Today started very early. I woke at 5am to get ready for my 6am pickup. Promptly at 5:29am, my driver called to say he was here waiting for me. Well there went my 30 minutes of stretch and wakeup. I hurriedly got ready and met my driver. Now all over SE Asia I’ve noticed many subtle ways people just think fundamentally different here. As I approached the low rider minivan that was my ride, I noticed it was parked unusually close to another vehicle in front of it on a steep down slope. I met my driver and he stopped me from getting in. He says ” I just need you to go in front of the van and stop it from rolling forward and hitting the other car”, No shit he just asked me to put myself in a completely life threatening position at 5:45am. Thankfully there was a hotel staffer there who also jumped in and with the two of us (not between the two vehicles like originally suggested) we pushed the van to stop it from hitting the other car. Of course the 2 ton minivan rolled forward but only very lightly tapped the other car. No damage. What a start to a day.
So after that I got in the van, and we streaked off up the dark street. To cross the lower peninsula of Bali, to the town of Nusadua. Nusadua is where all the boats launch from in this area. Today I was going deep sea fishing on a private chartered boat. Now all my friends and family know, that last year I had planned a chartered boat fishing trip out of Phuket, Thailand and it was cancelled on the day of. Coming here to Bali, fishing definitely was not on my mind. But luckily yesterday morning I saw a sign for fishing charters. With a couple hours of research and a few WhatsApp conversations, I had a boat a captain and a fishing guide. Wahooo!
After the 35 minute ride through Bali, we arrived at the boat launch and I paid the small fortune of 9.5 million Rupiah ($850 cad) for the charter. It was incredibly beautiful sailing out of the Nusadua harbor. My guide was telling me that we should have calm seas all day. Good for fishing.
What a crock of shit that was. About ten minutes out of the harbor, the 10m fishing boat was being thrashed around in 2 meter chop. I was assured this was only due to the location we were currently sailing through. Another crock of shit. We motored for about 40 minutes to our first location. Still in 1-2 meter swells with a bunch of chop. We difficulty fished for about 20 minutes, and one of the guides landed a small barracuda. The entire morning went like this, motor for 30 minutes, fish for 20, etc. I’m not going to lie, I was really starting to wish I didn’t go on this boat. 1 to 2 meter seas are not that big of a deal, but when the water is also very turbulent and choppy, it makes for an incredibly unpleasant ride. My stomach was tested for sure.
Around 11am the ocean finally calmed with some nice rollie 1 meter swells and the chop dissipated. Now I have fished my whole life back home, in rivers. Not in boats. What a different animal it is, I felt like it was my first day at school. The river bank never tried to buck me off of it before. For the first several hours I struggled to produce anything, let alone stand.
As the sea calmed my confidence grew, we switched from jigging to bottom bouncing. A technique I am very well experienced with. Through the next several hours I managed to catch 3 small red snappers, and with the help of my guide. I brought up a nice red grouper. The hours rolled by like the swells, and after a few gummy sharks, and several re applications of sunscreen. I was spent.
We headed back to the boat launch and the office of the boat company, where my guide and another staff member prepared all the fish we caught into a sumptuous little fresh fish feast. I was served an Balinese Grouper soup, with a side of fried snapper. It was delicious and I’m glad it was, because that’s the most expensive fish I’ve ever eaten.
All in all it was a super cool experience. At this point in the day, I realized that even though I had applied several coats of sunscreen. It was no match for several hours of direct sunlight, as all over my body little patches of sunburn started to appear In the most inconvenient places. My forehead, the tops of my knees, my hands, the backs of my knees. Well whoops. By the time I got back to my hotel, sun stroke was for sure, starting to set in and I was very excited for the cool reprieve of my AC’d hotel room. Normally I would never hide in my hotel to avoid the sun, but today was a necessary exception.
After several hours of reading in the beautiful temperate AC, i finally felt cool enough to go back into the world and find some dinner. Google brought me to a place called Warung D’Bucho, which was a Balinese BBQ joint. Now in Asia, finding high protein meals for less than your whole wallet can be a challenge, as meat is expensive. So a BBQ spot that was only $10.95 cad for fall off the bone chicken and ribs with rice and veggies, was truly welcome. It was banger too, they served a homemade shallot sambal for dipping. It was excellent.
Now even though I am Totally dehydrated, Sunburnt, Heat stroked, And my computer keeps swaying likes its made of water. Or maybe its me that’s swaying, I’m not sure. Today was such a great day.
Till Tomorrow.
P.s I have met my fair share of restaurant cats in SEA, But none of them have been like this cat. She belonged to the owners, and was very clean or I wouldn’t’ve picked her up. She cuddled with me for 20 minutes on my lap while I waited for my meal, and then sat beside my chair the whole way through my meal. Such a sweetheart.
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