Old men and the sea: fishing for the bigger picture
I was Gone Fishin’ recently, honouring a relatively recent tradition of the Tioman Merdeka fishing trip. Long may such trips last, and many be the unbelievable fishing tales that are spun.
The very first fishing trip for me was courtesy of an invite from an old friend “J” just weeks before the Covid-19 shutdowns of 2020.
Kuala Rompin in Pahang was then just beginning to feel the effect of reduced tourism, especially from Singaporeans who, perhaps, knew something about Covid-19 they weren’t sharing with us, or perhaps we Malaysians were just carrying on being Malaysians: “If Covid, then Covid lor: what to do? We must go, one.”
That trip was an embarrassing one for me – completely knocked out with sea sickness on the tame South China Sea. I had been advised to take seasickness pills, but of course I declined.
I told everybody I had actually been a fisherman in my younger days. True enough: when I came home from studies abroad with very mediocre grades, fishing off the…
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