Having spent some time at Benteng Inong Balee @ the fortress of Laksamana Keumala Hayati @ Malahayati, its time to head home... I mean back to Banda Aceh...
We walked back to where the car was parked at. Still a distance away. This gave me time to digest what has been happening that day... the fortress that is Benteng Indrapatra, the tomb of Malahayati and the nearby hill-slopes which gave me a long deja vu, the fortress of Malahayati @ Benteng Inong Balee. Now it seems I MUST go to one more fortress before I could truly call it a day...
You see, the Saturday trip that day was originally made only to visit Benteng Inong Balee. I came to know about it after reading some materials on it back in Malaysia a few years before. I only learned about Indrapatra after some time in Banda Aceh. And just an hour earlier before going to the Malahayati fortress did I realised her tomb exist around the vicinity.
Now. I have long came to the conclusion that Laksamana Malahayati also has a secret royal identity. Now it's time to connect the dots especially because of a certain feeling and inspiration which I got when visiting her tomb. It happened that the travel pamphlet I brought along shows there's one more fortress I have yet to visit close by. As it is, the fortress is situated on the way back to Banda Aceh!
If I remember corrcetly, at this juncture we are already back inside the car and moving out towards the main road. Just stopped as I couldn't get enough of the view over the Lamuri bay...
Soon we were back on the main road to Banda Aceh...
Pass the houses at Pelabuhan (harbour of) Malahayati...
Over the river Krueng Raya whose mouth practically marks the western tip of the bay...
We looked for the junction which lead to the next and last fortress we intend to visit. Thank God the pamphlet gave a good idea where it is situated at, close to Krueng Raya...
Ah. There it is, direction to the fortress Benteng Iskandar Muda...
A look behind at the road we have to take to reach here...
And here it is, the fortress which is named after Aceh's most well-known ruler, the venerable conqueror Sultan Iskandar Muda Mahkota Alam (ruled 1607-1636). As per the pattern in my last few postings, more pictures of this proud monument would be presented in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) after this. Anyway this is the last place I went to in and around the bay of Lamuri. Thus this is the last story here regarding my Saturday activities in Aceh ya. Just for my record, this is the 377th article in this blogspot. Take care! :]
p/s: Later on in the night I found the old pamphlet from Aceh which features the fortresses I've highlighted here. It says the official name of bay is Teluk (bay of) Lamreh. Never mind, it still refers to an area which is said to be the seat of the ancient kingdom of Lamuri. Thus calling it Teluk Lamuri or the bay of Lamuri is not far off the mark. Besides don't the words Lamreh and Lamuri sounded almost the same?
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