Tag 73 - fishy

07/12/19

As we sit on the balcony in the morning and plan what we want to do today, a Swedish guy joins us and we start talking. We share experiences and plans and give each other tips. Meanwhile, his girlfriend and his buddy join us, as they are traveling together. The Scandinavians are about to start their day trip and ride away on scooters. Jonna and I go to the communal kitchen and try to fry some eggs. 'Try' because the cookware is so worn out that frying eggs with it is almost impossible. So we eat half-burnt fried eggs and untoasted toast - Hmm, it was somehow better with Lucy and Ian.

Since we have explored almost all the beautiful beaches in Uluwatu, today we decide to go to the fish market. We are obviously a bit late for a fish market, but we don't really notice that when we arrive - it's still crowded and all the stalls are still open. All the stalls are accommodated in a big hall, which is not really conducive to the development of a pleasant smell - you get used to it.

After the hall, we take a short walk on the pier and watch fishermen in action. In the 5 minutes that we watch one of them, he catches 4 fish from the water - and he throws his cigarette butt into the water afterwards - Yuck!

We walk back, sit in a harbor bistro, order two coffees, and play a few rounds of Yahtzee. Then we take a walk through a local residential area - we simply love these routes; kids wave at us, everyone is incredibly nice, and there is no sign of tourism. In the middle of the residential area, we sit in a café with the extraordinary name 'Kochen' (German owner who talks a lot to us as soon as he realizes that we are also German), where we order a strawberry shake and an iced tea.

We stroll back to the harbor, where we arrived, and decide to finally try fish again; so we sit down in a busy restaurant and wait for the waiter or a menu...... and wait.... Nothing really happens. After some time, a woman approaches us and tells us that here you have to get the fish yourself from the fish market next door, and then they prepare it for you here, for a fee. I am skeptical at first, but Jonna convinces me to try it. We play it safe and get some prawns, about the thickness of a thumb and 250 grams for €1.80. We return to the snack bar and hand the plastic bag to the man at the grill. He throws it on the scale and says, without even looking at the weight display: 20,000 rupiah (€1.25).

We sit back on the benches and wait for a while. After about 15 minutes, the cook comes and brings us a bowl of prawns, along with another smaller bowl of dips. What can I say; it's incredibly delicious (10/10). By the way, eating here is exclusively done with your hands (also fish, crabs, and octopus).

We plan to come back here before we fly to New Zealand.

Not really satiated but absolutely convinced by the taste, we leave the galley and drive back to the beach to rest and go swimming for two hours.

After our time at the beach, we return to 'our' village, get fried noodles and rice as usual, and some beer because we want to sit on the rooftop terrace with the Swedes tonight.

In the hostel room, we eat our food, have our first beer on the balcony, and then go up to the rooftop terrace with the Swedes, who are very happy about our beach tips. We sit up there for 2 hours and continue our conversation from this morning. It's all about traveling, Scandinavia, Ikea, language, and music. We have a lot of fun and say goodbye to our acquaintances as night falls - We have to get up too early tomorrow to see each other again.

- Alex