Alright. So, basically I'm going to fill up the scooter with some gas for 35,000 Indonesian rupees,
which shouldn't be much. - Takeaway, mister? Eat here. They just made this amazing burger for me right now, and I was being a little bit stingy with the prices because I thought 10,000 Indonesian rupees is like $6-7 or like $10. And then I did the math.
This thing cost $0.60 on the dollar. This is insanely cheap. I didn't wake up as early as I wanted to the next day. So I skipped breakfast and headed straight to the city's largest attraction. And did a photo shoot of a cat in the process.
It's 9 a.m. So I decided to start off the day at probably the main attraction of Banda Aceh, the Baiturrrahman Grand Mosque, before it gets too hot. Because, you know, I think it's going to get like 32, 33 degrees later in the day, and there's like a heat-wave warning, basically. And it's all white marble, so the sun's going to be reflected right up.
But it was raining this morning, so it's still like a bit cloudy and kind of tolerable. I think the Grand Mosque was originally built in the year 1612. But then it was like heavily damaged in the Aceh war between the Aceh people and the Dutch, and it was like rebuilt again in 1875. Now, originally it had only one minaret and one dome. But you know, it's been expanded since then, and today it has seven domes and eight minarets, including the highest minaret in all of Banda Aceh, which I think should be that one right there.
And to the best of my knowledge, no other building in this city is allowed to be higher than the highest minaret. This huge mosque is truly a work of beauty. There's white marble everywhere. Like any other mosque,
you can't really come in with your shoes on. You’ve to get barefoot or get on your socks. I'd recommend getting barefoot because some spots are a little wet. And it's so massive it can accommodate up to 9,000 people.
The insides are very beautiful as well. I went in to take a look. Obviously did not vlog there to be respectful of the people that are actually praying in there. The reason there is such a massive mosque here that's so historic is because..
Banda Aceh or Aceh in general, was historically a very important piece of the puzzle for the spread of Islam, to not just Indonesia, but all of Southeast Asia. Now to tell you more about that, I have to tell you the story of Aceh. For that, we're going to go to somewhere with a bit more shade. Thank you.
One of the easiest ways to figure out if a place is safe in general, in terms of petty crimes, is to see if people are leaving their helmets on the scooters. That's not something you do in a lot of places, including where I'm from. Can I get a Cappuccino, brother? - Cappuccino? Yes. - Hot? Iced cappuccino? Alright. - Iced. Yes.
And I'll sit over there? Do I pay now or.. - No. No, no. Oh, after? Okay. Thank you. - After. Let's see if I can find a spot by the river. Okay. Right now I'm at this famous coffee chain restaurant called Solong Coffee, basically, which has like..
Oh, I'm sorry. Do you wanna take a picture? I think some people are taking a picture here, so I'm just gonna step out of the way. But this is like a famous coffee chain, and there's like, several Solong coffees all throughout Banda Aceh. But this is not the.. not the oldest one. Hi. - Yeah. How are you?
I think this is a photo spot. A bit distracted right now. But there's, like, several Solong coffee restaurants around Banda Aceh. This is not the oldest one. That's a loud bike.
But, this is one by the river and the one that was close to me. So I came here because I wanted to see everything today before it starts raining. It keeps saying it's going to rain, but it hasn't started raining yet. Oops, sorry.
So I'm gonna get some Cappuccino and tell you more about the story of Aceh right now. - Yeah. Yeah. Bye, bye. This one's right next to the Aceh River, which is, very brown and definitely not something you want to swim in, unless you're very adventurous. But it goes through the middle of the city, very close to the mosque itself. This is.. - We say it in Indonesia, Kue Bohong. Kue Bohong? Okay, so this is like bread or.. - Yes.
What is this wrapped in a leaf? - This is special.. in Aceh we say - Nagasari. Nagasari? - We open and we eat.. Yeah. With the spoon?
- With spoon. Okay, so this is the same as that, right? - Same. I'll just keep one plate then. - One plate? So, basically all I wanted was this coffee, and they brought me like, all of this stuff.
So I'm gonna try it all out. Man, there goes me dieting for Bali. Man. Cappuccino came with all kinds of chocolate-y stuff. Okay. Let's see what this is really like. Mmm. So chocolate-y.
So I don't know what any of these things are called, but let's let's try them out, like, one by one. I don't know what I'm doing. Aah.. Okay. But where's the food? This just keeps opening? Oooh. Look at that. It’s like a sweet, gelatinous material. I don't know what that is. Yeah. This is like some kind of porridge.
And there's, like, another a different colored layer inside it. I don't know what this is. If you do, please let me know in the comments. I’ll try this. Oh, this is just a cupcake.
Little chili pepper. Little bit spicy. Not that spicy. I always prefer savory food to like sweet food. Unless I'm getting coffee or ice-cream.
I have no clue what this is either. Oh. This is really nice, whatever that was. Every time I take a bite out of something, it’s like a different color on the inside.
This is like deeper yellow. I don't even know how to describe any of these things. If you know, please let other people in the comments. I don't know what I am eating. This water was hot, or warm.
Okay, now back to the unfinished story of why this city has such an iconic mosque. So for a long time, Banda Aceh has been like a very strategic transportation and trading hub for the Indian Ocean. You might notice from the location that it is right on the Straits of Malacca.
And if you don't know what that is, that's like a very, very important passageway in the history of world trade and still is to this day, basically. Any goods that are coming through the ocean from like China or East Asia and is going into the Indian Ocean or beyond that to the Western world, has to go through these Straits of Malacca and Banda Aceh, is like situated right on that. So Islam first reached Indonesia in the 13th century to Banda Aceh at first, and by the 17th century the Sultanate of Aceh was at that time one of the most powerful and one of the richest states on the Malacca Straits region. That's why, they were able to build this grand mosque, that's not too far from here right now.
So as Indonesia became independent from the Dutch East Indies or Dutch colonialism, Aceh basically became a part of the newly independent country of Indonesia. But soon after independence, around 1948, the president of Indonesia basically, went back on a couple of the promises that he had made to the people of Aceh. He had said that he would allow them to kind of rule their own territory in their own ways, as they had been for like, hundreds of years before the Dutch came along. And he told them that he was going to allow them to practice Islamic law.
But he went back on all of that, and he sort of like, took away a lot of the political rights of the people of Aceh and made them part of the state of northern Sumatra, which today has the city of Medan. So this, along with a lot of other things, basically led to the struggle for independence for Aceh. And for a long time, there was a war going on between the guerilla forces, GAM, that were fighting for the independence of Aceh and the Indonesian government. And the Indonesian government actually restricted travel to this part of Indonesia. So this carried on into the 21st century.
But then there was one event at the start of the century that changed everything. And to make you understand the scale of what really happened during that event, I have to leave this place and show you guys something else. So everything I just bought costs like $1.60, the snacks and the Cappuccino. You cannot get a better price than that.
So the next spot I was trying to get to is actually closed for like 20 more minutes. Thankfully, this gentleman here next to it, let me have a seat in his shop and a break from the heat. What's your name? - I am Daud. Daud? Nadir. Nice to meet you. I'm from Bangladesh. - Yeah.
Okay. I’m inside the museum, which is basically this former electric generator ship, like a 2600 ton ship. So you can actually climb up this ship and go all the way to the top. When you get to the top of the ship, you kind of get a gorgeous view of the town and everything surrounding it, including this mosque.
So, obviously you realized by now that this ship is in the middle of the land. It's not in the sea. But the story of how this ship actually got here is pretty tragic. Pretty terrifying.
So on 2004, there were like 20, 30 meter waves that came and hit Banda Aceh. And this ship was actually 2 to 3 km that way out there in the ocean. And then the waves basically brought it here all the way inside and made it land on these houses, killing everyone inside it. That's how it got here. Now a better place to continue the story of this massive wave is somewhere closer to the waves.
I'm on the coast of Banda Aceh right now at this port that I can't really pronounce. And right now it's like a picturesque scene. People come here to see, I guess the sunset in the distance, although it's probably over the mountains over there. But on December 26th, 2004, this was anything but a peaceful place. An earthquake of magnitude 9.2 on the Richter scale
hit the bottom of the Indian Ocean and sent out a tsunami, which is like this massive wave, which at its peak was 50m or 170ft in height. Thousands of kilometers away, even in places like Sri Lanka, it wreaked havoc. Tens of thousands of people died in other countries. The center of this earthquake was actually only 250km away from Banda Aceh. So Banda Aceh was the closest major city to the tsunami. So first the earthquake hit it, destroyed the town, and then later the wave created by this earthquake came and basically wiped out Western Aceh and this whole region and Banda Aceh.
Waves that are high upto 30m, like 90ft waves, came and basically went through the whole city. That's what took that ship all the way inland. 60% of the buildings in Banda Aceh were destroyed. The Indonesian government estimates that more than 200,000 people in Indonesia alone lost their lives in Sumatra.
60,000 people alone died in this town of Banda Aceh, which is like around a third or a fourth of the population. In this video so far, I'm sure you've seen, what, like 10, 20 people that I've talked to. Statistically speaking, probably more than half of them had a family member die in this tsunami. That's how devastating it was. The scariest part is like people had like no idea that something like this could happen and all of a sudden it's like the end of the world. A 100ft wave coming at your doorstep two kilometers away from the coast.
Not only it killed tens of thousands of people here, it also like, you know, destroyed the mental health of, everyone that survived it. There's a saying that there's a silver lining to every cloud. So you could say.. there was at least one good thing that came out from this disaster, the biggest natural disaster in the 21st century. Let me tell you more about that in the next spot.
So, I stepped away from the ocean to continue the story. But when I saw this being cooked, I could not say no. Thank you, brother. So I haven't eaten anything all day, so I got these, hopefully, chicken-sticks for 2,000 Indonesian rupees, I think is literally $0.10 (per piece). I don't know if it's chicken, but let me try it out.
This is chicken for sure. It’s a bit spicy. This is something else. I don't know what this is supposed to be, Not bad. I was going to get a snack, but basically, I just had dinner. So there's two pieces of chicken. The rest were something else.
And this is pretty spicy. So if you don't have any spice tolerance, this would, like kill you. I think there was a little bit of fish in that last thing.
I usually don't eat fish, but that wasn't bad. So my phone is dying and I needed to get back home. and I didn't bring a power bank, so I'm just charging it using my drone controller. For those of you who didn't fly a drone, this comes in so clutch sometimes when I forget a power bank. So the silver lining to this cloud, to this natural disaster was that because of this natural disaster, the GAM, which were the guerilla forces that were at war with the Indonesian government..
They signed a ceasefire deal with the government of Indonesia so they could basically, provide aid to the people that needed aid. And this allowed the peace talks to happen. And then in 2005, the year after that, basically a peace deal was signed between the GAM, the rebels and the Indonesian government, which allowed, Aceh to become a province of Indonesia, but it was an autonomous province. So they could have their own laws, unlike other provinces of Indonesia, or had much greater autonomy. and a part of this agreement was that they would get to implement Islamic law or Sharia law.
And that led to the creation of the Sharia police for Islamic offenses over here. So, Aceh’s Sharia laws are stricter than anywhere else in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, which also follows its own version of Sharia law. It's even stricter than places in the Middle East like Dubai, which is a lot more lax about these things. Drinking is obviously not allowed. It's the first thing. Premarital sex or gay sex is illegal. Skipping Friday prayers, which is like the most important prayer of the week for Muslims, that is also I guess, illegal, but I don't know how much that is enforced.
I just read that it's illegal, but I'm sure not everyone goes to the prayers. And by the way, none of this applies to non-Muslims here. But I know that all shops and stuff are required to stay closed during, Jummah namaz on Friday afternoons. And I think everything, including the museum today, was also closed in the afternoon because it was like prayer time. So everything gets closed around that time.
There's things like homosexuality that is not illegal in most of Southeast Asia. In Thailand and the Philippines, it's very accepted I'd say, being gay or like being trans. But that is not the case over here.
And, when someone is caught violating these laws, like, selling alcohol or consuming alcohol or, I guess, teenagers cuddling in public.. there was a famous case two 18 year olds were caught, like cuddling. They were subjected to public lashings. Which is like someone in full body clothing..
I don't know what it's called, comes and like, lashes them in public. There was a case of a 60 year old woman who was selling alcohol, who was subject to, like, I think 60 lashes in public, which sounds pretty brutal for like a 60 year old woman to endure. So that's the state of what it is today. Now, it is not like hostile to tourists, from my experience at least.
But this is my experience as a straight man who, obviously has a Muslim name. But honestly, to everyone that I know that visited here, that was not a Muslim, they were not discriminated against. And I know quite a few people that visited here. But I don't know what my experience would be like here if I was not straight..
if I was with a gay partner. And that's something I guess you should definitely consider before you come here. But other than that, people seem to be very friendly. This is actually one of the friendliest places I've ever been to. This is a lot like, eastern Turkey, like the Kurdish part, like Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Van.
Filipino people were like really friendly. Also I forgot about Eastern Europe and the Balkans. People are extremely friendly over there.
So I guess, yeah, this is like in the top 3 or 4 friendliest places I've ever been to. And that's saying a lot. So I think you're going to be fine if you come here as long as you dress modestly. And yeah, don't wear shorts all the time. I've definitely been getting some looks because I'm wearing shorts. Definitely, you can't go to a mosque wearing shorts or something like that.
So just be aware of the dress code. Be aware of, not doing anything that is illegal. Just look up what is legal and illegal.
Even though there are beaches here, you definitely can't go like sunbathing in a bikini here. I think guys are expected to dress modestly as well, especially if you're going to a religious site. But, you know, this is not the strictest form of Sharia law because there's clearly like people listening to music having a good time. They just don't drink.
To finish off the video, I decided to come to the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque again for sunset because it looked so beautiful, when I was having coffee yesterday. So I think this is it for this video. I'm just going to go to the gym and go to sleep and wake up at 4 a.m.
and go back to Flores, where I filmed my first ever vlog from my first ever trip that was more than one week long, six and a half years ago. So excited for that. I got to wake up at 4 a.m. Not excited for that. But if you like this video, please Like it.
If you want to watch more videos like this, feel free to Subscribe to my channel. And if you want to follow real time travel updates from me, feel free to follow me on Instagram @nadironthego I'll catch you guys in the next video from most probably Indonesia. Most probably where I am filming the next long video from.
2024-10-21 14:09
