Vikingess Voyages: Fish

Showing posts with label Fish. Show all posts

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Tokyo Restaurants: Fish your own meal at the Fishing Restaurant ZAUO

Anette 10:46:00 AM

Tokyo might not be the first destination that you'd think of for your next fishing trip. But if you want to try and catch your own dinner without the risk of having to go home with an empty stomach there are indeed options available for you. As an expat living in Tokyo I usually would cook my own dinner at home, but this time I took my visiting family to the fishing restaurant Zauo in Shibuya where we tried it out for ourselves.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Snorkling

Experiencing the Great Barrier Reef with Reef Magic Cruises

Anette 6:02:00 PM

Our visit to the Great Barrier Reef was definitely the most amazing adventure we have had in Australia so far. We went out on a boat with Reef Magic Cruises to the reef, were we had the opportunity to snorkel as much as we wanted the whole day. It had been a bit windy the last couple of days, and this day was not an exemption, so the number of tourists was significantly lower than normal. Fortunately I've grown up pretty much spending my summers at sea, so the waves didn't really bother me that much, but it seems that other tourists complained about the for them large waves. Also, Reef Magic Cruices have their own great pontoon, so once you step onboard it you aren't affected that much by the waves.

All the snorkling equipment was included in the price. We decided to rent wetsuits as well in order to avoid getting sunburned from the strong light. That turned out to be a good choice, because many of the others looked like they had gotten a little bit too much sun once the day was over.

My stepmother had never snorkeled before, and she was afraid to look down into the water. But once she did she was surprised to discover a whole new world she had never seen before. She later told us it was her best experience on the trip.

The water was really not that deep by the reef, and in some places one could even stand. Which one of course shouldn't do, because you'll probably ending up damaging the corals and get scratched too. But that's how shallow it is. It is somewhat annoying if you get loads of water into your snorkel though, because it is harder to get rid of the water at the same time as you're trying to avoid the corals below.

And there were of course a lot of pretty and colorful fish to look at! My dad used the opportunity to take a selfie while feeding the fish.

In addition to the snorkeling we also had some additional options for entertainment such as a semi-submersible and glass-bottom boat tour where a guide taught us various facts about the corals and the reef's environment.

They also offered additional activities that were not included in the price such as a reef-scenic helicopter flight, guided snorkeling trips around the reef, and scuba diving both for certified divers and trial dives for people without diving experience. My dad decided to try out diving for the first time, and although he thought the dive was too short it seems it was a nice experience.

For those who don't want to do a regular dive, there's also the option to experience helmet diving. On the picture below you can see four helmet divers meeting Wally the great Maori Wrasse.

Although all of these experiences made the trip worthwhile it was Wally that really made the trip to the great reef an unique experience I'll never forget. Wally is a great fish called Maori Wrasse, he is about a meter long, and although he is a wild creature he seems to like human company. We could get out photos taken with him, and he stayed close to the boat the whole day. I brought some crackers with me into the ocean, and he literarily ate the crackers from my hand.

"G'day!"

Wally the Maory Wrasse is almost tame like a pet

All in all it was the experience with Wally that made the trip to the Great Barrier Reef unique, or at least for me. The professional photographer is down there all the time, and she can take photos of you while you're diving with Wally. He is a very friendly fish, and after I had fed him he remembered me and came back to me even when I didn't have any food with me so that I could touch him. I would advice you to be careful while feeding him though, he is a wild animal after all. Don't blame him if you get scratches from his teeth. But he is a fantastic creature, and I felt so honored that he came up to me. Since he lives by the Reef Magic Cruises' pontoon I think it is likely that you'll see him if you go on their trip. I would strongly recommend them, they did everything they could to make our trip wonderful and memorable! Definitely my best experience in Australia.! ;)

Relevant pages:

-The Reef Magic Cruises

-Feeding Wally

Other alternative day trips from Cairns:

-The Kuranda Scenic Railway

-The Butterfly Sanctuary

-The RainForeStation
-The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway

-All blogposts from Australia

Monday, January 7, 2013

Travel

Sightseeing in the Philippines: Swimming with Whale Sharks in Oslob

Anette 12:00:00 AM

After having greeted the new year by relaxing on the beach in Mactan it was time for Yuma and I to begin our backpacking adventure. We had already bought a trip to Oslob south in Cebu where we had heard that it would be possible to see the great whale sharks, and because we wanted to leave for Bohol in the afternoon we had scheduled an early departure for Oslob with pick-up at the hotel at 3:30 am. The next three hours of the morning were spent sleeping in the car. Good thing the roads were relatively good, unlike the roads I experienced last year in Bolivia on my way to Salar de Uyuni..

We arrived in Oslob around 6:30 in the morning, and after a short briefing by our guide we were led down to the beach where a boat was prepared for us, I have to admit that I did wonder if we really would be able to see any whale sharks at all, but after leaving the shore it did not take many minutes before we could see the big creatures moving underneath us in the sea.

Whale sharks are huge, but they don't harm humans. Look at it, isn't it cute?? ^^

Me with one of the whale sharks

Yuma and a whale shark

While all the other tourists were using life vests Yuma and I had decided not to use them. This enabled us to dive down to the whale sharks and take better pictures of the fantastic fishes. As you can see on the pictures they are quite big! Good thing they don't pay any attention to us at all. There were four whale sharks swimming aroud the boats where the local guides were feeding them with small fish in order to keeping them in the area.

About an hour and a hundred pictures later it was time to go back to the shore, where we got brunch from our guide. Considering the price of the day trip was 5500 pesos I think the food was rather disappointing though,we only got two muffins each, a cookie and a can of juice. Oh well. They know how to get the biggest profit out of the tourists I suppose.
Still, the trip was great, and we both enjoyed swimming with the whale sharks.
I think that it was especially good we arrived early, as there were not that many tourist there during the first twenty minutes or so.

Did you know:
- The whale shark is neither a whale nor a shark, but in fact the world's largest fish!
- It can become 15 meters long and weigh up to 20 tonnes.
- If you want to swim with the whale sharks you should avoid touching them, as it might scare them away.

Greetings from Yuma and me^^

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Southeast Asia

All blogposts from the Philippines

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Markets

Weekend Trip to Okayama!

Anette 7:33:00 PM

This Sunday some of my friends and I went on a short trip to Okayama and Hyogo-ken, where Ken's family has a cottage. Originally this was a trip intended only for the Japanese students who studied two years in America with the DUDP-program at Ritsumeikan, but since only a few of them were able to go Yuma decided to bring me along too!

We had rented a car in Kyoto, and after a couple of hours drive we arrived at the cottage where we basically just stopped to leave our luggage.

Group picture @ the terrace of Ken's cottage

It was a very nice place up in the mountain where we had good view, and although we had expected it to be cold it turned out that it wasn't bad at all. We stopped to take a group photo before going down the hillside to visit the harbor.

The cottage seen from the road

A sign by the road to the cottage

By the harbor there was a local fish market called 五味の市, or Gomi no Shi, where gomi can refer to the five flavors of sweet, bitter, sour, salty and spicy. Shi means market, fare or city, and thus Gomi no Shi can be translated to Market of the five flavors.

Inside Gomi no shi

Here they were selling all sorts of sea food; from octopus to squid, ordinary fishes and oysters.

Octopus

A tank with a fish in it

Oysters

Dried fish

In the market you can negotiate, and after a bit of talking we got a huuuge bag of oysters for just 2000 yen.

Entrance to 五味の市

After having looked around in the market and done some oyster-shopping we went to a place right across the street where they provided barbecue grills for 1000 yen/90 minutes. It was crammed with people and the line with people waiting was long, but luckily Ken knew one of the ladies working there so we got to skip the line..! Lucky! Further, Ken had brought some barbecue-sauce, and with the huge bag with oysters we had bought in the market there was plenty of food for all of us.

Grilling oysters!

The oysters tasted really good! However, it was almost a bit scary because some of them exploded so that both parts of the shell and the oysters themselves flew and hit our clothes.. Apparently we should not have brought nice clothes after all.. Haha.. Anyway, we all got happily stuffed after this meal.

Grilling oysters!

Empty oyster-shells.. As you can see, this place was quite popular..!

Oyster-ice cream! Not everybody looks convinced that it looks good though :P

We went back to the market where Ryo tried a local speciality: Oyster-ice cream!! We all got to try, and it wasn't all too bad, but I don't think it is something I will actively try to get my hands on again, to put it that way.

After a short break at Ken's cottage it was time to check out a local onsen. It was in a hotel nearby, and since the onsen was situated in the 6th floor we had a great view of the nearby area. Even better, there was nobody else in the girl's onsen, so I could take a photo of how it looked like:)

We had spent some time here when I started feeling bad. Turns out that I had gotten sick from eating the oysters earlier that day, and unfortunately Ryo got sick too.. So we had to go searching for some medicine instead of returning directly to the cottage. This part of the story is so long, I've decided to leave it out.. Anyway, when we got back to the cottage it was already quite late, and we were all pretty tired. Or perhaps exhausted is more fitting.

Back in the cottage, ready for karaoke

We decided to sing some karaoke, but since all of us already were half asleep we did not go on for too long. Unfortunately we never got quite the funny evening we had hoped for.

Ken singing karaoke, and Yuma sleeping.

Still, the trip was unforgettable in many ways, and I'm happy that I got to come along. Hopefully all of us can hang out again some time in the future too, but most of my friends starts working in April so it might not be possible anytime soon. I'm pretty sure I'll be back with new adventures soon though! But first comes rehabilitation of my arm.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Fish

Christmas Calendar: December 5th

Anette 12:27:00 AM

For some reason it seems that todays picture also ended up showing a fish. Isn´t it cute? Haha..

This is a hashioki (箸置き), which is used to put your chopsticks on when you´re finished eating (or whenever it´s not in use). The picture is taken in a restaurant close to Fushimi Inari Taisha, where we had dinner (ramen!) today.

A hashioki shaped as a fish

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Norway

Christmas Calendar: December 4th

Anette 7:45:00 PM

Today on my way home from my last ceramic class I stopped by a store called Fresco to buy some groceries, and I happened to find this package of fish.. I thought it was kinda funny that that it had the "Kingdom of Norway" label on it, while advertisements like this usually just tells you that the fish comes from a Nordic country.

So in the end this ended up as the pic of the day. A bit random perhaps, but.. Haha.. :)