Pulau weh ?

[Tippytoes12]

Hi there

Has anybody out there been to Pulau Weh recently ? Will have 2 weeks in February to get away from the European winter and this looks interesting. However , I have heard that alot of the coral is bleached. We saw this in the Similans and in other Thai sites last Christmas and it was so sad.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Luko]

yep, was in Weh beginning of august.
the deeper spots are Ok, lots of corals -especially the hard green specie- and swarms of anthias fish around.
A lot of current too, you wrote i another post you didn't like currents, be prepared for all kinds there, going up, down or sideways...often strong. This was for the good part. :shocked2:
On the not so good side, I tried to dive once the reef in front of Lumba2 and was very disappointed with it as it was almost completely bleached out. The diving for macro critters was way behind of what I had read beforehand.
I only could dive for 3 days while I expected 5 days, as my arrival plane from Penang was postponed and all fun dives were cancelled on friday.

Overall, I would say it was okay but I am not sure the sites are worth going back and certainly not diving for 2 weeks, there are so much better places in Indonesia. I feel now all the hype about Weh is mostly because it's a cheap place.

 

[funscuba]

Ow, is pulau weh that disappointing ? Was thinking to go there perhaps sometimes but after what you wrote, mmmhhhh ......

 

[Luko]

Ow, is pulau weh that disappointing ?

I mean there are some good spots like the Canyons or Batee Tokong but on the other hand, I don't feel there are so many dives worth going back, also the main attractions which was macro diving seems out of order for while as the critters have gone AWOL.
Diving the place for 3-4 days should be ok, I am not sure it's worth more than that.

 

[AlMitch]

I was there in January this year and we had some amazing diving...40m viz and tons of fish. Tokong is an incredible dive. We were actually quite lucky with not too much current. The shallow dives were a tad bleached out and apparently the ornate pipefish at the tug boat wreck was AWOL.
I agree with Luko, I would not come all the way from Europe just for P Weh. Sure if you are in the area then its worth the effort but I would suggest a week max. Indo has so much to offer, Bali, Manado (with Bunaken, Bunaken and Lembeh), Komodo etc etc
Enjoy!

 

[buiszie]

i love Tokong, the canyon, shark plateau, the deep wreck at 45 till 65 meters (only for tec divers), and the dive site a little bit further than the canyons. I should say also 3-4 days diving is ok.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Hi all

Thank you so much for these interesting replies. I was thinking of a week of jungle activities , elephants and orangutans in Sumatra, and then about a week in Pulau Weh. We are going to Komodo , Bunaken and the Gilis next month