Boat di atas rumoh

With a name that sprawls across three languages ('boat' borrowed from English, di atas Indonesian for 'above', and rumoh the Acehnese for 'house') this sight is testament to the sheer power of the 2004 tsunami. The boat was carried some kilometres inland from the harbour where it had been moored, and was deposited on the roof a house in a neighbourhood almost totally destroyed. Around 60 people scrambled onto the boat to escape the waters; certainly saving their own lives.

The odd patchwork of empty plots and bare concrete plinths is perhaps the main clue that some areas of Banda Aceh changed beyond recognition that tragic Boxing Day. Over 70,000 people in a city of 150,000 died that day, which is a scale hard to comprehend. The images of bloated blackened bodies strewn amongst the rubble when the waters receded, will always be moving.

The main Tsunami Museum that I visited again elaborates on the vast international support provided after the disaster, spearheaded by the EU, the Netherlands and the UK. I wonder what would happen if a disaster of that magnitude struck the world's largest Muslim nation in 2017, given the proliferation of West vs Islam rhetoric in the media and the public's consciousness in the years since. I don't think it's likely that before 2004 many Europeans or North Americans knew much about Indonesia, and Banda Aceh would have been an obscure provincial capital completely off radar. Generous support then came from a primarily humanitarian standpoint, and you have to hope that in 2017 it would be the same, even though I'd fear some politicians feeling less passionate about a response, lest they are perceived as anti-western sympathisers by some constituents.

I had some washing (cucian) done, handed back to me in a Greggs the Bakers plastic bag. Baffling.