Fishing for Shrimps in Shilin Taipei 釣蝦場

Last week when I was in Taipei, I was brought to this shrimp-fishing place in Shilin (釣蝦場). You fish for shrimps and you cook them later on. We had to go by car because there's no MRT nearby.

The rent for 1 fishing rod for 1 hour was 350 NTD, while for 2 hours it was 600 NTD. We used the fishing rods to fish for shrimps in this murky pool. As for the bait, my friend bought it for us.

釣蝦場 - Shrimp Fishing Place

There's a certain "art" to catching a shrimp. You have to move the bait slowly around, as if it was moving like a fish. I had to be reminded several times - "that's not how a fish moves!". The bait movement needs to be slow and steady. According to my friend, the shrimp will first test the bait for danger by using its claws (I only found out this day that shrimps actually had claws!). After testing, it will start to nibble the bait and pull at the hook. When it does, I jerked the fishing rod and the shrimp gets hooked! (Ouch). Then I pull out the fishing rod.

My friends, posing with the shrimp they caught

After catching the shrimp, my friend had to pull out its claws (double-ouch! :( poor things). If he didn't pull it out, it would be hard for him to remove the hook from the mouth. I didn't take photos, but there's a bunch of shrimp claws/arms all over the floor. I only tried pulling out the shrimp's claw/arm once.

This is me, posing with the shrimp I caught

For the 2 hours that we've been fishing, I managed to catch 8. Not bad for a first-timer. At the earlier parts, a lot of them managed to get away, along with the bait from the hook (waited for too long before jerking or pulling too slow).

I cleaned those 8 myself. By cleaning, I mean pulling out its legs and the long thing from its snout. I felt really bad doing it... it must be torture for them.

Ready for skewering

After the shrimps have been cleaned, the next step is to skewer them with the BBQ sticks from the tail up to the head. While I'm excited to eat grilled shrimps, I just feel really bad for them. After skewering them all, we lined them up and poured salt to coat them.

Grilling shrimps

After this, we grilled them! I think we overcooked some, but majority of the shrimps were grilled correctly. Of course, the shrimps were fresh. We bought drinks, rice, and other food after this. For the shrimp sauce, they gave us soy sauce and wasabi. For me, I had my shrimps with Heineken.

Cooked Shrimps!

Overall, I had fun! Mixed feelings of excitement over the fishing activity but guilt for torturing shrimps (according to scientific studies, shrimps do feel pain). If I were to do this again, I would probably just behead them from the start and then bring over some pesto, chopped garlic, and lemon for marinade prior to grilling. Yum.

Quick recap of the whole thing!

Photos of My Anvaya-Subic Trip

Over the weekend, I went to Anvaya and Subic with my high school friends. We went on a day trip in Anvaya and stayed overnight in Subic. We stayed in Seorabeol Grand Leisure Hotel (family room) - it's our favorite go-to hotel when I go to Subic with college friends.

Here's a collection of the Instagram Photos I've taken.

Having breakfast in KFC in a gas station in NLEX. I had the Chicken Tocino meal. I will most likely not go back to KFC for their breakfast.

Arriving at Anvaya mid-day :) 

My friends attempted to play frisbee but failed because the sand was too hot.

We availed some of the activities. The ping pong was free. Some of us rented bikes for 150/hour. I fell off the bike. See my bruise in the later pictures.

We went around the place to take photos. 

The backdrop of the lake and trees were really nice

There were a lot of white ducks roaming around the place. One person was chasing it around to see how fast they can run. Another friend had a video which we're not posting online.

Now that it wasn't too hot, my friends played some light frisbee catch

I took a photo of a random couple watching the sunset

Joan again, chilling

They still had their Christmas decors up!

Back in Subic after checking in at Seorabeol, we had dinner in Xtremely Xpresso! We had bibingka after.

The following day for lunch, we went to Meatplus. The Rib Eye steak was AWESOME. It tasted very similar to Mamou. I heard somewhere Meatplus is a supplier. :P

See my bruise from falling off the bike

Pasalubong for my pamangkin: 2 Chicken Alphabet soups from Puregold Subic and the paper bag that came with it that I decorated as a puppet!

Vacation Planning for 2013

My college friends have decided that 6 of us are going to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar (in Bataan) sometime in the early 2013. No particular month locked in yet. We got saw this deal in Deal Grocer.

I'm pretty much looking forward to it! The place looks great. :) Hope we're not going to be disappointed.

Misibis Bay Legazpi Trip

A bunch of us went on a trip to Misibis Bay in Legazpi City over the weekend. One of my friends got the deal from Deal Grocer and we tagged along.

I'd say overall that the "feel" of Misibis Bay resort is comparable to Anvaya Cove. Price-wise, i cant compare it because Anvaya involves membership-related costs and we also got Misibis for a good deal. For the purpose of comparison, I'll take a stab at sharing the highlights of the trip.

The view from our room

1) The hospitality of Misibis is tops. All of the staff is very warm and friendly. Their "good morning" is genuinely friendly. When you come out of the coaster, you're greeted by tribal dancers, cold towels, snacks, and fancy calamansi juice.

Ibalong Dancers

2) The non-motor activities are free and the people are eager to serve and help you out. We went snorkeling and we went on a sailboat trip around the island. We would have taken up more activities like windsurfing. The games are also free! We played some foosball and billiards.

The game room slash bar

3) The package comes with a free tour around Legazpi (i think this is optional). We went to Ligñon Hill to see the city from the top. We got to see the Mayon Volcano in the Cagsaua/Cagsawa Ruins, and we went to the Our Lady of the Gate Parish. Our tour ended in the Pili-Nuts and Legazpi Souveneir store. Our tourguide happened to be our snorkeling guide. :)

Mayon Volcano and Cagsawa Ruins

Saints, Jesus, and Mary in Our Lady of the Gate Parish

4) Our breakfast and dinner buffet comes with the package for the room! The food was good, especially the Filipino food and the grilled meat/fish. Stay away from the Roast Beef Pizza, though. It looks good, but it was tough to eat.

At the Spices Restaurant

The dinner table

5) The swimming pool with the bar connected to it with underwater stools was cool. I didnt get to try drinking in the pool, but looks like it's a lot of fun!

Overall, I really enjoyed the stay. 3 days has been too short, but if i stayed too long, I'd get too fat. :D

I'd definitely want to go back. There's a deal right now in Deal Grocer, but ill need to save up for it again!

From outside the front desk

Our room was at the top floor

The garden