Pulau Weh UW Photos

[davidlkh]

Loaded up the Pulau Weh photos from a Feb 2003 dive trip just before martial law in Aceh. Go take a look.

http://www.picturecd.com/system/view.cgi?user=davidlkh&session=1078976924.30678&guest=1&album=10029

Pulau Weh is located north of Sumatra Indonesia. West of Phuket Thailand.

 

[Dee]

Great Photos!

 

[davidlkh]

Great Photos!

Thanks for the complement.

Feel free to comment good or bad.

 

[Gilligan]

Nice David.
Tell us a little about that place and the diving.

 

[davidlkh]

I got there via Medan, then connected to Aceh Airport and finally landed in Sabang Airfield. The birdseye view of the place is great, reminded me of something like Peter Pan's Island. A tall live volcano with a bit of cloud at the peak, very green vegetation, purple fringed reef and blending aquamarine until deep blue seas. It even has a huge fresh water lake and huge calm horseshoe shaped bay.

It is relatively virgin territory land and underwater. So as the taxi took me to Gapang Beach, I saw Monkeys slowly walking along the road and swinging in the trees. There were waterfalls running next to the lose gravel road, That journey took 2.5 hours.

Gapang Beach is inside the calm bay and has many low budget accomodations, I chose one with air-con and private bath. It seemed like I was living in a local village since the chickens woke me up in the morning and the goats bleeped at me as I walked by.

The other place to stay is Ibioh, that place is more of a party area.

The capital of Weh is Sabang. There are hotels there too, but that is a long drive to the meeting point for divers, and then you will have to get on a boat; unless house reef dives are OK with you.

In general the local food is a mixture of Indian, Thai and Indonesian culture. I enjoyed it, but it can be very spicy.

When I get the time, I will continue with the diving.

 

[davidlkh]

There are about 17 commonly dived sites around Pulau Weh. Most are found on the North Western part of the island, closer to Ibioh Beach.

Dives that orignate from the main island bay area are mostly gentle sloping sand and coral. These are full of macro life and my favorite macro dives are at Gapang, Rubiah and Tugboat (sunken).

In terms of scenery, most of the wide angle shots were taken from many pinnacles that rise straight up to just above sea level from a depth of 70 feet. From 70 feet there is a gentle slope down to 100 feet where it drops down into the dark blue abyss. My favorite pinnacle is Batee Tokong. That whole area is full of sea fans as shown in my Photos. Since the tidal flows can be quite strong there, the pelagics like sharks and mantas also zoom by. During my visit the visibility was not at its best, it was only 50 to 70 feet, on one the days it dropped to 30 feet.

Still to be continued... will write more when I get the time.

 

[davidlkh]

The North Western corner of Pulau Weh is more exposed to the open sea, the terrain there are huge loose rock beaches that almost look like a cliff that plunges straight into the sea. There appears to be plateau at 30 feet, another at 50 feet, after that it drops down to 80 to 100 feet with final drop into the dark abyss.

This area has barracudas that race along and play in the tidal streams. In the shallows mantas can be found filter feeding. As you drop deeper down, most the terrain are large boulders encrusted in coral with narrow swim throughs.

Much deeper down there is an interesting big archway.

 

[justleesa]

great pictures!

 

[davidlkh]

Thanks for the complement.

Photos were down graded in resolution to reduce file size and thus reduce loading time.

By the way, a Mega Mouth Shark was seen in Gapang Beach Pulau Weh this weekend.

Unfortunately it was washed ashore dead.

For more information on the Mega Mouth Shark and photos contact:

Lumba Lumba Diving Centre at lumba2@aceh.wasantara.net.id

By the way, I am sitting in Singapore and not professionally related to Lumba Lumba. I simply used their services when I was diving in Pulau Weh.