Weh, Indonesia

At the tip of Sumatra Island, is where Pulau Weh is located. To get there, we need to fly to Banda Aceh, the most northern city of Sumatra then a 45 minutes fast ferry to Sabang, Weh. 

Banda Aceh

Banda Aceh and Weh are very strong in Muslim religion, be modest with what you wear if you want to be treated respectfully. No diving on a Friday till after the Friday prayer. Try to avoid the Ramadan month and the Muslim festival season because most likely you will not get to do much on the island.

Lumba Lumba has rebuilt their resort after the 2008 Tsunami, their rooms are spacious and airy, a wooden veranda with sliding doors, facing the sea/beach above a hill slope behind the dive center. They do not have a restaurant, but there are a few restaurants on the beach to choose from to have your meals. Bare in mind that they are extremely slow in their service, if you are in a big group and you want your meals serve faster, try to order the same dish, or else order them 1 hour before hand and return after you take a shower. The pace of living on this island is just too relax. :-) Don't rush!

Dive boat

Diving in Weh is a bit challenging, the current is unexpected and most sites can easily bring you down to 30m. I don't remember any dives without current except for the house reef. Most dive sites are 20 mins away by the wooden speedboat and the boat is limited to 10 to 12 divers. After every dives, they will return to the dive center. I think it is a waste of time to travel 40 mins in and out for every dives, we wanted to do 2 dives at one go but the boat couldn't take extra tanks. :-( The shore dive is my favorite, muck dive of course. We found many kind of critters like, all kind of pipe fish, frog fish, lion fish, scorpion fish and nudibranches. We were there in Apr but the sea was still very rough on the outer reef, we could only dive in the bay, I think we did the Tokong dive site couple of times.

Weh is the only other place then Ambon that I have ever seen so many different species of moray eel, giant moray, white eye moray, snowflake moray, ribbon eels, snake eel, honeycomb moray and many more which I don't know the name for them.

Due to the current and depth, I recommend this place for advanced divers only.

Travel date : 9-13 Apr 2009
Travel route : Singapore -F-> Kuala Lumpur -F-> Banda Aceh -B-> Weh
Accommodation and diving : Lumba Lumba Dive Resort (http://www.lumbalumba.com/)
Type of diving : Muck, Wall, Drift
Water temperature : 28 - 30°C
Best time to dive : All year round but between May to Oct most of the outer dive sites are not diverble

-F-> Flight -B-> Boat

Photos of the trip

Puffer	Fire Dartfish	Octopus
Yellow goby	Garden eel	Ornate Ghost pipfish
	Robust Ghost Pipefish	Flathead
Anemone fish	Periclimenes tenuipes