Pulau Weh (Weh Island) is located on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. This is one of Indonesias hidden treasure and a little known diving paradise where you are likely to see manta ray or whale shark, or even a Mola Mola and the extremely rare Megamouth shark, unpredictably magnificent, pristine and to many beyond description. Off the beaten track, it is only accessible via Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province. This was my second trip to this unspoiled tropical paradise and I embarked on a different route, a lengthy and rather tiring journey, yearning to see the unusual deep water Megamouth shark.
On Monday evening, I took a 5.5 hours coach from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and spent the night over at daddys place in Petaling Jaya. We started off bright and early the next morning, taking an hour taxi to LCCT terminal to catch the one-hour Air Asia flight to Bandah Aceh. We cruised through customs but checking in our luggage at Air Asias counter was cumbersome. They allow 15 kilos for personal check-in baggage and an additional 15 kilos for sport equipment at a fixed rate at RM40 each. Daddy had a pelican case weighing 12 kilos and had originally packed his dive bag together with his personal belongings in a big trolley bag weighing 20 kilos and was told to pay for 5 kilos excess baggage. I had only one bag for dive gears and personal belongings weighing 17 kilos and the check-in staff wanted to charge me RM30 for excess, despite not exceeding 30 kilos. She said that we can have more personal check-in bags within allowance but will have to pay for excess if we decided to keep to one bag. What strange check-in policy! Eventually, we had to reshuffle our bags, having them rescanned and paid RM80 just for the two sport bags. We had a quick breakfast before immigration clearance, and then head over to duty-free for some liquors and cigarettes before the flight took off on schedule at 12pm.
Upon arriving at Banda Aceh airport, we were welcomed by a traditional drum dance performance and promptly cleared immigration but another nightmare began at the luggage collection area. The area was crammed and stuffy. There was no conveyor belt system and unloading of the bags was done manually. We had 4 check-in bags and took us more than half an hour to retrieve them.
Important note: Air Asia had recently rescheduled their departure flight to daily at 3.40pm temporary (7th of August till 25th of October 2008) so one night stay in Banda Aceh is unavoidable if you taking this route. Other routes are possible- do check out details from Lumba-lumbas link (Travel tips, Gapang Beach, Pulau Weh (Weh Island), Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia). Also, foreigners requiring a visa will have to obtain their visa prior to entry into Banda Aceh as the airport is NOT a Visa-on-Arrival port yet.
From there, we boarded a pre-arranged taxi and it took 45 minutes to get to Ulee Lheu ferry habour where the fast ferry leave for Balohan on Pulau Weh. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 4pm and we spent the next 2 hours having a light lunch and reading at the small shop near the ticket office whist waiting for it to open. At 3pm, we finally got our VIP tickets, boarded the ferry and after enduring an hour Karaoke session, we arrived in Pulau Weh. We got picked up again by another pre-arranged taxi driver before embarking on a bone-rattling drive through about 20km of the island's pot-holed roads to finally reach the shores of Gapang at close to 6pm. After checking in to Lumba-lumba, we proceeded to Dat's Zero Café to have dinner before retiring for the night.
Gapang Beach is a unique beach, with white sand halfway around the bay, surrounded by large overhanging trees. Its charm is endearing and it is not difficult to unwind in this tropical paradise. It seems like we have traveled almost to the end of the civilized world and beyond. Here, the people we met are of different origins, age, occupations and beliefs.
Lumba-lumba (Enjoy your diving with Lumba Lumba Diving Centre, Pulau Weh (Weh Island), Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia) is well run and professionally managed by Ton and Marjan, a nice Dutch couple. They have recently expanded with few newly completed bungalow chalets just right behind the dive shop where we chose to stay. The bungalows are beautifully done- the room is fan-cooled and is very spacious. Our room has 2 single beds, a sitting area, a small pantry, a fridge and a wooden verandah. The attached kampung mandi style bathroom do not have hot water but unlike the previous time when I stayed at Leguna up the hill, I found the cold water showers bearable. It has also a large sink platform for toiletries and flushing toilet. YES, No more squatting ones! The local electricity supply is erratic, with intermittent cut offs happen almost daily. Be prepared if you need to recharge your batteries. Mosquitoes are also a problem during the night when the electricity got cut-off. Ton said he is getting a new generator and will be installing air-conditioning soon.
The food selection is rather limited, especially for Westerners not used to having rice and noodle as a staple. My friend, Richard, who is working as an instructor at Lumba-lumba since April told me he has already lost few kilos. As such, when I offered to bring him some boozes when I visit, he traded them for Heinz baked beans as he misses his beans on toast too much. I got him 4 cans and he said he is going to ration them since he has got another 2 more months there. On Gapang Beach, there are 6 cafes. Out of which 3 of them served the same menu, offering local Acehese food like noodles or rice served with fried fish/chicken/vegetables, curries and some basic Western food such as pancakes, sandwiches, fruit salads, Taco and spaghetti. A word of advise, allow ample time, usually about 30-45 minutes for your food to be served since the locals tend to take their own sweet time to prepare their food. To avoid the wait, every afternoon after the first boat dive, daddy would walk to Walet, a small shop up the road to pack our favorite curry with rice for lunch. Grilled fish (Ikan baker), which was amazing fresh and delicious can be ordered beforehand (before 4pm). Not forgetting the donut lady who turned up after each surface interval with delicious snacks like donuts, fried vegetables patties and cakes to satisfy our sweet tooth.
On Monday evening, I took a 5.5 hours coach from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and spent the night over at daddys place in Petaling Jaya. We started off bright and early the next morning, taking an hour taxi to LCCT terminal to catch the one-hour Air Asia flight to Bandah Aceh. We cruised through customs but checking in our luggage at Air Asias counter was cumbersome. They allow 15 kilos for personal check-in baggage and an additional 15 kilos for sport equipment at a fixed rate at RM40 each. Daddy had a pelican case weighing 12 kilos and had originally packed his dive bag together with his personal belongings in a big trolley bag weighing 20 kilos and was told to pay for 5 kilos excess baggage. I had only one bag for dive gears and personal belongings weighing 17 kilos and the check-in staff wanted to charge me RM30 for excess, despite not exceeding 30 kilos. She said that we can have more personal check-in bags within allowance but will have to pay for excess if we decided to keep to one bag. What strange check-in policy! Eventually, we had to reshuffle our bags, having them rescanned and paid RM80 just for the two sport bags. We had a quick breakfast before immigration clearance, and then head over to duty-free for some liquors and cigarettes before the flight took off on schedule at 12pm.
Upon arriving at Banda Aceh airport, we were welcomed by a traditional drum dance performance and promptly cleared immigration but another nightmare began at the luggage collection area. The area was crammed and stuffy. There was no conveyor belt system and unloading of the bags was done manually. We had 4 check-in bags and took us more than half an hour to retrieve them.
Important note: Air Asia had recently rescheduled their departure flight to daily at 3.40pm temporary (7th of August till 25th of October 2008) so one night stay in Banda Aceh is unavoidable if you taking this route. Other routes are possible- do check out details from Lumba-lumbas link (Travel tips, Gapang Beach, Pulau Weh (Weh Island), Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia). Also, foreigners requiring a visa will have to obtain their visa prior to entry into Banda Aceh as the airport is NOT a Visa-on-Arrival port yet.
From there, we boarded a pre-arranged taxi and it took 45 minutes to get to Ulee Lheu ferry habour where the fast ferry leave for Balohan on Pulau Weh. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 4pm and we spent the next 2 hours having a light lunch and reading at the small shop near the ticket office whist waiting for it to open. At 3pm, we finally got our VIP tickets, boarded the ferry and after enduring an hour Karaoke session, we arrived in Pulau Weh. We got picked up again by another pre-arranged taxi driver before embarking on a bone-rattling drive through about 20km of the island's pot-holed roads to finally reach the shores of Gapang at close to 6pm. After checking in to Lumba-lumba, we proceeded to Dat's Zero Café to have dinner before retiring for the night.
Gapang Beach is a unique beach, with white sand halfway around the bay, surrounded by large overhanging trees. Its charm is endearing and it is not difficult to unwind in this tropical paradise. It seems like we have traveled almost to the end of the civilized world and beyond. Here, the people we met are of different origins, age, occupations and beliefs.
Lumba-lumba (Enjoy your diving with Lumba Lumba Diving Centre, Pulau Weh (Weh Island), Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia) is well run and professionally managed by Ton and Marjan, a nice Dutch couple. They have recently expanded with few newly completed bungalow chalets just right behind the dive shop where we chose to stay. The bungalows are beautifully done- the room is fan-cooled and is very spacious. Our room has 2 single beds, a sitting area, a small pantry, a fridge and a wooden verandah. The attached kampung mandi style bathroom do not have hot water but unlike the previous time when I stayed at Leguna up the hill, I found the cold water showers bearable. It has also a large sink platform for toiletries and flushing toilet. YES, No more squatting ones! The local electricity supply is erratic, with intermittent cut offs happen almost daily. Be prepared if you need to recharge your batteries. Mosquitoes are also a problem during the night when the electricity got cut-off. Ton said he is getting a new generator and will be installing air-conditioning soon.
The food selection is rather limited, especially for Westerners not used to having rice and noodle as a staple. My friend, Richard, who is working as an instructor at Lumba-lumba since April told me he has already lost few kilos. As such, when I offered to bring him some boozes when I visit, he traded them for Heinz baked beans as he misses his beans on toast too much. I got him 4 cans and he said he is going to ration them since he has got another 2 more months there. On Gapang Beach, there are 6 cafes. Out of which 3 of them served the same menu, offering local Acehese food like noodles or rice served with fried fish/chicken/vegetables, curries and some basic Western food such as pancakes, sandwiches, fruit salads, Taco and spaghetti. A word of advise, allow ample time, usually about 30-45 minutes for your food to be served since the locals tend to take their own sweet time to prepare their food. To avoid the wait, every afternoon after the first boat dive, daddy would walk to Walet, a small shop up the road to pack our favorite curry with rice for lunch. Grilled fish (Ikan baker), which was amazing fresh and delicious can be ordered beforehand (before 4pm). Not forgetting the donut lady who turned up after each surface interval with delicious snacks like donuts, fried vegetables patties and cakes to satisfy our sweet tooth.
