Day 1we took the second earliest boat to batam and arrived at about 11 plus Singapore time. we rest awhile before taking our brunch.



lunch.
just three simple dishes. the curry chicken was actually very good. all of us loved it. after lunch, we head out to sea to fish.


champions of the sea.
sam and debs caught alot of fishes. most of the fishes belonged to the trevally family.

while the two of them were busy catching trevallies, i caught puffer fish.


left: snapper
right: trevally and puffer fish


the guy helping her take out the puffer fish which was puffing itself up.
Back at the keong. The yield from the first round...

left: queenfish
right: all the fishes that were caught, including queenfish, trevallies and a snapper

this is moppy, one of the many dogs that live at the kelong. i think he is one of the cutest dogs i have ever seen.
after a short break, we went back to sea again.


this time i caught a really big trevally.

debs and her sea bream
while fishing, we spotted the trawlers which specialise in catching ikan billis. we decided to go nearer to see how they did it.


trawlers which specialise in catching ikan billis


left: the people on the small boat will drop the net in a circle to catch the small fishes.
right: the big boat where they filtered their catch and partially cook the ikan billis for sale.


left: the container where they dumped all their ikan biliis
right: closer view


left: the guys pulling up the net
right: pure sea salt which they used to cook the ikan billis. not bad eh? all their resources are from the sea.


left: fresh ikan billis and a baby tamban
right: a baby halfbeak
Back at the kelong. The yield for the second round...

left: all our catch including trevallies, sea bream and an unidentified fish
right: the unidentified fish


evening view
A series of jumps...

left: me and sam
right: me and debs


left: debs
right: debs and sam


left: me trying to jump with knees bent
right: me with a star jump





Dinner.
the third picture shows some of our catch bbq in aluminium foil.
Day 2i woke up early to have a walk and ho...unlike the previous trip, the tide was already coming in. so...it wasn't really as fun as i thought it would be. i saw alot more things last time compared to now.


left: crabby
right: a squid. ok...it is not very obvious in this picture, but it is that fish looking thing somewhere near the middle of the picture.
after that, debs and i went for a mini 'trek' on land. sam told us that there were alot of pitcher plants and all, so we began our search for the pitcher plant.

some wild flower...


left: another wild flower
right: mushrooms!!!


left: a pitcher plant!!!
right: a nice star shaped flower


left: geese
right: puppy of moppy (i think, or is it merah's??). it was very playful. i got a scratch from it which i am still nursing.


left: more puppies of moppy's or merah's.
right: chickens and... heh... an uninvited guest polishing up their food.
after breakfast, we went out to sea again.


left: a crab (actually, two, one at the top and the other at the bottom)
right: a jellyfish that was scooped up from the sea. guess what, it was having its meal! can you see the two little fishes near the head of the jellyfish?


left: as usual, this woman had another big catch. this time, 4 fishes in a row. you can see trevallies and queenfish hanging on the line
right: shortly after she drop her line, she caught...what? six SIX fishes at one go. zzz.
we reaped quite alot in the morning, however, we ran out of lines (baits) cause they got stuck somewhere. so we went back to get somemore.
Back at the kelong. The catch for the first round...

left: the guy helping to collect the fishes that we caught
right: all our catch including trevallies, tambans, snappers and a queenfish
we went out again after offloading all the fishes and replenishing our supply of baits and lines. this time, the returns were terrible. we hardly catch any fish. we kept moving from one place to another to search for a good place, but in vain.

i think the guy was so sian until he used his foot to steer the boat.
after a long while, we decided to go back to the kelong.
Back at the kelong...



lunch.
we took a rest after lunch.
dark clouds soon came, threatening to pour.


left: half the sky was bright, the other half, dark
right: hehe...i tried to get as close to the birds birched on the branch but one flew away. zzz


left: moppy!!!
right: merah!!! moppy's best friend, i think. evey time i tried to go near to merah, he runs away. =( merah reminds me of someone very close to my heart.
it poured in the afternoon, but it didn't last long. after that, we went out to try again.


another jellyfish that was scooped up from the sea.
this round's fishing also reaped nothing. so we waited for the ikan billis trawler so that we can buy some ikan billis.


left: can you see the birds flying around the boat??? heh. so smart... however, there's always a limit to greed k. we saw one bird dive in and never got out of the water.


left: some of the fishes that were filtered off.
right: heh... stingray. cool eh?


left: a sea cucumber
right: the bucket of ikan billis that we bought for 50,000Rp
Back at the kelong...
the sun's almost setting...
debs and sam went on a scavenger hunt to spot some abnormal things in the pail. by the way, i ate up all the abnormal stuff that they found in the pail.


left: baby squid
right: baby crab


left: more baby squids
right: baby tambans and prawns

heh. greed was the reason why this fish was caught.


left: after eating the ikan billis in the fish's mouth
right: the fish trying to eat the sun

nice skeleton of the fish. hehe. the fish was very very salty. in fact, all the stuff that i ate from the pail were very salty.


left: sunning the ikan billis
right: some kueh fried with ikan billis


beautiful sunset


left: the bbq pit
right: sam loves the sunset
after dinner, debs and i went out for night fishing. gosh. it was terrible. nothing to catch at all. only debs and one of the guys managed to catch a fish each after waiting for donkey years.

a snapper and a sea bream
Day 3today, we woke up early to see God promise written on the sky.
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:12-16





if you can't see the rainbow, you have to click on the picture to see it in a bigger resolution.


yay! merah finally allowed me to pat him. ain't he cute?
we went out to sea after breakfast.
we managed to catch quite alot of fishes, however, our happiness was short lived because the waters soon became choppy and the sky turned dark. not long after, it rained. we headed to a beach to collect some coconuts first before heading back to the kelong.


left: our sampan in the choppy waters at the beach
right: she sells sea shell at the sea shore


left: can you spot two cats in this picture??
right: "whatchoolookingat?"
Back at the kelong...

left: a grouper caught by debs
right: grouper sashimi, anyone?

our total catch which includes one queen fish, plenty of trevallies, a few yellow tails and tambans


left: snapper
right: sam's queen fish






lunch!
our final meal had more dishes. i like the black sauce chicken and the red grouper.
after the lunch, we went out to sea again. ugh. it was terrible for me, i tell you. the water was still choppy even though it stopped raining and the sun was out. it felt like i have my own choppy sea in my stomach. urgh. besides, there wasn't alot of fish. as usual, most of the fishes were caught by debs and sam.


left: debs caught an even bigger queenfish
right: our total catch which includes trevallies and queenfishes.
we left the kelong in the late afternoon when the sun was ready to set and where many people started to check in to have fun over the weekend.

clothes pegs at the back of our room.
me like this picture.