Orn's Travel Blog

While on Ko Phangan it is difficult not to notice all the fishing boats that are catching squid around the island at night.  First we just saw the lights out at see and started wondering what those would be and as we found out they were squid fishing boats.

Most of the boats are fairly big with a couple of poles with big lights attached to them that can stretch out to either side of the boat.  The boat on the picture below only has one small light pole.  The smallest boats look like circular tee filters with a diameter of maybe 1.5 meters and are made of bamboo but the majority are 10-15 meters sturdy wooden boats

The boats all stay close to the shore during the day but as the sun is setting they start moving to the proper spots.  It seems like most of them like to fish about five hundred meters from the shore and quite close to each other.  After the sun has set they extend their light poles and turn on their huge lights.  From the porch of our favorite restaurant on Ao Mae Haad we could see about ten boats all lined up glowing in the dark.  The lights are to lure the squid to the surface where it is easy to catch.

There is a lot of squid available in Thailand both dried and fresh.  A lot of street vendors are selling dried squid in the streets.  We never tried it but I’m sure it is similar to the dried cod or haddock that we eat back home.

We have however had the fresh squid on numerous occasions and it has never disappointed.  It has been great with fried rice, fantastic fried but like the squid best in a hot Tom Yum soup …I just start drooling when thinking about it.