PULAU WEH INDONESIA: Diver's heaven

Pulau Weh, Sabang, Indonesia

I’m not a diver. After this trip, I wish I was. I love snorkeling and am always up for an adventure so was happy to tag along as Aaron had been to the Lumba Lumba resort before and had said great things about it. So, he was in charge of the day and had organized a car that picked us up from the port to head to Pulau Weh, Gabang Beach. Indonesia really intrigues me. A few days back, we were in Medan and that was interesting enough with the mosques and batik markets, developing and fairly dry.

our ride to the Lumba Lumba Diving Resort

Sabang was however, completely different. It was rainforest territory. Lush and filled with all sorts of plantation. We winded around roads, up and down hills, passing through villages, mosques, schools, dirt tennis courts. 

About 25 minutes later, we slowed down onto a dirt road, which led to our arrival in Pulau Weh at the Lumba Lumba Diving Resort.

 

The beachfront was littered with 3 or 4 boats that were ready to take divers out. We walked into their office, which was a two-storey house with a balcony out the front.  About 6-7 Westerners were sitting there of whom we found out later, were either avid divers or instructors of the resort. The boys signed up and got their gear together whilst I got my flippers and snorkeling gear ready.

I looked around. It was fairly basic. Not a resort. A goat trotted along randomly.

 

They had a big whiteboard that mapped out who was taking which diving course. Beginners, intermediate, advanced, pro. Cement flooring, the paint job was peeling around the edges of the building.  The guy behind the desk was a local and he grabbed a folder and gave it to me. It was labeled Tsunami 2004. Of course! That was the tsunami that hit Phuket and all the surroundings. As I flipped the pages, the pictures unfolded. This resort right here had been hit. I read the letters that family members had sent to the resort in search of their family members who were caught in it. The pictures showed the damage, the rebuild. I had this horrible strange feeling crawl over me, realizing that I was sitting in the place that it had hit. A few days later, I watched The Impossible and that hit home even MORE. WOWSERS!

I sat there silent and closed the folder quietly. The guy then pointed up to the window where there was a blue painted line. It was where the water level was. Something like 6 metres high! Ridiculous! And he was there that day too. He said he had come back from a party and was slightly intoxicated. He was upstairs and started feeling the floor shaking and everyone quickly ran up the hill. He flicked through the folder again and showed me a picture of him, fixing some of the boats. WOW! This was the second person I had met who had survived that tsunami. The first was someone I met last year who was security on a chartered trip I performed on but they were in Phuket when it all happened.

The boys came out and were ready so we all piled onto the boat and it took us out to the reef.

Aaron, so tanned already?!

the boys, ready for their dive! lookin' good lads!

jeronimoooo :)

The divers went in two groups and I was left alone to snorkel. I jumped in, stared down and was completely and utterly shocked. I did not expect the amount of fishies that I saw before my eyes. They were everywhere and all sorts of colors. I swam around for a while and then surfaced, the boat picked me up and took me to another spot and this time, one of the guys on the boat jumped in with me and took me around. Blue starfish, yellow starfish, rainbow fish, reefs, just incredible! I had to steal these shots from Dave because I didn’t bring an underwater camera. Guttered!!

photos, curtesy of Dave's dive :) i saw pretty much the same though :)

The boys were down for 53 minutes and surfaced.  They had gone down 90 feet! Holy moly! They said they saw sharks, octopus, all sorts of wonderful underwater creatures.

I’ve snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia; in Bora Bora and Moorea, Tahiti. But this had had to be one of the best snorkels ever. The boat took us back, just in time as it started to rain. Our transfer took us back to our ship and before we knew it, we were off and it was probably the whole of Sabang by the port, seeing us off J

An absolutely marvelous day. That’s the beauty of this job. When you least expect it, you find the most beautiful things and have the most enjoyable day! Such inspiration for playing piano and writing music.

Love and grace,

Van-Anh xx
And for the RIGHT NOWs:

Fav food: truffle fries.

Reading: Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell (still…)

Wishlist: diving course

Current city: Sabang, en route Mangalore, India

Listening to: SBTRKT

Fav clothing item: my Tom's!... still!

Next destination: Mangalore, India.

Missing: an underwater camera.