Gapang Beach, Pulau Weh, Indonesia 25-30 Sep

Travelling back to Penang was without any occurrences worth mentioning. I stayed one night there and then made my way to the airport the following morning.

At the firefly check in the lady told me Indonesian immigration would want me to show them a return ticket or an onward flight. So I hurried to the Air Asia counter to have my confirmation printed. Of course nobody asked me for that confirmation.

The flight to Banda Aceh was different from what I had experienced before. The ATR 72-500 holds about 60-70 seats, is equipped with a propeller and just two cabin crew members serving the guests.

The ascend and descend was much steeper than any commercial flight I have been on before. I tried to take a nap as soon as I boarded the aircraft and usually I am not bothered by the take off procedures but with such a skyrocketing climb I couldn’t drop off.

Procedures at the Indonesian immigration are straightforward. In June this year “Visa on Arrival” was established in Banda Aceh and so you just hand over 25 USD and get into the country without any hassles.

I took a private tuned cab with a massive sub-woofer in the trunk to get me to the ferry terminal. The ride over to Pulau Weh was nicely air-conditioned and not a bumpy one at all.

Once again a taxi drove me over to Gapang Beach where I finally arrived after a taxi to airport, flight to Banda Aceh, taxi to ferry, ferry to Pulau Weh, taxi to Gapang Beach-trip.

The dive shop was fully booked and so I had to look for accommodation someplace else. The rooms are cheaper next door but you don’t have a proper shower. So I just showered at the dive shop and saved the money.

In the evening I went for dinner with my fellow divers. Apparently there is one restaurant down the beach all the divers always go to. I had fish curry which was either amazing or I was really tired from a long trip. Anyway, it tasted great.

Next morning I had a dive scheduled at one of the highlights of Pulau Weh. As I went down I realized I wasn’t able to equalize. Tried it for 10 minutes but gave up eventually. The Divemaster gave me his sausage and I had to go up alone and then wait for 50 minutes for the other divers to return. I was really pissed off because of all al the great things I missed out on. The visibility was just amazing and I could see 20m down to the bottom.

At noon I was able to equalize again and went for a shallow beach dive. This time my ears were ok but the sinus were giving me a hard time. So I wasn’t able to descend any further than 7 meters. Pain in the sinus is a strange feeling. It starts barely recognizable but as soon as you go down just a little further the pain immediately kicks in.

Anyway, the diving was great even if it was just a shallow one. 15 meters vis and a stunning underwater world really reward the awkward journey to this place. GBR was a long time ago and I was quite inexperienced back then but I would say it is just as good as “coral gardens” here. There is a myriad of reef fish in all colors and shapes. We saw stonefish, longhorn cowfish, grown-up and juvenile emperor angelfish, baby bi-colored parrotfish, lion fish, scorpionfish, peacock and banded mantis shrimp, soles, yellow boxfish, zebra and giant moray eels, cuttle fish, titan triggerfish, upside down jelly, catfish, garden eels.

With 80 minutes it was my longest and probably one of the best dive so far. My buddies took a camera with them and one of them took a picture of me hovering some meters above him. That’s the current profile picture on Facebook.

Being in an optimistic mood I booked another beach dive for the following morning. This time the other side of my sinus channel caused some troubles but at least I was eventually able to descend to 17 meters even though it took me ages. The instructor on this dive helped me a lot to improve my diving concerning weight distribution and breathing. We went even deeper this time and I managed to stay down there for 82 minutes.

On my last beach dive I didn’t experience any troubles at all neither with my ears nor my sinus and so I am now ready to do the more advanced boat dives. On this one we saw a lot of new stuff and with a depth of 18 meters and „only“ 56 minutes I got out with 80 bar. So far I was always the worst on air, it looks like the experience is finally paying off.

Apart from the animals mentioned above we also saw: spotted porcupinefish, painted frogfish, meyer’s and andaman butterlfyfish, toby, blue-spotted grouper, nudi branchs, clark’s and skunk anemonefish, moorish idol (Gill in Finding Nemo, or Khan in the German version), octopus, razorfish

Now that I was up for a boat dive I picked the next one they had on offer which was my first drift dive. You basically lie still while all the marine life passes by. Very relaxed way of diving and you see quite a lot. It was one big wall at a 45 degree angle covered with corals and emperor angelfish¸ white collar and longnose butterflyfish, orange-lined, clown and loads of red-tooth triggerfish, pipefish, baby catfish , freckled goatfish and my first turtle on Pulau Weh.

Highlight will probably be Bati Tokong, a pinnacle just next to a small island. This was the site where I had troubles with my ears a few days ago With 29 meters it was one of the deepest dives I have done so far and it had the most current I have ever experienced. While on the last dive you get drifted along the wall, you get dragged over an even coral field on this dive in some parts. This is as close to flying as you can imagine. Without any fin kicks you move with a rapid speed over a wide coral field only a couple of feet above the ground. Some 2-3m bolder come in your way now and then and you need pay careful attention not to hit these with you speed. The great drift over the corals with the most diversity in marine life I have seen so far definitely beats any other dive I have ever had, even Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.

As it is my birthday today I missed out on the second dive I treated myself with a night dive. As always most fish are asleep and you don’t see as much as during the day but I just like night dives. It is a calm and relaxed way of diving with just your torch and whatever it shines on. You are more than likely to forget about everything else, including looking at you pressure gage, and just enjoy the dark, soothing water. I am getting better and better on air and after 64 minutes @ 17m I still had 85 bar left in the tank. Also you can see animals that aren’t around at daytime and so we encountered squid, snakes and various crabs which names I still need to find out.

This dive concludes my first log book. So far I have done 35 dives on my trip and stayed under water for 25 hours, 33 minutes.

In the evening I had fish rendang for dinner and some booze to celebrate with my fellow diver. If you are ever in Indonesia you gotta try this dish.
Had a really great time on Pulau Weh with some exceptional diving. Hope to be back any time soon.

PS: Thanks for all the happy birthday wishes on Facebook and by mail. As you can see I had an exceptional good birthday this year with the best dive so far. Cheers.