A Couple’s Journey

Well I will start this out with how things have been going since we got here and end it with my dive from Hell.  So we are on Palau Weh, Indonesia. This island is beautiful and our room at Lumba Lumba is absolutely amazing and the animals around the place are great.  We have goats, dogs, cats, cows, Kamodo Dragon and crabs just to say a few that hang out right out side our door.  So we are not missing any wild life.  The resort would probably a four star if we had hot water and AC, but we are managing well without them.  So we have cool things on land and then go diving and see all the marine under the water! The shore diving alone is amazing, you can pretty much pick up a fish guide and we saw something from every page! Last night we did a night dive the current was not fun at all but we did see a beautiful White Tip shark. I felt a little sorry for it though because we were a big group and it ended up getting pinned against the reef with all of us watching it. We of course then  moved out of its way after a while realizing that it was getting scared.  I dont want to know what would happen once it got to a panic state.   It was great though to be so close to it.  The diving here is alot different then Koh Tao that is for sure.   We see some great things but the currents are very unpreditable here.  We have had a bit of the washing machine effect where you are down at 10 and then wham you are up at 4 meters and then back down to 8 meters in a matter of seconds, definately not a good thing.  But nothing perpared me for the dive that I had today.  So let me tell the story:

  Jared’s ear was hurting him so he decided not to dive today.  At first I felt bad for him thinking that he is really going to miss out, little did I know that he just made the best decision of his life. Ok maybe not his best but a good one none the less.  So last night was a full moon which brings in the currents.  So Deb, Mark and I get on the boat to go out to the dive site.  Which we dont even know where it is. When we get there the Dive Master briefed us on the site and told us that “the currents can be quite bad and with the full moon they are probably going to be a bit worse but no worries we will just follow the current. Oh and the currents like to change direction a bit so watch out for that as well!”  Ok so we do our back roll entiry in to the water and start going down as fast as you can to get to the wall to avoid some of the current. When we get down to 30 meters it is a nice current just pushing us along we are actually enjoying this although we really did not see any fish cuz they knew better and got out of the current!  Then all of a sudden the current is on us like white on rice. We are holding on to rocks to just stay where we are while finning our hearts out. I look down at my gauge, good I think to myself I have 140. Not too bad. Then what felt like minutes later I look again WOW I only have 80 Bar and we are only at 20 meters. At this point we aren’t swimming but climbing up the rocks moving from rock to rock just to get up as the current is pushing us down! At this point I am thinking ok calm down try and beathe slower. But how exactly do you beathe slower when it feels like you are spinting a 300meter race. I am now at 15 meters and holy crap I have 30 bars at this rate I am never going to make it to the surface! I get this really worried look on my face and look at one of the dive masters that was with us and I am giving him the signal that I am low in air, just so he knows how critial it is I continue by showing him that I only have 30 Bar.. I am really freaking out not knowing how to get to the surface or even how I can get to someone else to get their alternate if I need it!  The guy signals to the other dive master who was in front of me. So he lets go of the rock he is holding and comes right at me he grabs as he passes and we let go of the reef and let the current take us.  Once we are out of site of the reef the current is no longer pushing us down and we are able to go up. I am much calmer now but looking at my gauge thinking well now I am only at 15 bar. I keep a very tight hold of the guy that was with me knowing I was never going to make it all the way up with the air I have. We are doing our safety stop and I feel that the air is getting harder and harder to come by. I signal to the guy that I am out of air and he of course gives me his alternate all is not lost. I make it to the surface all in one piece but it was quite an experience and one that I would like to never repeat. Oh yeah and the two local diver masters come up both with about 140 – 150 bar after a 30 min dive to 33m in strong current! Do they even breathe at all or maybe they have gills!

Jared- Wow I am so glad I didn’t go on that dive, although they might not have gotten low on air considering I go through air the fastest of the four of us!  Alright so my thoughts on the island.  Yes it is lovely, the waters great even though I have been wearing a wetsuit.  So miss diving in 29 to 30 degrees, but it is only about 26 so not too bad.  Well as some of you reading this may know it is Ramadan.  This being a predominately muslim country they are not allowed to eat, drink, smoke and other stuff during daylight hours.  Luckily it is not like the Middle East were the westerners can’t walk around and drink, smoke or eat.  However with only 3 resturants on the island, lunch is interesting, we have to walk into the back of the restuarant to eat.  The places are little more than bigger huts, the windows are boarded up so people can’t look in to watch the white people eat.  Although judging by the locals eating, not many around here are muslim, so why are we hiding inside??  Oh well, we are used to this!  Oh yeah and all the resturants have pretty much the same menu.  So we are pretty much living on fried rice, fried noodles, and fruit for lunch and dinner.  We are doing this partly because the rest of the things on the menu you look unappealing and also cause we didn’t bring enough money.  There is only one ATM and it is an hour away and no one around here changes money.  So the 5 other curriencies we have don’t do us any good.  We live on about 50000 rupies a day ($5.30), 25000 for lunch and dinner.  Breakfast consists of toast that we luckily can charge to the room, which good for us we can use our Visa card. Well at least our clothes are starting to fall off with the weight we are losing from our diet and diving in strong current.  Good thing we are only doing 2 dives a day otherwise we would be exhausted!  Good thing Maryanne got Quality Steet sweets at the duty free shop in KL!   
 

Tags: Indonesia, Pulau Weh

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 1:55 am and is filed under Indonesia, Pulau Weh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.