PLTD Apung 1

PLTD Apung 1 stranded power generating ship, Banda Aceh - darkometer rating : 5 - This is the second most important tsunami-related sight in Banda Aceh (after the Tsunami Museum ). It is a large floating diesel generator vessel that was carried far inland by the tsunami and got stranded right in the middle of a residential area of the city. It was left there as a monument and is now quite commodified, with a whole “tsunami theme park” around it, including a few house ruins, an observation tower, and a striking memorial monument. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: for general tsunami background see under Banda Aceh . The prosaically named PLTD Apung 1 was an electricity-generating vessel, basically one giant floating diesel generator. It weighs a whopping 2600 tonnes! Yet when the tsunami of 26 December 2004 came, it not only ripped the vessel from its mooring but carried it some 2 miles (3 km) inland right into the city. When it was finally deposited by the receding waters in a poor residential district of Banda Aceh it landed right on top of two houses. There are still believed to be victims under the boat that crushed them together with their homes. So the site is also a very surreal graveyard of sorts. After the tsunami the huge hulk of this vessel became one of the symbols of the disaster and an early visitor attraction. People came to see this unlikely sight to get a feeling for the enormous powers at work during the tsunami. It would probably have been pretty much impossible to move it again, short of laboriously dismantling it and taking it away piece by piece.