When I Travel Alone in Aceh

The Opening

"Why are you smiling?" asked Mia. "Hmm, nothing," answered me. "Oh, tell me! Who's that?" asked Mia while starring me then moving her eyes to my phone. "Well, okay okay. I'll tell you who is this and what is this smiling about," answered me.

Mia is one of my close friend since we were in 15. She is fierce and i kinda afraid of her. She demands much of me. I don't even know why I stick with her.

She lived 2 km away from my house and that evening, she visited me. She told me that she needed me to help her to not thinking about her past lover. She just broke up with her boyfriend. We talked about our plans to find a job. Jobstreet.com is a super popular website in our country. We signed up last week and start report our progress to each other.

We just graduated June 2016 from our university. She took mathematician major while I was in communication major. We went to different high school yet we found each other back again in university.

I replied my text:

I am alright :) How are you? I am with Mia, the one I told you last night. How about you? What are you doing?

I typed.

Mia started moaning, she is the type who can't wait anything for any other seconds if she curious about something. I think she is actually born to be a journalist and I am sure she will be hated by the one who get interviewed by her.

"So, it started last week.." I started the story. She suddenly became calmer with her curious expression.

A month before graduation, I told Mia that I might have vacation for celebration. I did not invite her or anyone else because I just had vacation with friends three months before I decided to go. I just wanted to enjoy my vacation alone. Get lost, go to anywhere I like without arguing with somebody else.

Mom was working for some private company that requires her to do business trip. She never bring me but she always bring something from her trip. She always tell the stories about nice people or nice experience after her trip. She always been an adventurous lady. I don't even know how she could manage her little time to wandering each cities she visited. That March, I decided to visit Aceh. It's one of province Mom loves.

I never got a chance to hear the stories about Aceh from Mom actually.  I heard about Sabang island but nothing more. In 2004, there was Tsunami in Aceh so if you're from abroad, you probably may recall. There's also GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) which I won't tell here and also I heard that Aceh is porch of Mecca. It's exciting city.

I booked a ticket 1,5 weeks before I go. I got pretty good prices for both flights and hotel. I did backpacker trip so, nothing fancy - since I only save some dollars when I still in university from money that Mom and Dad gave me.

"Go on.....," asked Mia.

"Well the trip was fun. I met many people there since I did solo traveling. I annoyed and poked some people so I won't be alone. I recommend you to go solo traveling someday. It's a worth to try. You can experience something extraordinary, crazy and it's so much fun," I said it to her.

"Yeah, maybe I should do solo traveling someday. But, I think I won't dare to do that by myself," said Mia.

"Well, you'll be totally okay. You are still in Indonesia. People speak our language.  If it anything happens to you, you can still call and everything. We are in our own country!" I said.

"Yeah maybe I should start close. Jakarta?" asked Mia.

"Oh hahaha. Come on! Jakarta is where we lived, silly! But well, that'll be totally fine. But maybe you should start to thousand island instead," I said.

"Yeah yeah. I'll consider it. Maybe I should register myself in some open trip," said Mia.

"And if you're still afraid, I'll join you but we should pretend that we don't know each other. If you gave up, then we can greet each other," I said to her.

"Oh," Mia got sarcasm to me. "So, what happened?" asked Mia while starring at my phone.

1 new message received:

I am with the boys. They say hi to you. We're hanging out here. I wish you are here though.

I replied:

Say hi to them and they should take care of themselves. Oh I wish I am still in vacation, too. Are you still coming in August?

"Well, have you checked out my gallery?" asked me.

"No, let me see. Was Aceh great?"asked Mia.

I opened my gallery and zoomed out the gallery so I can find pictures on the waterfall easily. I said, "What happened at that day was the craziest thing I've experienced in my whole life."