How fish can help cure jet-lag

One of the joys of jet-lag – and lets face it they are few and far between – is the opportunity that the ensuing sleepless night provide to explore a new city – a city that is seldom seen or known to even its local residents.

I was in Singapore on Friday – afflicted by the curse of jet-lag – with my camera in tow, and set off to explore the Jurong Fisheries Port. With the exception of restauranteurs and the taxi drivers few Singaporeans have even heard of Jurong Fisheries Port let alone experienced it, and yet, underneath a fluorescent-lit open sided warehouse, every night between midnight and 5am it comes alive as the fish that those Singaporeans still safely cocooned in the warmth of their beds will buy at their local market or eat at their local restaurant, is bought and sold by Singapore’s wholesale fish merchants.

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Only yards from the dock where the fish are landed, the warehouse is temporary home to hundreds of merchants and thousands of fish – all kept fresh by tons of crushed ice. It’s concrete floors are awash with water, ice and slippery with fish oil. The distinctive smell of fresh fish is surprisingly muted replaced by the continuous clatter of crates, trolleys and the hubbub of thousand of deals taking place. The sticky humid night air creeping in from the open sides, makes working there- even as a photographer – tiring.

As the fish is landed, it is taken to each of the merchants positions, where it is put into baskets, weighed, and then sold – each transaction observed and recorded by a merchant perched on a rickety stool and leaning against a wooden plinth that usually bears his trading name.

Photographically – other than the challenge of very low and poor light – the market is a festival for the eyes. All manner of fish are laid out in uniform rows, by size and color, looking for the world like a private army assembled into rank and file ready for the march ashore.

The bustle of porters ferrying the bought fish out to the vans and lorries, or carrying more ice to ensure their freshness gives a rhythm to the night; the numerous men squatting on their haunches sorting the catch into the various equal sized baskets provide the heartbeat of the market and the bored merchant drawing deep on a cigarette to allay the tedium of a another night waiting his turn balances the otherwise incessant activity.

I came away pretty frustrated. Not with the location or the opportunity, but with what I had achieved photographically – or in this case not achieved. I just couldn’t find the groove. I tried different angles, different vantage points, different subject matter, different exposures and yet, almost irrespective of whichever ISO setting I used, I seemed only able to achieve an exposure at f2.8 – which limited somewhat my creative ability. Maybe it was the jet-lag, maybe it was the weeks that had passed since I last picked up my camera, maybe it was not bringing my flash with me….I am not going to fret about it. I just chalked this down to not being in the groove that night, made a mental note of some images I would retake and just enjoyed the vitality of the market.

I was pleased I had got out there and tried though. I know that when I am next in Singapore I shall return, and spend more time at this remarkable location. You can see more of the pictures form the shoot in my gallery.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 8:08 am. It is filed under Travel and tagged with Fish, Fish Market, Julong Fisheries Port, Singapore, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.