out at sea

one of the guests wanted to go out in a boat to see dolphins and i decided to join him. the fisherman met us at 5 a.m. and got on board....which means, a boat which is as wide as a large tree trunk that has been hollowed out, has a little piece of wood laid across its' width and that is the seat. i was in the middle, next to the motor with our smiling balinese fisherman at the back and the austrian man a few inches from me, at the front end. i understood now how the balinese can make fishing boats from tree trunks...because they themselves are usually thin and tall, so no problem. i, on the other hand, felt squeezed into a chair that was way too narrow for my feminine pelvic bones and was scrunched like that for our 3 hour ride. a good reminder to lose some weight.

the fisherman started the motor a few minutes after we had passed the coral reef near the shore, and what followed was an hour and a half of exhaust fumes being blown into my mouth and nose since the wind was going in that direction and i was next to the motor. the sea was very still, which i was grateful for, since the day before it had left the dolphin seeking guests nauseous because of the big waves. i had always wanted to go out to sea, and not just to the right or left, and here we were, going straight out to what until now seemed like fairy land.

the sky was still dark and the friction from the bamboo side poles hitting the sea so fast caused a kind of visual electric effect so that the water was lit up like with white fireflies all the time! i tried to focus on things other than the sensation of burning in my clean lungs and throat from the gasoline fumes, thinking i could control my mind beyond this matter. eventually we were watching the sunrise too. but after an hour and a half out at sea with the noise and fumes i was beginning to think that this dolphin boat ride should be marketed a little differently, and should just be called a sunrise boat trip, so as not to disappoint the participants since there really aren't any dolphins around.

just as i finished sharing that with the austrian the fisherman gave a little yell and we looked to where he was pointing and recognized some fins that were slightly different than the waves that they resembled! yeah! dolphins! the next hour was filled with us looking out 360 degree for any more signs of dolphins. each time one of us would point and say "there!" and i would yell out with glee like a little kid, as i saw the pods of dolphins swimming so beautifully along with the waves, allowing us just to see their tails or fins or sides, but not their face, and then after flowing in and out like that for a few minutes they would again dive down and leave us again searching for signs of another group somewhere. i even got to see one of the little ones do a twist in the air. and it was lovely seeing how many of them were together each time, in totally different areas out at sea. and just realizing that there were tens if not hundreds of them, romping around. it was lots of fun, and a welcome reprieve allowing me to forget about the fumes and focus on the playful dolphins. as we headed back to shore, the wind was in my favor and i could just enjoy the view of the north coast of bali from a distance, and also the gratitude for having been around all of those dolphins out at sea.

another aspiration of mine was to see how the fishermen really fish for fish. i love seeing how people "do " things. so the following day i was out early collecting plastic from the beach, and i saw a friendly fisherman starting to push his boat, alone, over the rocky shore, out to sea. i offered my help, and he accepted. together we quickly and easily moved it. he then hand motioned me if i want to go out fishing with him, YES! my answers are always yes. i never think. first i say yes. in his broken english, and my broken indonesian we managed to understand each other. he was going out for 4 hours. Yes! but suddenly i remembered that i needed to first put the morning offerings in place showing my gratitude for the abundance of everything we have been given this morning, (their way of prayer before eating) so i told him to wait 5 minutes. i ran back, quickly changed into temple clothes, got the little bits of bread placed on the already cut squares of banana leaves on the tray, and quickly did my "rounds" of gratitude, ran back to my room, changed clothes again, and ran over to his boat, grateful that the balinese call time "rubber" since you can stretch it....which i had just done, with my "5 minute" request. i thought, at most, he won't be there. so what. but he was, and i jumped onto my little seat again and he pushed us out and jumped onto his.

this fisherman was a little chubbier and i noticed that he didn't (and couldn't) sit on the seat, so he just sat cross legged on the sides of the boat allowing him to stay easy going and not confined. i had seen him face to face the day before, as he drove off on his motorbike and said"goodbye" in english as he passed me on the shore. and now that we were in the boat together i realized that this was the fisherman i would see every morning from my sunrise spot on the rocks at shore, as he would push his boat out alone some 50 meters from me. and each time i would think "ah, i should ask him one day if i can go out with him, since he is alone", and usually there isn't room for a guest when they are 2 fishermen. so here was my wish being fulfilled.

as i looked at him i thought that he looked alot like the fisherman that has his boat right in front of the resort, and i asked him if his brother is a fisherman too? yep...right in front of the resort. but this man was much nicer and spoke some english and had a very happy cheerful attitude to life, so i was glad to be with him. he apologized for having to turn on the motor, once we passed the coral reef, and i thought "oh no, again!" but luckily the wind was blowing in a different direction and i could just enjoy the ride. he had painted this old motor pink, which made me giggle; a pink motor! and out we went.

after a while he turned off the motor and started to get his bait ready. his fishing rod; a spool of fishing line, with 5 ends to it, each with a hook and bait! clever! if you are already throwing a weighted line out to sea, why not give yourself more chances?! he had brought some small squids as bait and looped them onto the hook, three times, for safe keeping. he sunk his line and held it resting on his index finger in order to "feel" if the fish are biting and thus quickly bring it up. we were out to fish red snappers. he had caught 2 big ones the day before here, and so he was trying his luck again.

now and then we spoke; english, indonesian....and also were just quiet. he pointed to the landscape of mountains which are the backdrop to the northern coast, and he said that the small mountain behind his village of tejekula is "little pyramid!" suddenly i looked at the layers of mountains in different eyes, and could see how he would call it a little pyramid. but it made me smile to think how this simple villager that has never left this island, and maybe not even the village, would think about pyramids! but i decided he was right, and maybe that is the specialness that hovers around this village!

after about 15 minutes at this spot at sea, he raised the line, and found the bait still on the hooks, but someone had eaten the fishes head. he laughed. then said " no strike". which made me laugh. how in the world did they decide that that was the word to use if you caught a fish?! they certainly don't have either bowling nor baseball here! again the motor went on and he chose to sail over to where another fishing boat was nearby. "we go to my friends". i was surprised that the friends didn't mind competition for the fish. but just laughed and asked each other if they had a strike or not. at one point we suddenly saw alot of jumping about at sea, and he said "tuna". and a big circle of fish were making lots of waves as they caught small fish at the top layer of the sea. i asked him why we are not running over to try and catch some. he smiled and said, "no have for tuna, only for snapper", meaning, you need a strong fishing rod to catch a tuna, and all he had were his 5 hooks on his reel of fishing line.

that is how the next hour went, moving from place to place to wherever his friends went or recommended, since he kept bringing up the line and either finding it with all the bait on it and said " fish sleeping. ha ha ha" or bringing up the line and no bait on it and saying "little fish eat! ha ha ha" (and since they were little there was no tug on his finger letting him know that there were fish eating the bait). the day before i had visited a german couple that have a villa on the sea only a 10 minute walk from me, and they said that at breakfast they had seen dolphins in front of their house, and also the water fountain of a whale. so while we sat there, watching the sun rise, and the ripples on the sea change with the wind, i kept my eyes open for any dolphins or whales. the general mood was one of relaxation and happiness. life is good, yesterday his wife grilled the fish, today they will eat rice. when i asked if his wife works, he said that she has a stand in the morning market selling rice (little hand wrapped bags of 1/2 kilo of rice which can give them a few $ to live on.)

we returned towards shore, as we both bent down watching the coral reef to see if there were any fish there...."sleeping, ha ha ha". i wondered why he was only paddling and without the motor, and he said " no friends". and i realized that when they decide to return to shore, it is a good idea to have some friends there, to help you bring in the boat and carry it up the slope of stones to place it far enough from the shore so that the tide will not take it out again, before you do. it was then that i understood how important their friendships are, how they need each other, and do things together, and have their fishing cooperative, and can sit and laugh out at sea together at sunrise, or mend their nets together, or carry out or in the boat together, which is probably why they go in pairs, and also to save on fuel, or tell each other where a good spot is. he paddled the boat to shore and together we pushed it a little, but out of nowhere, a "friend" appeared. he was a man that never looks or smiles at me. i was happy to see that at least he is friendly with this fisherman. and then i watched as the two of them carried the boat ashore. that is a good friend; with strong muscles! when i passed his little banana shack, the door was open and i saw that it was slightly bigger than the old wooden frame bed that was inside, with a board, no mattress, and 2 small plastic sacks filled with something, as pillows...the simple life of the fishermen.