I did many activities during my trip: bungee jumping, skydiving, trekking, diving, camping, canoeing… but I had never been fishing. We had intended to go fishing with Bruce, who was staying at their home for helpx job in Tasmania, but my enthusiasm was lost because his boat’s battery died.. Kismet happened to Bali.
When we learned that the owner of the restaurant where we ate fish yesterday caught his own fish, we decided to join him for this morning with my fellow traveler and Dutch Farid.. At 6 in the morning, fisherman Wayan and I were fishing silently with our fishing rods loose in the sea.. Wayan and his wife, one is up the road and one is running this small beachfront restaurant.. If the weather and mood are good, he goes fishing between 6-11 in the morning and 6-9 in the evening. there are 2 balancing trees on the left. These trees are hollow and made of papaya wood. We started to catch our fish 1 km away from the shore.. We had just started fishing when fisherman Wayan pulled the first fish into the canoe with laughter and singing.. After the small fish, which was only one inch long, Wayan caught 2 more and Farid caught 1. We spent almost 3 hours but I couldn’t catch any fish. 4 small fish were caught.
There is a strong current on the shore, every 15 minutes Wayan would start the engine and shut it off near the shore.. It was my turn and I caught 3 fish at once, one on each hook.. It was hard to chop the fish, you know, the biggest one is a speckled crimson fish, the other one, you think Fenerbahce, had yellow and dark blue stripes.. The other was Sniper, the fish that Farid and Wayan caught.. As a result of our four-hour fishing adventure, we only caught 7 cute little fish and came back.
We had our breakfast, which we couldn’t make in the morning, and slept lazily on the cushions in the bar.. Since the day we arrived, we went to the restaurant of a woman who insistently invited us while passing by her restaurant.. There, after chatting with a Belgian diving instructor, we went to Jukung diving school and played chess.. Interestingly, we ended the game in a draw this time, and there was no winner.
Obtaining salt from the sea with the traditional method is the livelihood of some families in Amed.. For this job, especially between July and August, which is the dry season, sea water is carried in buckets and evaporated in specially prepared fields for 3 days.. Raw salts mixed with soil, which remain in a thin layer after evaporating water, are taken and placed by pressing tightly in specially made reverse cone-shaped bamboo containers.
The hollowed-out coconut tree trunks are placed under this cone.. Adding sea water into the cone, dissolving the salt and filtering the incoming water are evaporated in these tree trunks, under the tropical sun, and salt crystals are obtained.. Some of the salt is put in small boxes and bags and sold to tourists by children on the streets.. It was 6 days of the 12-day ceremony and when we arrived at the temple, someone with a mask on his face was dancing to the music.. So we found our place and knelt down, a 16-year-old girl named Wayan accompanied us and showed us the ceremonies, ceremony and worship. We did the same as she did.. With the palms of both hands facing each other, you take the flowers in the small basket made of reeds between your index and middle fingers and lift them up to the level of your forehead, and you close your eyes and tilt your head forward.. According to the words of the holy man who prayed aloud afterwards, you put some of the flowers between your fingers where your hair is tied, and then on your left and right ears. we left there after. Balinese Hinduism has unique motifs both in its ceremonies and its content.. On the other hand, in the garden of the temple, men and women were sitting and playing a kind of gambling.
We went to our fisherman’s restaurant for dinner and ate the fish we caught in the morning.. It actually made me a little uneasy that those lovely fish are now in front of us cooked on our plate.. I eat fish, but I can’t say I’m very fond of it.
We went fishing in the morning with Wayan and chatted and had a Balinese drink.. When we learned that he had another fisherman brother, we had other ideas.. A little crazy! Tomorrow, we decided to take a long trip with a local fishing boat to the popular holiday destination Gili Islands.. I think this will be a risky and exciting journey at the same time.. We’ll have to travel 40 km in the sea in a small fishing boat, it doesn’t sound scary, you know.
I had just gone back to our room and slept when Farid woke me up.. There were gnawing noises coming from Farid’s backpack.. After spiders, cockroaches and scorpions, our room tonight’s guest was a mouse. As Farid turned on the light and touched his bag, the mouse jumped and ran upstairs.. There is no comfort for us. We understood this in Amed, we laughed and laughed.. Trying to sleep again, this time the mouse was a visitor in my bag. There was noise in my bag, but when I checked I couldn’t find anything. Adventure awaits us tomorrow, we forget and sleep.
Day 355: Indonesia:13 Amed, Bali, 25 July 2011
