Monday 13 September 2010

Pulau Rubiah

I picked up a mooring near “Glayva” at Pulau Rubiah near Pulau Weh – Northern Sumatra. Pulau Rubiah is a beautiful small island with crystal clear blue water and rain forest coming down to the rocky waters edge. By comparison to what I had seen so far in Indonesia this was very civilised and geared to tourists. There were restaurants, not food stalls, scuba dive charter boats and glass bottomed viewing boats. In the evening I went ashore with Mark, Rachel, Nomara and Aaron for a beer and a meal. It felt good not to have to cook a meal for a change. At the restaurant we met people from France, Germany and Korea and a couple of expat Aussies working in Jakarta The following day, after doing boat jobs, I ventured out to do some snorkelling, I was amazed at how good the snorkelling was. The best snorkelling I have done in many years – live coral and an abundance of tropical fish. There appears to be a concerted effort to conserve this tropical sea garden. The colours of the coral and proliferation of fish here far outstrip what I saw at Cocos (Keeling) and Babi islands. I spent several hours swimming around just looking at the at this amazing sea garden aquarium.