kelong!

went to sibu island, off kota tingi (spell check) with dad, tecky, junny and qi.

was having pre-trip jitters as usual, so i wasn’t really smiling + was very tired cos i couldn’t sleep well the night before.

Day 1

breakfast stop: bak kut teh.

yummy pork! damn soft, tender, juicy!

ya who am i kidding i don’t even eat pork. haha wouldn’t know how soft or juicy it is -_-

the most foul-tasting soup ever! i got convinced that this soup was better, and when i tasted it. OMG MEMORIES OF THE FOUL SMELLING PORK INTESTINES SOUP MY MOM USED TO MAKE.

it really woke me up man i was cursing all the way..

had to wait for some time before getting onto the boat but once i got on, i felt much better..

4 of us decided to sit outside with the sun, sea, breeze.

hehe my nan hua primary track ‘uniform’! i still can fit damn well into it!

pap.

the kelong serves breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1130, dinner at 530, and supper at 9. 4 meals a day! it cost RM225 for 3d2n, and the meals have 2-3 meats, 1-2 veg, and 1 soup! yum yum. even supper isn’t some drink / dessert! it’s fried noodles, or rice.. breakfast isn’t bread and all, it’s teocheow porridge! a great bargain i’d say. (=

when we reached it was really blazing hot and i was drenched due to the boat ride.

made my mood REAL bad.. i was sulking on a kelong full of unknown people, with nowhere to go.. and i refused to touch the raw meat (i don’t like the idea of touching uncooked stuff you see) so i was being a real BRAT.

and then it rained, and it felt slightly better.. had lunch and i was forced to eat with other people. it felt so sick because we didn’t have a ‘common’ spoon and everyone dipped their spoons / chopsticks in the same bowl / plate..

didn’t eat much and passed most of my rice to junny.

this is our sleeping quarters..

everyone sleeps here, and it’s really safe. you can leave your phone, ipod, bags, camera on the bed and no one would steal it!
that’s cos everyone’s all busy fishing, and honestly, if you stole something you’d be caught because there’s no way you can leave the kelong! the last boat leaves at 2pm, so unless you’re leaving, there’s no point in stealing!

mood got better when it was cloudy and i had 7 hooks on my line. reeled in 2 fish! i have no idea what i caught but i just kept reeling in fish(es) whenever i cast my line. didn’t even have to wait! it was fish after fish and i caught about 40 before dinner. it really cheered me up.. + the fact that the guys and dad helped me to put bait, i didn’t have to touch any raw food..

then it was dinner and i gobbled up. kinda hungry after fishing for 5 straight hours! after eating dinner, we continued fishing.. then we showered.. omg it felt DAMN good. the water was cooling, the wind was blowing when we came out… by 8+, i conked out.. didn’t even eat supper!!! )=

this is before i fell asleep..

hanging our clothes by the bunk

woke up at about 10+, and went to find my dad who was still fishing.. he caught a squid! then teck taught me how to cast a line properly.. and it felt so so right.. like the javelin.. so i just kept throwing and throwing.. then they taught me how to play mahjong (with cards), quite fun! we slept at about 1+am cos we were so drained..

Day 2


the view from the kelong!

woke up at about 9+, and breakfast was over. there was still food on the table but i didn’t feel like eating.. felt like i concussed..

heard laughter coming from the ‘living room’ so i was wondering what the tv was showing to make grown men laugh altogether! went and found out they were showing ‘tom and jerry’. OMG. old school and i couldn’t imagine anyone watching that! in the end, i sat down with them and laughed along. ahahaha

kept irritating my dad to ask for the small boat so i could go snorkelling (that was the whole point of the trip for me) and then he came back saying the boat was spoilt and there wasn’t any way i could get to an island to suntan and snorkel.

was super disappointed!!! was at such a loss cos i didn’t want to spend the whole day fishing.. but that’s exactly what i did in the end..

we’re sitting at the ‘kitchen hole’. it’s this huge square hole where we dump our unfinished food, to feed the fish..

we came up with a plan, to throw food just above our hooks, so when the fish come, all we have to do is pull on our rods and we’ll get a fish for sure!

see this hook? this is lethal! this is the hook we use to ‘get’ fish using the above said plan. (= the fish is definitely unable to get away with a slight ‘jig’.

jigging is when you move your wrist to tug the rod and lift it up. (=

pap unhooking a fish

nice fish! really pretty ahaha

deciding to make full use of my day… i unhooked the fish myself..

and the guys / dad didn’t wanna hook the bait for me so i had NO choice but to do it myself.. had to cut the raw prawns.. -urgh-. i used 2 pliers.. so i didn’t have to touch it at all. haha! from deshelling to cutting them up my hands stayed clean. then i left the prawns in the air for some time so they’d ‘harden’ a bit, and be less icky. that way, they won’t ‘melt’ so easily in the water, and they’ll stick better to the hook. (= it does work for me, i did catch a lot of fish (maybe 50++) so try it if you’re going to fish next time!

accidents are part of holidays and i got pricked in my finger while trying to unhook a fish and it bled. grr. the fish was ‘poisonous’ and so i had no idea if i got pricked by the fish or the hook.

but thank goodness i had the better end of it, after knowing that my arm wasn’t numb..

part of our haul!

so tecky, qi and my dad were ‘jigging’ the whole day at the kitchen hole, with their leftover food. they got so lucky! each tablespoon of food would get them 2 fishes! well using that huge hook, it’s kinda impossible to NOT get a fish.

in teck’s words.. “hey this is more fun than the ufo catcher!” he meant the arcade game, where you kiap the toy with your ‘claws’.

i’m unhooking yet another fish with dad while qi looks on..

this is the poisonous fish!

tecky with the pretty colourful fish

me eating a banana! haha! was getting hungry.. we brought the bananas from home. yumyum

this is my mini-box where i put my catch in (=. kept throwing in fish after fish, and when it got full, i threw all the fish into the big cooler box..

you can’t really see, but in this pic i have 4 fishes on my 7 hooks! (=

out of focus, but i caught a leather jacket D:

pap with the poisonous fish. oh to clarify, the fish can be eaten! while unhooking this species of fish, tecky got pricked. and he got the lousier deal. the poision went to his hand and numbed it and oh boy, was i glad i wasn’t in his shoes. he was more calm than me though!

casting my line after dusk.. at about 7+ and it’s really dark..

me cutting up the bait haha!

total haul for day 1 and 2!!

as you can see, i’m using pliers and a knife to deshell the prawn..

late at night, the small fish all disappear. they decide they’re not hungry anymore. okay just kidding. they disappear because there’s this fish, called a “todak”, long, slim, with a sharp mouth. it eats the fishes! in the afternoon, some i caught a todak with my rod. my fish ate the bait, the todak ate my fish. )= the teeth’s so sharp it bit my whole line off! urgh! it was really annoying cos everytime they bit the bait, my line would snap and i’d have to re-string everything. my line wasn’t strong enough to hold onto the todak either! (i was using a noob rod..)

so at night, with all the todak, i didn’t fish. )= instead, qi decided to try his luck jigging the todaks using his ‘mega hook’

ta-dahhh!!! a todak! silvery blue.

unhooking it is very tricky!! because we jigged it, the fish would get multiple hooks on it’s body. the more it struggles, the more hooks it’ll have.

our first bloody todak with about 4 hooks on it.

and then it was supper. we stayed awake!!

fried beehoon. there was also red bean soup. (=

after shower, nice and fresh! with sea breeze too

we stopped fishing for a bit and boys being boys.. they started muckin around..

pretending to be magicians..

they kept moving the chairs further apart..

i have no idea how qi could withstand it. :/

they wanted to drop the ‘ufo mega hook’ onto my head!

they wanted to camwhore.. and then they decided to do group shots. omg..

you’ve no idea how big my eyes were when they suggested that..

my self-painted toe nails! nice?

candy fingernails.. yummm

we saw a huge pufferfish, but they told me not to catch it cos there’s nothing i could do with it.. then we saw a nurse shark too! quite exciting! and 2 sea snakes, which freaked me out. cos snakes can slither their way up the kelongs! oh oh and also, a giant squid! we kept following it, and then it disappeared. and suddenly this man cuahgt the squid! unfair i tell you! we waited so long for it!

played mahjong also.. and slept. goodness. )= we were supposed to ‘ton’ the night but after being in the sun, fishing for more than 15 hours we were dead beat!

Day 3
woke up and packed up. boo hoo.

CHILLIN W MY IPOD YOOO.

fell asleep while listening to the ipod and the next thing i heard.. tecky was saying “chars.. you sleeping ah..? why your eyes open..? awake not?”

SIAN OF COS I WAS SLEEPING LAH. WALAU EH WHERE GOT PPLE NOT SLEEPING THEN LIE SO STILL LIKE DEAD FISH.

he woke me up to go take pictures of the fish..

yayyy! our fish! very fresh because we kept them in ice all the time. i caught a lot of them! (= amongst my prized catches were baby gropa (which i threw back into the ocean), 2 parrot fish, and 2 leather jackets.

had to sort out all the fish because it’s pointless to bring the smaller ones back as there’s no meat..

the sotong pap caught!

the todaks..

i was joking that i was the “most valuable fisherman” cos i caught the most fish, and on the most regular basis.. it was also due to the fact i watched ‘my mvp valentine’ where i coined the term “MVF”. and i called qi the “most valuable jigger” because with his jigging skills, he hooked up tonnes of todaks!

that was until teck said “chars. this isnt fishing. what you did is cast the line, and reel in. and there’s fish. you only hook it, you didn’t fish for it.”

and thus, from being the “most valuable fisherman” i became “the most valuable hooker”. not ideal i know. :/

cut the todak’s head off as it was deemed useless..

the less ugly fish. look at the background! we can open a fish market!

choosing the fish

after packing the fish and our stuff, we had lunch.. then, it was time to leave the kelong..

what we stood on for the past few days

byebye kelong!

the water’s damn clear and pretty! i know it’s damn bimbo to say ‘pretty water’ but whateverrrr

the sea was rather calm compared to the day where we got splashed by wave after wave.

set off back home, and upon reaching home, dad cleaned the fish and we had a bbq that same night together with cass and pre. missed them at the kelong )=. it was quite yummy! and company was good too.

will def go back to the kelong again. it was quite fun w/o having to connect with people all over the world with our phones / laptops.. really enjoy the simple life there. and also, me being impatient, i actually enjoyed fishing.. (okay, hooking..) + good food, good company, games to keep us occupied..

shall wait for bro to finish his o levels then we’ll go for the weekend! i heard the other kelong has midnight bbq, and you can catch many crabs, prawns and squids.. (ah fatt kelong)

however, my kelong (ah you kelong) has better shower facilities (a decent hose instead of a jerry can), and better breakfast (noodles / rice instead of bread and butter / kaya).

and i would definitely make sure that the boat to the island for snorkelling is not spoilt! so that i can suntan and swim haha!