Anyone been to Pulau Weh Resort?

[MALAYSIANNARCO]

Vladimir, yep.. At certain dive spots of course. Visit the canyon and batee tokong. Both are amazing. Both reminds me of sipadan-mabul-kapalai. With superb viz as well

 

[Quero]

Canyon and Batee Tokong are both dive sites at Pulau Weh. However I think Vladimir is referring to Sipadan, which you said had pristine corals, Malaysiannarco. And of course, there are those of us who remember that not too long ago a barge ripped a whole reef to shreds at Sipadan.... IJS....

For Mountain, the resort you have linked to is new, so there's not going to be much online about it yet. If you stay there, write a trip report and post it here, would you? It's Malaysian owned, so I would expect most of the divers to be Malaysian and Singaporean since they will market to the dive shops in KL and SIN to get groups, like the group Malaysiannarco quite likely traveled with to Lumba-Lumba.

 

[MALAYSIANNARCO]

Thanks Quero for the clarification and sorry for the confusion. Yeah, the 2006 incident. Scraped 372 square metres of corals.. Sigh. We managed to be at the other side of the island and compare to the effected side. Unfortunately I had not been there before the whole incident happened.

My group did passed by Pulau Weh Resort. Seems like a nice looking resort. Unsure of the diving and the enviroment inside. Yep, write a review if u were there mountain.

 

[Luko]

For someone that has been to Philippines, Maldives, most of Indo, Sipadan ..how does it compare? I do like the idea of quiet seclusion though

Was in Weh august last year, except for the crowds of anthias, the obnoxious green coral as well as the fierce currents, I wouldn't say Weh impressed me that much. Good gorgonians in "Canyons" but still a step below Ambon and Maluku region for instance, Batee Tokong trademark spot is OK, saw a manta (or a big mobula, but nowhere close as in the Hins or Malapascua), muckwise the good places like Lumba² housereef have been washed out.
As for the dive center, I enjoyed the locally owned Rubiah Tirta (you know I always encourage local structures.. ) they did the utmost to please me, hired a private guide for free just for me, besides that their grounds are very nice with a small plesant beach. Can't say anything bad about them.

The many problems I see with Weh are :
- a limited number of dive spots, many are quite deep in the 30-40 range, sometimes deeper, with fierce currents, hard to get good photos.
- Komodo beats the place hands down for corals or blue water, it would be ridiculous to compare the best macro spot in Weh to any average spot in either Lembeh or Ambon.
- it's a backpacker place with only two dive centers running, therefore their boats are often full of young and cheap inexperienced divers, unless you ask for a private boat and guide, like I did.
- don't go there in august when it's ramadan : charia law rules, you'll have to hide to drink water between dives (not a joke!) and you won't find anyone cooking food for lunch.
- limited options for comfortable bungalows and good beaches. The best ones are located in Sumur Tiga, which is one hour drive from the dive centers in Gapang area.

Personally : been to, seen that, ticked it off my list, won't return.

Some of my Weh underwater shots here : UW Pulau Weh 2011 - a set on Flickr

btw, Firefly was a pain in the neck. Canceled my flight from Penang on short notice... had to pay a night more at the E&O. The day after they wanted to charge me for 2kg luggage overweight!! had some words with the guy in charge... who was REALLY sorry afterwards.

 

[MALAYSIANNARCO]

Just to add to Luko, Ramadhan is not strictly in August. Ramadhan changes every year. As for this year, it is from mid July till mid aug.