Trip to the fish market

The past 3 weeks in Java have been so uneventful that I haven't had anything to write about that would interest anyone.  Just lots of work and sleep.  However yesterday I went to the local fish market to buy something for dinner.  The town is very small but it is a fishing village.  I needed my driver to guide me as no one speaks english and the place is not really marked well.  The prime time is noon, when the fishermen have returned and all the catch is fresh.  The place was filled with women who it seems do all of the selling and some men sitting around to carry any fish in.  The fish is just lying on the concrete floor or in baskets if in the alleys.  I stood out quite a bit - being 6 inches taller and the only foreigner around.  All the women were staring at me, but very friendly.  I was looking for tiger shrimp but there was none to be had so I had to select some fish.  Most of the stuff available was quite small.  I don't know what they do with the small fish, but the place was full of them.  I picked two of the larger fish and asked them to gut and fillet them, but the guy given the job had the dullest knife around and didn't seem to know what the hell he was doing.  It was all done on the ground and I'm just happy he didn't lose a finger in the process.  It took about 15 minutes.

I went to another fish market in Tuban last week and bought shrimp, but it wasn't as interesting as this place. (Probably missed the peak period).  I bought 1kg of shrimp, but it took me far too long to clean them after cooking.

The market on the sea

Looking out to sea, with the fishing boats in the distance