Kite bersiaran kembali.. By reading the title, you guys should know that our so-called Mission Impossible made possible was to go fishing at Az-Zour Port, which located exactly behind En Muddy's work place.. This is also the reason why we need to rent a car in a first place due to the fact that the port was located around 70 km from our place.

Konon la cam gempak kan kemain mission impossible bagai, padahal nak gi mancing jek pun.. Hahahahah macam dah takde tpt lain kan.. 6 hari dh spent 12 jam dekat plant, off day pun sebuk nak pergi area plant. Ape tak jemu jemu ke kamu En Muddy???

Reason we chose this location simply because, it is highly recommended by Kaki Kaki Joran seantero Kuwait. Beside the fact that there's lots of fish there, the secluded location promised more privacy compared to other commercial parks/beaches in town which definitely going to be very very congested. More importantly, someone caught Kerapu that came in a size of my thigh last week. Enough reason for me to say YES to fishing. Misi utama : Menjimatkan duet pasar untuk seminggu hopefully hehe.

The thing is, I never go fishing during my entire existence. Not even once. The closest I ever get to fishing world was living in a Naval Camp for 7 years which happened to be next to country most famous fisherman village, Teluk Batik and Lumut. Owh and also married to someone who born and bred somewhere located within 5 minutes distance to ever so famous fisherman village in East Coast which is Kuala Besut. You see, even with all those facts, I hardly can say I am fishing literate. I swear I never hold any joran in my life so this trip should be interesting. We'll see...

We met Zubir's family at Mc Donald, Fahaheel and then straight away proceed to Az-Zour Port.

Before that, we had bought few essentials stuff we think might be needed in our fishing aka picnic-ing trip. To be truth, I doubt I will ever touch the fishing gear during my entire trip. My focus was more on picnic and cam-whoring kah kah kah. Anyhoo, we've bought 2 fishing rods complete with it's small small parts to which I have nofreaking idea what was it called. Only the mata kail familiar to me, the rest was all alien to my limited knowledge on fishing. Since it's part fishing and part picnic-ing, I had prepared our breakfast plus lunch and also plus dinner incase we stays till nite, beforehand.

Foods and junks - Checked

Picnic Mat - Checked

Extra clothes and coats - Checked

Tents and sleeping bag - Checked

Mineral water for wudhu' and drinking - Checked

Hot Tea - Checked.

Barbecue equipments - Checked

Umpan aka squid (no worm will ever allowed if I were about to tag along. Pick me or the worm!If I am the one that has to go, the whole Nasik Lemak and hot tea goes with me ahahah. Suffice to say, it is not a tough choice really) - Checked

Tank full ? - Checked. It cost us only RM 18 for 26 litre of fuel, merely half tank of that Corolla. Bahagiaaaaa.....

Off we go.... Bismillah hirrahmanirrahim.

Along the way, I saw soooo many tents setup in the clearing. There's no clearing without a tent it's like a camping festival or something. So happening ! Info for those out there who're not living in Q8, during winter, almost all Kuwaitis will go out from their luxurious home and go camp in a tent, also in no less luxurious way because their tent have no resemblance to what my tent used to look like during my college year. Nahhhhhhh... No resemblance at all. Their tents normally equipped with stuffs from normal basic appliances like water tank, electricity to even satellite cable TV and satellite dish. Things about Kuwaitis that I know off ( and most of Arabic ), when they give, they really give. When they spent, they really spent and when they did something, they did it all the way, they did it their way. It's not that difficult when you had all the dinars in the world huhhh... By the way, this camp site will be permanently here till end of March, marks end of Winter. By 1st April, there'll be police patrolling these area and arrested those who're still camping. Summer is a very dangerous season for camping hence there's law enforced against this activity on summer.

:: The Camp site ::

Where majority of the tents will mostly looked plain-beige-like, exactly like the above two pictures, they're few that looks rather interesting and more modernized.

:: Stripey::

:: Who would ever say NO to this colourful , saluran ceria anda tents? I definitely can't. I bet the owner of this camp must be a group of Kuwaitis young lady. I can imagine my tent to be almost like this, if we were about to go out trying camping in the desert later. If only I'll be the one who got to pick the tent, which I totally doubt it :) ::

:: Why rent a tent when you can bring your house together ?. This is a norm scenenery here during winter. You'll see truck carrying cabin like this, ATV, jet ski, speed boat, caravan anywhere ::

Back to topic, we reached the port around 10.00 am and immediately setting up our campsite. Each of us brought one tent, mainly to be used for changing purpose and for the kids. It can be quite windy and hot in the afternoon hence we need a shelter for the kids since we were planning to stay whole day here, fishing and picnic-ing.

:: Are we there yet? Yes we are ::

:: It's bring-your-kids-to-work day. Ni la opis papa, En Muddy said to Alis and Erin ::

Like a true fisherman are, Zubir and family immediately setting up their fishing gear, putting on baits and such and started fishing while me and my family........

Kah kah kah.. isik minyak dulu noks... nelayan nelayan beginner ni takde energy karang nak memancing..

:: See how strong the wind blows? ::

:: Our castle ::

:: Hot Tea. Can you spot a hole behind that tumbler? There's many hole like that along the concrete stretch. Since toilet was nowhere to be found here, that hole was use as a temporary toilet for the kids. It looks shallow from the outside but actually it was as deep up to my waist so should you squat inside it, other people won't be able to see you. As for adults, there's only two option available. Hole or hold. We agreed unanimously to vote HOLD hahaha ::

:: My homemade ration. Dek kerana kelam kabut, daun pandan tak sempat buang. Ikatan simpul manuk I made on it pun dah terburai ::

:: Flora dan fauna utk dimakan dgn ration ::

Zubir gave us crash course on how to fish and help us setting up our fishing gear. For the very 1st time in my life I had my hands on fishing rod and actually trying to fish... real fish and it's proven that fishing, was not one of my forte. Hahahaha..

:: See when everyone busy fishing, I still have time to drink tea. Even Zubir's baby behind me doesn't need much help, not as much as me. That baby is a real pro man... *Bang head on wall* ::

:: Nelayan nelayan yang gigih mencarik rezeki yang halal ::

I am the most awkward fisherwoman even exist in Az-Zour Port definitely. While other people came with track bottom, cargo pants and jogger shoes, I wore slack and blouse. While others wearing wind breaker and sweat shirts, I wore my coats. Biar la nelayan, janji bergaya kekdah nyer hahaha.. While Kak Ida expertly putting bait, pulling the rode with her bare hands, taking out the fish from the mata kail by herself....I use playar to hold my squid and use another hand to hold cutter, and scream for anybody nearby to help me retrieve the fish when I got one. I even forced Zubir's 10 year old son to assist me hahahaha.. Buat malu sungguh laaa..

Another proof that I was not fated to be a fisherwoman was, I broke one of our fishing rod few minutes after using it. U see, En Muddy said, if I felt something like sentakan, means the fish was eating my baits and I have to pull the rod out of the water so that the kail will stucked in the fish's mouth. Tht's the correct way. So I did like what he said. I felt the sentakan, and I pulled, hardest I can and the rods broken into two. Unfortunately, in my case, the kail was not being pull by the school of fish as I imagined it to be, instead it got stucked in between rocks. Kah kah kah.. How to be a fisherwoman when you can't diferentiate that small details?

:: Ehem ehemmmmm. Sila jangan tertipu yer.. Pegang joran pun dh nampak kekok.::

:: Nelayanita kita. Tu diaaa campak pancing macam nk terjun laut sekali. Padahal gaya je lebih. Kail tu ade lah jatuh balik betul betul depan kaki saya. Gaya mmg full mark hohhh ::

:: "Anak Sulong kami ". Tadika lagi ni, Alis makan pun tak kenyang ::

The weather was beautiful I must say with sun shine stroke softly providing enough warm. Kids playing with the sands, running around non-stop and having the time of their life.

Conversations caught between Alis and Zubir's son...

Irfan : Awak nama ape?

Alis: Alis Nadeera.

Irfan : Yang ni..( pointing at Erin)

Erin : Erin !

Alis : Erin Saffiyaaaa..

Irfan : Nak panggil ape ( pointing at Alis)

Alis : Hmm Ali...s.. ehh Mila.. panggil saya Mila..

And I thought she have left Mila-mania back in Malaysia. Through the entire day, she was called Mila by Zubir's kids. My oh my...

:: Ni la MILA ! Mila kat Malaysia sebuk dengan show, Mila kat Kuwait sebuk main pasir lagi ::

Moving on, in between, "we" ate more nasik lemak, eat junk food we brought, chit chatting while drinking hot tea I brought from home. Heaven....

:: By saying "we", I meant me :) ::

We had set a space for prayer in open space we were bless to able to perform Zuhur, Asar and Maghrib here. What a truly bliss experience praying bertikarkan bumi and berbumbungkan langit. Telekung macam nak terangkat ala ala Marlyn Monroe nye famous pose tu. It's like there's no boundaries before your eyes and you can't help but feeling small di bumi Allah s.w.t. How grateful I am to be given this opportunity, subhanallah.

Overall, I managed to catch 2 small fishs, about half the size of my palm :(...and En Muddy managed to get 6 more. Also medium to small sizes. Zubir and family altogether got 12 fishes and some are rather big. Apparently no kerapu for us this time, however there's one stingray, coming near to our fishing place and left immediately the moments we noticed him.

:: En Muddy caught this beauty creature ::

After Zuhur, there's group of 3 young Kuwaitis came and fish near our camp site. When they pass our group, my husband utter salam to them and they stop to catch short conversations. And tell you what, once they're done, and leaving the port, they dropped by at our spot and gave En Muddy almost 6 biggggggggg size of fish, out of their catch. Embarassingly, their fishing gear was only this tangsi and their bare hands. That's all and look at what they managed to catch. While us, equipped with 6 canggih fishing rods but could only catch baby fish which barely to be called fish yet. It is skill that matters I guess hehe. What a small gesture by giving salam does to us Muslims.. We made friends and we had extra rezeki that day. Alhamdullilah.. power to Assalamualaikum..

:: Ikan pemberian friendly young Kuwaiti. Syukran Ya Habibi ::

After Asar, we started barbecue session. I bought this instant ready-to-go Barbecue set from Sultan Centre and it is very easy to use, specially for non frequent BBQer-retired-boyscouts and girlscout like us. Just drop a light up match inside the box, exactly on the starter sheet and the sheet then will burned, changing its composition into oil base which then will set the charcoal below it on fire. This fire will last for good 90 minutes so it's prefect for mini BBQ session like us. Not like we had many fish to grill anyway hahaha..

:: Instant BBQ set ::

::See those brown paper? It is the starter for this BBQ set. It's job was to be pemangkin for those charcoal underneath it. Poor that sheet ! Membakar diri untuk kepentingan pihak lain. Again, the hole was used for BBQ purpose. Wind blows strongly that day hence it is very hard to control the fire. Thank god they invented this hole so our fire was protected from the wind. What ??? Of course we use another hole!! There's so many hole, you definitely spoilt with choices. ::

We also brought some sausages for the kids and sheesh kebab while Kak Ida brought marinated shrimp and chicken. Yummehhh... Full camper is a happy camper..

:: Kebab and suasages goes first. At this moments, I am doing my task, menyiang ikan. My husband wanted to go wild and cannibal by eating the fish without being clean. Well, it's soooo not gonna happen while his wife still exist. Too bad I forgot to bring limau ngan asam jawa, else sure dh cuci bersih2 siap garam ngan kunyitkan lagih hahah. He just responsed by saying, sesekali adventure la skit mummy ! Muahahahah ::

:: Ketekunan menyiang ikan yang amat. Sume sirip kena tobek. Kalau tokey Al-Kout nengok ni, msti de nak offer keje kat Fish Market ::

:: Ikan ikan kami sedang di grill ::

:: Curik udang Kak Ida 3 ekor hahaha::

:: Asik muka ni jek laaa.. Dah anak anak sebuk main sume taknak bergamba, muka ni lah jadik model ::

:: Mine ! Ngeeeeee.. :) ::

Afer BBQing, we fish again till Maghrib. After everyone performed prayer, we start packing our stuffs since nobody bring any torch light or lantern and whatnot. This place was not actually a well develop campsite or fishing port. It doesn't even have a street light. By the time we finish packing, I can't barely see my own feet so it is indeed time to go back.

:: New BFF. Saying goodbye to the sea ::

All in all, I should call our mission a success one. We came to fish and we got fish ( walau hasil nye agak tidak memberansangkan ). Walaupun niat nk jimat duet pasar seminggu tak kesampaian, quality time spent mattered most. We 're definitely having a great time with a great company of Kak Ida & family. May Allah bless them. Rumor has it, there's another picnic coming soon. Insya allah and definitely look forward to it.

Gotta love winter.

Mila said cau cin cauuuuuuuuu.......