Candak Sotong Weh!!!

Always wanted to do this since I watched Majalah 3 back in school days. So when my friend Jija offered me to join she and her ex-classmate, I jumped right in ;)

We depart from KL at 10pm on Friday nite. Believe it or not this is my first time taking bus at Hentian Putra (I don't have that many east coast connection). Reach KT around 5 am and Jija's friend, Baya pick us up and we crashed at her place in Hulu Terengganu. Later that day around 3.30 pm, we made a move to Jeti Lembaga Perikanan at Chendering (some 20 minutes away from KT).

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There were 8 of us altogether, another 3 girls were Jija's classmate, and the rest were friend of one of the classmate. Simply put, I went on this adventure with total strangers (apart from Jija)

We depart around 5.00 pm. The boat is quite comfortable, handled by 3 men. It has its own pantry, sleeping place, 2nd tier sleeping place, and a place to do 'small business'. I dare not do 'big business' in the open sea ;p

We heard the pakcik were betting how long can we survived without falling sick. According to the non first timers, last time they went, they threw up almost immediately after the boat moves. This time we took the anti-seasick meds. So we were still smiling and laughing till we reach the target area, some 1.5 hours away from the jetty.

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The pakcik help us all to set up the 'candat' and taught us how to 'candat' sotong (squid fishing). The guys gets the first squid, none of the girls gets any yet, and the skies quickly turned dark.

I was getting seasick, my friend Jija has already vomitted twice. I could not look for fear I will feel sick too.

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One of the pakcik prepared dinner, it was white rice, with kari ayam and fresh fried squid. I took a taste at the squid, but I could not even finish one small pieces. I can feel that it sort of get stuck in my throat. I know that if I continues eating, high chance that I will throw up. With that I did not eat dinner. The rest was happily digging in (except for 2-3 of us). The fresh squid actually tasted sweet, its a pity I could not digest it.

Happy faces gets to eat!!

At close to 10pm, I finally managed to catch my one and only squid!! I caught the medium sized, the other guy gets the biggest. The length is from his hand to this elbow, that long!!

See how big it is? Compare to the ones that we see in the market..

After around 12pm nobody gets any squid anymore, there were few occasion, the squid was eaten by big fish, hence scared the rest of the squid to come nearby us. One of the pakcik suggested we change venue. We move to another area where he sets baits for fish. We ends up getting two big fish.

Me posed with one of the fishes, a haruan tasik, weighted 35 pounds (~15 kg)

It took the pakcik and his friends almost 30 minutes fighting with the fish before we can actually brought it up. That was around 4 am in the morning.

Come 6 am, we were preparing to get back to Jetty, again one of the pakcik (seriously I don't know their name...sorry..) fried us the squid, and this time I can eat it. The plate was swipped clean by us in no time ;)

Hungry people early in the morning....

Group pics as soon as we made on shore safely ;)

As both Jija and I traveled by bus, we could not bring back any bounty. Plus, we have to rush back to KL. The rest went on to Baya's house, and I think they barbecued the squids and fish.

Baya drop us in KT, Jija and I showered backpackers style, at a surau, before we went to Pasar Payang to buy some keropok lekor to bring back. We also sampled some local delicacies, but most of it are too sweet for my taste buds.

I left Terengganu that day with a new adventure, I plan to make a family trip back here again and maybe go for another 'candak sotong' adventure.

This is my favorite picture, taken at almost sunrise, explains one thing the best, Serenity...