The Ugly Jetty

Ishwinder can’t swim. No she cannot. But that hasn’t kept her from jumping into water bodies if I am already in there to hold her hand and with a life jacket she knows no bounds. We had been on a snorkelling trip once before in Malaysia and thought we could certainly manage a close to the edge of the sea snorkelling here in Pulao Weh.  Did I tell you yet that the clear waters of Pulau Weh are considered one of the best places in the world to go Snorkelling? We could see fish swimming in the water right from our balcony which was located over the sea. Well, more about that later.

But know for sure that it was a beautiful day. The sea was turquoise blue. There was no wind blowing which was a good thing because leave alone winds even mild breezes make the sea in Pulau Weh turbulent. And turbulent sea is fine for me but just that poor Ishwinder hadn’t slept for two nights. For someone who could sleep on a bumpy bus, to a rocky flight or even in wedding parties, not being able to sleep for two nights was something I secretly found very funny. Somehow, the waves hitting on the wooden foundations of our hut hanging off a rocky cliff didn’t feel very safe to her. She would spend the night researching our next trip and sleep only a couple of hours in the morning when she was sure that I was awake and in case there was a tsunami I would alert her. What I will be able to do in that situation was not her concern. Why are we talking about tsunami here? Because this region, this middle of nowhere was one of the worst hit areas of Tsunami in the year 2004. How many people died was unknown. But that fact that sea was rocking our hut night after night wasn’t very comforting to us.

Across the patch of blue water was a pretty island that we looked at all day long and kept ourselves satisfied by just gazing at it. Yes, the water is blue. Yes, during the high tide we can see some colourful fish floating underneath our balcony. How about some snorkeling? But the sun hasn’t cleared up in these past two days and water is murky. Let’s just keep gazing at that island on the other side.

But on the last day of our stay something happened. The sun peeped out breaking through the two day confinement behind the clouds compelling us to that which must be done. Hating must dos we walked along the cliff to get to the life jacket, snorkeling equipment rental shop. We got back to our hut, changed and walked down to the sea.

The jumping point for our snorkeling dip was right underneath our hut. We started swimming along the edge of the cliff. At the silvery sand bottom of the sea we saw star fish of bright colours, colourful patterns, some transparent weirdly long creatures. And all the while, my mind said, ‘Thank You Life Jacket!’ Then Ishwinder who had already gone a little ahead of me looked up and said, “Oh look our guest house is so far!” I looked up and saw that we had come as far as we wanted. We were at the end of the rows of guest houses that hang off the cliff. It was time to turn back.

Turn back time it is, then Ishwinder said as I saw big waves approaching us. We must hurry up we decided. We were looking back into the waters and saw the fish moving helplessly and the silvery bottom of the sea rocked. It was probably time for high tide, that time that Ishwinder dreads when strong waves beat against the chest of the cliff. We had to hurry to get to the edge or else the waves will not let us get off the sea. We swam as fast as a couple of one and a half swimmers can. We saw a jetty floating in the water. That would be our safety spot we thought. We will climb the jetty and now walk to the land and make our way to our room. Just as we got to the jetty, we realised, that the jetty was floating in the water connected to mainland not by a wooden plank but by ropes. There was no walkway to get off the jetty.

We were now floating on a jetty that was rocked by waves. We decided one person in danger is better than two people in danger. Vikram jumped off the jetty on the ledge of a staircase. Vikram was now in the safe zone. What a relief. But the waves are getting bigger and the Jetty was rocking like a mad elephant trying to through me off its back. I decided to jump in the water. Bad move. I caught the ledge and tried to push myself up. Just then I saw the jetty tied to the ledge with ropes approaching it. Both of us tried to push me on the ledge but I was still in water and jetty was approaching me. I was unable to push myself out and Vikram was alone. Just then a man, whom we had seen a little while ago watering the pots, appeared by Vikram’s side and helped us pull me out before the jetty could hit the ledge and crush me. I escaped with just a scrape on the knee and everything else intact.

It was an unnecessary risk we took which taught us a great lesson. Things can go wrong when you travel and the life-jacket cannot save me all the time. All must dos must not necessarily be done.

By the way, if you are looking for a hidden paradise at the end of the world – Pulau Weh in Indonesia is your place. Just that find a place away from the shore. That hut over the water sounds better than it really is.

Our Worst Travel Experiences – Travel is exhilarating, life-changing, transforming, liberating and all that blah blah. But after fourteen months of backbreaking travel and bus journeys spanning several hours and days that end in us lying down in different beds of different sizes, and ever-changing food types, style and quality, we can vouch for you that much as travel enriches you, it also impoverishes you. Travel is not always glorious. Sometimes things go wrong. And we will be writing about those times when things went wrong in the next few posts. So, ladies and gentlemen, bring out your pop-corns and be ready to be thrilled for we bring to you our worst travel experiences. These are stories full of drama, mystery, victory and redemption. For more of these read below:

When we got off the Shikara