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Pulau Weh:
As this is being written (27/09/10), we're sat on our balcony (Andy in our hammock) on the waterfront, with the sound of waves gently crashing against the rocks below us. Pulau Weh has been nothing short of paradise during the 10days we have been here.
After flying to Banda Aceh (on the northern most tip of Sumatra) from KL, it was an hour or so ferry ride over to the island of Pulau Weh followed by another hour in a taxi to reach Iboih Beach in the north. We walked along a pathway and being turned away from one place (they were fully booked that night but asked us to return the following day) we were pleased to discover 'Yuliah's Bungalows', a series of wooden huts on stilts. Some are a little further up the hill but we chose to pay a little bit more for one right on the water. There is also a small restaurant here and it is all family run.
Originally we only intended to be on Pulau Weh for 4/5 days before heading back to Sumatra and seeing the main island. Our plans changed as there were a couple of things we didn't take into account. The first, was just how much we would enjoy completely relaxing here. The second, was just how difficult and time consuming it would be to visit the two other locations in Sumatra we had intended to see. We only have a 30 day visa for the whole of Indonesia so that has to include our time in Sumatra, Java and Bali. In order to visit Lake Toba and Bukit Luwang (in Sumatra) we would be facing several long journeys (12hours) in buses, and not luxury ones like in Malaysia either! This would also have meant after the journeys we would have had to rush our time in those 2 locations, only being able to spend a day or two in both. This, coupled with the fact we both got a little bit ill in our first few days here, meant that we decided to sacrifice seeing more of Sumatra to stay here and completely chill out. We will be able to spend a day and night in both Banda Aceh and Medan, so we won't be completely missing out on the main island.
We had come to Pulau Weh for one reason - diving. We had heard that it was spectacular and one of the best places for it in the world and as we were in this direction we had to come and investigate it for ourselves. We were a little apprehensive as we had been told that the area was susceptible to strong currents, something we hadn't encountered on Koh Tao. Needless to say, when people said it was amongst one of the best places in the world for scuba diving, they weren't lying!
Whilst here we actually only managed to do 5 dives (well 6 actually, but more on the 6th dive later). Andy came down with something a day or so after we arrived which fortunately only lasted 24hrs, however once he got better, Nikki then fell ill! She was unwell for 2days so that took 3 days out of our time here (another reason we chose to stick around longer). There are also local traditions where no boats are allowed at sea on a Friday morning, and if someone living in the area passes away, again no boats at sea. This unfortunately happened one afternoon so the window of opportunity for getting beneath the waves wasn't always open. However when we did manage to dive, my goodness was it worth the wait...
During just 1 of our 5 dives, excluding the hundreds of varieties of fish, we were astounded to see - • A black tip reef shark (around 2m long) • 2 octopuses • 2 eagle rays (AMAZING!) • A giant barracuda • A school of batfish • Several types of lionfish (including a baby one!)
Now, this may not seem too exciting to anyone else but bear this in mind: During 9 weeks on Koh Tao where we had 70/80 dives, we didn't see any reef sharks, any octopus, we saw 1 lionfish and when an eagle ray was spotted it was big news (again, we didn't see it). So for us to descend and be able to see all these unbelievable creatures (amongst many others) in just 1 hour was simply amazing and very exciting!
We must add that the water here is consistently crystal clear, just stunning. The diversity of fish and corals also surpasses anything we've ever seen. We feel a little sad to say it, but on our first day here we went for a snorkel in the area around our bungalow. During our 20minute snorkel we saw a larger variety of fish than we saw on Koh Tao - we saw everything we had seen in our time there and more, right on our doorstep! Andy would be excited to see a trigger fish on Koh Tao yet here there are so many varieties from ones a couple of inches long to huge ones, you would see without exaggeration a hundred different triggers on every dive.
During our dives we also saw many moray eels, including one that was scarily big. Most can grow pretty big in length, however this one was more than long, it was easily as big as Nikki in width! This may explain why Nikki kept her distance whilst Andy ventured ever closer! He couldn't resist getting nearer simply due to being in awe of the size of the thing - it was truly monstrous. We also experienced our first 'drift dive' and really enjoyed it! This is where you don't need to do any work, the current just takes you along as though you are sitting on a conveyor belt whilst you just look at all the things around you go by - brilliant!
Our 6th dive was a community effort. On the 25th September it was 'International Reef Cleanup Day' with divers across the world taking part. With buddy teams each armed with a large empty sack, a rope and a plastic bag around 20 of us all headed into the waters around the beach to pick up, well, anything that shouldn't be there! The two of us went off and found the standard litter of cans, bottles and old fishing line, and more interestingly a child's shoe! We didn't find lots (which of course is a good thing) but enough to feel we'd helped out. The reason we took a rope and plastic bag in with us is the method in how we get the rubbish out. After filling your bag (or running low on air, whichever comes first!) you would loop the rope through the top of the sack. You then loop the other end of the rope through the handles of the plastic bag. Then using your spare regulator (every diver has one) you squirt some air into the plastic bag and away floats your rubbish to the surface! The dive shop we were diving with had a boat patrolling who would then come along and hook all the floating bags hauling all the litter on board. The shop were also kind enough to provide free drinks and lunch for us all, as well as a t-shirt each that they had printed for us with the 'Aceh Coral Conservation' logo, the 'Coral Oasis' logo, the dive schools logo, and printed across the front reads:
'INTERNATIONAL CLEAN UP DAY 25th September 2010 Iboih Beach - Pulau Weh'.
Something they really didn't need to do, such a nice gesture and a cool memento of our trip here.
During our time here this is something that struck us the most. The sheer kindness and friendliness of the people here is something to be admired. Everyone you see says hello or will give you a smile to make you feel welcome. We will share a quick story to prove our point.
3 days after arriving, Andy was doing some investigating to see if anywhere would be showing the Man Utd vs Liverpool game. There are no bars here so the likelihood of finding a place showing it was slim. Eventually we were sent in the direction of the place we were thinking of staying originally (remember we were turned away as they were busy on our 1st night). We hadn't returned the evening after arriving as we were happy with the place we eventually stayed. Anyhow, we got there and asked if they were showing it but they didn't have their TV for guests anymore. Instead, she invited us into her home to see if it was on! We walked into her living room where her 3kids were watching cartoons. Did they moan at having to miss the programme? Nope, the opposite as seconds later one of the children was busy flicking through the channels to try and find the football for us! A huge storm then rolled in but instead of giving up, the lady who owned the place was outside in the strong wind propping up the satellite dish to try and keep the TV working! We never did manage to see the match as the storm got too strong, and we left not wanting to keep the kids from their cartoons any longer! The lady simply wished us well and said goodbye, she didn't try to sell us a drink or food or a room, nothing. The fact we were welcomed into her home with no ulterior motive of selling us anything or getting us to stay simply so she could try and help this stranger watch his football team was touching and something we will remember fondly. We hope she realises we really did mean it when we were saying thank you to her for trying.
Now you're probably wondering what on earth we did with the rest of our time whilst we weren't diving. The answer quite simply, is nothing! We spent days doing nothing but lie in our hammock, read books, and go for the occasional snorkel in our front garden. Absolute bliss, and the fact we're both on our third book since arriving shows just how much chilling out we did! The pace of this place matches the pace we set ourselves. You can expect to wait an hour for your food to arrive at the table, you will find locals just snoozing in hammocks or on the beach in the middle of their working day, the life they lead here is just very slow and relaxed but in the best of ways. It was more than a welcome break for us after our first stint of location hopping and our time in busy KL.
The journey from now is a ferry back to Banda Aceh where we will spend the day and 1 night. Then early the following morning we fly to Medan, again for a day and night (although we may not venture outside our hotel - yes our first proper hotel since leaving the UK), and then it's a flight from Medan to Surabaya in Java.
Banda Aceh:
After getting the early morning ferry back to Banda Aceh, we were pleased to see a man waiting at the other end with a piece of paper with our names on. You see not one of our cards would work on any of the internal Indonesian airlines websites. This meant the only way for us to buy a ticket to fly the 1 hour to Medan (saving us the 12 hour bus journey) was to go to the airport ourselves and hope there were some seats left! However whilst on Pulau Weh we told of our dilemma to one of the guys working in the dive shop. Fortunately he had a friend who worked at the airport who was able to book us on our desired flight. We were then to meet him in Banda to give him the money. Now this of course could have gone horribly wrong but again, the people here seem too nice to want to rip you off! We were cautious and checked the details thoroughly once we met him for the exchange. Anyhow before meeting him, it seemed he had taken the liberty of making sure there was a taxi waiting for us at the ferry port, and also arranged one to take us to the airport the following morning. So we were all set thanks to this guy, and everything went according to plan, brilliant!
During our day in Banda Aceh we did manage to go around the city to see the things we wanted to. Unfortunately there is no public transport system, so we paid a chap 80,000 rupiah (around a fiver) to take us on a brief tour to the places we'd pointed to on a map and then back to our hotel. The mode of transport was quite interesting! It consisted of him on his motorbike, with the two of us sat in what resembled a small rickshaw connected to the left hand side of the bike. This gave us a great view whilst on the roads, and gave everyone else a great view of us! In Indonesia we have encountered for the first time people, lots of people, staring at us. Some will smile, children will wave, but usually it's just a stare which is a little uncomfortable! Nikki has also found celebrity status among Indonesians! Whilst in Kuala Lumpur at the Batu Caves, 3 women asked if they could each have their photo taken with her (they then said they were Indonesian) and whilst in Banda a large group of men also wanted photos. Andy wasn't particularly appreciative of the teenage boys who would try taking photos on the sly and would let them know by giving them an angry glare and shaking his head!
During our mini tour we went to 3 locations all to do with the tsunami that wiped out the town on Boxing Day 2004. The first was off into the residential streets where there was a fishing boat still perched atop what was once a house, now in ruins. The boat was not on ground level having flattened the house, it was literally sat on top of what had remained of the house walls at 12ft in the air. It had been left there as a mark of respect as the boat had managed to save 56 lives before finding itself where it came to rest. They have even built a concrete walkway so that you can get up to the same level as the boat to get a perspective of how far it had travelled inland from the sea and how the boat was in fact sitting higher than almost all of the surrounding houses. It gives you an idea of just how powerful the water was on that day, however this was nothing compared to the third place we went (more on that later!)
The next spot was the 'Tsunami Museum' or as we found out, what used to be a museum. We aren't even sure whether it ever opened to be honest but we hope it did otherwise it would have been a massive amount of money down the drain for nothing. What we found was a modern building which was clearly very expensive to build, that had just been abandoned and left there to decay. This only 5 years after the actual event happened? We're hoping they didn't use money donated to help rebuild the city to build the defunct structure, although to be honest whether it was donated or not makes no difference. There are people everywhere who still need help so it's no wonder the locals are annoyed at the workers who are still in the city trying to help when needed cash has been wasted. Very disappointing as we were looking forward to seeing it.
Anyhow it was back into our ride to be taken to the third and final stop. Imagine a ship, around 100ft long, 40ft wide and 50/60ft tall. Now imagine a vessel of that size on dry land, a few kilometres from any coastline. Well in the middle of Banda Aceh sits this exact thing. If there is any testament to the true power of mother nature then this is it. This huge vessel has been left in the middle of the city to show anyone who sees it just how much destruction, devastation, and downright insanity there was in the city that day. To think there are many people who survived the disaster is baffling when you are standing on a road next to a ship - mind boggling. We were able to get on the ship and head right up to the top deck. This offered great views of the city, but what everyone really goes up to see is just how far from sea the ship has travelled. It's difficult to describe the feeling you get whilst you're standing up there, especially when if you look over the left hand side you are greeted with a shell of a house with a fishing boat sitting next to it. A stark reminder that this isn't a tourist attraction or a quirky way to get people to visit. This was the people of Banda Aceh's reality that day and it's something nobody who wasn't there when it happened will ever understand.
Around a hundred yards from the ship is a small monument dedicated to the many people who lost their lives, their homes and their livelihoods. Accompanying this are a series of photographs of the aftermath. This was not something for those with a weak stomach as many were very graphic and didn't hold anything back. It was uneasy viewing but it gave us just a glimpse and some idea of just what those people went through. Terrifying.
We are glad we took the time to see what we did, and we are pleased that we helped a tiny bit in bringing a little bit more money into their economy. There are no tourists here anymore and there haven't been since the disaster. The locals have had to suffer both the impact of the tsunami, and the impact of losing any hope of supplementing their income through tourism. Really, it's no wonder people stare at the white people when they arrive in town, we would do exactly the same thing in their shoes.
Medan: So it was yet another early wake up, 5am to be precise to ensure we got to the airport on time for our flight to Medan. Once we were checked in we could breathe a sigh of relief as we knew for certain nothing was dodgy about our man-who-knows-a-man ticket exchange!
Unfortunately we had heard nothing but bad things about Medan. It certainly isn't a holiday destination or a tourist city, and isn't helped by the cleanliness of the place. One thing we were excited about though was our hotel room. With Medan being a business city there are some very nice hotels scattered around to host the businessmen. We had managed to get a very nice room at a very good price by booking in advance online. You can tell you've been travelling when you enter a hotel room and get ridiculously excited about the fact there is a TV, a comfy bed and the best thing of all, a duvet! We were in heaven! We also had a nice shower with hot water (seems silly to mention but for us having use of hot water has been few and far between!) and complimentary soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, the works! It took us a good hour to come down from the euphoria of being in such a clean, comfortable modern room! As mentioned in a previous blog we knew there may be a possibility we just wouldn't leave the room! Anyhow, we spent a couple of hours just aimlessly flicking through channels with our newly introduced toy, and even checked the TV guide for what we could watch later on in the day haha! As we had a whole day due to our flight being so early, we felt it a waste to hibernate for the day. So we ventured probably 500yards, spent half an hour wandering around a local mall, another half hour or so having lunch, and then went back to the hotel! Unfortunately there really wasn't anything of interest to see or do (other than a huge mosque which was next to the mall, so we did see the only thing we'd heard was worth seeing). So back to the hotel it was where we made use of the free internet sorting out the blog and photos. Andy headed up to the room to catch some more TV, and when the afternoon was over we got dressed up for the first time since leaving the UK in June to have our dinner in the rather luxurious looking restaurant within the hotel. Fortunately for us the meal wasn't expensive at all so we felt we were really treating ourselves with the nicely presented food when really it wasn't pushing our budget up at all. A really nice end to our non-productive but very exciting day!
Then it was into bed for yet another early start for our flight to Surabaya on the island of Java. We needed to rest as the itinerary for the following day was - 2 hours at the airport, a 2.5 hour flight, an hour taxi ride, a 2 hour wait at a train station, and then a 5.5 hour train journey to our destination of Yogyakarta. A 5am start for a destination arrival of 9pm - now this is travelling!
- comments
Wiggins Good day to both of you!! Sounds like you're having a good 'un. Glad you didnt see the UTD/Liverpool game. Nothing of any interest occured in that. A further note, I think I've done shorter essays at Uni than that last blog! Agagagagagag. Keep up the good work! Take care X