WESTTHESUNFROMANOTHERSTAR, Special Chapter 5: Fisherman
Daotok
“Let’s go fishing.”
One afternoon in New York, while we were playing games in our room, Arthit said this out of the blue. I agreed without much thought, which is why we’re here now.
Zambia, Southern of Africa
The plane landed in Livingstone, and a wave of heat hit us as we stepped out, the air around was quite dry. I put on my sunglasses before scanning the surroundings with interest; this was my first time visiting Africa.
After getting married and moving to New York, we’ve traveled to many places as we had planned for a long time. Often, these trips were not pre-arranged; they were split-second decisions by Arthit, and my willingness to go along with it. Like this time, our main goal here is the Tiger Goliath, a giant predatory fish found in southern Africa, growing up to 180 centimeters long, with a wide mouth full of large, sharp teeth. There have been reports of it attacking humans and crocodiles. Many say it’s like a giant piranha and is one of the challenges for anglers.
From what I’ve researched, the locals here regularly eat this fish; it’s sold in fish markets, and the larger the fish, the pricier it is. This makes Arthit want to try catching and eating one.
I found that there were many interesting things to do here besides fishing. We wouldn’t come to Zambia just to fish. I didn’t want to miss visiting Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world, spanning across Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This waterfall leads into the rapids of the Zambezi River, which is where we’ll go boating to fish for the tiger fish.
We took a car from the airport to the hotel we had booked, checked in, and stored our luggage in the room. Once settled, we went out to participate in activities arranged by the hotel because our actual fishing trip was scheduled for the next day. We arrived early to prepare and explore the area.
Late afternoon, the only activity left to do was a walking safari with lions.
“It seems like we’ll get very close to the lions.”
“Oh.”
“You don’t seem very interested.”
“My heart is all into fishing now.”
“I thought your heart was with me.”
“…”
“Sorry.”
Arthit looked a bit stunned before bursting into loud laughter, making me sigh in relief.
“Can I apologize again?”
“No.”
“My heart is all into fishing now, go on.”
“No.”
“You’ve improved a lot since we got married.”
“At least Arthit seems in a better mood.”
“Are you trying to cheer me up?”
“Uh, or are you feeling worse?”
“I’m not in a bad mood. Just a bit annoyed.”
Arthit seemed slightly irritated because he didn’t seem too keen on walking with the lions here; it probably wasn’t very exciting for him, but I thought since the hotel offered the activity and we were free, there was no harm in taking a walk.
Besides, I’d never had the chance to be close to real lions before.
“But thinking that I get to do something you want to do makes it okay.”
“Uh.”
When we arrived, the staff brought two lions towards us. They were slightly taller than our waists, not yet fully grown. The staff offered to take photos for us, and after the photos, it was time for the walk.
There were a few rules: no touching the head or feet, no patting, and no walking in front of them.
“They said to hold their tail, they like it.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow in surprise, wondering why they would like their tails held. One of the staff lifted a lion’s tail and gestured for me to hold it instead. I approached hesitantly; first, the tail was a bit heavy, and second, we were very close, with a clear view of the lion’s rear. “Arthit isn’t holding one?”
“I don’t like holding anyone’s tail.”
“Then I’ll hold both.”
With my other hand, I held the tail of another lion. Being this close to these wild beasts was quite thrilling. Even though there were staff members supervising, because they are wild hunters, no one knows what they might be thinking. They might not bite other tourists, but they might want to eat me.
“Hah, you should feel good having someone to hold your tails like this.” Arthit teased. I felt a bit strange too, having to walk while holding the tails of two lions like this.
“What are their names?” I turned to ask the staff walking behind us.
“This one is Alim, and this one is Dalal.”
“Alim, Dalal, giant cats.” I said softly, glancing at the two large lions slowly walking in front of us right now, “Doesn’t Arthit like them?”
“I’m indifferent, but, yeah, they’re not bad, they’re truly kings of the jungle.” “No, they’re just wild animals.” I said, “Like a cat but enlarged. If they could be affectionate, they’d be super cute.”
“I don’t want to be licked by a cat this size, my face would definitely get wet.”
“Exactly, but they’d more likely bite your head off, wouldn’t they, Alim?” After walking for a while, I started to get used to it; both of them didn’t seem to pay much attention to us. Alim and Dalal just kept walking as if that was their only job, not to entertain the customers. Maybe they don’t get paid much.
Lions often appear in documentaries, depicted as full-fledged predators with their hunting instincts, but seeing them so calm like this was quite surprising.
After finishing our walk with the lions, we continued with a walk with cheetahs which are smaller and look more agile. With cheetahs, there was a leash to hold, unlike with the lions who didn’t have one, just a collar and a strap around their arms. The staff handed me the leash and instructed me to follow.
Cheetahs, unlike lions, constantly showed interest in us. They would turn to look back often; we made eye contact so frequently that I almost fell in love with it.
Or maybe this giant cat wants to play with us?
But I had to restrain myself from petting its head or body because it was against the rules.
When the walk was over, they took us to see white lions and other animals. By the time everything was done, it was almost evening. We went back to the hotel for dinner, and our day of sightseeing ended.
We followed the guide to climb up to Victoria Falls. Without a guide, we wouldn’t be allowed to go up there; the path was somewhat difficult but definitely worth it for what was at the top. Because of the hot weather, Arthit wanted to swim there as well.
The sound of the waterfall filled the area. I looked around with interest; it was truly one of the largest waterfalls in the world. It was clear that falling off the edge would not be a good idea. From this angle, we could see the cliff where all the water plummeted, with rainbows appearing intermittently due to the vast amount of water spray interacting with the sunlight.
“A double rainbow.” Arthit said softly. I looked in the direction he pointed.
“If you point at the rainbow, it will bite your finger.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. When I was a kid, adults used to say that.”
“Go ahead and bite then.” Arthit moved his finger close to my mouth, and out of mischief, I opened my mouth and gently bit it, “What would happen if you don’t bite?”
“Your finger would fall off.”
“Just for pointing at a rainbow? What kind of offense is that to lose a finger?” Arthit grumbled.
We continued to follow the guide, the surrounding natural scenery was quite beautiful. We stopped at the Devil’s Pool, where we could swim; it was one of the more thrilling tourist spots.
We were right at the edge of one of the world’s largest waterfalls, which made it even more exciting to think about. The guide didn’t provide life jackets; he explained what to do and what not to do, pointing out areas to be careful of because they were deep and only for those who were good swimmers. After listening, Arthit immediately took off his shoes.
He jumped…
I held my breath.
Amid the fairly strong current, just a few meters from the cliff, he soon surfaced and swam to sit on a rock ledge.
“Get down here, the water’s nice and cool.”
“Okay.”
I took off my shoes and jumped in too. The water was deep enough that my feet didn’t touch the bottom. I swam up to the surface and found that the current wasn’t so strong that we couldn’t handle it. I swam towards Arthit. Before long, the guide also joined us, sitting nearby to keep an eye on us.
“Has anyone ever jumped in before?” Arthit asked, turning to the guide.
“As far as I know, no.”
“What would happen if I jumped down there?”
“Absolutely not, you’re under my care. I don’t want to lose my job yet.” the guide said with a smile, then he turned over to lie on his stomach on the rock, glancing down below. We did the same.
Once we got to this point, it felt quite thrilling; it was really a cliff, surrounded by more cliffs. Arthit seemed in good spirits being here. I felt the same. After swimming to our satisfaction, we returned the same way we came. In the afternoon, we prepared to buy various things for fishing tomorrow.
We met a local guide named Jack and his two crew members. Jack insisted that without a safety team, he wouldn’t be able to take us. We didn’t have any issues with that. We started from Livingstone to the town of Lukulu and launched the boat into the Zambezi River.
Arthit offered to drive. We led in the first vehicle with the other two crew members following, Jack sitting in the back seat to navigate. The car moved along the rough road; as we passed, the vehicle stirred up dust on both sides of the road, where there were fields and forests teeming with wildlife like elephants, deer, and baboons. It wasn’t a lush forest, but rather a dry, hot savanna.
We drove on until the sun began to set.
“Can’t help it. We need to set up camp.” Jack said from the back. “Driving at night in Africa isn’t safe.”
“Okay.” Arthit replied immediately. Soon, we stopped by the roadside at a spot suitable for camping. As it got dark, safety vanished; it was time for predators to hunt, and the air grew cooler. I helped the team start a fire while others set up the tents.
Arthit and I had camped before, but not in an African forest.
Jack said we would arrange night watches to keep the camp safe and the fire lit.
After deciding the watch shifts by drawing short and long sticks, we retired to our tents.
In the pitch black with no light nearby, only the dim glow of the campfire illuminated our surroundings. The sounds of insects and birds filled the air from all directions. We didn’t know what lurked in the darkness; perhaps there were dangerous animals waiting to strike. I could think of dozens of potential dangers lurking here.
“Are you tired?” Arthit whispered, holding me as we lay facing each other in a tent just big enough for us two. The ground was hard, covered with a cloth, but it didn’t make it any softer. Luckily, I didn’t mind.
“No, Arthit was the one driving.” I shook my head.
“It was fun.”
“Hmm, do you think there are wolves around here?”
“There are. We saw one on the way here.”
“Oh. I didn’t see it.”
“Too bad, huh?”
“A little, I wanted to see it in person, up close.”
“See it up close? That would be disastrous, you could sleep, the shift change is in three hours.”
“Hmm.”
I slowly closed my eyes amidst the ambiance of the South African forest at night. Not long after, one of the team members woke me; he just gently shook the tent. I woke up; it was my shift, but Arthit said he would keep watch too, so when it was Arthit’s shift, I would go out with him.
There were chairs set up outside by the campfire. I shone my flashlight into the darkness. I didn’t see anything nearby, just heard the cacophony of insects and birds. I could only hope it would stay this peaceful.
I added some wood to the fire to keep it from going out, sat back down in the chair, and glanced at the person next to me who was yawning.
It was indeed a novel atmosphere.
He looked back at me.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just thought the atmosphere was new, kind of like when camping in the forest, but a different feeling.”
“Exactly.” He nodded, “Jack said we’re close to lion territory.”
“No worries. I’ve held their tail before.”
“Ha, you always like to pull others’ tails.”
“That’s right. I’m that kind of person.”
“What sound is that?” Arthit became more alert and cautious, quickly scanning the area. I followed his gaze instantly, “Lions.”
“Hmm.”
We heard the roar of a lion echoing loudly, and suddenly, we felt our hairs stand on end, realizing it was not far from the camp.
“Better go into the tent.” Arthit whispered. I nodded. I went into the tent while Arthit opened the adjacent tent, waking the person inside to alert them of the danger, then quickly returned to our tent amidst the silence and dim light. We sat in the tent with the lion roaring outside.
“From what I remember, lions usually don’t attack prey they don’t know. They attack prey they are familiar with because there’s no need for unnecessary risk; unfamiliar prey might be dangerous. Plus, we have fire and weapons, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about.”
“If we tell this story, people will just say we should have stayed home, you bastard.” Arthit whispered.
“It’s exciting, though.”
“Yeah, I’m genuinely glad you get it.”
“How many times have I gone with you now?”
“Yeah, go to sleep. I’ll keep watch for you. Just a minute…” It seemed like the other tent was trying to communicate with us. Arthit slowly opened the tent to talk, and after a while, he came back in.
“What did they say?”
“Just to keep the fire from going out, same watch schedule.”
“Okay.”
“Then you go to sleep. I’ll take your watch for you.”
“No, no. I’ll watch myself.”
“Come on, let me do my husbandly duties.”
“…Okay, wake me up immediately if anything happens.”
“I won’t let you sleep through it, I suppose.”
“You never know, what if a lion shows up, and Arthit leaves me to sleep alone?” “I’ll take care of it.”
“I’m going to sleep now.”
“Yeah, sweet dreams.”
“Sweet dreams.”
I tried to close my eyes. Before long, I was asleep, and I woke up early in the morning to the sound of someone doing something.
“Are we packing up already?” I asked groggily, seeing Arthit packing things from the tent.
“Yeah, go wash your face and then come help pack.”
“Okay.”
I went outside to meet the fresh morning air, the sky clear without clouds, the soft light of Arthit’s morning touching the distant river that was drawing me in. After staring at the scene for just a moment, I had to quickly wash my face and help others pack up to continue our journey.
When we started moving again, we talked about the lion’s roar from last night, noting that it was a common occurrence when camping here. Some had encountered them wandering around the camp or worse, being attacked.
Fortunately, we kept the fire going all night to prevent it from going out. It took a long time to reach the boat launch point. We hadn’t reached Luukulu yet; you can’t drive to Lukulu, so we had to launch the boats at Mongu, with the help of the locals. Two medium-sized motorboats were launched into the Zambezi River.
We helped load our things onto the boats; the first one had me, Arthit, and the guide, while the second carried the other two team members. Once everything was ready, we set off. I sat in the middle, Arthit at the front, and the guide at the back.
Around us was a jungle, the current wasn’t too strong. We paddled upstream. I looked down into the water, wondering what might be in the river. The water was clearer than I expected, but one thing I was sure of was the presence of crocodiles. I saw one surface, there must have been many more below. If you weren’t careful and fell out of the boat, chances of survival would be slim.
After a while, we saw some hippos by the riverbank as we passed.
“Arthit, look, hippos running.” I said, pointing them out to him. We saw the chubby hippos running away quickly, though their legs were quite short.
“Damn, with such short legs, how do they run so fast?”
“They’re so cute, waddling around.”
“But they’re aggressive, these hippos.”
“Yeah, but they’re really cute.” I took out my camera to capture the moment, “They look cute like this, but they can kill crocodiles, you can’t judge just by looks.”
I watched the hippo until it disappeared, after which there wasn’t much to see except for the forest.
All we could do was sit cautiously in the boat, looking at the surrounding scenery. We chatted a bit, it took a long time before we saw a village. As we approached the village area, we encountered more boats, Arthit waved greetings, and they waved back friendly.
“If you want to stop here, you can, there’s a market too.”
“Let’s stop.” Arthit replied, and we stopped at the village. I looked around with interest. They came over to ask questions, Jack translated that they were asking what we were doing here. We answered that we were here to fish for tigerfish, and they replied that there were fish to catch around here, but only small ones. We became the center of attention in the village the moment we walked in. The children approached us with curiosity. I smiled at them. In the market, you could find local products. We bought some small fish to use as bait before heading out again. We got into the boat and headed towards the headwaters of the river.
“It’s a big one.” Arthit muttered. I looked in the direction he was staring and saw a large crocodile sunbathing. Since we were navigating close to the bank, we saw it at close range; as soon as it spotted us, it quickly slid into the water, startling us quite a bit. Its large size caused the water to splash loudly.
The crocodile floated on the surface, its menacing eyes staring at us as if it were hungry. We kept rowing further away from it, and it didn’t follow us.
“It’s not following us, right?” I whispered to Arthit.
“Why would it follow us?”
“When it saw us, it immediately went into the water. I thought it might want to attack.”
I had never fished before, so I was a bit nervous. Besides us, the guide and his team also joined in the fishing. This type of fishing was different; it wasn’t just about casting the line and waiting. We had to make the bait move because the fish would chase fast-moving bait.
This place seemed more lively than other places we had passed through, with the scent of many dangerous creatures around. Where we were was at the head of the river, where we had anchored the boat.
I held the fishing rod and pulled the line quickly like I saw others doing, but after a while, there was no sign of any fish biting. While I was getting frustrated, I heard Arthit shout out.
“It’s strong, damn!” He complained while pulling a fish that had taken the bait. Others cheered excitedly. They said that tiger goliath fish have a lot of strength, the bigger they are, the stronger they are, which made us all very excited. After a while, Arthit managed to pull up the fish.
“Got it!” He exclaimed happily. We looked at it in awe; it was the fish we aimed to catch, just like in the pictures, about the length from my fingertips to my elbow, with a shiny body. Arthit used pliers to remove its sharp, long teeth from the hook, thinking how painful it would be to get bitten by it. It struggled vigorously.
“You caught a really big one!” one of the crew members complimented.
“I’ve seen bigger ones in pictures.” Arthit replied.
“Those are very rare. Otherwise, the internet would be full of those pictures.
What are you going to do with it?”
“Eat it.” He answered, lowering the fish into a bucket. “Do you know how to cook it?”
“I saw the villagers just remove the scales and grill it, but the locals should be able to help us prepare it.” the guide answered. The person nodded before turning back to his fishing rod.
“How’s it going?” Arthit asked me. I shook my head in response. “Don’t be too serious, we’re here to have fun fishing.”
“It’s not that fun if you can’t catch anything.” I muttered softly, thinking to myself that I wanted to catch some big ones.
“Watch out for the line cutting your hand.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“It might just be startled by the sudden appearance of a boat.”
“Oh…I once watched a crocodile movie where it attacked a motorboat like ours, flipping it over.” I said, remembering a movie I had seen.
“Can it really do that? How does it flip a boat?”
“Well, boats do have some weight, but there have been news reports of crocodiles flipping boats.”
“Oh. What would we do if our boat flipped? Definitely, fighting a crocodile in the water isn’t easy.”
“True. I’ve heard that you need to aim for its eyes.”
“The eyes are a weak point for creatures, except for me, my eyes can shoot lasers.”
“Really?”
“Laser beams, man, pew pew.”
“With such a special ability, it’s not very useful, though.”
“It’s useful, I used it last night to scare the lion away.”
“Oh, thanks for that.”
“No problem. It’s nothing.” Arthit waved it off.
We arrived at the area where we were going to fish. We needed to ask the village chief for permission to set up camp and fish because it was their territory. Once we got permission, it was time to start fishing.
“Have you ever brought tourists here to fish?” Arthit turned to ask the guide while preparing the fishing gear.
“A few times, but not many. You two are the only ones who have come in such a small group.”
I turned my attention back to fishing. This time, a fish took the bait. When Arthit saw I had something, he came over to help, but I didn’t let him, still wrestling with this strong fish.
I tensed my entire body to prevent myself from being pulled into the river by this fish. Arthit came to help hold me, and not long after, we managed to pull it up.
…Why is it so small? I thought it was strong, I expected it to be bigger.
“It’s okay, you’re doing fine.”
“Uh-hum.” I carefully used pliers to remove its mouth from the hook.
“Need help with that?”
“Don’t talk if you’ve been bitten by piranhas.” I teased.
“This will be a lifelong sin for me, huh?” He complained, looking annoyed. As soon as I pressed the pliers down on its mouth between its teeth, I could feel the resistance. I put it in a box and then turned to fish for another one.
In the end, Arthit caught the largest fish. We brought all the fish we caught into the village to ask the villagers to teach us how to prepare them, beyond what we would eat. We gave them all the fish as a thank you for teaching us how to cook. I looked at the grilled fish in my hand, pondering. It was the first time I would eat a fish I didn’t know and had caught myself. Judging by its appearance, it didn’t look very appetizing, but I ate it without much thought and found the taste rather ordinary.
“It’s tasty.” Arthit said, chewing with satisfaction, “What do you think?”
“For me, it’s just okay, eatable.”
“Really? It might be a matter of taste.”
“Yeah, must be.”
After eating the fish, we headed back. I felt the return journey was a bit quicker than the trip there. We walked back until we reached the hotel. We only had a few days to rest here, but we still had plenty of vacation days since our work wasn’t that fixed.
“Where should we go next?”
“Hmm? Do you mean in this country or somewhere else?”
“Let’s go to Morocco.”
“Okay.”
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