Like always, visiting Thailand for a fishing trip has become a yearly routine for me. Usually, I will go immediately after the rainy season....... However, what surprises me each time is the rate the jungle dries up. Look at the blazing jungle below....... this happens a lot.
During this recent trip, I had the chance to stay at this nice resort - Nakakri River Kwai Resort at Hin Dat and it was a complimentary stay extended to me from a Thai friend.... Thanks a lot chum!
Nice and cosy room.....
Shooting off early on a 3-hour dirt drive to the interior of Khao Leam Dam......
This is as far as the dirt road goes for the 4X4 drive. The start of a very tiring trek into the jungle......
Not long into the jungle, we met some locals catching very small fish for their own consumption. Gosh! I crossed my fingers and hoped that the biggies in the deep jungle is still out of their reach......
What a poor little fish........ Bad for the fish, good for the peoples......... That's how life goes on here....
A quick packed lunch break before continuing our long and exhaustive journey.....
And up we go.....
And then up and down, up and down, and .........
Crossing the river many times......
After many rest breaks, we finally reached our destination.......
It's a very small river indeed. But according to our local guide, he says the upper part of the river is bigger and deeper...... and many big fish is waiting for us..... Believe it or not every fishing guide says the same things.... Ha Ha Ha!
Look what Jakrit caught for himself???
A nice Golden Mahseer....
We walked to a deeper part of the river....
A small Snakehead in the shallow.....
This beautiful freshwater Garfish is quite big and it has a very prominent red hump on it's back. I wonder which species it belongs to???
A small Sebarau went after my spoon.... he he!
And caught a Thai Mahseer too.....
Our potter cum cook preparing a meal for us using whatever we caught and found from the jungle.....
Jungle flora and fauna - the food we found......
Tonight is a full moon night....
Even then, the potters were able to catch many big tasty frogs from the jungle....
Wow, it was an easy job for them..... and it is an easy job for me to eat them...... He He He!
Yes! A good catch of Blue Mahseers..... Good job Jakrit!
This is going to be a wonderful meal for tonight.....
Due to the need to cross the river many times, it was a tedious and laborious job to clean my boots..... As such, I eventually decided to walk in my slippers only. This decision proofed to be costly. At one such crossing, my big toe and second toe was caught dragging a razor sharp bamboo leaf in between resulting in a big gash. It bled profusely and only stopped 30 minutes later with the use of tobacco wrap......
Aaargh.....! My journey ends here..........
So that's it for me. We put up tent here for the night, enjoyed a nice meal and prepared to head home the next day.....
Boiling water in the bamboo 'kettle' ....
Stuffing raw fish pieces in cooked rice with garlic and salt and then leaving it overnight to ferment before taking out the fish to fry.... which the locals called Pla Som (Sour Fish) in Thai - DELICIOU........S!!!
A local making Tom Yum soup with Mahseer,.....
Yummy yummy.....
Well, don't find it strange. Thanks to God for providing such nice delicacies from the jungle.....
Everybody having a nice meal......
On the way back, we had to cross the river many times again (no less than 15 times in all) but my wound cannot exposed to the water in case of infection.......
Luckily, this macho man (my local guide - Pi Poo) who claims to work as a Male Dance Stripper in Pat Phong last time was my friend in need. He was so strong that he was able to carry me across the river all the way....... To be honest with you, I weigh 84kg, it really was not an easy job for him BUT he managed. Once back in town, I repaid him with a fine meal in town to pay gratitude to him and the rest.....
SAWADEE KRAP!!
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