Finally in Sumatra

I took a night flight from Maldives to Kuala Lumpur, changed to the low cost terminal with a local bus and jumped to the next plane towards Sumara. Finally. I planned to come here already last year but as usually, changed my plans in the last minute and went somewhere else. But now I'm finally here. 

My first destination was Pulau Weh in the northest tip of Indonesia. Green, beautiful small(ish) island with excellent diving & cheap accommodation. What do you need more? Oh yea, cheap beer. Well, not existent in the strictest islam area of Indonesia. There were a few questhouses with beer but if you pay as much for 2 cans as for your accommodation, you don't really feel too thirsty. But priorities, priorities, and this time that was diving anyways.

My 6 e / night bungalow, the first one on the left of the big house by the water.  Loved it!

That's a view I'd like to have in Hakaniemi...

I had done the AOWD in Maldives so I didn't need to worry about which dives I can and cannot do. Not that it would have mattered in Pulau Weh anyways. I did 7 dives with Rubiah Tirta Divers at Iboih Beach. Some were really good, some a bit boring with bad visibility. Canyon was great, cool rock & coral formations, loads of fish etc. In total I saw 2 sharks, loads of lion fishes, a few stone fishes, an octopus and morays were basically everywhere. And also did my deepest dive so far, 47,7 meters. Nothing to see there. And can't complain about the price, I ended up paying 16 e per dive :)

On one day I drove around with a scooter with a dude who was also diving, we tried to find a volcano in the land and one under water. Didn't happen. Nice day nevertheless. All the other days were all about diving and one of the mornings got wasted with a small hang over. Yes, finnish ppl buy tax free vodka when they know alcohol isn't widely available. And when there's a german and a mexican around there's also soon an empty bottle.

After one week I felt like it's time to move on. The scooter dude was heading to the same direction so it looks like I don't have to sit in a bus alone. Not that that would happen anyways as the locals are quite nosy. But first a few days in a surf spot near Banda Aceh and the next plan probably on Monday is to head towards Ketambe. Or maybe Bukit Lawang. I'll see... Plans are made to be changed.

...And everybody still remembers Martti Ahtisaari here. Looks like he did a good job at the peace negotiations almost 10 years ago.