Typical Weh beach, thick with coconuts

Cruising the forested lanes of this quiet island is awesome until some psycho monkey chases you or a careless driver comes whizzing past unannounced.

Having just completed our OW1 dive course and about to set out for the Deep Blue

Gapang Beach, Pulau Weh. Jus' chillin...

Things we like about Indonesia

1. African time, Indo style
2. Banana pancakes, with thickest and gooiest banana batter ever
3. Familiar faces, familiar food and words
4. Indonesian smiles
5. Polka dot Clown Trigger Fish
6. Huge barrel sponges, pitch black and ribbed, looking like .... early experiments from Mordor?
7. 30C, 80% humidity, gentle ocean breeze. Every day. Boardies and Bikinis. All day.
8. Coconut shakes. Hey, this one should be higher up the list! (T)
9. Beach trees spaced just right for King size hammock.

Things we don't like about Indo

1. Not having our friends here with us

@ Crazy Horse - huge limestone caves with bolted routes, inside and out

Pulau Weh... as close to tropical paradise as it gets

I've lost my slops. The compulsory footwear that saw me through thailand's Koh Tao, up and down the busy little beach street, have been left at the door at one of the establishments on Sumatra's Pulau Weh. Who cares. On this 500m island beach, slops aren't necessary. We've traded western loo's and showers for the most exquisite turquoise bay, palm trees, and a VERY chilled vibe. Even more so now, as Ramadan has just begun and the small community of locals living here do very little during daylight hours.

Life on Gapang Beach centres around Lumba Lumba Dive Centre. Onno and I are have just completed day 3 of our 4 day Open Water 1 course. Really fantastic. We went down to 18m today, and finished up all the necessary underwater skills. Favourite sighting today: a polka dot fish. Actually called a Clown Trigger Fish. Yesterday, a Green Turtle. :) a TURTLE!!!

So we reckon we'll bunk down here for a while, continue to navigate the local rules around Ramadan (we order our breakfast and lunch in the evenings, which makes it ok for the local beach restaurants to give us the food the next day), snorkel, swim, explore the island by scooter, practice our free diving and a little more scuba. And wait to see which bug bites us next. X