10/10/09, Iboih Beach, Pulau Weh, Sumatera

What a great way to finish our 6 months in Sumatera, tucked between Iboih Beach on Pulau Weh and Pulau Rubiah on a safe mooring with access to great snorkelling and decent restaurants! It's been strange to be back in a tourist area where, although it is Muslim, they recognise that tourism is a good money spinner and cater accordingly with cold Bintang (not our favourite drop but beggars can't be choosers!). Pulau Weh is a popular dive destination and while further South in the surf areas there seems to be an excess of Aussie's in this area we are outnumbered by Europeans. They seem to be doing a lot of work to 'regrow' the reef in this area and it is the first place in Indonesia where they seem to be taking steps to stop the annihilation of the fish population. Here fishermen can troll and line fish but there is no netting allowed. The reward is an abundance of fish life to be seen when snorkelling.

We arrived here on the 4th of October in time to go to shore for a feed at Mamas, fried chicken and chips all round with a couple of cold Bintang, the closest thing to Western food we have eaten in a restaurant for a while. The next day we decided to undertake a walk to 'The Monument of Zero Kilometre of Indonesia Republic' which is the westernmost point of Indonesia. There is an odd monument there topped with a statue of the mythical Garuda bird. We took off in our inflatable planning to tie up on a jetty we had seen nearby and then to walk the 4 kilometres to the monument. We spend our time in Indonesia trying to avoid officials or any kind of military as they are generally the ones that demand money from us etc. so imagine our surprise when we tied up on the jetty and walked up the road and found that we had unwittingly walked into a military zone! A couple of anxious soldiers in civvies approached us and upon being told what we wanted to do, had rapid conversation with each other before deciding that it would be best for them to take us to their boss. Up the hill we went to see the boss dressed in his camouflage gear, upon hearing we wanted to walk to Zero Kilometre they all had a great laugh, (no one walks anywhere here), gave us their approval and waved us on our way. It turned out to be a long, hot walk up and down hills, people were stopping to offer us lifts in the back of their trucks and some stopped to have their photos taken with the silly tourists. I'm not sure who was the bigger attraction us or the monument. A well deserved dinner at Cafe Olala (ooh la la) followed.

Although our visas didn't run out until the 10th we decided to head into Sabang on the 6th to get our check out underway. You never know in Indonesia how easy or hard something is going to be and if it will be quick or slow. We hired a car with driver for the day hoping that if we got everything done we would be able to fit in a little bit of sightseeing. Into Mamas for a banana pancake breakfast and we were on our way. Our driver was very knowledgeable and at all the twists and turns in one of the best roads we have encountered in Indonesia was able to tell us how many tourists and locals had died or been maimed in car and motorbike accidents on some of the treacherous corners, very reassuring when one is not wearing a seatbelt! But our driver had been to driving school (he showed us his credentials) and we soon worked out that if he wasn't speaking he drove fast but when he was talking he slowed down, suffice to say the conversation flowed easily AND constantly! We headed straight into Sabang stopping at a couple of lookouts on the way.

First stop, the Harbour Master which was our first strike, the Harbour Master and everyone else who could do the paperwork had gone elsewhere. They told us to go to immigration first and then try back. Into immigration we went and before long to our surprise we could hear them stamping our passports, they even post-dated it for us as we had until the 10th on our visa. We were asked if we had any 'souvenirs' for him (which we didn't) but no other money was asked for! Pleasant surprise number one, on to Customs. Customs didn't appear to know why we were there to see them, on a blank piece of paper they got us to write our boat name, Captains name, next port of call and the date we were leaving and sent us on our way. Pleasant surprise number two! Back to the Harbour Master.

The Harbour Master was still not back and apparently Quarantine was with them. We had an hour to kill which was spent buying Aceh coffee and stocking up at the fresh vegetable market. It was still before midday, there was a chance we would be able to do some sightseeing after all. On return to the Harbour Master we were sent to do Quarantine. The first trouble we thought we were going to have was when Quarantine starting asking about ship logs etc, things we hadn't brought with us and we didn't know why they were asking about them anyway. Finally we got through Quarantine at a cost of Rp50,000 (about $6) and back to find the elusive Harbour Master. The Harbour Master was a lovely guy who had very good English and soon all our paperwork was complete, we had until Saturday to leave. As it is a free port we were asked for a 'donation', we gave them Rp50,000. So our clearance through Sabang cost us about $12, the cheapest port we have been to in Indonesia!!

Being 12.30pm we had time to go sightseeing, we had the car for another 5 ½ hours. We enjoyed the buffet at Freddy's for lunch and went on to see the lake of Aneuk Laot which is used as the clean water supply for Sabang, in Colonial times (when the Dutch were here) ships used to stop here to fill with clean water. We walked through a rainforest to a waterfall from the mountain of Sarung Keris where we swam in the clear, cool water. We stopped at a couple of beaches, Anoi Itam (a beach where the sand is black) and Gapang beach which is popular with tourists for diving and snorkelling. We also stopped at a beach where hot mud and water bubbled through the sand, our driver told us that the mud had medicinal properties and many tourists dug holes and lay in them to cure skin diseases.

The last few days we have been relaxing, snorkelling and eating while waiting for the weather to clear so that we can leave. There has been quite a lot of wind which appears to be easing and we will be leaving at 2am tomorrow morning. That and the fact that our immigration man was here today and when he saw Jay and I, he pointed at his watch and said, 'You go today!' Well, I guess that's as good a reason as any!!! We're ready to get back to Langkawi anyway and plan our trip to Chang Mai, that's my reward for surviving a 6 month surfing trip in Sumatera! We'll see you all on the other side!!

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03/10/09, Teluk Seudu, Sumatera, Indonesia

Well, here we are anchored up in a bay called Ujung Sueng off the small village of Teluk Seudu just South of Banda Aceh. We've just finished an overnighter from Sibigo leaving yesterday around 7.30am and arriving in the anchorage here at around midday today. It seems that the elements are going crazy over here at the moment as you'll see from the above photo we experienced our first Sumatran since we've been here. We thought we had got away safely but Mother Nature had other thoughts. Luckily for us it only lasted for about an hour and wasn't as nasty as it looked. We have heard about particularly nasty Sumatrans that last for up to 3 days!

We finally have decent internet service and have been able to jump on line to get the latest on the earthquake that hit Sumatra. I really feel for these people, no sooner do they recover from one disaster, another one comes along to knock them off their feet again! The people of Sumatra, in particular Aceh, are some of the friendliest and most welcoming people we have met.

We've seen on the net that Mark Seager (American Mark from Straddie) had to dodge coconuts in the Telos during the earthquake, in Mark's own words, 'Can you imagine?' We're glad to hear that you are safe Mark, you mentioned that you were going to be there around this time in your last email and we were wondering if you had managed to get out before it happened. You're probably in the plane on the way home to the Gold Coast as we speak.

Tomorrow, we head for Pulau Weh where we will spend a couple of days before checking out of the country and heading to Malaysia.

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01/10/09, Sibigo, Pulau Simeulue, Sumatera

Mainly because we are a fair way away from it and actually didn't know that it had happened until our satellite phone and mobiles started ringing in the early hours of this morning. For once Eddie was not the first with the scoop, in fact my Mum led the pack (god love her) with an early morning sat phone message demanding that I get in touch to let her know I was ok, while on the phone reassuring her that I was indeed fine and didn't even know about the earthquake Jay's sister Wendy followed a close second with a call to the sat phone, followed by Ed, our daily deliverer of news, with the details. The earthquake occurred approximately 300 nautical miles South of where we are that's about 546 kilometres which is about as close as I want to get to an earthquake! At the time that the earthquake occurred we were sitting in the Sharia jail on Simeulue visiting our friend Ranu, who is doing 10 months for bringing in some alcohol for some aid workers, and of course despite the TV being on we did not feel, hear or see a thing about it. But anyway we are safe in case you were worried about us.

We are currently sitting at anchor at a place called Sibigo which is at the top end of Simeulue. We have until the 10th of this month to check out of the country which means we are on the move again! Yay! I have enjoyed Sumatera despite some of my grumpy patches but I am glad to be moving back to places where I won't feel as boat bound AND I can safely say that Jay's plan worked and never again will I insist on accompanying him on a surf trip, guys he's all yours!! Although we feel like we could have left The Banyaks a month ago due to poor surf, Jay's final surf was a beauty and it was worth staying the extra month just to see the glow in his eyes as he talked to me about what he was claiming as one of the best surfs he's had in Sumatra.

JAY: The right at Bangkaru known as Treasures or Machine Gun Rights was absolutely smoking. Around the 4 to 5 foot range with the odd 6 footer which is about as big as it handles there before it starts breaking wide. I can safely claim the biggest wave of the day (for the guys that have seen it that means past the claw and around the corner on my way into the bay) nearly needed a bemo to get back to the line up! It was really doing its thing with 2 or 3 barrels per wave and I can honestly say I had some of the biggest, longest barrels I've had on the trip! Just as well because I've done the sums and my next surf will be in Bali in 5 months unless Thailand turns on a sneaky Christmas/New Years wave like it did last year.

We farewelled The Banyaks on the 29th of September after drinks with our new friends Marcus and Ayu aboard the Gaia, a charter boat that operates through The Banyaks from Simeulue, (see www.banyakislands.com) if anyone is thinking of heading over there we can definitely recommend taking a look at Gaia, Jay is definitely planning a trip back with them at some stage and we hope to catch up with them on the Gold Coast! Friendly crew, atmosphere and awesome food!! We can also recommend looking up Gus on Bohemian, a catamaran generally with a Thai chef, Gus was the man that delivered our passports back to us so that we could head out without having to do another stint in Sibolga and so to him we owe a debt of gratitude. Elation was mixed with regret as we left The Banyaks, excitement to be on the move and sadness at leaving a place I don't think I will return to in the near future.

Next stop, Sinabang Simeulue. Jay and I almost feel like locals in Sinabang having been back and forth so much picking up the troops. I really like Sinabang, for a town that's not quite a village and not quite a city, they strike a happy medium. The people are friendly and we have never been harassed there by officials. We have developed friendships with the people at the fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, restaurants and the becak drivers and it was strange to go to see them for the last time and say goodbye. With their limited English and our broken Bahasa we managed to say goodbye and thank you, we love the people of Simeulue. Once we had sourced all our supplies we went to see Ranu. It is sad to see him in jail especially as he is a good muslim, he doesn't drink or smoke and prays the appropriate amount of times at the mosque each day. But he is also a business man and when a customer requests a product he sources it for them. It's a shame that the aid workers didn't take responsibility, they merely left the island and didn't want to have anything to do with Ranu, they came there to help the people of Simeulue and ended up having one of them put in jail for something they shouldn't have been requesting in an alcohol free area. But he doesn't hold grudges and instead has been talking to the tourist bureau to get things changed so that alcohol is allowed for the tourists that visit the area. He hopes to open his own surf camp on Simeulue, he has the land and is already in the process of organising it. We wish him the very best of luck and will stay in touch to hear of his progress. He is making the best of a bad situation by teaching the other inmates English while he is there. He is a good man.

We left Simeulue this morning and arrived at Sibigo around 4pm. After searching for somewhere to anchor near Ian and Michelle, Jay and I moved to a more secluded area after seeing their boat overrun with locals in canoes they had paddled out from the shore, mainly kids but despite Ian asking them politely to move on, from where I sit I can still see about 6 canoes out the back of Raku as Ian and Michelle sit inside and try to ignore them. Having said that, Jay is having a stilted conversation in Bahasa at the back of the Makani Kai with a fisherman that just wants to chat but so far Jay has not let him on board. I suppose when we turn up in an anchorage in the middle of nowhere we look like a spaceship and everyone wants to come and just sit on board for a while.

Tomorrow we head for mainland Sumatera, an overnighter that we have not done for a while. By Saturday night we should be anchored up South of Banda Aceh.

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