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Published: June 20th 2008
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Gapang Beach
Loverly just watch for the Toxic caterpillars On to Palau Weh otherwise known as Sabang What a stunning island fantastic but even now with most of the NGO staff gone from Banda there is an accommodation problem especially at weekends. We arrived at the ferry port and locals sort the transport out part of the way in a bus then they unloaded us into a Taxi. Nice driver who is the main driver for Iboih beach.
We wanted to stay at Gapang so he took us round looking for a place Ellie wasn’t feeling to good so looked for AC it was late, we ended up at one of the Government places Laguna Resort big bungalows 250000Rp a night absolutely crap. Toilet stank like a gent’s urinal that had never been cleaned. The rooms are huge soulless and depressing ours had more ants than I had ever seen in a room before as did the area all around the bloody bungalow. Keep moving was the order of the day. We left the next day, Most of the places we found to be too basic for us we like our own toilet It was basically just the 2 government places and Lumba Lumba dive resort that could do this.
We were lucky we got in at Lumba Lumba divers brand new rooms really nicely done clean and with a fan great place and at 200000Rp cheaper than the government dive. They will probably cost more when the building is completed.
Staff and the owners of Lumba Lumba are excellent people they stayed there right through the Tsunami retained their staff and started doing business again when the NGO staff started taking breaks. Everyone was great there. We only had a room for 2 days as they had bookings obviously they prefer to accommodate divers. The third day the gests didn’t arrive so we had another night.
Enquired around the island Santi Tiga (Freddies) on the other side and Casa Andrea OK places over that side all full. Fantastic beach over there Snorkelling supposed to be OK ish but waves and the trade winds up to late March.
Snorkelling off Gapang particularly to the right was pretty good plenty of Hawksbill turtles over there I even caught one and picked it up. OK you can forget being pissed off about that, the poor thing had some fishing net around its neck. I tried to get it off but it would
Indonesian car wash
Yes strip off to your underpants and drive into the river what could be easier not come it was flapping so much I lost grip (we were out of our depth) it got away but it’s not good it would either get hooked on rock or coral and drown or eventually choke as it got bigger. We told everyone to look out but no one saw it.
Gapang is small and really nice just a few small warungs food is OK though and they will Barbie a fish for you. We tried to eat in all places spread the money around. Far end of the beach there are Toxic caterpillars hanging in the trees irritate the skin if they get on you great fun.
Had a good night out and meet up with Katy who set up Children of Sumatra with her husband this Charity deals mainly with Cleft Lip / Clef Pallet. Children in Sumatra, For some reason there is a higher than normal rate of this birth defect in Sumatra, Katy and her Indonesian Husband seems to have found a pretty good local set up for the operation at minimal cost doing the most good possible with limited funds available. We find that we shared some history with Katy having attended some of
Jungle walk
Cross the river again and again the same Hippy festivals in the 70s and early 80s and even knowing some of the same people (step forward Wango Riley and his travelling stage still going).
Iboih beach is also lovely but the accommodation is basic I would say Julies looked the best great setting but high and shared toilets. The other side of the island offshore from there has a small resort (basic) with the Coral garden the best of the snorkelling offshore unfortunately it was rough when we were there big waves but a nice spot. Rubia divers can advise on a house that you can rent on the Island booked out when we were there.
Again we had to move this time to Flamboyan the other government place on Gapang equally depressing to Laguna but the toilet didn’t stink and there was just a normal amount of ants, we had found Teins place, had to wait a couple of days for a room but then we could have it as long as we liked.
Teins place out past Iboih beach towards Km 1 (the start of Indonesia) only a small number of rooms the snorkelling is OK if you swim over the deep water to
Bat tree
Beware of the poo dropping on you the other side of the bay off the rocks at Teins there was much Tsunami damage but now there are many small corals growing it will be good in the future. Great view from Teins some of the rooms have the bedroom upstairs to get the best of the View, it’s an old German Guy and his Padang born wife Tein plus there 4 kids. The food is by request and the cooking is great ask Tein to do her specials Padang food.
Really nice laid back stay every night a huge brown fruit bat flying around days spent watching the flying lizards gliding from tree to tree snorkelling and reading.
Went round the Island picked up some beer in Santi Tiga Freddie a South African guy is well connected there are only 2-3 places to get beer on the island. Walked up well waded up to the waterfall Ellie had to stop and rest eventually realising she was sat under a tree full of Bats. She asked the Driver (Teins son Bobby) if there was anything dangerous he says no not mentioning that some of the largest Reticulated Pythons anywhere live on the Island we were up in the
jungle by this time. There are many Wild Boars on the island as they have no major predators it being a Muslim Island so I think small pigs, then I see one enormous. One of the guy’s friends had hit one on his motorcycle and it had attacked him nasty. If you don’t piss them off they tend to keep out the way. They do have occasional predators the larger Pythons sometimes take one. The local villages all have Dogs unusually for Muslims control one evil with another is the way they see it. Really stupid dog in one cafe Family sex dog say the guys Ha.
Going over the hills on the way back to the Port there are loads of monkeys Like Mekaks but not Mekaks folk give them Bananas so they wait for people. Taking pictures it becomes obvious that they are working out if they should attack one or two bare their teeth and come towards me I growl and act aggressive but there are many and its not long before they advance again. I figure I have about 1 min left to get a few pictures before they decide they can have a go, will
have to bring some Bananas next time.
Weh is a great place really nice and with the Air Asia flight from KL easy to get to.
We took that route back and finished the holiday with a good night out and a slap up feed in KL the journey back went without a hitch.
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paul
non-member comment
excellent , thanks
very much appreciate your sharing of the joys , etc of travel hassles and good times i am going to makassar, maybe to banda aceh in february snorkelling , maybe i can go to lemebh too if not too logistically time consuming , cheers