Day 5: Cormorant Fishing on Erhai Lake (洱海)

The day seemed a little grey for fishing but we went ahead anyway. :)  We wanna witness cormorant fishing on Erhai Lake (洱海).

This is our jovial boatman. :) He's a Bai.

See how he transformed himself to the traditional Bai attire. :)

He sang & he danced. :)

Rows of seagull waiting to be fed! :D

We purchased some bread (RMB 10) from the boatman to feed them! :)

They flocked at the sight of food. :D

The fisherman chose a cormorant to be released into the water. :)

This is the chosen one. :)

On a mission. ;)

A few other cormorants joined in. :)

Tada! :D Hahahahh! How effortless for the cormorant to catch a fish! :D The birds have rings fixed around their necks to prevent them from swallowing the fish.

Brilliant! :D

The fishmonger beat the water to signal to the cormorant to return.

Well trained cormorants eh? :)

That's our fish! :D We bought it for lunch! :)

Here's us off to our lunch venue. :)

The locals helped us prepare the fish. :)

There wasn't much option of cooking it other than deep frying.

They seem to deep fry everything here.

Seafood on sticks :)

 Take your pick & the aunty (阿姨) will cook them for you. :)

What would you like? :)

Ann's throat was a little sore & Tina recommended they drink Wang Lao Ji cooling tea. :)

Lin & I didn't take any drink because there were no clean toilets. :)))

We love al fresco dining in the wilderness! Lol! :))) Such awesome lunch venue!

Once you start on these crispy white fish, you can't stop!

Now the star dish - the fish caught by the cormorant. :) It wasn't too bad but there were too many tiny bones.

And here's us with the cormorant. :D

There used to be hundred of Bai families rearing cormorants. But now there are only six. In addition, it is difficult to breed them. Cormorants lay eggs once a year, and out of the ten eggs or so, only one or two survive. There are therefore only 98 cormorants left in the region and are state protected species.