Hotel Mahara — Hotel in Laut Tawar

By US standards this hotel would be considered a dump. On the bright side, the sheets are clean and the beds are comfortable and there is running water. If you don't get a hot shower in the morning try again in the afternoon or evening. I had a bottle of eucalyptus oil or something like it that I put around the edges of the room and in the cracks where the ants were coming in. I'm guessing that if I had asked they would've come and sprayed poison.|The bathroom was the shocker! The mold and mildew build up could be horrifying but it is just mildew behind the toilet. My bathroom is however, better than my two colleagues bathrooms… One without a sink and one with a huge amount of mold/mildew. If you have traveled this far I'm guessing you know how to tough it out so it's bearable but if you're squeamish at all, stay someplace else! The people here are super friendly and the breakfast is wonderful and there is a very nice view...

Large room / basic private bathroom for 250 k IDR. Towel, toothbrush and prayer mat provided . (for those interested by this kind of info: western-style toilet, but … no paper ;-). Cleanliness not satisfactory for the price . Alarm clock not needed, 3 mosques will do the job very early. Indonesian breakfast OK with nice view over the area and lake.||||Careful with information from hotel: very friendly english speaking receptionist clerk on arrival 7pm, he offered to reserve my bus for next day. He later confirmed it, and even said I will be picked up at the hotel. On next morning, another receptionist clerk informed me there is no more hotel pick-up since January 1 and to rapidly take a bejac to the mini-bus terminal 15’ away. Fortunately I got my mini-bus to Ketambe! ||||Takengon has a lively...

After travelling around most of Indonesia, it is very obvious this hotel has low standards even for a provincial town in the middle of Aceh. It's noisy, badly maintained, has mediocre service and way too high rates for this region. Both rats crawling on the ceiling and a loud water pusher right behind our wall made sure we hardly slept at all. The staff didn't take this serious: the all too typical "memang begitu"("it's like that") wasn't exactly helpful. Takengon has many other options yet unknown to TripAdvisor, however, so just try your luck with any of those, it would require rats crawling in your room rather than on your ceiling to go lower than this. Being Acehnese myself, I am happy to see the region grow, but the attitude seen in this hotel is exactly the one that won't bring anyone...