Pulau Weh

We left Danau Toba yesterday morning and made excellent time to Medan, so excelllent that we had 6 hours to kill in the Medan airport. Fortunately, the Dunkin Donuts empire extends to Sumatra, so we set up shop in the A/C'ed donut stop. The coffee was delicious as expected, and we sampled jelly filled donuts with exotic flavors such as durian and lychee.

Our flight was delayed due to a torrential downpour. The airport's roof sprung a couple of leaks, and some of the check in counters had miniwaterfalls over them.

We arrived in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, without incident. Banda Aceh was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, and many areas have been rebuilt. On our taxi ride to the port this morning the driver with questionable driving experience pointed out a number of areas that were destroyed by the tsunami.

By 10:30, we were in Sabang, the main town on Pulau Weh, which is off the northwestern tip of Sumatra. We're staying in Gapang, and the village has a few restaurants and a nice, professional, monopolistic dive shop that also offers pricey but nice accomodation. This is where we are staying. I went on two dives this afternoon. The first was a shallow wreck in the harbor of Sabang, the second was an area of underwater hot springs. The surface of the ocean near the hot springs stank of sulfur, and under the waves there were jets of bubbles and very warm water pouring into the cooler (but still warm) ocean. The hot springs were super awesome.

The lack of non-dive options isn't a problem for me but is for my travelling companion. We may cut our stay in Pulau Weh short by 2 days, but I'll still have 4 days here and at least 7 dives.