For this long October break we arranged for a family visit and a small tour of Thailand. and to get our diving fix by visiting another one of those much talked about dive locations, 'Pulau Weh'. Located off the coast of Banda Aceh in North Sumatra, the name Pulau Weh has been mentioned in many 'best diving' conversations that I've listened to. Although Sumatra's northern coastline, and Banda Aceh in particular, was amongst the worst hit in the 2004 Tsunami, according to the dive shop spiel the damage underwater was surprisingly minimal.
I wasn't sure what to expect upon arriving into the town of Banda Aceh, but there seemed little evidence of the absolute devastation that occurred. There has obviously been a lot of redevelopment, new roads and new areas of houses. Poverty wise, it seems similar to many other places we've been, and a lot better off than certain areas in Laos and Cambodia. There was a startling reminder of the destruction when we arrived at the Hotel Medan. Outside the lift is a collection of photos taken as the tsunami hit, and the aftermath of it. There was a 35 ft wooden fishing boat that was carried by the wave from the coastline about 10 kilometres away and umped on top of cars in the hotel car park. There are pictures of people running from a wall of water and debris, and then lots of pictures of the destruction caused. Sadly, upon looking closely at these pictures, you start to realize that it's not just piles of debris, but hundreds of bodies amongst it. You think you get to see it all on the news, but to see these photographs makes you realize you don't see half of it. There was such incredible devastation and loss across such a large area, I am sure the people who experienced the disaster will never fully recover.
There is a very impressive monument in Banda Aceh that did avoid damage, and that it the Baiturrahman mosque. This is one of the first domed mosques in South East Asia and is absolutely stunning. However, as females have to have hair and ankles covered to enter, I had to look from outside while Nick went in and took pictures.
After one night in Banda Aceh we took the fast ferry over the Pulau Weh. Lumba Lumba, the dive shop where we were staying was an hours bumpy but beautiful drive to the north of the island. Pulau Weh, like the rest of Banda Aceh, is a Muslim area, and it was difficult to find a single woman who did not have a headscarf covering her hair. This is definitely not a place to go if you're hoping to work on your tan. Nearly all foreign tourists who visit the island go there with one thing in mind, diving.
The diving in Pulau Weh is not for the faint hearted, located at point '0' in Indonesia, it is the start of the famous currents that whip in and around all the islands. However, Weh on a good day is supposed to have a little bit of all that's on offer; big stuff, small stuff, walls, drop offs, boulders and coral gardens, great visibility, and even one of the worlds few, diveble, hot underwater jacuzzis. We arrived when tides were slack, so the vis wasn't so great, but as both Nick and I have limited current experience, we were willing to compromise on vis to avoid the legendary ripping up and down currents.
The diving was good, but still not that 'wow' experience we had been hoping for. Maybe if we'd been when the tides were at their fullest, we might have seen all that was promised, but the 'big stuff' dives were slightly lacking in...big stuff. However, we did do a few dives later in the week when the current had picked up, and there may well have been some bigger stuff for us to see. But, due to the fact that our guide decided to circumnavigate the whole of the large site, twice, it meant we were so busy keeping our heads down and swimming as fast as we could to keep up, that we wouldn't have seen an elephant if it happened to be swimming above us. What was really cool though, was the shore dive to the pier. There was lots of nice small stuff to practice taking pics of, including a sea snake I nearly put my foot down on. You could have heard me swear from 10 metres away.
Another interesting dive was to the underwater hot springs. We stopped off at the springs after first doing a dive on a small wreck in the local harbour. We dropped into the water 100 metres away from a huge crane hammering pilings into the ground. Sound is louder, clearer and comes from all sides underwater. It felt like your chest and ears were being impacted by some kind of pneumatic drill as we swam around the wreck. It was a very strange experience, so different from the normal quiet of diving. After the wreck we moved on to the springs. These are lots of sulphuric hot air vents at in about 6-7 metres of water. The result is that you get to swim through millions of bubbles of hot, smelly gas. We absolutely stank when we surfaced.
The diving was good, but still not that 'wow' experience we had been hoping for. Maybe if we'd been when the tides were at their fullest, we might have seen all that was promised, but the 'big stuff' dives were slightly lacking in...big stuff. However, we did do a few dives later in the week when the current had picked up, and there may well have been some bigger stuff for us to see. But, due to the fact that our guide decided to circumnavigate the whole of the large site, twice, it meant we were so busy keeping our heads down and swimming as fast as we could to keep up, that we wouldn't have seen an elephant if it happened to be swimming above us. What was really cool though, was the shore dive to the pier. There was lots of nice small stuff to practice taking pics of, including a sea snake I nearly put my foot down on. You could have heard me swear from 10 metres away.
Another interesting dive was to the underwater hot springs. We stopped off at the springs after first doing a dive on a small wreck in the local harbour. We dropped into the water 100 metres away from a huge crane hammering pilings into the ground. Sound is louder, clearer and comes from all sides underwater. It felt like your chest and ears were being impacted by some kind of pneumatic drill as we swam around the wreck. It was a very strange experience, so different from the normal quiet of diving. After the wreck we moved on to the springs. These are lots of sulphuric hot air vents at in about 6-7 metres of water. The result is that you get to swim through millions of bubbles of hot, smelly gas. We absolutely stank when we surfaced.
Apart from the diving, there wasn't much to do where we were staying. There were a few 'restaurants', not that they can really be called that, but the normal 'drinking' culture that is linked to dive shops is never going to take off in Weh, for obvious reasons. We did have one rather alcoholic night in the dive shop when two of the divemasters had their snorkel tests. For those unfamiliar with the dive industry and the 'responsible' professionals involved in it, the snorkel test is a 'coming of age' activity. Inflicted on those who have paid to be bossed around and be general dogsbody for a month or two, and is inflicted by those who get to do the bossing. The divemaster trainee is made to wear a mask and snorkel and then drink a large amount of usually strong and disgusting alcohol, and perhaps a raw egg and some tobasco for seasoning. It is very entertaining for all but the trainee, for whom it usually just very unpleasant. At Lumba Lumba they have perfected this art and it is now a controlled science of unpleasantness. DMT's must finish all the liquid, cannot touch their masks to give themselves 'air breaks', and worst of all, anything they throw up is caught in their alcohol jug and quickly poured back down the snorkel. I feel I got off rather lightly with mine now!!
