BANDA ACEH – The Boat House, an Aceh tsunami monument located in Lampulo Village, Banda Aceh, has become a God’s Warning site for Visit Banda Aceh 2011, Antara news agency reported.
The monument which sits on a house serves proof of the devastating tsunami which struck Aceh on December 26, 2004.
“The tsunami site serves as God’s Warning in tourism as by looking at it people will become aware of God’s unlimited power,” Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Illiza Saaduddin Jamal said here during inaugural ceremony of the tourism icon and at the same time commemorating the tsunami disaster here on Sunday.
At the monument, there is an inscription in three different languages, Indonesian, Acehnese, and English, which described how the boat saved 59 people during the tsunami.
There is also a banner which shows 59 tsunami survivors who climbed on the boat after the tsunami hit the Aceh coast.
The owner of the house, Abasiah ,said he survived after climbing on the boat when it floated toward him.
“I climbed on the boat in which 59 people were already in it,” he said.
“When the boat stopped drifting, I noticed that it was perched on top of my house,” he said.
The Lampulo Village chief Alta Zaini said residents of Lampulo are prepared to make a success of the tourist programme by serving and guiding visiting tourists.
Alta also asked every member of the tsunami victim to learn a lesson from the disaster, and free themselves from their grief.
The God’s warning tourism object is also expected to become a place for contemplation and economic improvement of the local residents.
Source: bernama.com.my