Page 66 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL13

“You’ve given up, haven’t you?” My student’s voice rung in my head, louder than the thunderstorm.“That’s not the point,” I tried to explain.“What’s the point then?”“Now I don’t know who I’m fighting for ... what I’mfighting for.”I had invited several friends on this fishing trip. Besides Chang Si and Ta Moh Tao, who were from Trang Province, Tong and Nid had come south from Bangkok. Rungchai, another friend who rarely went offshore, had made an effort to catch a bus from Songkhla, crossing steep mountains to join us. Long-tail boat driver included, our wandering sea crew numbered seven in all.We departed from the Trang shore on Friday, March 1, 1991, drove past Koh Muk, fished along the way and made Koh Kradan our first night’s stay of the sea journey. Saturday was spent fishing from dawn to dusk. We followed the coral reef around islands – behind Koh Hai and beside Koh Chuek, then headed back to stay at Koh Muk.It was after 4pm when we left shore on Friday. I let Tong and Nid bait first. As host, I should let my friends64 Elite+catch the first fish.It was raining lightly, causing my Trang friends totease that I had brought the rain with me; Trang hadn’t seen any rain for nearly a month.The rain fell to the east by the time we neared Koh Muk. After watching my friends fish for almost an hour, I wanted to have fun so I cast my own little orange lure into the water. I felt like a boy playing, dragging a toy can behind him, walking along the street not thinking much.To rephrase that, I didn’t even try to fish. My rod and the line were too small. I had bought them in Singapore not long before and was thinking I should use them at least once.Whatever it was, luck or something else, I caught a fish in less than 10 minutes. It was a yellow barracuda weighing around 7 kilograms.I had no choice but to apologize to my friends.Fishing has been a pastime of mine for years. But what I look for isn’t fish. To be more precise, catching fish isn’t my first priority on a fishing trip.Every time I’m on the sea, I feel like a pathetic little creature. The open water deprives me of my haughtiness – it feels good. It cleanses me of the notion that life2