Constellations In The Dark.

Hmm, since blogs are supposed to be a sort of online diary, No? I think it's only appropriate that I post something of that kind. So, I shall enlighten you (Yeah, you) with my candak sotong (squid fishing) trip to Marang, K.Terengganu on 16th May 2009.

16th May was a Saturday. Dad rented a fishing boat (RM400) through a friend of his whom did not only provide a fishing boat, but also a posse of fishermen to help us 'candak' some squids. In total there were about 15 of us. Now, it might sound like it was crowded but not really. Surprisingly the fishing boat wasn't crowded at all.

I shan't describe what the boat looks like but here, have some pics:

My little brother and my sleeping dad.

Mom, my brothers and the really nice fisherman dude. He talked a lot but due to his accent I barely understood a word.

We (Me, my younger & elder brother and my parents) boarded the boat at around 5PM. Everyone was feeling kinda dozy due to the 7 hour road trip to get there. Yeah. But after we got onto the boat it was quite fantastic. With the wind blowing in your face constantly it was very refreshing. At first at least. The fishing boat was real slow, it took us 2 hours to arrive to the 1st fishing spot which is only 9km away from the jetty. I think I dozed off a couple times.

The view was pretty wicked. The sky and the ocean stretched endlessly into the horizon. When the sun started to set, the greenish blue sea water turned into liquid gold. See, throughout the whole trip what fascinated me the most (besides watching the squid change colours as they die), is how the ocean changed colour in different light. Before the sun set, the ocean was greenish blue but if you look a little further it looked pretty silverish. Later on when it was dark, they looked like shadows racing along with the boat. Almost velvety it looked pretty darn solid!

Okay, enough of that. 'Candak' sotong. It was simple really, almost mindless but I could be wrong. See, all that was needed is a really long piece of uh, hm. I think it's a fishing line, with bait at the end of it. That's all.

As for methods. You just chuck it into the sea, lower it till you feel the bait hit the sea bed then retract the line a metre or so. Then you just jerk the line at 3 second intervals until a squid takes your bait. That's pretty much it really but I didn't catch a single squid so I could've done something wrong. But hey, seriously, that's all you gotta do. I probably had bad luck, I think.

Dad and his first catch :)

He got the first squid of the night.

MOM - 3 squids

DAD - 1 squid

LIL' BRO - 2 squids

Older BRO - uh, a tentacle. The squid ripped its tentacle off and got away.

ME - 0. Yeah, nil.

FISHERMEN - A lot of squids.

TOTAL: Roughly around 30 squids.

One of the fishermen, a skinny dude with scragly hair dressed in a pair of tattered jeans and a denim vest (yeah he didn't have a shirt on) cooked some rice and squids. The squids were washed with sea water and barbequed. Oddly enough without any seasoning whatsoever the squid tasted really good. Kinda sweetish. I suppose the fruits of mother nature is at its best when they're fresh. Besides squid there were a couple of sword fishes around 3 metres long (they were HUGE!) that surfaced near the boat. They were attracted to the spotlights on the fishing boat. They had bright blue stripes that kind of glowed in the dark!

Now, let's get to my favourite part. We were at sea until 2AM. It was tiring as heck. My fav part is the journey back to the jetty. The fishermen turned off the spotlights and we were thrown into darkness. As I've mentioned before the ocean seemed like racing shadows and that got me pretty darn excited. But then, I looked up. The sky was a sight to behold. Stars FILLED the sky. I was practically in a trance. The stars twinkled with varying brightness painting the velvety darkness into a 3D picture. The brighter stars seemed nearer while the dimmer ones a litte further.

Living in a city all my life I've never seen anything as beautiful as the star filled sky. It was a magical moment that I got to share with my loved ones. A moment I shall forever remember. The only regrettable thing is that I didn't get to snap a picture because the boat was moving and it's just impossible to let the shutter soak in enough light (which takes time).