PAI  & THE PAI PIRANHA FISHING PARK

It was time to make the short journey across to famous Pai and check out for ourselves why this little town in northern Thailand has remained so popular for such a long time.  The ride was nice, fairly short at around 100 km from memory and we were soon rolling into bustling little Pai.

Hmmm,  first impressions were that it seemed a nice enough town, pleasant surroundings, a very obvious arty, creative, laid back, funky kind of atmosphere exuding from the architecture and the people here, which seemed to be mainly foreigners.  We weren’t the only ones a little over whelmed by such a huge presence of tourists - many of the locals we talked to hinted at how good the days of old had been, before seemingly every young backpacker from every corner of the globe converged on the place.

It has made for a great spot to simply chill at and have a ‘holiday’ partying with other youngsters, the apparently still easily available weed in the area I’m guessing is a big drawcard.  There was a great night market scene though with plenty of amazing food, but most of the town area seemed to consist of bar/cafes full of farangs, or places to enhance your yogi and spirituality, neither of which was really what we were looking for.

We were probably only going to stay 1 night in Pai, but after searching online, found a fishing park just on the edge of town which we rode out to for a beer and to see whether it was worth a visit.  The place looked really nice, a great design and feel to the place, coupled with a friendly owners and cheap fishing - I was sold.

We rode out the next morning with our gear and booked a charming bungalow right over the ponds, once again great design, with a beautiful bathroom and outdoor entertaining/kitchen area, complete with all the things you might need to self cater if you chose to. 

Our bungalow was 600 bt per night, but included free fishing, normally 200bt, so essentially only a 400 bt room and superb value for what we got, the kind of place we hoped we could stay all the time, especially at those rates.  I did have to buy bait though, but it and the fishing were very cheap.

The whole place was magnificently landscaped, ponds and water features all around the complex, with beautiful wooden furniture in the bar & restaurant area and tropical sala's with hammocks to kick back in.  Throw in a couple of super cute and friendly dogs, a family atmosphere, other guests dropping in to chat with, and I can't imagine anybody having a bad time here.

Then there was the food… easily some of the most delicious and healthy food we have had anywhere, they do an outstanding job in the kitchen and you could seriously make the journey here just to eat!  I can’t stress enough just how incredible the food here was, sure a bit more expensive than your local Thai noodle shop, but still very reasonably priced.

The fishing was good, a little slow due to it being the cold season, but no shortage of fish coming in over the 3 days we stayed.  Oh yeah, we were having such a great time and just loved the place so much that we ended up there for 3 nights and even then had to drag ourselves away.

Dave, the owner, and his family are really friendly, plus he likes to sit and have a few beers with you, the whole place just oozes relaxation with an expensive resort style look, at bargain prices.  Definitely one of my favourite places I have ever been to - we have already made plans to go back in the next couple of months!

The place is Pai Piranha Fishing Park and I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially for guy’s that worry about a non fishing partner being bored – your wife or girlfriend will love the place as well, just such beautiful surroundings and a place you lose track of time.  Don’t miss it.

When we finally (sadly) dragged ourselves out of there, we made the journey to Fang, a trip of around 220 km, once again through tight mountain roads.  Today I’m just having a catch up day on the computer, as I barely turned it on while busy fishing, getting a few important things organized.

Pai Piranha Fishing Park

Our bungalow

  

From the balcony

Some of the amazing food we had there

  

At least they're honest!

  

  

Lucky, the fat little puppy

SUVA, BEACH HOUSE,  AUSTRALIA, THAILAND, DENTIST

After my shenanigans in Suva with very little sightseeing achieved, though there are some great tours available, but far too expensive as all these extra flights etc had pushed the budget a bit thin.  I always talk about not wanting to be one of those traveller’s that go everywhere but can't afford to do and see what is on offer in those places, not normally an issue for me, but Fiji is definitely for the short term holiday maker to really get the most out of it. 

Though there were a few guys basically 'living' at Beach House just for the surf every day, but the living arrangements were minimalist and they were definitely doing it on a shoestring budget, but it can be done if that's your passion.  Speaking of Beach House, I decided to break up the bus ride back across Viti Levu with another couple of nights there, it really was such a great place.

I was expecting to see Ben, but my 2 Scottish buddies were back also, they had been on a 9 day tour around Vit Levu and the smaller islands, i was going to join them but rolled my ankle pretty badly a few days before we were going to leave!  Another country, another injury!! 

So it was 2 more nights here of the usual fun and late night story telling amongst travellers, then the Scottish lads and myself split a cab to the airport.  They were flying to Sydney to continue their Tour of Australia (great travellers, they had really been some places, way out bush too!) and I was stopping in Melbourne on my flight back to Perth.  

As luck would have it, my Dad was in the city and picked me up from the airport sometime around midnight, a few hours sleep and we were in the car the next morning heading north for home.  A fishing trip pre planned that coincided nicely with my return home! 

A few weeks back home with the folks and seeing friends again was great, though after the fishing was done I was actually put to work!  My mum and her cousin had been renovating a house together, so I jumped in everyday to help out, it was nice to be doing something constructive again, though a bit of a shock to the system!!

Another fishing trip was organized but I had already bought my cheap flight online and my departure date was set, I would get a last couple of days fishing in with the old boy and his mates from down south, then I was off.  Back to my other 'home', Thailand, where i was going to finally get some major dental work done, it had been a long time coming, but a huge chip out of my front tooth after biting into an olive on the yacht finally sealed the deal!

Danca was hitting Thailand the same day as me, so we headed for Pattaya and caught up with all our mates for a week or 2, then it was 3 weeks of dental work for me.  2 crowns, a root canal, a 3 tooth bridge, 1 cap, clean and xray all came to the grand total of.....  around $1740 Au!  Ridiculously cheap, a fraction of the cost back home and the work was outstanding, absolutely painless.

 Anybody considering major dental work should look into Thailand, even with flights etc you will still save money and get a holiday!  I used Hollywood Dental in Pattaya after being referred there by friends and can't recommend them highly enough.

  In between all the visits to the dentist, i had to make my first ever 'Visa Run' which involves sitting in a mini van all day and going to the Cambodian border for a whole 10 minutes to 'exit Thailand and come back in again' thus extending the time you are allowed to stay in country.  I had planned on being gone before that became necessary, but the way things panned out with getting my teeth fixed, plus I was a little slow in booking an appointment, it had to be done.  

Oh well, another one of those things that I have now done, the Thai government is really cracking down on those foreigners that are living here and continually doing visa runs or working illegally.  I see it as a good thing, but unfortunately it will make it harder for guys like me and those doing the right thing, to stay longer.


Ok a few recent fishing photos to at least keep some pictures coming

But I let them all go and paid a whole $3.30 for this huge plate of fish and chips later!

WAHOO!! ...  WE'RE IN TONGA

Tuesday 22^nd april

I am now sitting in a fancy restaurant in Tonga, using their wifi and having a beer.  We arrived last night and have spent the WHOLE day navigating our way through the arrival process here, everything happening in ‘Pacific Time’.  Fucking slowly!  We still aren’t legal yet after 10 hours of trying, technically I’m not allowed to leave the boat.

It was another very easy, casual sail to get here.  These guys reckon they have never seen weather this good for so long, though it has made the going a bit slower and we have had to use the motors more than JP would like.  It took 3 days I think, with a quick stop at Ata Island about 80 miles south of Tonga, where I once again slayed some fish, hell I even caught a bird!

Before Ata Island I also landed a solid Wahoo while trolling, he went like a demon, but was soon on the back step, my very uncomfortable filleting station, getting chopped up!  George, as usual, comes over and without even knowing what fish it was, starts trying telling me how to fillet it!!  Really George?!!  Really?!  You’re telling ME how to fillet again?! Haha

I don’t particularly like getting told too much as it is, let alone by somebody that knows has no idea! A few more little incidents that afternoon nearly saw violence on the yacht, that Wahoo wasn’t going to be the only one bleeding on the deck! 

It was almost painful arriving in to Tonga, we were going so slow as we didn’t want to arrive until after sundown, it was hard to finally see our destination, be so close, yet know we would be hours away from getting in.  As we got closer, I could see a huge cloud of smoke, and pointed it out to the others who were inside.  ‘Wow, must be a big fire’ I said.  Wellllllllll, what sort of response do you think that got?!  George goes ‘Ah, well,  it could be…’.    With this look on his face that said, no, you’re wrong! 

‘What do you mean – it could be??!!’ I said, ‘We’re 10 miles out George, please enlighten me with your wisdom of what that is then’.  He seriously goes ‘Ah, well, it could be a very small fire making a lot of smoke’.  Surely I can’t be the only one ready to punch this guy?!  Haha

Aaaah.  As I said, it would almost be funny if I didn’t live with it every day, actually, I do kinda laugh about it more now, that somebody can seriously act like that.  Anyway, I better head back to the boat soon, don’t want any trouble with the local constabulary.

Wahoo

Cool looking fish on plastic, this thing actually took drag off my Saltiga, which was fairly locked up for shallow water popping

Ata Island

JP took the bird pictures

See, I do some work out here

Please...   feel free to tell me how to fillet...!!

ANGRY FISH WITH BIG TEETH AT MINERVA,   POPPER HEAVEN

Friday 18^th April

I should probably just start a section every post entitled ‘Stupid Shit George Say’s and Does That Piss Me Off’!  That same evening I last posted about, he went on to tell me that it was probably a good thing I let that Red Bass go, being so large it must have been too old and wouldn’t have tasted any good?!!  Hmmm, ok mate, I suppose with that theory, a 15kg Red Emperor or a 7kg Baldie wouldn’t taste any good either!

  This guy buys fish from the supermarket in Paris and would never have even tasted much quality fish, let alone know the difference between them.  Which is fair enough, most people are in the same boat and wouldn’t really know the difference as they aren’t lucky enough to be able to eat the range of seafood we do back at home.  But most people wouldn’t sit down, argue and try to impart their infinite wisdom, consisting of a good amount of fuck all, to somebody like me. 

He just cracks me up, don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t claim to know everything about fish and fishing, but I do have an extremely vast knowledge as it is the one thing I have spent the most time doing, studying and trying to master. I am always reading, practising, progressing, if he could shut the f#@* up, he may actually learn something. 

One last thing, the moon has been absolutely amazing out here, so last night I come inside and say ‘Hey, you guy’s should check out the awesome orange full moon’.  So of course immediately George starts his usual bullshit ‘Ah, well, I don’t think it’s quite a full moon’, pokes his head outside for a second, ‘no, it’s definitely not a complete full moon’!! 

F*@# me, this guy is a cock, it was the brightest roundest moon you are ever likely to see and he still has to disagree!  I could tell him the sky was blue and he’d want to argue the point, ‘Ah, well, no it’s….

Never man enough to come outright and argue the point with me, and say ‘you’re wrong’.  He prefers to just dismisses my point of view and makes his conflicting statement in a matter of fact way, with a pompous air of someone who has just enlightened everybody to the facts, like there could be no other answer and that the topic is now closed.  I don’t even waste my time with a retort, some people are beyond help.

Everybody who knows me will tell you I am not a violent person in the slightest and rarely get angry about too much, I prefer to just go with the flow and lets the cards fall where they may.  Karma is a bitch. But George is bringing it out in me, I wouldn’t even punch him, I’d slap him!  That’s what he deserves, a good old ‘wake up to yourself’ slap! 

In other non-George related news…!!!  Yesterday was another epic day of fishing, out in the RIB for an hour or so, a few awesome fish landed, big strikes, dropped fish, amazing battles in the shallow reef.  The stuff I dream about, Lucas and Stenty would have loved it, I think we may have to try to make it out here one day, with a proper boat and crew geared up for serious fishing.  I am only just barely scraping the surface of the amazing fishing here at Minerva Reef, squeezing in an hour of casting here and there.

Over the short period I got to fish, I landed about 12 fish, with many follows, hits and dropped fish, there is nothing better than throwing poppers around in country like this.  Even George and JP are starting to enjoy the whole visual style of it as they watch my lure, waiting for a big explosion of frothy water as a fish engulfs it.

  Another huge Red Bass was landed, almost as big as my last one, but this time on my smaller outfit and in only a meter of nasty, reefy water, another of those fish I will never forget. (depending on how many I actually catch on this whole voyage!) Once again it was only me in the boat, nobody to witness and appreciate the unbelievable fishing here, I could never get tired of doing this. 

So we are now moving around the inside of the lagoon at Minerva North and then we will be sailing on to Tonga this afternoon, with light winds it is expected to take 3 days.  I am going to miss this place and hope I get to return someday, with Lucas, Stenty and any other of my fish-crazy mates, to do it properly, this has just been a taste.  A damn good one though!

Afternoon update - we are now out of the lagoon and slowly making our way under sail to Tonga.  Another epic afternoon of casting poppers over shallow reef and landing some awesome fish, the battles are intense. 

 As we made our way through the passage to exit the lagoon, I geared up ready with the big outfit, Saltiga Dogfight and PE8 Demon Blood, but made the mistake of using my lighter gear to throw a popper at a ledge on the way out, even knowing there should be some serious fish on it.  Massive hit, my popper angrily inhaled in a powerful explosion of water and, almost as quickly as it had struck, I was busted off!  Hmmm, kiss another lure goodbye!  I was actually going to take a photo of this lure to emphasise how much punishment this thing had taken in only 3 days!  It was nearly destroyed by angry fish with big teeth! 

Oh, and we have 3 good sized crayfish for dinner!

FISH ON...   BLOODY HELL, IT'S A MAHI MAHI

Monday 14^th April

3:30am and I am on watch, a solid wind has us sailing at around 8 knots and should see us hit Minerva reef today around 1-3pm. I shouldn’t say ‘hit’ actually, we should ‘arrive’!  A couple of very eventful days at sea, I can’t really remember what happened Friday night, I think it was another calm one, but Saturday was a wild watch.  Rough seas, constantly changing wind and a bit of rain saw me actually having to do some real work while on watch.

I spent the whole night on deck changing course, adjusting sails, getting wet and freezing my ass off, I did have a tiny little bird hitching a ride with us to keep me company though. He sat all night, buried in his own feathers in a little ball nestled a meter away from the helm.  The seas stayed fairly rough most of the day and I actually got a couple hours of sleep in during the day.

During my afternoon watch the sea was still messy and I was about to bring my lure in, thinking that even if I did hook something, it was gonna be too wild to try land anything anyway.  A mere 2 minutes later my reel was screaming, bent right over with the unmistakable signs of a solid fish and once again, the other 2 were sleeping!

A few bangs on the roof of Jean-Paul’s cabin and he was quickly on deck, followed by George not long after, with conditions like this we had to keep sailing and I just fought the beast while we were still cruising at over 6 knots!  It probably only took me about 10-15 minutes to land but we finally got my first Mahi Mahi on board, a decent one weighing 11kg. 

That is not a heavy fish really by my standards, but these things are thin, sleek and powerful, he was well over a meter.  After getting bashed around on the back steps (my work station) I finally had him filleted and bagged up, we had meat again!  After trying to instruct ME on filleting?! (wtf) George felt it necessary to go and weigh the fillets before once again telling me that ‘it’s not much for a fish that big’.  I just asked him how many fish he has ever filleted…  (yeah, 1)  I’m guessing that at market value it was probably $300 of fillets.

While we’re on the subject of things he does to piss me off… hehe.  After my long, cold, wet night of no food or barely a drink, he gets up in the morning, tips my cordial out and makes himself a coffee in the mug I hadn’t finished with?!  Plus only boils enough water for 1 cup and I have to burn precious gas again to make a hot drink for myself.  He’s been in a warm bed all night and HE needs the hot drink?!  Just totally self absorbed and inconsiderate. 

Once again, to the reader, yes these are small things, but living together like this and after a shift like that, it’s just not cool, you have to be more socially aware than that.  I’m the type of person that would make somebody else the hot drink, knowing that they had had a shitty night and would really appreciate it.

I had to laugh though later in the day, he wound his handline in and the hook was gone, I quickly asked him if that was the same hook I had warned him not to use!  Haha.   Sorry I will try and keep to the story and not just pay out on George, but he brings it on himself, plus, hell, there isn’t much else going on out here, it is part of my daily life and my story.

As usual we have had odd jobs to do here and there, plus cooking and basic living really.  On Sunday I had a shower and shave out on the back deck, the sea was beautifully calm, calm enough that I decided to put a lure out.  We didn’t have room for any more fish in the limited fridge space on board, but I figured with conditions like this I could release a fish fairly easily.

I had just changed my lure over and was about to put one out when I looked down and saw what I believe was a small Marlin swimming not more than a meter off the back of the boat, I put my lure right past him but he declined after a quick inspection.  It wouldn’t have looked natural as it was getting fed out, and after a minute or so he swam off, another opportunity missed!

Only a couple of hours later I was working up the front of the boat for a while and when I came back to the cockpit I could see my rod bent over.  I hurried over for a look and every bit of line was gone from the spool!?  F@#*!  Luckily my knot at the spool was good and somehow had stayed connected, though it had caused some minor damage to the reel.  A plug too, for the boys at Tel O Mac Tackle Shop, Nick had just re-spooled my reel and his join knot held up extremely well.  Thanks mate, I would be missing 300 meters of 50lb braid otherwise.

There was so much pressure on the line that it had actually gouged a couple of grooves into the hardened plastic of my level wind. I couldn’t believe the line hadn’t come free.  I wound ALL that line back in and found I had lost another fish and another lure.  Goddammit, I thought somebody was in the cockpit while I was working up front.  I’m just lucky that I didn’t lose all that line or worse, though I do have my rod and reel tied to the boat.

Anyway, I think that is all the news for now, plenty of beautiful night skies, sunsets, sunrises, full moon.  Oh we did pass 2 bouys today which was odd really, this far out in open ocean and we happened to go past 2 of them about a mile apart, maybe some sort of weather beacons?  In true testament to the effectiveness of FAD’s, there were fish around them.

Strange but cool cloud formation

Yee-Ha,  PB Mahi Mahi

Cool rainbow while filleting

My stowaway mate for the night, cute little bugger

17 ISLANDS MARINE PARK

The boat trip was an awesome day out and it was great to see some really unspoilt islands that were teeming with fish.  After climbing on board our rickety little boat we were heading out to our first stop, some snorkeling on a nice patch of coral.  About half an hour here and then onto the next stop, some more snorkeling along a beautiful island. 

They told us we were stopping for snorkeling and after we had all jumped in the water the skipper tells us ‘Ok you swim, we meet you up there’ pointing to a stretch of sand that seemed to be a fair distance away?!  

So that was that, we were left to make our own way back to the boat as they took off up the beach.  It was a great snorkel, shallow reef that dropped away sharply and I swam along this section all the way up seeing some serious fish along the way.

Once back at the boat I quickly grabbed my rod while the crew set about cooking a BBQ lunch on the beach.  I was just casting soft plastics over the reef and catching a lot of small fish, but didn’t have any bigger lures to get right out into the deep section where I knew there was bigger fish.  

I was really rueing not having my usual lures once again but it didn’t really matter, I was still wetting a line on a beautiful tropical island in Indo, possibly the first person to cast a lure there.

Lunch was BBQ fish, vege’s and rice (what else?!) and was ok, I’m not a big fan of eating Barracuda but I do get pretty spoiled when it comes to eating fish.  After a very long and relaxed lunch and laze on the beach (for the rest of the group, I fished the whole time) we were off again to the next beautiful island for some more snorkeling. 

I had spent enough time in the water and opted to fish again, just relishing the chance to have a cast in foreign waters in such cool surroundings.  The crew snoozed on the boat in the shade and I could sense they were having a bit of a laugh about the tourist fishing. 

But suddenly I was on…   something decent too and it was fairly giving my 4lb setup a workout.  It came crashing out of the water, leaping and flipping and I saw what it was, a bloody Longtom!  Lol.  They are very common back home and good for absolutely nothing, we don’t even use them for bait!

The crew on the boat had watched all this unfold and were excitedly rushing up the beach to see my fish, I was still fighting it and they were all yelling instructions at me.  The only thing I could understand was ‘don’t lose it’! 

Never fear boys, I got this!  I soon had my Longtom on the beach and asked the crew if they wanted it, silly question, of course they did, so it was soon dispatched and thrown under the deck boards to be eaten later for dinner.

But the boat tour wasn’t over yet and we were whisked off to another location, this time near the mangroves to look at fruit bats that nest in huge numbers in the area.   I could have easily skipped this part of the trip though, didn’t do much for me. 

Then for some reason we seemed to take the longest possible way back to the little harbour, past more islands and fishing boats, although it was nice I really would have preferred to have simply headed home after the last snorkelling spot.

A fantastic day out though and one of the most enjoyable I’d had in Indo, maybe because I got some fishing in, but either way I definitely recommend a visit there, it is vastly untouched and off the usual tourist trail. 

A few games of pool, dinner back at our local and another day was done, we were in bed early as we were supposed to catch a bus the next morning at 6am. Or so we thought....

17 Islands Marine Park

Our beach for lunch and relax

Absolutely magic...

My god,   it's a monster!

Another perfect beach we had to ourselves

Longtom,   somebody's dinner, but sure as hell not mine!

Fruit bats