A few weekends ago we went to Anmyendo for a biking trip with people from work. Anmyendo is famous for its many Pine trees. These pine trees are only really seen in Anmyendo and are a bit different than the Pine trees at home. These ones are much much taller and the needles are only at the top. Just imagine a christmas tree with a really really really long trunk.
We arrived in Anmyendo around 11 or 12. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and were off to bike. We drove over to a parking lot that was right next to a beach. Anmyendo actually means 'Flower', and the lot that we were parking in was where they hold their flower festival each year. So once we were all ready, (this took awhile b/c none of us had gone bike riding in a long time) we headed towards the beach. I thought there would be a pathway along the beach that we would ride along, but no, we rode ON the beach. It was a bit hard at first but I got the hang of it. I'm not sure of the beach name but it was on The Yellow Sea. It was really fun, but hard work. Along the way we saw some mangled up jelly fish and also got a really close look at some starfish that were along the beach.
We stopped riding when we got to a Hotel called, Ocean Palace and had some lunch. There was also an outdoor spa but we decided to save that for the next day.
After lunch we rode our bikes over to a Tea House called the Herb House.
We were all pretty hot by then so we had some cold tea, Hibiscus and Peppermint. I had Hibiscus and Trevor had Peppermint. Both were good!!! The tea house itself was like a little store inside that sold candles and, of course, tea.
Outside there were swings and nice gardens.
After, our tea we headed back to the car, packed up our bikes and headed over to the big Prawn Festval.
That night was the beginning of this big prawn festival (a prawn is like a giant shrimp... if you didnt know) for dinner. There were tons of restaurants, food stands, and performances going on all over the place. At first we walked around and saw everything, ate some roasted chesnuts and some pumpkin taffy-like treat. But dinner was the big event. We went to this restaurant along the beach that cooked the prawn right in front of you... Literally!!!
They bring a bowl full of these things... all still jumping around... Then, once the pot is hot they dump them in. Some of them attempt to escape (who can blame them?) but are always caught and thrown in the pot with the rest of them. Of course, I was sitting right next to the pot and they came pretty close to touching me. Once they get them all in, we have to sit there listening to them squeel and squirm until they are fully cooked!!! Needless to say, I felt a little bad... I couldn't imagine watching a cow or a chicken die right in front of me and then cooking it up right there to eat it!!!
After that they brought over more sea creatures, some that I didnt even know you could eat!! Things like Conch's, oysters, clams, muscles... I dont know what else... I attmpted to eat some... but I just couldn't. After a few chews of a squishy substance that had a bit of crunch in the middle... my stomach turned a little. Later we started finding little sand crabs inside the muscles... then I felt worse because I thought I may have ate one. So needless to say, I didnt eat very much that night... Just couldn't handle it. I dont mind seafod but I don't think I want to watch it die before hand... I prefer mine cooked before it comes to my table.
The next day we headed out for some hiking. We first stopped at a buddhist temple, which was very interesting. There were all these statues lined up out front which represent good spirits that are suppose to protect the temple. The tide was out that day so we were able to walk across this bridge to an island. It was really cool because we could see all of these sand crawler type bugs moving around on, what would have been, the bottom of the ocean. Noramally that would really bother me, but it was really neat to see.
Later that day we did some more hiking and ended our day at the outdoor spa.
Sorry for the lack of pictures. I am going to try to post more in a separate post. For some reason the pictures do not want to cooperate. I have LOTS of pictures to post... so hopefully it will start to work soon.
