This morning we drove from our condo in Kamala Beach to Phuket Marina (about an hour and a half through traffic) to meet up with the boat we booked for an all day deep sea fishing excursion to Koh Racha Yai, an island a few miles South of Phuket.
After a little time waiting around, the representatives from the company found us and we paid the remainder of the trip via credit card (they only had us do a deposit online and we didn’t want to pay $13700 in Thai cash (about $400 US), so it was worth the 3% credit card fee – just sharing logistics for anyone who does a similar trip).
We were put in the back of a pink truck and taken out to the end of the pier. There our boat, driver, and another guide (a lady) for the day were waiting for us. They ushered us onto the boat and into the enclosed cabin as we pulled away from the dock. The lady gestured for us to put on life jackets and wait.
We kept going just over idle speed all the way across the harbor. At first we thought we were in a no-wake zone or at least a no-fishing zone, but we just kept going and going and going. After awhile the lady brought her phone with a typed message that where we were planning on had too big of waves today – did we want to go still or did we want to change program? (They call everything a program here… I think the best word we would replace it with in English is activity.) Superman said “We just want to catch big fish.” She nodded and left and we kept going.
We weren’t going fast enough to counteract the choppiness of the water (4-5 foot swells), so everyone started feeling a little woozy. Great way to start the day…. We got cold water, walked out on the back deck, spotted with our eyes focused on a hilltop on shore, chewed gum, and turned on music as a distraction. Still we were just idling… We’re talking over an hour and a half of slooooowwwwwly going along with the coast in view a mile or two away.
Finally the captain stopped the engine and came to the back and set up the trolling gear and said “Fishing” and then started trolling. Superman got in the hot seat and we waited. Not too long later there was a hit on the baited line!
Fishing on the ocean is so exciting because you have NO IDEA what is going to be on the end of the line when you finally reel it up! In this case it was a really nice size Kingfish – maybe 30 inches long and best guess is 20 pounds. Superman said it felt like reeling up a wet dog. The captain came and grabbed the fish and threw it in a cooler before we really had a chance to look at it… Thankfully after he got the line re-baited and thrown back in he got the fish back out for pictures.
Then we trolled up the coast for about another hour with no action…. Superman decided to ask what the new plan was since we weren’t going to the original destination anymore. As soon as he asked via google translate, the captain stopped the engines and reeled up the trolling gear. Then he got out baited spin rods set up for bottom fishing and said “Fishing.” Ok, I guess that’s the new plan. Haha.
We had fun letting the line go all the way out and then guessing if we were catching a fish or if our lines were just tangled when they felt heavier…. They were just crossed. After awhile in one spot the captain moved us to another spot in deeper water and we fished again.
Meanwhile the lady came and cleaned and filleted the fish Superman had caught and we figured that was lunch… She cooked it in the little kitchen below deck along with some chicken, soup, vegetables and fried rice. She brought it all up to the cabin along with a tray of watermelon and pineapple, and another tray of slices of the fish raw. Then she gestured for us to go in and eat.
Well, by this time we’d been bottom fishing and sitting like a cork in the water for over an hour and all the kids were feeling queasy again. I was handing out dramamine (did you know the non-drowsy kind I brought for the older kids/adults is only ginger in capsules, not diphenhydrinate like the chewables I brought for the little kids? Yeah, not super effective.) I also had a package of motion sickness patches and put those on each of the kids.
Needless to say, no one ate very much but they were starting to feel better again. Superman and I tried the fish which was actually really good – a firm white fish cooked with butter and salt. Superman tried a bite or two of the raw fish just to say he did it…. He said it wasn’t great. Some cockroaches literally came out of the woodwork to try and enjoy our lunch too… Lovely.
I think maybe we offended the lady because we didn’t eat all of the food– I tried to say thank you and tell her it was very good, but she never responded to me.
Back to fishing again and Spud caught a little yellow grouper! He was so excited! Then a few minutes later Superman had Littlest girl help him as he pulled in two red snappers on the same line. Not too long later Miss A and Nixi Ray both got turns reeling in red snappers too. Yay, everyone caught a fish!
During this time the lady held up her phone and it said “Leave at 2pm.” I tried asking how long it would take to get back to the marina but she didn’t understand. So I asked if we were going back or trolling and she said “Trolling.” Okay, sounds fun- maybe we can catch another bigger fish. Superman went to talk to the captain to make sure we were going to get in our time (we booked a 9 hour day, so we shouldn’t go back to the harbor until 5:30). Next thing we knew we were told “Fishing until 3:30.” Okay… So they were trying to cut the day short???
We stayed fishing but didn’t catch any more fish. Superman asked if we could try trolling again and the captain came and set that up and we started out in the direction of the harbor.
Littlest girl got super tired and laid down in the cabin and was sound asleep within minutes. Spud fell asleep sitting in the fishing chair, so I had him move into the cabin as well. Probably the effect of the dramamine. The older girls sat in the cabin and they both dozed off as well. Glad they all got over their seasickness and got a nap!
After awhile of trolling with no action we noticed that the shoreline was going along faster than we had seen it all day…. So Superman checked the trolling lines and they were practically skimming the top of the water. He went and told the captain that we were going too fast for trolling. The captain shook his head no, then looked back and cut the engine speed. Okay we thought, now we’re actually trolling again. Two minutes later the captain cuts the engine and comes and reels everything up and puts it away.
Then we idled all the way back to the harbor thinking to ourselves that this wasn’t exactly the fun deep-sea fishing experience we had signed up and paid for… Really we were at the mercy of people who barely tried to communicate with us all day and who didn’t really help us or make it possible for us to really fish. Oh well, at least Superman caught a big one and the kids each got to catch something fun.
We wonder if the captain and the lady actually spoke a language other than Thai – each time we tried to use google translate the captain would just look at the lady to interpret and then they wouldn’t really ever answer. Maybe they are Muslim and speak Arabic instead? The lady was covered with a hoodie up around her face all day long even though it was hot.
We decided that we could either be frustrated by the experience, or we could laugh about it and take the good parts. Laughing is much more fun.
We shoved our way onto a pink truck to get off the pier and headed to Old Town Phuket to explore.
Driving in to Old Town we passed a small market on a street corner – but what was behind that market was very intriguing! We circled back and parked so we could go check it out. We were rewarded with seeing a whole crew of people working on assembling dragons for Chinese Lunar New Year!! Superman asked, through Google translate, where these were going to be set up and was told Thalang Road in Old Town Phuket for the festival next week.
The market looked too sketchy to eat at, but we were starving, so I pulled a treat out of my backpack to tide us over.
The cute little panda marshmallows were almost too cute to eat…
We wandered through the streets and enjoyed the street art, hanging lanterns, and some yummy chicken burgers at one of the nicest restaurants we’ve been in in all of Thailand. We saw a billboard advertizing the festival next week – if we hurry back from our excursion to Khao Sok National Park on Monday we can be here for it! Not sure if we can make that happen, but we’ll try!
We ended the night with Spud losing another tooth! Thai toothfairy is busy!
