fishing with the locals

Everybody I knew was gone this morning. Woke up at 7am, fresquinho que nem uma alface da horta do meu avô zé, to go fishing!!

Kiw and Kao where my chaperons... the local boys who I went fishing with. Of course it wasn't for free, I paied them a few bucks, its their time. And time is money... even on the banks of Nam Ou river. No biggie!

The morning myst... freezing water... Doesn't really matter!

As soon as Kiw arrived, presentations made, the first thing he showed me was this clear glass bottle containing a liquid it could be water by the looks. 'Lao-lao?' he asks... 'Lao-lao for lunch.'

Lao-lao is this rice wiskey from Laos. And this was home made... Uma pomada!!!! 'Oh no...' Miguelito showed him that yellow smile 'Yes, of course!!'

Stuff on the boat and off we go...

check that bottle of lao-lao hanging about, exposed to the elements... Cocktail molotov ready to explode.












The next 3 hours where spent rowing up the river, throwing the nets, fishing with gogles and hand-made harpoon, shouting sounds to hear our ecoes, singing loud our national anthems, talking football (as soon as Kiw knew I was portuguese he named Ronaldo, Nani and Simão 'My favourite teams are Portugal and Argentina'), talking about girls (Kiw likes to try on foreigns girls, only once was successful, eheh).

'Do you like snake?' he asked. 'If we catch snake you eat?' I was well up for it.
At some point something moved on the banks of the river... They quickly jumped off the cannoe and ran over the sharp and slippery rocks, where I could not even stand up, and chased this snake in and out of the water for about 20minutes... No success... :(
Its amazing their predatory instinct. Looked like 2 little wolves chasing their prey... They have to, out there in the wild.
It reminded somehow when I was a boy out in Alentejo, portuguese countryside, with my good old mates there.

























































'Do you guys eat that?' I asked them... 'Of course' In Portugal we'd give it to the cats...































The boys did most of the fishing, I helped in what I could, but also made a few unsuccessful throws!
























Floating slowly up the river with no engine was an exceptional experience...
Got f**kn sore harms for 2 days.
The surrounding sounds... Insects, birds, frogs chanting out loud on the jungle right above your head... and the water splashing underneath... The breathtaking landscape.
Felt like this scene of Apocalypse Now, the film, when they are looking for the general and float up the river... kind'a thing...
A-MA-ZING...

whenever we came across a big sunk tree, we'd stop on the margin, set the net on one side and release the net all around the tree till the other side.. At that time of the day it was very hot and fish take cover from the sun anywhere they can. So once the tree was surrounded by the net, Kao would dive in with the hand-made harpoon. A piece of art.
But no success again...
(at the end Miguelito got the harpoon)

Butterfly blossom...



















































so gay...










One!! We actually caught one!!!






Ok, lets cook them then... Lunch time!

Kiw put up a fire, whilst Kao was cleaning the fish. Miguelito pick up and gathered this kind of grass...
'What do we do with this?', I asked Kiw when I saw him picking it up for the first time. Its some sort of grass that I wouldn't even think of feeding my pigs with. 'We eat it!' he said on the most natural tone... 'Hmmm... ok...' Got to do what the locals tell you to... Their way!

This is it... 4 hours of fishing...
I was starving and i knew these guys too...
Although lunch was gonna be set in the most beautiful restaurant, the amount each one was entitled too was seriously worrying me...
But when you less expect, out in the wild, a miracle happened: another cannoe turned up. It was one Kiw and Kao friends. He had been fishing and gave us a few big fish... We Feasted!!!






































The most natural table set...
Dinner is ready!

Grilled fish, sticky rice cooked at home, a mushy sort of home-made fish pate cooked at home, chilli sauce grilled and mashed on site, salt, lots of grass... and nice warm lao-lao wiskey!







So now comes lao-lao! This kiddies started serving shots of lao-lao with the food. Aquela merda é um POMADÃO que queima tudo o que mexe!
See when you are having a nice tasteful meal under the heat and you crave for a sip of maybe a cold drink?? Hmm.. a beer would taste nice... or a cold coke... or even water to wash it all down...
Well... the only liquid in the house to wash your food down the pipe was the bloody warm lao-lao! Served in shots! And in Laos, is unpolite to refuse drink if one invites you.
That would NOT have a perfect ending! Eventually I told Kiw I had a stomach problem since I was a child and my stomach is weak. So now instead of drinking at the speep of 1 shot per 5 minutes, i was drinking at 1 per 10minutes... not too bad...
But it gets better... The looking good in situ made chilli sauce... The guys where taking chunks of sticky rice and dip it in the sauce, so Miguelito had to try it too. But Miguelito perhaps dipped it a bit too much and by the time he swallowed the rice, his eyes where like the old flag of Japan and his throat felt like a crematorium! And when your most primitive instinct demands for waaaaaaater!! ... the only drink available was... The Fckn Lao-lao!!!
Felt like drinking the whole river, but one cannot do that for obvious reasons... Of course didn't want to complain to the boys, so had to be a man and suffer for a little longer...
What doens't kill you... makes you stronger!!
1 hour later, when things got back to normal in the digestive system, Kao went to the cannoe and turned up with this bottle of water... 'Oh, forgot this...' I just could not believe it!
It was still warm, caldinho... But damn I drank it as if there was no tomorrow!

We spent about 2 hours eating and chatting away... Absolutely no rush... What a day...









Stomach full, feeling tipsy from the wiskey and under 30 degrees watching other boats passing over us... It's that moment when you don't care about the sounds of the bloody animals anymore. What nature?? All I wanted was an engine now...
Eventually we made it back to welcoming Muang Ngoi.











just on time to watch the end of one more beautiful day from the balcony...

Thank you Lord!

Just before say goodbye, the boys invited me for a beer in that evening. I was quite surprised with that, but couldn't refuse.
So when we met they took me first to this little sort of hut on the main street, to candle light, where Kao's father was sitting with friends... 'We heard about you!', Kao's father said (translated by Kiw). 'Here, have some food... and rice... and...' 'oh no... here it comes again...' This little funny guy gives me a little shot glass full of... lao-lao...
On empty stomach... But of course, it was not polite to refuse. And I had barely swallowed the burning liquid and already he was filling up another glass!! And I couldn't refuse...
Seriously... Had to run away from there! Told the guys to take me out of there...
With all due respect! They were all lovely people and laughed out loud watching themselves on the pictures!

Went for a beer, had a laugh, saw Kiw using his broken english to hit on these 2 danish girls sitting on the table behind (hilarious), saw Kiw putting a moth (uma mariposa do tamanho do meu polegar) the size of my thumb fully in his mouth and singing to the flap of its wings... hilarious! and then he released it... I cracked my head off!



Kiw and Kao...
This day was a BEAUTIFUL day!
Thank you!

May your God bless you forever...