Zero Kilometer, Pulau Weh. Sumatra, Indonesia, March 2010.

Kilometer Zero

  Indonesia: Pulau Weh [Sumatra] - March 2010

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text: 

The place is called "Kilometer Nol". Kilometer Zero. This is where Indonesia begins. It is the most western and northern geographic point of the archipelago, just north of Pulau Weh. The island is itself a confetti off the northern tip of Sumatra.

Kilometer Nol, Pulau Weh, Sumatra, Indonesia

There is a cliff beaten by the wind and the waves, where the Indian Ocean on the west and the Andaman Sea on the east meet. An ugly official monument in tiled concrete marks the place.

Around: commemorative plaques and graffiti, parking and refreshment bar. Some monkeys are rummaging through the garbage and lots of people are taking pictures of each other...

Zero Kilometer, Pulau Weh. Sumatra, Indonesia, March 2010.

 

Posing for the photo, at Kilometre Zero, is great! Pulau Weh, Sumatra, Indonesia, March 2010.

Like a Gapang BeachIt is impossible to escape the ritual of souvenir photos...

Again, I posed willingly and photographed, at their request, strangers, too happy to admire themselves afterwards on the digital screen.

Walk through Pulau Weh

The place is particularly popular in the evening, at sunset. It is a nice walk to get there.

New tar, in excellent condition for driving, very little traffic. The road runs along the north-east coast among the hills, between mangroves, strikes a bit desolate at low tide and bits of bushy jungle.

You just have to watch out for the cows, on the way back, when approaching the villages. They like to stay in the middle of the road and not move when a motorcycle or a car comes...

The road to go to Kilometer Zero passes through bits of bushy jungle. Pulau Weh, Sumatra, Indonesia, March 2010.

In Pulau Weh, cows are the queens of the road. Sumatra, Indonesia, March 2010.

Renting a motorbike-scooter costs about 70-80,000 Rp per day, or 40-50,000 Rp per half-day. And I who like so much to ride with my nose in the wind, I regret a little bit not to have found the time to go around the island more.

With all the dives I did day after day, I only managed to free up half a day for this land trip to Kilometer 0... Very busy, the vacations!

😎

In fact, where Indonesia really begins is at Pulau Rondo. Another island, smaller, a bit further north. You can also dive there, but you have to make arrangements with one of the diving centers to rent a boat.

Celebrate the reconstruction of Banda Aceh

While researching this famous Kilometer Zero on the internet, I discovered that a big festive and commemorative evening (and broadcasted on TV) is to be organized there on December 31, 2011, to celebrate, seven years after the tsunami, the rebirth of the Banda Aceh region and to thank the international NGOs for their support to the reconstruction effort.

If you read English, the explanations are here : Twilight @ KM0. A strong symbol, obviously, this Zero Kilometer ...

Twilight @ Km0: Meet us at Pulau Weh on December 31!
Twilight @ Km0: Meet us at Pulau Weh on December 31!

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  Indonesia: Pulau Weh [Sumatra] - March 2010

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  1. No doubt magical to be at the end of the Indonesian archipelago ... without forgetting the island of Pulau Rondo slightly further north, but is this island inhabited?

  2. The monument is indeed rather ugly, but I like the idea, the symbol, it's magic and it makes me dream. It reminds me when I went to South Africa, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet .... the Cape Agulhas.

  3. @auxBulles: Yes, the "ends of the world" are always quite fascinating. In itself, the ugly building and its surroundings are less important than the symbol and the sea as far as the eye can see... Well, as far as I know, Pulau Rondo is only a small and uninhabited island.
    🙄
    @ Helen: Yes, the capes, the bits of land in the middle of the sea, the peninsulas turned towards the infinite ocean have really something magical... Especially when two oceans meet.
    🙂

  4. Very interesting this history of kilometer 0 of Indonesia... one will forgive you the approximation, by hoping that an inhabitant of Pulau Rondo does not fall on this article!

    Thanks for this geography lesson, I'm asking for more, map buff that I am 😉

  5. @Thib: The approximation is made by the Indonesian government... As for Pulau Rondo, it is an uninhabited island, no soucy!
    😉

  6. @Rod: Yes, yes, yes... The Andaman, I am seriously thinking about it. I was almost there! I have to study it, for a next trip. Besides, another girl told me about it, when I was in Pulau Weh... What she told me really made me want to go there.
    🙄

  7. Cool, now you have to do the andaman 😉

    Thanks for the stories and great pictures with your HD!

    ciao

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