Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pulau Weh, Indonesia

Our final destination in this crazy adventure is an island off the northern tip of Sumatra called Pulau Weh. As far as crazy adventures go, the trip to Palau Weh is up there. We had heard about this place through Mark, our host from the Cornish leg of this trip. Our travels to the island would take us through Banda Aceh, best known for being the hardest hit area in the 2004 Tsunami.

We hired a taxi to take us from the Banda Aceh airport to the port where the ferry to Pulau Weh leaves from. After about an hour we could see a large ship in the distance. Obviously we were at the port, right? Well actually no. As we came closer we suddenly realised that this huge ship was actually on dry land and we were still about ten minutes drive away from any water. The ship turned out to be a floating power station that even today still powers the city.

The Banda Aceh Power Station











The little settlement of Ibioh. However it's not quite as idyllic as it looks. The first night we arrived here at nightfall and the only accomodation we could find was a stinking hot wooden shack that looks like something children might make. Fortunately the next day we upgraded to a much more friendly place that has that unmistakeable 'built by adults' feel about it.




This what I really came for - mucking about in the water and doing a Jacques Cousteau impression. This reef is just off the shore at Ibioh.








It took some time to train these fish to line up like this, but we finally made it work.















Underwater fashions are worse here than in Rome. Blue and yellow? What was God thinking?










This guy's into camouflage. He probably likes guns and votes Republician too.












The only drawback to the snorkelling was that in my own eagerness to get down to the depths I managed to damage my left ear. It's just temporary, but I have to stay out of the water for a few days, dammit! So tomorrow we head to Sapang, the main town on the island, to get some more cash and buy some fruit and other yummy stuff.

1 comment:

Geof said...

Do you have Photoshop on your wee laptop there? Afraid I don't quite believe that photo of the black and yellow fishes....