Paradise!

Paradise is no longer lost.  We found it!  Pulau Weh, Indonesia it truly perfect!  Normally we say a place is great if it has great people, or delicious food, or amazing wildlife and scenery, or is inexpensive and a good place to get some GROW work done.  Well, the small, northern most island of Indonesia has it ALL!

Great People:  Everyone says hello, good conversations, gives you that extra little helping of food because they see you like their cooking, tells you (good) directions to their competitors if they think it will better fit your needs, and are genuinely interested in you, not your wallet.








Delicious Food:  Coconut Curries, new fruits and nuts, and fresh homemade donuts every morning.  What else do I have to say!

Amazing Wildlife and Scenery:  I am writing this from the porch hammock of our bungalow which is directly above one of the most amazing marine life habitats we have ever seen.  In the first thirty seconds of entering the water we saw over 20 varieties of brightly colored tropical fish.  After only a short time more in the water we had identified multiple kinds of lion fish, spotted sting rays, huge octopi, giant moray eels (swimming!), beautiful anemones with clown fish (Nemos), lots of bright blue Dori (blue tangs) as well, huge trigger fish, stone fish (amazing camouflage), parrot fish (enormous and all colors of the rainbow), scorpion fish, trumpet, barracuda, needlenose, lobsters, crabs, manta shrimp, banded coral shrimp, beautiful moorish idols, butterfly, flounder, grouper, jack, sea snakes, giant clams, nudibranch, pipefish, damsel, surgeon, hermit crabs, gobies, blennies, sweetlips, christmas tree worms, feather dusters, sea urchins, really cool sea cucumbers, star fish, and those are just the ones I can identify and then remember to write down.  While diving, add sharks, turtles, a school of devil rays, and some of the largest sea fans we've seen, to the list. WOW!  Also as I am writing this there are wild monkeys playing in a tree less than 10 feet away from me.  Loads of entertainment but no fun when they steal your coconuts or throw your water bottle off the porch.




Inexpensive and a good place to work:  The wonderful bungalow I mentioned above: $5.  The delicious food: we normally split a $1 meal.  The great diving is a little pricy for us at $25 so we only did it once, but the amazing snorkeling is 100% free!  When the power is working our porch is one of the best offices we have ever had.




If it wasn’t that we missed our friends and family and that there are no immediate GROW projects here, we would find a hard time coming up with reasons to leave.  Paradise has been certainly been found.