Oh hey Taipei: Shrimp Fishing

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I have been keeping busy! I just hit my three month mark on the 27th, time is flying. I recently had my friend Monica come visit for a week from Thailand. We met during our time in Cambodia, and instantly bonded! She was able to visit for a week, so in between working we tried to squeeze as much sight seeing in as possible. One of the first things we did was go shrimp fishing. This is a very Taiwanese experience, and I wasn't sure what to expect. When I used to think shrimp fishing, I thought boats and nets. However, in Taiwan shrimp fishing includes fishing poles, pools, and drinking beer in lawn chairs. Here is a picture to clarify the pools....

After getting our poles and bait (preserved dried shrimp), we were ready to find our spot. We quickly learned that somehow there is skill to the process, and we didn't have it. I was shocked to see people bringing their own poles, I understand why they are open 24 hours now. It took about thirty minutes for Monica to catch the first shrimp. But once we started we got better and better. It was pretty obvious that the three foreign girls were new to this experience, and people were quick to help. The first time someone ran over happened after we all screamed when trying to figure out how to get a live shrimp off a hook. He continued to come over when we would catch something, until I finally decided to give it a go. I was able to take a couple off the hook, but gave up after one pinched me.

Another man came over, and without saying anything took our poles and started dunking them in the water. I guess there is some water to fishing line ratio we did not know about it. He also was the man that would throw buckets of shrimp into the pool, so he was sure to throw some our way each time!

The third helper of the night was at a table of about twenty enjoying dinner and Taiwan Beer. He saw us struggle, and ran right over. He then proceeded to bring us each a bowl of soup, and began feeding us with chopsticks.

After about two hours we called in quits. We ended up with 14 shrimp, much more than I was expecting! After shrimping, you BBQ the shrimp on a grill they have inside. After staring clueless a different employee came over and helped us. The process includes washing the live shrimp, stabbing them with the skewers, salting them, lighting the grill, and then you cook them. Thank goodness we were a group of girls, otherwise I don't think we would have received the same attention!

The shrimp were great and overall it was an awesome local experience!