The diving in Pulau Weh would be quite typical of South East Asian diving if not for three unique things. It offers the usual clear waters, colourful and beautiful corals and a whole spectrum of tropic reef fishes large and small but if you love Moray eels, gigantic Sea Fans and unique underwater landscapes, Pulau Weh is the place for you.
For some strange reason, there are lots of Moray eels in the Pulau Weh waters, either there is a special reason why they are more prolific here, or that the locals do not have the custom of eating Moray eels is beyond me, but Moray eels are everywhere. You are very likely to see multiple eels on every dive, both large and small, and the best part of it is that they are not as shy as those in other areas. They will come out of their holes and swim around in broad daylight, including really large ones.
The size and numbers of large Sea Fans also astounded me. There was one particular dive at the Canyon where I found myself at 36m before I knew it because I was swimming from one Sea Fan to another. I took a look around and the Sea Fan field stretched beyond my visibility both to the sides and down deep, they must go down beyond 60m. The waters in this area usually has strong currents, and fishing lines tend not to go so deep as to destroy them.
Fishing lines is a problem here, I do not think that I have gone to a dive destination with as many fishing lines as there are here. The upside is that there does not seem to be signs of even more damaging fishing techniques like dynamite fishing. With lives and livelihoods destroyed by the tsunami, I cannot begrudge the locals a little line fishing.
The island of Pulau Weh, and the underwater dive landscape seems to be made by very large rocks. These rocks, rounded by weathering, vary from the size of cars to the size of houses. They pile on top of each other in such a way that leaves large gaps that one can catch glimpses of large fishes taking refuge. Perhaps the Moray eels find safety in these crevices to live and breed. Diving amongs such large rocks is indeed a unique experience. These rocks were spewed from the Earth’s core in some previous age and are what H.P. Lovecraft would have described as “Cyclopean”. It reminds me of how young and transient human beings are compared to such age old rocks. Do not miss the Canyon and Pantee Peunatueng divesites if the currents permit.
Most diving from Lumba Lumba involves two boat dives to Seulakos and Rubiah islands. They are lovely reef dives but a sharp eye and good fortune will allow one to see either the really small or the really big treats in this area. We had one or two Blacktip Reef Shark and Hawksbill Turtle sightings, a couple of Napolean Wrasse and many Barracudas, Tuna, Mackeral, Giant Trevally and the usually annoying Titan Triggerfish. The beach dive in front of the resort offers many little critters if one knows where to look. We took a guided beach dive with Sonny (Sunny? Sone?) and was shown many things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
Perhaps the most unique dive site in Pulau is the wreck of the Sophie Rickmers. A German WW2 era cargo ship that was captured by the Dutch, but the crew decided to sink it instead. The top of the wreck is at 45m and the bottom at 70m. A single tank air dive would involve 18min of bottom time at 51m where one sees about 1/4 of the ship. I went diving with a couple from the part of Hamburg where the ship was first build, so it was a nice full circle for them.
http://www.lumbalumba.com/divesites.html#wreck_sophie_rickmers
We descended near the bridge and while making a rapid descent of 40m/min, we saw the resident Giant Grouper. I saw it at about 30m deep and it looked larger than another diver who was below me. It must be over 2m long. It swam down into the dark cargo hold and thankfully we were not going in after it.
A short dive revealed a pair of scuba tanks that some looters appeared to have left behind. The ship is largely intact and in good condition, the tsunami caused the roof of the bridge to collapse but otherwise it looks great. Our dive took us past the anchor in the front, the cargo winch and a short trip at the bridge where I saw the intact Telegraph, albeit covered in coral. Visibility was about 20m, and the dive master said that it was sometimes as good as 50m. A school of Batfish circle the wreck among other unique fish. It was here that sightings of the Megamouth Shark were seen some years back.
This was quite an impromptu trip that we decided on about a month and a half ago, usually we plan trips six months to a year in advance. This year, some of the guys have gone on long trips to South America, while the Global Economic Crisis has put the brakes on some of the other guys diving plans.
Some of us had wanted to dive in Pulau Weh, we even planned a trip for early Februry 2005. At that time, the civil war was still going on, so there was only a few interested parties. We had made initial plans and had not bought plane tickets yet, and thankfully so, for the tsumani hit on boxing day 2004. Four years on, Andrew and I decided to give Pulau Weh another go and was not disappointed.
Getting there is a pain in the arse, as we were forced to spend a night in Banda Aceh because of AirAsia’s schedule. The plane from Kuala Lumpur arrives at 1625hrs, but I think the last ferry to Sabang on Pulau Weh leaves at 1600hrs. AirAsia recently changed their flights to this time after they started daily Kuala Lumpur-Banda Aceh flights. Another thing to note, do not take the 1430hrs flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, you would be unlikely to catch your 1600hrs flight out. Another alternative may be to flight to Penang via Malaysian Airlines and from there fly Firefly Airlines to Banda Aceh, that arrives in time to catch the ferry.
Staying the night in Banda Aceh, we got a glimpse of some reminence of the effects of the tsunami. The supermarket we shopped at was damaged by the earthquake, locals told us that the waters reached to the roofs, we saw the barge in the middle of the town that is being left there as a monument, and the foundations of houses that have been swept away. Temporary housing with Oxfam water tanks are still around after four years.
We got a personal story from our driver, who was a tour agent that spoke excellent English. He had spent some years studying in Malaysia to avoid the instability in Aceh, he was only back in Banda Aceh for a week when the tsunami struck. He had to escape with his sister, brother-in-law and his niece on a motorcycle, until it could go no further where they had to run on foot. He climbed a tree with his baby niece in hand and they all managed to survive the waters.
They were lucky to have lived further in town, the part of town near the coast was completely flattened, and that was what we saw on our TV screens four years back. The ferry terminal was 70% done at that point and was destroyed, it only just finished reconstruction and opened two months ago.
The fast ferry to Sabang on Pulau Weh was a 45min affair, being foreigners, they automatically bought us Executive or VIP seats, which is well and good, we had big dive bags and while seating in Economy was fine, with the added luggage it would have been a squeeze. The perks of an Executive or VIP seat is the TV playing Indonesian Karaoke. We were treated to an overdose of Indonesian rockband Dewa 19. With their large internal market and different language and culture, Indonesian music videos have a pretty decent budget. Standards are quite high and they all include the obligatory pale-skinned Indonesian babes that you only see on TV but never anywhere else in Indonesia.
We stayed and dived with Lumba Lumba at Gapang Beach, owned by a European couple. The rooms were new, clean and comfortable. The only creature comforts we lacked were hot water for showers and air-conditioning. The weather was mild enough for us not to miss either, but air-conditioning would be preferable to reduce the amounts of mosquitoes. Marjan the owner would be shopping for water heaters and air-conditioners in Medan in the months ahead.
Breakfast at the Dang Dang Na eatery next to Lumba Lumba is great, they offer a variety of ways to fry bread with eggs. Spaghetti for lunch is also lovely. We tended to eat dinner at Zero Cafe, a short 5 min walk down the beach. They offer homecooked food that is suitable to the Singaporean palate. Chargoal grilled Barracuda graced our dinner table for at least three evenings, as well as ayam goreng (friend chicken) or ayam ketchup manis (chicken in sweet soya sauce). Beware of the omelettes because they hide vicious chopped chilli padi inside, those things have a strong kick.
If you have a some off-road motorcycle skills, you might want to rent a moped (Honda Wave) for 80,000 Rupiah a day to ride around the island. The roads are gravelly and full of potholes. Do not be like me and get a painful scrapped knee in an unglamourous 2km/hr spill in the soft sand.
All in all, diving in Pulau Weh is great value for money. We got a whole week of pretty good diving for less than S$1000 all in. If we can avoid the night in Banda Aceh, all the better.
Link to Jo’s photos.
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