I like the way one of the person who went with us describe this trip - GETTING THERE IS AN ADVENTURE. Yeah, I kinda got my open water license last year and haven't been diving since then, as the motivation wasn't there. So, I was kinda conned into this trip with the promise of chicks joining. So, for the entire months building up to this, I wasn't excited at all. Not a teeny weeny bit. Still, I went along, took the AirAsia plane, and landed in this foreign land. Just a bit of background, I was going to Pulau Wey and Bandar Acheh is the place we land before going to this island which was about 2 hours away.
Background - Bandar Acheh. If you can recall back a bit of history, this was one of the worst hit place when the Tsunami came in 2004. Now, what I didn't know was the history before that. In a simple summary, there was a civil war going on before that disaster. It seemed that you can be easily killed at any time while it was going on. But all that changed since the disaster that claimed >230,000 lives. Peace was restored, elections was held, and tourism slowly grew. You can find out more about the history here.
And hence, the special reason why I can step foot on this place. The picture above is just a glimpse of the restoration that came after disaster. We've gotten the privilege to talk to one of the NGOs that was working there. It seems that after 5 years of restoration, they are finally going to pull out and let the Acheh people continue to heal by themselves. I can only hope that things will go well for this place, and I can have another chance to come back.
MAKAN MAKAN: OK, so let's move on to the most important thing - FOOD! The most interesting, and nicest, of the entire trip was AYAM TANGKAP. We've tried it when we arrive, and we've tried it just before we left. In simple terms, it kinda like ayam goreng, but much much more nicer. On the island, most of the time it's nasi goreng, mee goreng and mee sup. When you have that for five days in a row, it become scary...
THE "RESORT": Let me tell you this, Pulau Wey is not your typical getaway tourist spot. Don't expect hotels, or air conds, or even proper taxi. To get there, we have to take a ferry, then a taxi, and then still walk another 20 minutes till we reach our home for five days. And this is how our chalet looks like (and I can tell you it's the best house in the entire Rubiah Tirta "resort"):
THE DIVES: When it came to the dives, I can say one thing - it kinda restarted my interest in diving. I manage to do a night dive (diving in the dark with only a torch is creepy but very, very fun), a drift dive (try diving against a current and your mask almost coming off), a wreck dive and a dive near a volcano site. The total of dives was 7, although we could have done 9 but it seems the locals take their Fridays as very serious day to not work.
And the best thing is since this place is not as commercialized as places like Redang and Perhentian, the fishes are not scared of you. Too bad I don't have an underwater camera, but the things you see underwater is amazing! There's school of barracudas & jacks, a lot of murrays, sea urchins, octopus and I finally saw my first nudi. It's simply breathtaking under the water. I kinda vowed I'll get better so that I can improve my breathing to stay longer underwater.
Well, in summary, I wished I could have done more dives. I will definitely recommend this for divers, and well, I hope I can come back again. Here are more of some interesting shots from Pulau Wey and Acheh:
^This kid is 11 years old and he's done more than 40 dives
^This sign is at the entrance of the resort, a memorium of the 2004 disaster
^Note the HALAL sign on Coke and Sprite caps!
^The best shot of all - an STONE AGE COMPUTER!
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