Day 303: The War of Roses

Pulau Weh, Indonesia

I am writing this entry with a gun pointed at my head. I’ve promised Elys to write ever since we were in Pulau Weh, but I slyly managed to get away until her last days in Indonesia  :D. So here goes..

First Day Diving Pulau Weh

In the morning, Judy, Jerry, and me pulled out our underwater cameras, and each bragged about the superiority of our brand. There was a little war between Canon vs Lumix fanatics, which will be proven later under 22m of water and a hefty editorial effort, which one is better. And it’s Canon, mind you

Our divemaster, Ampon, a local guy with light brown eyes, was accompanied by Robi, who looks more like a reggae musician than a dive master. As usual, they were quite timid and formal. But at the end of our dive trip, we’ve become good buddies, bonded by our secretive intake of a little “sumthin sumthin” :D.

So first dive was in Rubiah Sea Garden. I struggled with my underwater camera since i’ve never used it before. Especially on that depth, where ray of light and colors gone awol. Capturing the scene with its natural color became a challenge. Either it was monotone of greyish blue or red-ish white haha So Elys, I know you’re a better editor than me. Please help transform those pictures into better images. I need to win canon vs lumix war haha.

From our first dive, it seems that the underwater landscape of Pulau Weh mostly consists of boulders. Not too many colorful corals live here. There were several brightly colored anemones with clown fishes shaking their tail to lure some poor victims. We’ve also seen fair share of scorpion fishes, stone fishes, and its more beautiful sister, lion fishes, strutting in between rocks. Ah, and Moray Eels! Plenty! If you’re patient enough to look below every rock, I bet you’ll find every kind of moray eels known to mankind here in Pulau Weh :D.

Safety stop. Always been my favorite place. Red color has now back to my camera. Elys and I found ourself in between schools of fusilier and red anthias. The blue sea has turned to red, literally. It was a feeding frenzy and Elys crazily trying to break up their formation  :D. Another nice surprise was when we saw this huge sea turtle lazily swim in front of us. Managed to captured her in a movie and this is the war breaker between 2 cameras. Canon prevails!