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February 2008: 6 cottages/10 rooms are ready!
More pictures coming soon. |
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Coming mid 2007:
LUMBA LUMBA LIVING
We have marked the end of the tsunami rebuilding by starting the building of our own new cottages behind the diveshop on Gapang Beach! The first duplex unit will be available from June 2007, and we hope every two months from then on a next cottage will follow, till we have 7 units/12 rooms to rent out.
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 floorplan, click for details |
March 2007: Again Wonders of Weh
In the month of March and beginning of April, the water around Pulau Weh was still, uncharacteristically, full with plankton. Good to bring on some big plankton feeders: 2 whalesharks were spotted in Sabang Bay on 25th of March and later on April 10th, fishermen mention to have seen even 5 (!) whalesharks in the bay next to Gapang Beach. In between these sightings, we have had as a contrast some days with crystal clear cold water from upwellings from the deep ocean, allowing Collet (1 of our Divemasters) and his divers to enjoy a meeting with a Mola Mola twice, two days in a row, on the Canyon! |
29 July 2006: The dives from the beach, just in front of the diveshop, are getting more and more interesting for critter lovers and under water photographers. Seahorses, ghost pipefishes, stick pipe fishes, stargazer, nudibranches, flatfishes, flying gurnards and tiny frogfishes in different colours; black, red and yellow.
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Banded snake eel |
Flying gurnard |
Common
seahorse |
Robust pipe fish |
Tiny frog fish |
Pegasus or sea moth |
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| 24 June 2006: Mette saw a Mola-Mola on Arus Balee!
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| 26 December 2005; 1 year after the tsunami: |
Debbie's tale: |
Today there were no fishing boats, no dive boats in the water around the island out of respect for the anniversary of the tsunami. So most of the day was spent just talking, reminiscing. Just when the day appeared to be winding down the most unbelievable event happened.
We were called to the beach to find a dolphin in distress with a huge crowd of people around trying to see it. The poor animal kept trying to beach itself, so some people tried redirecting it in the water. It swam from one end of the beach along the shore to the rocky area at the other end where it was hurting itself even more on the rocks. |
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It looked like the dolphin needed to regain its strength. To help it do this a number of us created a makeshift sling off the back of the dive boat using a couple of hammocks. We stayed in the water with the animal for about 2 hours. When dusk started to arrive it was decided that the best thing would be to see if the animal would continue to try to beach itself or if it would return to the open water. We carefully removed it from the slings and with some of the divers in fins, masks and snorkels we tried to direct it to the open water. At first the dolphin seemed to be testing it's strength. It started circling back from the deeper waters and we were worried that it would try to beach itself again. But instead it almost seemed to keep swimming close enough to each of us in the water to say thanks, after a few circles in the shallow water someone noticed that just about 100 meters away were other dolphins. Our friend took one more spin around then we saw that he had joined the pod.
We were all smiles as we watched the pod until you couldn't see their fins any more. What a headline " Divers help distressed Lumba Lumba in front of Lumba Lumba Diving Centre" (LumbaLumba in Indonesian means dolphin). What an amazing afternoon! Debbie, Canada |
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| 8 September 2005: A 2 METER LONG MEGAMOUTH SHARK came checking Aris and his buddy Suzanne out on 48 meter during their deep dive on the Sophie Rickmers Wreck!! And then it disappeared into the deep again. Unfortunately there was no camera to prove this extra ordinary encounter. |
9 months after the tsunami: Have a look at the progress of some projects on Gapang Beach.
(10 pictures 217 Kb) |
15 August 2005: Indonesia and Aceh separatist movement sign peace deal!
The Helsinki agreement reached by the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is expected to bring lasting peace in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Province!!
Monitors from Southeast Asian and European countries oversee the deal to end 30 years of conflict between rebels and the government. They monitor the decommissioning and destruction of weapons that are being surrendered by GAM, as well as the peaceful withdrawal of the Indonesian forces from the region. |
25 May 2005: Today we celebrated the "Opening of Gapang Beach" in traditional Acehnese style by sharing goat curry with all people together on the beach! Pak Yahya's shop, Mama Jungle, Bukhari's and Syukurs restaurant all reopend their doors!! |
   
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| 19 May 2005: Good news: coinciding the peace talks between the Indonesian government and the independance movement, GAM, the government lifted the Civil Emergency status in the province of Aceh. This means there are no special permits needed anymore for foreign tourists travelling to Pulau Weh and through Aceh! |
| 5 May 2005: While surveying the waters around Pulau Weh, Dr. Gerald Allan thinks he found 4, and maybe even five new fish species! |
18 March 2005: We are open for diving!!!
The compressor is working, the heart is beating again! |
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The foundation Help Pulau Weh is organizing a big party on Saturday, 16th of April in Holland to thank the friends of Pulau Weh for supporting and donating money for rebuilding.
For more info send an e-mail to info@stichtinghelppulauweh.com and/or info@lumbalumba.com |
18 March 2005: there is a lot of positive activity on the beach:
Pak Yaya & his wife, Dat and family, the Jungle family, and Suykur & family and Bukhari and Paman all started building and repairing. On the picture you can see the new place of Pak Yaya.
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| 12 February 2005: 7 weeks after: there are quite some projects going on |
In Lumba Lumba shop:
The compressor: we have been busy cleaning, drying, polishing, greasing every little part of the compressor, absolutely spick and span. After taking everything apart till the last single atom, Ton has started with putting it back together!!! We have ordered spare parts from Jakarta, and hopefully they'll arrive within a couple of days.
Cap Amad and Addi repaired the 2 flooded boat engines, with the spare parts we bought in Medan.
Most of the electricity plugs/pipes inside the building are cleaned, checked and working. The water pump and pipes are fixed, but the water supply coming in is still minimum. However, we can take a shower again (which is luxury)! |
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On Gapang Beach:
Beach cleaning: we will continue with project "save the trees, care for their roots, hold on to our beach". We have cut (with the new chain-saw) the rest of the fallen trees that threaten to bring down others with their roots entwined, and fill up the holes between the roots. One of the big tree trunks can be used to make 1 dugout canoe and from the rest planks and poles for rebuilding.
Rebuilding: Our neighbour Syukur is cleaning his premises and made a table to sit outside. In the coming week we'll order stones, cement and sand for his damaged building. We'll also start with Buchari's restaurant. The Jungle family, already extended their little hut, which was left standing behind their former home/restaurant, and they plan to build a pondok first as a base for the restaurant. |
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In Iboih village/Iboih beach:
In Iboih beach, the people are cleaning as well, there are projects rebuilding the mosque and building new public toilets. The chainsaw was used in Iboih to make planks for Yulie's restaurant and for repairing some of the boats. Clothes, sarongs and gas stoves with pots and pans for the families who lost everything were distributed. There is a plan to start with building a new fishing boat for the village, with a 15 pk outboard boat engine.
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In the water:
And soon a reef survey project will start in coorporation with the university of Singapore. What we have seen ourselves and heard so far, it seems that the deeper reefs are unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami! And some snorkeling and a shore dive in the shallow areas of Gapang, showed that here more than 95 % of the corals are OK!!! I met 2 of the resident turtles (very happy about that) and stumbled on a new resident; a big giant great barracuda. And in the (now again) fresh water behind our shop, we seen that at least two fresh water turtles are still there as well, and weren't washed out to sea. We will have to do some beach clean dives for sure, once the compressor is working. I saw jeans, roof materials, branches and other debris lying around, but in total, it's not bad at all. |
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| Thank you for all compassion and encouragement shown! It highly motivates us to go on! It's no secret we've had a few big blue moments when we weren't so sure anymore... |
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4 January 2005:
The foundation Stichting Help Pulau Weh, a Dutch charity set up to help restart the dive shop, help the people of Gapang Beach and the people of Iboih village, is official, which makes donations tax deductible. (web in Dutch and English) |
| 3 January 2005: Launching the web site www.iboih.com about the situation on Pulau Weh after the earthquake and tsunami on 26 dec 2004. Click here for some images from Gapang Beach, after the Tsunami (58 Kb). |
28 December 2004: Firstly we want to let you know that ALL people in Iboih village, Iboih Beach and Gapang Beach survived the earth quake and tsunami.
But most houses, all restaurants and the lower bungalows on the beaches or close to the water are washed away.
The ones on higher grounds are OK. Also the main structure of Lumba Lumba Diving shop is still standing.We heard that in total only 12 people died on the whole island of Pulau Weh, which seems like a miracle given the scale of the disaster in closeby Banda Aceh.
Everybody is picking up the pieces, in material and emotional sense and is starting to rebuild their lives.
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26 December 2004: The tsunami is just pulling back: |
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Measured from the beach the water rose about 6-7 meter high. It reached all the way up till the bathroom windows on the SECOND FLOOR. You can see the darker grey line of the water level on the roof on this picture and on the wall on the next picture.
We are very lucky that the main structure is still standing, just because the water could easily find its way in and out of the building.
Photo's by Almut |
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Click here for more photo's from the days after the tsunami.
Photo's taken by:
Almut (Germany)
Hal (South-Africa)
Juju & Azman Sulaiman (Malaysia) |
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01
December 2004:
Launching of Daniel's website www.hoy--hoy.com
See how a divemasters love for the sea and its creatures combined
with years of goldsmith experience results in beautifully crafted
pieces of ocean jewelry. |
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| 6
July 2004
Smooth presidential elections and first foreign
diver back in Pulau Weh waters!
Pulau
Weh is open for international travelers again! |
| Gapang Beach 13 March 2004:
rare
MEGAMOUTH SHARK (Megachasma pelagios)
washed ashore
This is just the 21st specimen recorded in the world so far!!!!
Click for more photo's and info |
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| Reefcheck
2003 - 2004 |
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The participants on the picture from the
Reefcheck in April 2003:
1. Mulyadi Djamil - Lumba Lumba Diving Centre
2. Rahmat - Lumba Lumba Diving Centre
3. Lukman - Lumba Lumba Diving Centre
4. Arie Muhardy - Syiah Kuala Diving Club
5. Parmakope - Center for Wildlife Conservation
6. Isma Arsani - Center for Wildlife Conservation
7. Rudi Iskandar - KOPAKAHA Unsyiah
8. Agus Rizal Adley - Syiah Kuala Diving Club
9. Sariadi - Syiah Kuala Diving Club
10. Mutaqqin - Syiah Kuala Diving Club
11. Farida Arini - KOPAKAHA
12. Illarius Wibisono - Fauna & Flora International
13. Iwan - Journalist newspaper "Kompas"
14. Sunny - PADI Instructor (Japan)
15. Jeremy - Divemaster Trainee (USA)
16. Fabrice - PADI Divemaster (Switzerland)
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Reef
Check is an international
organization dedicated to global reef coral education, monitoring
and management. www.reefcheck.org
 Lumba Lumba Diving Centre is member of their
global network of volunteer teams. In July 2001, part of our crew received training
in Bali to become Reefcheck Trainers to teach other volunteers in
Reef Check’s scientific methods to monitor and report on coral
reef health. In April 2003 we organized the first local
Reefcheck, a good start with volunteers from Banda Aceh's university,
diverse local nature conservation groups and other divers! 2 more
Reefchecks followed during the Martial Law period, eventhough it
had to be on a smaller scale.
Our goal is to keep on monitoring our reefs
twice a year in April & October, to actively involve the local
community and to stimulate and sponsor actions to protect remaining
pristine reefs and rehabilitate damaged reefs.
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© 1998 - 2008 Lumba Lumba Diving Centre 20 March 2008
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