Hey hey everybody. . . . . . . . . Well it's all been going on over the last few weeks. . . . I have been dodging Earthquakes, Tsunami's, Plane crashes and Bus crashes and not to mention the lady boys. . . But all is well in the world. . .

So, where do I begin. . . We left Penang some 2 weeks ago and headed off towards Pulau Weh, an island off the north tip of Sumatra. So the trip begins with a short taxi ride to the local port, just 10 mins down the road, followed by an hours wait before boarding the boat. . . Oh yeah, sorry forgot to mention the night before. . . .

Yeah, well, it was the England game against Israel, so after so food we headed to a coolio bar to watch the game, unfortunately though they would put the sound on, but it was ok as the DJ was putting out some bangin tunes. . . . We merrily got drunk watching the game and then got chatting to some locals. . . It happened to be one of the guys birthday and his sister had lived in the UK for some time. They invited us to join them at the local club to continue the night, which we gladly accepted. . . . We had a great night, laughing and dancing and finished it off with a good old sing song, me being the instigator of course. . . . The usual tunes came out and everyone loved it and joined in, however their choice of lyrics didn't always match up with what Noel Gallagher had originally put to paper?!

All in all, it was a top laugh and probably not the best thing to do not knowing the journey ahead. . . So, back to the journey. . . .

Yeah, where was I. . . ? Boarding the boat for a 6 hour crossing over to Indonesia. . . . . So, on the boat, the only food we could get was Pop Mee, now that is the Malaysian version of Pot noodles. . . Now I am not really a big fan of them anyway, however, the boys gotta eat, so this was my introduction to something special. . . Now Steve had been saying how good they and to be honest, it was alright. . . . So, after my noodles I felt a little better and we where into the journey. . . .

To make things a little easier on the passengers, they play sort of MTV on the tele's, however, it isn't the best, so we suggested putting on some of our DVD's, well Steve's to be precise. . . Some National Lampoon's comedy and Deuce Bigalow, the male gigolo. . . hmmmm. . . . Not really in keeping with the religion, but hey, everyone seemed to like and it certainly helped pass the time!

Once in Indonesia and through customs, etc, we got bombarded with people trying give us a ride, now all you people who have travelled will know what I mean, but blimey. . . "Give it a rest will ya"! We nearly went off with a guy in his minibus, but once inside it, we saw and smelt petrol, so told him to sod off and jumped on the local coach. . . . We just wanted out of there and that seemed the best option at the time. . . . We then found out that the coach wasn't going to the bus depot that we needed for our bus from Medan to Banda Aceh, but after a little chat with a few guys, they agreed to take us for a small extra fee. . . . . Once at said depot, we where relieved to find out that 1. We hadn't missed the bus and 2. It was about to leave in 10 minutes, and 3. There were seats available. . . . Now this journey wasn't going to be pretty. . . Estimated at 12 hours (It actually took 13), we were in for the long haul. . . . Now, going off on a tangent a little. . . I thought the journey was pretty crap, but having spoke to a few people once at Pulau Weh, I realised we got off quite lightly. . . .

Tommy saw a head on crash right in front of them on their trip up and another guys coach actually got involved in an accident that left them stranded, before getting smaller minibuses. It took him 30 hours to get there. . . So yeah, our journey wasn't too bad. . . .

So, our journey, in summary, involved me sitting next to lots and lots and lots of random locals throughout the night, so not much sleep there then. The food stops, however were pretty good, so all in all, I was a happy bunny. Even happier to get to Banda Aceh. . . . Once at Banda Aceh, again we were bombarded with people trying to give us a ride (It was quite funny at this point - As people started taking our bags in different directions). We retrieved the bags and jumped in a taxi, to take us to the local ATM and then onto the port for another boat over to Pulau Weh. Steveo had a bit of a nightmare, as the ATM ate his card, fortunately there was a security guard there to assist and get it back. . . On the way to the port we saw some of the areas affected by the Tsunami and it really does hit home. . . . ! Once at the port we sat with the locals and had coffee, played cards, etc, while waiting for the boat to board. . . After the short 45 minute journey over to the Island we got bombarded again for rides, we had now been travelling for 27 hours, so it was getting really funny. We jumped in the crappest mini bus and headed off for the last hour or so of the journey and got to Paradise - Iboih beach. . . . We got approached by a few people offering accommodation and landed on our feet, getting settled in at Eric's Bungalows. . . . Happy days!

So the story begins. . . . Indonesia. . . . Eric's place at Iboih beach. . .

Once we dumped our stuff we headed down to the dive shop that had been recommended. . . it was the only one at this beach, well, pretty much the only thing at the beach apart from a restaurant. . . . We got chatting to the guys there and decided to get out straight away that afternoon on a dive. . . .

Now being as I have only really dived with one shop before I haven't really got much to compare to, but blimey. . . This place was a little layed back to say the least. . . . I was used to a very professional approach with good briefings of safety and procedures, this place however, said there's your stuff, get on the boat, let's go diving, have fun and come up before you run out of air. . . . . ! Needless to say I stuck with Steve (who is a instructor anyway) and we had a great first dive, well, first dives. . . The first one was sort of a 2 for 1 thing. . . One tank, but two dive sites. . . . We first headed over to a ship wreck in the local harbour. I did like the dive, but the water tasted grim, now yeah yeah, you don't drink the stuff, but you do taste it in your mouth around your regulator, and it was bad. . . !

The marine life however was great. . . .Similar to what I have seen, but different, plus my first sighting of a frog fish. . . .So we came up on 100 bar and headed to the next dive site. The next dive site was underwater hot springs. . . . Basically volcanic activity. . . .We could smell the sulphur the closer we got and then saw the bubbles coming up on the surface. . . . We dropped into the water and down to the bottom. . . It was a little strange to see, but great. . . . You could put your hands over the bubbles and feel the heat. . . . . We then moved away from the springs to a bit of coral reef, passing a huge sand bank that housed hundreds of garden eels. . . . Again, the marine life around the reef was same same, but different! But all in all it was a good first few dives, even though the dive company did seem a little too relaxed for my liking, which my opinion on changed after a while. . . . I liked the care free chilled out approach. . .

So, back to Eric's to chill for the evening and maybe do a bit of exploring. No. . . Chilling would be a very accurate word for the following 2 weeks in Pulau Weh. . . . . I am trying very hard again to remember exactly the things we did and the list of events and I am very close to just summarising again. . . . but I really don't want to so, will try my best. . . .

No then. . . The people. . . At this point we hadn't actually met Eric. . . We had met Bateer, or mini boss as we continued to call him. . . . A coolio Indonesian guy about 5 foot tall, but really friendly and helpful. . . He basically help ran the place for Eric. . . Eric did turn up maybe the next day or so. . . Again, great guy. . . A really great guy, couldn't do enough for you in a very chilled out fashion. . .

Yudi was the guy who pretty much ran the dive shop for the boss man (Dordon). . . He was coolio and really got to like us, as we pretty said where we wanted to go and told him what we wanted to do. . . . There was a fairly good size team there who carried all our stuff to the boat if we wanted and were always there to help. . . .

So that first daytime and evening we had to eat and therefore met Eka, a lovely Indo lady, who ran the restaurant next door to Eric's place. . . .Now when I say restaurant, I say that very loosely. . . . They are basically places that serve you food (No Thrills). . . . ! So, Eka has had a hard life and you basically get the low down of her life story as you arrive, but in summary, like a lot of the Indo ladies there, they meet nice (at the time) western guys, who get them pregnant and may even marry them, but then leave eventually. . . . So Eka had been left with 3 kids by a Swiss guy. . . . And yeah, she was a little bitter (obviously). All that a side, she had lovely kids and seemed relatively happy, even more so, that we had arrived and would be spending money! The food was pretty good, average at times, but excellent at other times!

So as far as I remember, that was pretty much it for the first day (ish). . . We were up early in the morning to head off for our 3rd dive to Tokong, a site nearby. Well, not really that early, like I said, it was very chilled out here. . . . so, 9.30ish we jumped in the boat and shot off and dropped in, again with not much of a briefing. . . I hit my deepest depth yet of 37.3 metres (I gets deeper - yeah baby). The Visibility was awesome, well over 30 metres and the marine life included giant moray eels, honeycomb moray eels, giant puffer fish, yellow trumpet fish, which are cool. Several huge lobsters, scorpion fish, lion fish, nudey branch and the usual suspects. . . .

That afternoon we headed out again to a similar site and saw much the same including a school of barracuda.

The evening was pretty much the same as I remember, a lot of chilling out in hammocks, reading books and chatting. . . .We also got to met Eric properly, who welcomed us into his home in a true Pulau Weh style (I'll tell you about that over a beer sometime - It's not rude!).

The next few days continued much the same doing 2 dives a day, until Ramadan started, the Muslim fasting month. . . . . Not this could have been a real problem for us, but it all turned out ok, I will tell you more later, but first the last few dives before a few days break for the start of Ramadan. The first day on the morning of the 12th was pretty coolio as due to the sea swell being quite rough we needed to do negative entry, basically James Bond style back roll entry as normal, but instead of bobbing up and down on the surface sorting the final touches, you back roll in and go down straight away, all air out of you jacket, etc. . . . So I dropped in, saw the bottom and kicked. . . It was awesome, I must have swam down 20 metres in only just a few seconds, a little too much actually as I was a little out of breath when I got down the, but soon composed myself and got into the dive!

On the dive I saw 2 huge bumphead parrot fish, a huge Napoleon rass and 2 huge bat fish, plus the usual and again hitting 37 metres. . . . In the afternoon, we weren't that bothered about going, but decided to in end and I was so glad we did, as we saw some huge lobsters, 2 turtles, 2 octopus, a ribbon eel and even a black tip shark. . . . !

So, as I have said the next few days we had off from diving as the dive shop was shut for the start of Ramadan. . . It turned out also that the weather got a bit wet, so we pretty much didn't leave Eric's places for 3 days. . . Well, in truth we didn't at all. . . . And as a double bonus, the other Steve from the Perenthians turned up with Tommy Vodka and another guy, Chris. . . . So, yeah 3 days of chilling, but you know what, it was great, I finished my book, we ate well, due to Eka, as she continued to do us food from the back door of her place (as, by law the restaurants are supposed to be shut). We played poker and caught up on everything and it felt great to see the boys again. . . Life was good!

Back to the diving again and we did a few sites that were ok. . . Again the evenings were much the same. We then did one of the dive sites that Steve recommended and had done last year. . . It was coolio. . . We hit 40 metres and saw lots of big stuff, including Barracuda, a huge school of jacks, giant travelly, and tuna. . . That afternoon, we saw a turtle again and much more of the same. . . I was enjoying the and even more so on some of the following dives. . . . There were some great sites around the island a bit, however the sea did, at times get really rough, I didn't mind too much, but I could imagine it scaring a few people. . . .

Risking the rough seas however did pay off, with a great deep dive down to 51 metres - yeah baby! On the deep dive I also saw 2 big white tip sharks and a black tip shark. . . . Great!

All in all, I did 17 dives there, the most out of everyone, including a coolio night dive and all for the great price of about £150. . . . So other than chillin out, eatin and playin poker we didget out a few times. . . I went snorkelling, but did prefer the diving and one day Eric took us out around the island in a big car. . . . It was great to get out and he took us to a waterfall with water hole, so we all jumped in. . . . We then headed to a scenic lookout point where the old Japanese bunkers where and then on to a town to do some shopping for fresh fruit, which was great. . . .

We then headed to the beach to catch an awesome sunset, the sky was so red and it just lit up the ocean like a big fire!

We then headed back to Erics and Eka had cooked everyone food and we all ate together like a big happy family. . . To be honest, it started feeling like the Big Brother house. . . . I also forgot to mention that a few other had turned up from the Perenthians. . . Karina, who I had met before and Katie. . . . So we had a pretty big crowd now and seemed to be a bit of an attraction to all the locals and ex pat people that were there too. . . . We were often visited by random people, who just came and chilled out with us, it was all really friendly and happy. . . . I am sure there is more to tell, but I am struggling to remember. . . I had a few beers last night and want to get this finished, so I am gonna leave Indo there. . . . . !

We did eventually decide to leave, all together and head back to Penang, before heading off in our own directions. . . . Not wanting the return journey on the bus, me, Steve, Katie and Marie opted for the plane to Medan, which gave us a night there before getting on the ferry back to Malaysia. . . . OK, it was more expensive, but the 13 hour bus journey wasn't appealing at all. . . . We had a night in Medan, I had a really grim room, but it was only for one night. . . . . . Plus, as it was Ramadan and we were next to the huge mosque, we had all the noise that goes with it. . . Not good. . . We met there others at the sea port in the morning and they looked exhausted after their bus journey and at that point, the extra expense showed it had paid off. . . .

On the ferry back we were able to put some movies on again, which helped to journey go quicker and before we knew it we were back in Penang and at SD Guesthouse. We chilled out there for a few days, doing much of the same, I collected my laptop that I had put in for repair and we had a few nights out. . . . Marie and Karina headed off to Thailand, Katie went off to the Cameron Highlands and me, Steve, Steve, Tommy and Tommy new chick (He pulled in Penang), yeah we headed off to Langkawi. . .

So, I think that's it for now. . . I am very tired and sick of typing, so next time, I will try and keep on top of it. . . .

Ciao for now people, keep your messages coming, I love to hear from you and hey, not long now, see you in November, but not for long, off again soon. . . . !