Ahhh... I don't think I want to go back to Simeulue!! I finally made
it to Pulau Weh, the beautiful little island directly off Banda Aceh -
and the most northerly part of Indonesia. You can even visit the "Nol
Kilometre" landmark, which marks the very start of Indonesia. I wonder
if they have a "2432973 (or whatever) Kilometre" landmark at the other
end of the archipelago? :)
I liked the fact that it was
through work that I got to pay my first visit to this little paradise.
The Banda Aceh office had organised a two day team building workshop
there, and having planned to come directly to BA from my R&R for
staff interviews, I decided I could join the team building. And I'm
glad I did! Not only was it fun, involving a whole bunch of team
challenges and fun activities, and I got to know more of the BA staff
better, it was held at Freddy's resort, or Sumur Tiga, about 15 mins out
of the main town of Sabang. Freddy's is on a beautiful little unspoiled
beach, to which it's guests have almost exclusive access. You can go
snorkelling directly offshore as well. So in between our teambuilding
activities, we spent our time face down in the water looking at pretty
coral and fishies :)
Then I managed to convince the
boss that Elni (Simeulue Office Manager) and I should spend Friday in
Sabang as well, and use the blissful isolation to shortlist candidates
for our WatSan Engineer positions, for which we want to interview on
Monday. Not only did we want to stay in this lovely place, but very
conveniently there was a big party planned for Saturday night on Rubiah
Island, just adjacent to Iboih Beach, another beautiful spot on the
island. Hehe!
So that we did. It didn't actually take
long, and we headed to Iboih on Friday afternoon. Considering we had
shortlisted already, I went out on a boat with a few crew that had
arrived early for the party, and did some snorkelling. Again, really
beautiful, more so than at Freddy's, because it was further out to sea.
We saw some beautiful blue-spotted stingrays. Our boat "Big Fish Too"
capitano Eddie gave us a tour of his property and the hot water springs
there, which were bubbling out of the mud. Great to sit and warm your
feet with or have a 'hot shower' in! Unfortunately we spent a bit too
much time enjoying ourselves onshore, and the tide went out, leaving our
boat somewhat stranded amongst the coral! About half an hour and a lot
of legwork later, we managed to get ourselves unstuck and headed back to
Iboih.
Saturday was spent sleeping in (after a few
drinks the night before) and again heading out in the water for some
snorkelling. Just offshore there was some ok snorkelling, and we saw a
sea snake too, which I'd never seen before. But it was in the afternoon
that the snorkelling highlight arrived - again Eddie was prepared to
take his boat out, and we went to the Marine Garden behind Rubiah
Island, where the snorkelling was really beautiful. We saw some amazing
coral, a huge array of fish, tonnes of starfish, but the highlight for
me was a gigantic moray eel. After cruising back home again, we fired
ourselves up for the party on Rubiah Island.
Our
resident walking ideas-man-party-guru Michael had rustled up a whole
bunch of fruit, alcohol and a blender and was concocting yummy cocktails
to start off the night (and they were bloody strong!). After a couple
of those I was a bit worse for wear, because I was dehydrated from the
day's activities, and I'd come down with a stomach bug so I was feeling
shite. I spent half the night traipsing back and forth from the
toilet... boo! I was pretty disappointed because I had been looking
forward to this party for a long time. But I still wanted to at least
make it over to Rubiah Island to get a bit of the action, so I took a
boat over with some of the crew, and hit the dance floor for a while. It
was a pretty good party, but the usual people I hang out with were
being unusually clicky and unsociable, so I just chatted to random
people the whole night and hung out with Yudi. Water was my drink of
choice... but it was still fun, and I met a whole bunch of interesting
people and danced like an idiot like usual. Michael, said party-guru,
had also brought along fireworks and fire twirlers, which provided a
couple of cool highlights. Someone had also brought a neon frisbee that
glowed in the dark, which was pretty rad. I managed to last it out til
about 12:30 before putting myself on the boat back home. Had to get up
early this morning for the 8:30 ferry, and I was suffering most of the
way home...
A good remedy for that was a day out and
about in Banda Aceh, c/- my mate Yudi, who works for ARC in our
construction team. We hung out at his place in Lhoknga for a bit before
cruising to a nearby cave with a beatiful blue river/lake, which
unfortunately had been made that much less natural by building a big
fuck-off dam near the cave entrance. Still, it was a nice place to
relax, and watch the local kids' antics and guitar expertise. Then we
just cruised around to some of the local beaches, where Yudi surfs, and
finished the afternoon with a swim at Lampu Beach and a barbeque fish
dinner watching the sun set. Beautiful. It was a great way to spend a
Sunday, particularly as I was feeling so crap at the start of the day.
But getting out and about and a couple of panadols was as good a way as
any to shake that.
So, my run of fun adventures is over for now.... let the games begin on Simeulue when I get back on Wednesday....
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