Back to Batam and An Unexpected Boat Trip

After an amazing trip home (the quickest month of the year!) Brian and I are back in sunny Batam.

It was so good being back in Scotland, catching up with friends and family, stuffing our faces with foods from home and spending time with our baby pussy cat, Murphy. Although after 4 months in a tropical country, the Scottish weather took a bit of getting used to again! Mum and I had a running battle over the thermostat for the duration of my stay :D

It better be warmer when I return in August! Ha! Not likely.........

One great thing about living in Indonesia is that they have plenty of random public holidays when Brian doesn't have to work. So Tuesday this week was Nyepi (Balinese New Year or Seclusion Day). 

It is a day of silence for Hindus, with no noise, work or travel. If you are in Bali, you have to stay indoors, electricity is turned off in many areas, and the silence is governed by Hindu security guards called “pecalang” Luckily, there are no such rules here in Batam (it's mostly Muslim)so we could do as we pleased!

On Monday night Brian announced "we're going fishing tomorrow........" What!?! I've never fished in my life! I like it when the fish arrives on my plate already cooked and I don't need to know how it got there! However, one of Brian's colleagues had chartered a "government" boat for the day so were off out on the ocean with a crew of fishing guides. The "government" boat turned out to be a small passenger ferry but at least it was sea worthy!

So, five of us set out on a beautiful Tuesday morning with a crew of locals.........

 We stopped off at the bait shop........

Brian then spend about 30 minutes preparing his fishing line, with intricate knots, weights and hooks............

........ and then one of the locals took it off him, cut off what Brian had lovingly created and did it for him! (notice he uses his toes too.....maybe that's what Brian should have done!)

So the fishing commenced....... and it seemed like only the locals were catching anything........ then one of the guys we were with caught a bite but it must have been the smallest fish in the entire ocean (it was about an inch long!)

We were just about to move off to another location and Brians hook got caught on the seabed ( for about the 5th time.......) One of the locals came over to try to help him free his line but started shouting "ikan" which is indonesian for fish! Woohoo! Brian had caught something! And it was big.........

After 15 minutes of hard work reeling it in and lots of excitement at the back of the boat from the locals, Brian eventually landed this.......

It might not look that big in the photo but it was at least 2 feet long! Brian was well chuffed with himself and we were all very proud that not all of us were going back empty handed! 

Although, not to be outdone by a 'Bule', one of the locals then caught this using only a hand reel and a line..............

Showoff! Unfortunately  we didn't have a cool box big enough to store Moby Dick for the rest of the day, so we decided to head back to the village and put him on ice :D The journey back was beautiful, lots of tiny desert islands, clear blue water and tiny villages on stilts.

When we got back to the village, we were told that because we had paid for the boat, everything that had been caught (even Moby Dick) belonged to us. Of course, we didn't want to take the fish so we said that the crew could share it amongst themselves. The captain then invited us all to his home in one of the nearby villages, he would BBQ the fish for us, his wife would prepare some food and we could eat with them! We had an amazing afternoon, were made to feel so welcome by all the villagers and got to eat some fantastic traditional food :D yum!

Some pictures of the captains beautiful village on stilts. The shacks might not look like much but the locals are so proud of their homes and were keen to show us inside.

Catch of the day arriving on the jetty!

The local women prepared the fish. Not a single piece was wasted :D

No matter where you are in the world, the men are always in charge of the BBQ!

BBQ fish marinated in ginger and lemongrass with sambal (chilli sauce). We also had spicy fish soup and sticky rice.

A rather successful fishing trip and a fantastic experience to add to our adventure!

So we've been back a couple of weeks now, Brian is working hard in his job (and playing lots of golf) and I'm working hard at not working (it's a hard life!) Our first visitor arrives in three weeks time, so looking forward to that! Lou and Sal take Batam!!!! (photo's to follow ha!) And, I've finally started to learn Indonesian using the Rosetta Stone so expect all future posts to be entirely written in Indonesian (not.....)

Sampai jumpa lagi!


Lou & Brian xox