(Daniel) This morning I woke up with vague memories of singing in Malay, and proposing marriage to someone!  But more importantly, that I had arranged to go spear fishing with Leo and his friend who he called “The Hunter.”

I went and let Leo’s dog off the lead where it had to be tied up, because Muslims do not like dogs, and let it go for a pee before tying it back up.  The Leo arrived and told me that my singing had been terrible last night!  But on the plus side apparently my pronunciation had been spot on!  After this a couple of Chinese kids turned up, who had booked a mornings snorkeling with Leo, and then “The Hunter”, a Malay guy who looked as if he had spent most of his life in the sun. Together we packed the boat with spear guns, flippers, masks and water for the day.  Then Leo put the dog in with us, and we all headed out towards an island about 3 km offshore. 

As we arrived I jumped straight in the water, and Leo started to give the Chinese girl a lesson in snorkeling, as she had obviously never done it before.  I loaded my spear gun, and went looking for a fish to shoot.  However the visibility was terrible, and after an hour I still hadn’t seen a thing past my own hands!  AT the same time I felt myself getting a bit burnt on the backs of my legs, which I hadn’t put any cream on.  After about two hours, Leo told me that he was taking the two Chinese kids back to the beach, and would return for us soon.  He left the dog with me on the island, and then went off in the boat.

The Hunter and I sat on the Island and waited while the dog went and caught locust like insects and chewed them to death before spitting them out!  While we chatted It became apparent that this man lived for the thrill of the hunt, and he regaled me with tales of the Baramundi that he had caught in the past.  He also mentioned a fact which I didn’t realise, which was that spear guns were controlled by the Fisheries department, and that I was supposed to have a license to use my ones!

After about 30 minutes Leo returned on the boat, and we swan out, and then went another 5-6km to the point where the current met, looking for some clear water.  When we arrived, the Hunter got that look in his eye that he had when telling me the stories on the Island.  He told us to be very quiet and not splash into the water.  We lowered ourselves in, and swam off again looking for fish.  The water was much clearer here and it wasn’t long before I saw a sweet lips.  I pointed the gun and shot, suddenly the fish was flapping around with my spear through his belly, I swam towards him, but just as I arrived he got free and swam off, presumably to be eaten by some other fish pretty soon.  I saw Leo and told him what had happened, and he told me to push the spear down so that the fish couldn’t get free.

Armed with this new information, I went in search of another fish, and soon saw two snapper.  Again, I aimed and shot, and got the snapper in the same place.  I did what Leo had said and pushed the spear down, trapping the fish on the spear until I could get my hand around to the other side.  Then I swan back to the boat, where Leo had climbed back in and passed him the fish.  All this time there was no sign of where the Hinter had gone, and when I stuck my head above water, I couldn’t see him anywhere.  Leo told me that he was going to take the dog back to the beach for a while as it had been sea sick, and that he would come back for me in a while.

I hunted on, but now I wanted a big fish, and ignored several more snapper looking for something bigger.  After another couple of hours however I hadn’t seen anything, and was pleased when Leo turned up again and climbed back in the boat, noticing that my legs were badly burnt and that my arms were also looking quite purple and feeling very tingly.   Once back on the boat, Leo asked me where the Hunter was, and I replied that I hadn’t seen him once since we had got in the water.  He said the same, and as we started to look, the weather started to turn nasty.  As the rain started to fall and the wind picked up, we drove up and down the area looking for the hunter, but couldn’t see him anywhere.  I wondered if something had happened, when suddenly Leo said “there he is!”  I looked over and saw a snorkel, and black liquid spraying several feet in the air.  The Hunter had obviously bagged a squid, and the creature was spraying ink everywhere.  As we pulled up, we saw that the hunter had shot a 25-30 kilo Baramundi, several snapper, two squid, one big cuttle fish, three sweetlips, and had collected about 2 kilos of mussels.  There were other things in his catch bag, but that’s what I remember for now.  I could see why he was called the hunter.  After handing this tuff over, he still didn’t want to get back in the boat and we had to wait for another ten minutes while he continued to dive down looking for more. Once we had finally coaxed him back into the boat, we headed back to the beach, were we dropped the hunter out at sea near some rocks, and Leo and I went to have lunch at a resort nearby.  As we pulled in, Nick called me, and I told him about the days activities.  He mentioned the new guest book on the site, which I have looked at now and it is very cool, please anyone reading this, go and sign the book, it is on the front page, and would be great for us to read from time to time! 

After lunch, we went back to the boat, and then picked up the Hunter, who hadn’t caught anything else.  Then we headed back to the island where we had started out that morning.  I got in the water first, and saw a big parrot fish, which I shot at, but it turned just in time, or I felt bad about shooting something so beautiful, whatever happened it got away.  We hunted on for another hour, but didn’t catch anything else.  Then we headed back to Leos place and pulled the boat out of the water before I went to the showers to inspect the sunburn from the days swimming.  The burning was pretty bad, I was purple on the backs of my legs, and standing up straight hurt like hell.  My arms were also badly burned, but having been tanned on my arms before this would probably go down in a few days.

While I looked over my 3rd degree sunburn, the hunter cut up the fish, and left a good portion for Leo and I, by the time I returned for the showers he had gone. Just then, Loo phoned to say that the my boat engine was finished, and would I like to collect it.  Knowing how the traffic would be at this time, and looking forward to a fish dinner, I told him that I would be there tomorrow to pick it up.  Leo and I then drove in his Jeep Cherokee to a local restaurant where they cooked our dinner of Baramundi, snapper and squid.  Over dinner we discussed his family.  His son, also called Daniel is the Malaysian Kite surfing champion, and his wife works in a resort and spa on Gemia Island, further north from here. 

After dinner we went back to the resort and went straight to bed, full of fish! (Me, not the bed!)  I woke up in the night, to find that I had rolled over and my knee had been touching the mosquito net while I slept.  Through the net I had been bitten on the one knee at least ten times, and luckily managed to get back to sleep despite the itching!  This is not to mention that fact that my sun burnt legs were in absolute agony!

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