My first child free holiday and what a place to experience it. I had never heard of Pulau Weh but Alice got a recommendation from a colleague that if you love snorkeling you absolutely have to go there, so we did!

To get there you need to fly to Medan or Banda Aceh and then get a taxi to the ferry port. We flew from KL to Banda Aceh, got a Grab to the ferry port and had our accommodation sort out the boat. We did try to sort the boat out ourselves but first were met with “we don’t go there” and then an inability to book tickets without an Indonesian bank card. Luckily the accommodation booked it for us and that worked well. The ferry is 45 minutes for the fast boat with assigned seats. Aside from all the staring (and there was A LOT) it was an alright experience.

We stayed in two places on Pulau Weh. First up was Olala bungalows. This is a no frills, sea front, wooden cabin type of accommodation. Yes to air con, yes to holes in the floor, yes to ants in the bed, no to hot water! The draw of this place is that it is very friendly and you can swim from the accommodation.

Right outside the window is a pretty decent coral reef. We saw turtles here and many fish. The coral here was okay but we saw better in other locations. There is a decent restaurant and you can walk along the sea front to other cafes and coffee (Nasaka coffee although they may not have milk or bread). This is a very conservative Muslim island. No alcohol, bikinis only in limited areas. Be mindful of that. You’ll get stared at even if you’re wearing trousers and a long sleeved top. It is curiosity more than judgement. Don’t come here if you need alcohol on your holiday, we didn’t find a drink all week!

We walked along to Mama Mia’s restaurant two days we were here. This is actually not called this. I think it was called Pele’s Place but on Google Maps it is called Mama Mia’s. They have good coral and sun beds.

On our other day over this side of the island we went on a boat trip. We used a guy called Luqman who was recommended to us. Turns out he is the “leader” (self proclaimed or voted who can say) of the local area. Really nice guy. He really cared about the island and the conservation of it. He was very upset about the dolphin tourist industry and all the boats chasing them. He refused to take us anywhere near dolphins but that was fine with us because we didn’t want to be any part of harassing dolphins. The coral spots he took us to were phenomenal. I have never seen such clear water or such a wide variety of fish. I saw fish I’ve never seen before. There were literally thousands and it was the best kind of sensory overload. He also took us to the underwater volcano which was really unique and a cool experience. All of Alice’s silver jewellery turned brown due to the sulphur and it stunk of eggs.

For the second half of the week we moved to Casa Nemo Resort, near to the town of Subang. This was a nicer room but no air con. There isn’t really anything to walk to and you’d need to hire a scooter if you wanted to explore (which I don’t do for obvious reasons). The coral from the beach here was absolutely amazing. We were just so impressed by the visibility and there was never anyone around when we were there. The abundance of fish must be because they are not being disturbed by boats and people all the time.

We spent a lot of the week being stared at, trying to communicate about whether there was oat milk, trying to establish what time places opened and closed and Alice even had her second request in her life to look for someone’s false teeth that had fallen out in the sea. It was hot and full of mosquitoes. Alice saved beautiful tropical fish from local children catching them in sieves. They were then swearing at us when we told them to release them. We were accosted by the immigration police whilst eating breakfast and they were filming us and taking photos. When we asked questions they left and got their superior who said that they were “checking on foreigners”. I assured him that he would not find anything too dramatic happening at a hotel buffet breakfast at 8.30am. They then took a group photo with an immigration police banner to showcase a job well done. Very strange.

Pulau Weh has left a lasting impression on me and I would definitely go here again. If you are happy to swim all week, eat basic food and not drink then you’ll have the best time! I became obsessed with cleaner wrasse fish and their ‘cleaning stations’, saw Lion Fish, so many Puffer Fish, Moray Eels and thousands of fish basically. It’s the perfect snorkeling haven and long may it remain that way.