Yesterday at Mambo's beach I went around asking people for opportunities to go fishing with a boat. An old non-English speaking fisherman directed me to a little kiosk behind the fishing shack at the beach. A friendly old man promised to talk to somebody at his tea house (the kiosk). I noticed, that they prepared some very delicious looking rotti (thin soft bread from a pan - like pancakes) in front of the tea house.

After some hours at the beach we all decided to go to the tea house to see if things had developed with respect to the fishing trip. A younger man (son of the old man) who spoke good English was very helpful. He suggested to go with his brother who was a fisherman. We could meet at his sister's restaurant next door in the evening (they seemed to be one big clan around here). As the restaurant was very small we went immediately to order the food for the evening and agree on a time when we would come, so they had time to prepare.

In the evening we took a tuk-tuk to the sister's restaurant (called Samanti's Restaurant). There were only four groups of tables - the biggest reserved for us. She served up some really nice food and fresh fruit juice at very modest prices. During the dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to the fisherman and we negotiated a price for the boat trip. The rest of the family seemed like nice people but the fisherman looked like a criminal. Indeed, the nicer brother did not refrain from telling me how badly the life of the brother was going because he was drinking and fighting and had done some shady business to the point of loosing his own boat. He was now at the mercy of some boat master who was actually the one who owned the boat we were to do the fishing trip in. That guy therefore had the final word on the price of our expedition and was also present. After some negotiations we landed at my suggestion of 7000 Rp (42 Eur) for a three hour fishing trip with a 1000 Rp. bonus (6 Eur.) if we would actually catch tuna.

At 5 am - pitch black night - Philip and I sneaked out of the guest house gate and set off a chain reaction of barking dogs in the alley. The good brother came to pick us up in his tuk-tuk.
-Is your brother awake? was my first question.
-Yes, waking him up was the first thing I did when I got up. He is now drinking tea, laughed the good brother.
Arriving at the beach, we saw a lot of young people staggering home from Mambo´s after some serious partying. We waited politely on the bad brother to finish his morning tea, wondering what kind of mood he would appear in. After 5 minutes he came out and we went to the beach. I helped hauling the boat out in the sea and we set off, negotiating the big waves to get past the surf.

On the sea, the bad brother turned out to be rather friendly and very skilled in handling the boat and fishing lines at the same time. He had up to four hand lines out at the same time, and I used my rod. We saw fly fish coming out of the water like little bullets - meaning, that there were predator fish at work under the surface. However, we didn't catch anything. After some uneventful trawling back and forth, the fisherman saw some birds diving into the water very far away. (I couldn't see anything). He raced in that direction, making the prow of the boat jump high in the air and clash down hard into the next wave, sending me flying and seeking refuge in the stern of the boat together with Philip and the fisherman. We arrived while the party was still going on. We saw tuna jump out of the water in pursuit of small prey fish and birds diving to get the small fish, when surfacing. Cruising through the area, we quickly got two tunas on. Philip happily hand lined one of them into the boat.

Philip with the catch of the day together with the not-so-bad brother

The tunas prepared by our cook

As we got on land, Philip was celebrated by the brothers' very friendly parents and he was even photographed, fish in hands, by random people passing by. We arranged to have the fish for lunch along with rice and curry - it was a good meal and we couldn't finish all the tuna although we tried hard.

In the evening, Hiroko had arranged to follow the cooking for the barbecue in the kitchen as a cooking class. We have been so fond of the food here, that we were keen to learn how it was made. Hiroko found it very interesting. Among other things, she was impressed, that they used a wood-fired stove. The french fries, that Miki has been eating almost every day are made from scratch and so is the ketchup!

The chef at work at the wood-fired stove in the kitchen.

One of "our boys" with a fish being prepared for the grill.